<div>Dear Andrew,</div>
<div>I was talking specifically about phytophagous insects and not diseases. Because humans and their domesticated animals are genetically alike all over the world, diseases spread very fast throughout the world, but as I mentioned, the phytophagous insects are rather specific to the plants on which they feed and they cannot survive if the host plant is not available. There are of course some universal pests like Heliothis armigera, which can feed on about 90 plant species, but that is an exception.</div>
<div>Yours</div>
<div>A.D.Karve<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Andrew C. Parker <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:acparker@xmission.com">acparker@xmission.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">Dr. Karve,<br><br>The introduction of exotic pests and diseases through the transport of plants or plant tissue has historically had devastating consequences. The devastation may be rare, but it is still devastation. I don't consider it to be unreasonable to practice caution when importing biomass, be it a pile of wood chips from the local landfill, a Christmas tree from Idaho or Pennsylvania, bundled pine from Oregon or bundled hardwood from China or India. No doubt such caution may be manipulated by politicians and protectionists, but that does not negate the need for caution.<br>
<br>My father was a microbiologist. One of his little sayings was "you can't buy time." He said that in the context of human disease and the politicization of public health. You can throw millions at an emerging disease, but if you make no attempt to contain it through testing and quarantines, you lose time, and laboratory research takes time.<br>
<br>Perhaps torrefaction, along with its other benefits, could be effective in sanitizing biomass prior to shipping?<br><br><br>Respectfully,<br><br>Andrew Parker (Not AJH)<br><br><br>On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:48:28 -0600, Anand Karve <<a href="mailto:adkarve@gmail.com" target="_blank">adkarve@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">Dear Stovers,<br>transport of insect pests from different geographic regions is happening<br>all the time but the instance of the exotic pest becoming a pest in the<br>
host country is rather rare. It happens occasionally and these examples are<br>blown out of proportion to scare people away from importing biomass and<br>plants from other areas of the world. In nature there are about 100,000<br>
species of insects that can be considered to be phytophagous. Take a look<br>at any plant species, and one finds not 100,000 species of insects on it<br>but only 5 or 6. This is because all plants have their own inherent<br>
insecticides in their cells, which protect them from most of the insect<br>pests in the world. Only those 5 or 6 insect species that have evolved the<br>capacity to digest that particular poison can survive on that plant<br>
species. That is also the reason why the pests of plants are specific to<br>each species. One never finds the pests of mustard on tomato, or the pests<br>of tomato on corn. Therefore, if an insect pest gets into the USA from<br>
India, it won't survive in the USA, because the specific host required by<br>that insect would not be available to it in the USA. That is also the<br>reason why exotic plant species thrive well in other habitats. Take, for<br>
instance, Eucalyptus introduced from Australia into other parts of the<br>world. The local insect pests in the host country are unable to feed on<br>Eucalyptus, which therefore grows in the host country without any natural<br>
enemies.<br>Yours<br>A.D.Karve<br></blockquote><br>______________________________<u></u>_________________<br>Stoves mailing list<br><br>to Send a Message to the list, use the email address<br><a href="mailto:stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org" target="_blank">stoves@lists.bioenergylists.<u></u>org</a><br>
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-- <br>***<br>Dr. A.D. Karve<br>Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)<br><br><br>