DQ Farm (est. 1991)

Saw this lorry with freshly harvested logs parked near the farm.  Shocked, I found out that they are harvesting the trees at the back of the farm next to the forest reserve.

This is the area they are logging.  I have wandered there since 1991 and I know practically every tree there.  Some are easily 150 years old.

Another view of the area being logged.  Up till today I cannot understand the economics of logging and how it benefits the people.  Through our Government which represents our desires and wishes, we will get a royalty payment, I think for each tree. How much are we getting?  RM5000 per tree? RM10,000 per tree?  It is a one-off thing.  After that, what?  Wait another 150 years for the forest to recover and grow trees like that?  

The loggers moved fast.  Within a week, they have marred the hillside.  No notification given to neighbours, no consultation, no EIA reports.  

Me, inside the jungle, with my friends, the trees.  Farewell my friends.  There's nothing I can do since 30 million Malaysians want you guys to be chopped down.

Lemba or curculigo latifolia is native to Malaysia. We grow them at the farm to preserve them.

It has tiny, bright yellow flowers

They have fibers that can be used to make ropes and textiles.

A rope made from the fibre. Strong enough for farm use.

The Ibans use the fibre to make a textile called 'pua'

And most importantly, they have a taste-modifying protein which changes plain water and sour drinks to sweet. Japanese researchers have patented the protein.

Bunch of lemba fruits

 

The tiny taste-modifying fruits

Foreign researchers coming into Malaysia should be required to sign an agreement to share patent-rights and commercial benefits with the people of Malaysia as represented by the Government.  

It is ridiculous and maddening to hear foreign researchers write that they have discovered that the plant can modify the taste of sour drinks to sweet when it is most likely the case that the local people told them about the plant and it is something the local people have known for generations.

We have numerous emails, some frenetic, wanting this herb and that herb etc. from researchers local and foreign.  I am sorry, I won't even bother to answer your email unless at the outset you declare that all research findings, etc will be shared, and in the event of patents, commercial profits,  etc., to be share with an institution of our choosing.

I am wary about juicing vegetables, especially modern vegetables.  They have been hybridized to grow too fast, and too ‘sweet’ and ‘juicy’.  It is like broiler chickens – they are hybridized to grow fast and to develop large breasts.

Our tests have shown a change in the nutrients content of the broiler meat due to changes in dietary requirements to meet its fast growing nutritional needs. For example, saturated fats and omega 6 content sky-rockets, making it an ‘unbalanced’ meat, whether organic or not.

The same must apply to modern hybridized vegetables and fruits.  They require more nitrogen for one.  What happens to all these nitrogen in the plants, and what happens to us when we consume these day in and day out?  And when they grow so fast, do they really have the time to absorb all the micro-nutrients in the soil that our body needs?  Again, it does not matter whether the plants are organic or not.  A fast growing plant is a fast growing plant and have the same nutrient requirements, whether organic or not.

For me,  plants are essential for our health.  So, for juicing, I juice PLANTS,  not necessarily vegetables.

Here’s a plate of leaves and flowers that I use to juice:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Click on pics to enlarge)

Leaves and flowers of plants which do not contain anti-nutritional factors like oxalates, which are slow growers, which have been tested in laboratories to have high antioxidants, etc.

Here’s to your health – juice of PLANTS (not vegetables).