SUBJECT: Cheese and biodiversity conservation
AUTHOR: Lorenzo Ceccolini
DATE: 31st March 2003

SUMMARY: The uniqueness of all biological resources and relevance of details should be considered as pillars in understanding the risk associated with our dependency on biodiversity.

KEYWORDS: Natural selection, sustainability, vital energy.

Recently I had the will to learn how to make cheese. After a few investigations, I was directed to a Sardinian man who makes traditional goat’s cheese every morning. It was an exhaustive lesson. A few days later I had the opportunity to take part in another cheese lesson held by a Sardinian woman. Recently I had yet another chance to visit a cheese maker in central Italy, from whom I collected additional information about the cheese making process. I got three recipes, each one slightly different from the others. Do I have to reject two of them, keeping only the easiest to make, or cheapest to do, or the most productive one? No, I will keep all three recipes as important records of cheese knowledge. May we use this anecdote speaking in terms of need of consideration of biological resources? Yes, with a bit of fantasy.

But what we mean by biological resources? Biological resources are all living organisms. In a more complete term we may view them as a form of energy: vital energy. All organisms are important as unique pieces of the global life puzzle. There are many examples that demonstrate how important biological resources are for the whole biotic system (i.e. organisms help organisms). An interesting study is going on in the Amazonian region: many different size plots of virgin tropical forest (or ‘islands’) are preserved, surrounded by a depleted area, used as pasture for cattle. The main task of the project is to find a correlation between the size of the plots and theirs biodiversity, in time. After years of measurements, analysis and calculations, the first results are clear. The smaller the size of the plot, the more rapid the erosion of biological variety inside them will be. Our world is becoming more and more similar to a small plot, surrounded by oceans of desert region. As the resources (in terms of food) are becoming fewer, animals and plants that need food to maintain their vital energy are disappearing, causing a dramatic cascade effect. All biological resources have to be taken into account. If maize has to be considered as a crucial resource due to its extensive use in human food consumption, teosinte, as natural ancestor of maize, deserves equal attention, as a formidable resource for the future of the corn belts of the world. The main hints for our understanding about biodiversity are coming from details present in the natural system. Many principal rules of the natural world are found in the smallest details. The study carried out in the Galapagos, is one such case in which the study of a detail such as the length of the beak of the finches, brought a whole new knowledge about diversity in living organisms. The finches are astonishingly fast in adapting themselves to stress situation through natural selection. As human beings, compelled to a much slower adaptation process, we should be aware of the risks in diminishing our plot size world.

A contribution by:
Lorenzo Ceccolini