In Malta, you often hear people complaining that the weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable year on year. However, the impact of our food choices on climate change is not frequently brought up.
The European Commission (EC) is fighting climate change on multiple fronts, and has conceived the European Green Deal with the aim of making the EU resource-efficient and economically competitive. An investment of six billion euros is dedicated to this set of policy initiatives, aiming to transition the EU towards climate neutrality by 2050.
A substantial proportion of these funds are dedicated to provide resources to farmers to become more sustainable and eco-friendly, covering research projects related to organic farming, agro-ecology, permaculture, improving energy efficiency, and reducing water pollution.
The biggest challenge for Maltese farmers however is what changes to implement, given the unique context of local agriculture, so as to be able to provide sufficient and safe food in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. Unfortunately, over the past decades, industrialisation and intensification have driven many local farmers out of business while causing significant environmental degradation.
Permaculture is a portmanteau for permanent agriculture, which is a design process based on 12 principles that mimics the patterns and relationships found in nature, aimed at producing agricultural set-ups which have the diversity, stability and resilience found in natural ecosystems. The strategies by which these 12 principles are applied therefore vary depending on the location, climatic conditions and resources that are available locally.
Project PerMaVia, led by Byron Baron together with the assistance of other academics at the University of Malta, explored the viability of a sustainable agricultural system based on permaculture practices with the available Maltese natural resources so as to provide baseline data for Malta to assist local farmers and legislators.
The biggest challenge for Maltese farmers however is what changes to implement, given the unique context of local agriculture
A number of different field practices were employed and crop success was measured as well as biodiversity indicators such as wild plant variety, pollinator visitation and bat feeding calls. Sustainable agriculture is also linked to human health since the food we eat has an impact on our health, particularly when it comes to diseases such as colorectal cancer, which is the second most diagnosed cancer in Malta.
Another project currently headed by Baron, called Kme-CRC, involves the identification of unique chemical modifications called methylations added to proteins in cancer cells, which when combined into a test panel can be used as diagnostic markers to help doctors better classify and treat such cancers. This research is being supported by surgeons at Mater Dei Hospital, with custom software developed by Incredible Web Ltd.
Project PerMaVia is co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, through Measure 16.2 of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. Project Kme-CRC is financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme.
Sound Bites
• Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that destroys the protective myelin covering around nerves. Every five minutes, someone is diagnosed with the disease around the world, adding to about 2.8 million individuals that currently have to live with it. Now researchers have developed a cell therapy that leverages myeloid cells, the very type of immune cells that cause MS-triggering nerve inflammation in patients. By attaching ‘backpacks’ loaded with anti-inflammatory drugs to the cells, and infusing them into a mouse model of MS, they were able to partially reverse paralysis and restore movement.
• Using an artificial intelligence algorithm, researchers at MIT and McMaster University have identified a new antibiotic that can kill a type of bacteria that is responsible for many drug-resistant infections. If developed for use in patients, the drug could help to combat Acinetobacter baumannii, a species of bacteria that is often found in hospitals and can lead to pneumonia, meningitis and other serious infections. The microbe is also a leading cause of infections in wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230525141523.htm
For more soundbites, listen to Radio Mocha every Saturday at 7.30pm on Radju Malta and the following Monday at 9pm on Radju Malta 2 https://www.fb.com/RadioMochaMalta/.
DID YOU KNOW?
• In 2007, a single swarm of jellyfish killed all of Northern Ireland’s farmed salmon.
• The fastest memorisers in the world can memorise the order of a deck of 52 cards in less than 15 seconds.
• The Romans brought the practice of armpit-hair removal to Britain.
• The only meat that Americans can legally import from Thailand is raw catfish.
For more trivia, see: www.um.edu.mt/think.