The coconut odyssey - the bounteous possibilities of the ... - ACIAR

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Preface Few plants are more universally known, admired and acclaimed than the coconut palm, Cocos nucifera. Its graceful appearance and bountiful harvest, combined with its environmental resilience even under the stress of cyclonic storms, have led to its pan-tropical establishment and use in moist coastal environments. Hundreds of millions of people consume each day both coconut water and kernel derivatives—especially the milk squeezed from the shredded kernel and the extracted oil. Long after Portuguese sailors first brought the coconut home to Lisbon from voyages to ‘the Indies’ at the end of the 15th century, the nut became popular in the temperate markets of Europe and the United States. It became a staple ingredient in cakes and biscuits, and at English fairs, the ‘bare’ coconut fruit was transformed into a target and prize (‘a lovely bunch of coconuts’) in a bowling game known as the ‘coconut shy’. So deeply is the coconut immersed in the culture and diet of tropical people of the East and the Pacific islands that it is honoured among them as the Tree of Life. Every part of the palm and fruit is used, especially the milk, oil and flesh of the nut itself. Even the roots provide valuable medication for the relief of dysentery. However, it was the great 19th century surge in demand for fats and oils by industrialising Europe and North America that placed coconut oil centre stage as a global trade commodity. �is ushered in an era of industrial cropping of the palm on practically every tract of available fertile land in the moist coastal tropics, between the late 19th and the mid-20th centuries. �e Tree of Life of the tropical village became, briefly, the tree of economic life for many investors, traders and processors in the West. A calamitous decline in demand followed. 13 I include a description of the extraordinary economic situation into which the coconut was forced, a hundred years after it was so enthusiastically embraced by the industrial world. Beginning in the 1950s, the producers of polyunsaturated fats—the market rivals of coconut oil—ran a sustained and highly successful campaign against coconut oil and other saturated fats. I explain how, in this context, coconut oil came to be almost universally considered a dangerous food, in spite of its role as an energy staple in the diet of tropical island and coast dwellers for hundreds of generations. In particular, the producers of margarine, cooking oil and other derivatives of temperate-zone vegetable oils sought to displace coconut oil as the preferred deepfrying oil.
�is book summarises the astonishing course of that displacement, along with evidence that might help restore the coconut to its deserved status as one of nature’s most useful and valuable foods and cooking oils. Since the ‘food war’ began, both knowledge of the role of coconut oil as medicine in traditional cultures and modern biochemical research have pointed to great possibilities for coconut oil as a health food and antibiotic. I also give guidance for those who want to get the most out of having a coconut palm as a fruit tree, or to profit from growing many palms as a plantation enterprise on any scale. �e many possibilities for deriving products, not only from the nut contents but from every part of the palm— frond, growing ‘heart’, trunk, shell and fibre—are catalogued here. �e remarkable evolution and botanical traits of the coconut palm help to explain its durability, its diversity and its distribution. Characteristics that evolved during the coconut’s odyssey ‘from Gondwana to Goa and Zamboanga’ and beyond enabled it to spread naturally and widely across oceans, and to nurture, over many months, the coconut seedling taking hold on a distant shore. I give special attention to the place of the coconut in Australia, a land of extensive tropical shores that was almost completely devoid of coconut palms before European settlement. 14 �is book presents the coconut as food, crop, and cultural and landscape icon, tracing its evolutionary history and endeavouring to restore its reputation. I put the case for the coconut in the hope that people in developed and developing countries alike can rediscover, for the advancement of their own welfare, the economic, health and culinary possibilities of the coconut palm. Mike Foale October 2002 Brisbane, Australia
Page 1 and 2: The coconut odyssey the bounteous p
Page 4 and 5: �e coconut odyssey the bounteous
Page 6: Foreword Coconut is a tree of great
Page 9 and 10: �e strand posed few biohazards .
Page 11 and 12: Traditional coconut cream and milk
Page 16 and 17: chapter 1 �e coconut odyssey begi
Page 18 and 19: Evolution of the coconut �e ocean
Page 20 and 21: In this way, the coconut palm evolv
Page 22 and 23: Figure 1-5. Zones of latitude withi
Page 24 and 25: ships bound for Cuba and other isla
Page 26 and 27: as the seedling develops. It secret
Page 28 and 29: But there was another motive. Durin
Page 30 and 31: Figure 1-12. Four seasonal mean tem
Page 32 and 33: midwinter, the central heating kept
Page 34 and 35: chapter 2 Surprising diversity amon
Page 36 and 37: Dwarfs have far fewer varieties tha
Page 38 and 39: �ey are also notably better adapt
Page 40 and 41: �e Niu Leka produces many interme
Page 42 and 43: Figure 2-6. Aerial view of North Ke
Page 44 and 45: chapter 3 �e life story of a palm
Page 46 and 47: �e embryo of the seed is conceale
Page 48 and 49: noticeable setback to growth, the s
Page 50 and 51: completing the second full circle.
Page 52 and 53: Why does the palm on the strand lea
Page 54 and 55: Figure 3-12. �e exposed roots of
Page 56 and 57: chapter 4 Taking the plunge looking
Page 58 and 59: Annual rainfall of 2000 mm, which i
Page 60 and 61: Figure 4-2. Crowded palms, showing
Page 62 and 63: Figure 4-4. Fruitless and therefore
Page 64 and 65:
chapter 5 Caring for the palm from
Page 66 and 67:
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, par
Page 68 and 69:
�e only known coconut disease att
Page 70 and 71:
least in the early years) will not
Page 72 and 73:
Table 5.1. Visual symptoms of some
Page 74 and 75:
Table 5.2. Critical levels for mine
Page 76 and 77:
chapter 6 �e productive palm pote
Page 78 and 79:
from a palm with a 10-metre trunk.
Page 80 and 81:
Figure 6-5a. A less likely disaster
Page 82 and 83:
Where there is ready access to a to
Page 84 and 85:
chapter 7 �e fruit and its parts
Page 86 and 87:
have provided the foundation for a
Page 88 and 89:
traces of many minerals, such as po
Page 90 and 91:
Figure 7-3. Coconut milk being sque
Page 92 and 93:
produced particularly in India and
Page 94 and 95:
is lit at one end (requiring coals
Page 96 and 97:
Coconut sap for toddy and sugar In
Page 98 and 99:
(400-600 kg/m 3 ), and finally ther
Page 100 and 101:
Precision cutting recovers the best
Page 102 and 103:
even one metre would be enough to
Page 104 and 105:
Preparing a ‘tender nut’: a spe
Page 106 and 107:
little water left inside. Select on
Page 108 and 109:
Recovering the kernel �e kernel c
Page 110 and 111:
Small, 10-mm cubed pieces of fresh
Page 112 and 113:
chapter 10 �e coconut’s industr
Page 114 and 115:
using annual oil crops. Until then,
Page 116 and 117:
which is the largest exporter. Indi
Page 118 and 119:
on the separation of oil from its e
Page 120 and 121:
skills. �e introduction of simple
Page 122 and 123:
chapter 11 �e wonder food Since a
Page 124 and 125:
Saturated and unsaturated fats Mark
Page 126 and 127:
double bonds are shown beside the n
Page 128 and 129:
Independent researchers in the Unit
Page 130 and 131:
molecules entering into the chemist
Page 132 and 133:
Issue Detail Comments 10. High melt
show all

The coconut odyssey - the bounteous possibilities of the ... - ACIAR

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?