By Adam Williams •
April 2, 2009
As it has been said, necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, that invention is reportedly a tasty-cake baking oven in Liberia, Africa.
As described on afrigadget.com, by Luca Varaschini:
I passed some time with the ladies while they were preparing western-style food for everyone: rice, beef stake, pasta and potato salad. Then they started stirring what would have to be two cakes for the dessert, and I started wondering how they’d be able to bake them, since the only cooking apparels in the big warehouse were these coal pits on the ground.
By Jake Richardson •
February 20, 2009
Another wave of caterpillars is moving through crop fields in Liberia eating their way through plantains, bananas, coffee and cocoa.
The current wave is a different species than the first. Experts say the second caterpillar is black and white, while the one responsible for the damage in January is black and yellow (Achaea Catocaloides). The first damaging caterpillar has moved into the Ivory Coast and is eating crops there. Ivory Coast is the top cocoa producer in the world.
By Bryan Nelson •
January 25, 2009
In the aftermath of another extended rainy season, Liberia has experienced its worst caterpillar plague in three decades. Tens of millions of the black-haired creatures have swarmed farms, devastated crops and contaminated several major waterways with their feces. The lingering rainy seasons, which might be an indication of global warming, are the likely culprit for the creepy invasion.
Liberian agriculturalists have called for extensive aerial spraying to combat the rapacious larvae, since the caterpillars have managed to bypass more minimal, local attempts to divert the hordes. But UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officials are concerned that these drastic measures could sacrifice long term recovery for a short term fix. The pesticides could contaminate an already precarious food and water supply, which would escalate environmental concerns in the region for years to come.
By Amiel Blajchman •
October 10, 2008
Helveta, specializes in supply chain tracking systems that give companies the ability to track any and every item in their supply chain. In forestry, this means that it can link barcodes and radio identifiers to individual trees and map them using GPS and Helveta’s proprietary software.
Using these tags, it allows timber producers to demonstrate that their wood and lumber comes from a legal source. According to Patrick Newton, President of Helveta, this gives an additional level of auditability and supply chain assurance to buyers and watchdog groups:
If it doesn’t have the tag or the audit trail attached to it, they will know it is probably illegal
And, according to an article in the Economist, that’s exactly what is happening in Liberia.
