Global Bean October meeting

Discover on the 25^th of October 2022 which agroecologically and environmentally friendly solutions we can take over from various regions in the world. After a general overview, Werner Vogt-Kaute from Naturland will analyse the most current and relevant problems we encounter nowadays in our legume fields and gardens, and how climate change impacts them. We will then delve into each continent in more detail, with guest experts from various parts of the world. Finally, Salvatore Ceccarelli, a pioneer of participatory and diversity based plant breeding, will talk about bean mixtures as a solution to the spread of bugs, pests and diseases. Anna Ruminska from SlowFood Poland will share one of her solutions to keep pests in her garden at bay.

Bugs, pests, and other threats

How to rescue our legumes?

25 October 2022, 17:00 – 18:00 CEST

According to biodiversity international.org, a quarter of the harvest is lost to bugs and pests, in Europe just as in Uganda. It is an everlasting dance and struggle for food and reproduction around a reliably unstable, highly complex equilibrium of microorganisms, viruses, fungi, moulds, insects, plants and other animals such as humans. It’s about timing and diversity, the weather, the nutrients and the latest outbreak of new guests on the table, who might come from far away. Whatever we plant will attract predators and the predator’s predator might be our best friend, well, most of the time …

While some of these pests are deeply-rooted in European gardens, others, like the bean weevil (Acanthoscelides obtectus), originally from America, were most uncommon 10 years ago, as climate change reshapes biodiversity, species distribution and behaviour. Furthermore, conventional monocultural systems offer the perfect environment for them to spread like wildfire.