This was from 29th Jan, sorry i havent got around to posting until now ..
We have arrived in Pulau Pangkor a 10 square km coastal island harbouring fishing vessels and fish-drying houses on stilts. Migrant workers and political refugees with UNHCR official cards work on the mangrove side. Home-stay tourism is budding on the sunset side along with scars of fast-buck highrises.
The Cameron Highlands, where we worked two weeks ago, has a much older tourism industry going back to British colonial days. Now grey travellers and young naturalists backpackers "treck" along marked paths in the very wild rainforest.
The lower slopes (1000 to 1500 metres = 3000 to 5000 feet) are being bulldozered, with valleys and hills alike fitted with poly-tunnels on very large terrraces, housing strawberry farms and temperate crops to feed equatorial cities such as Singapore, KL and even Japan. The workforce is supplied by low-waged Indonesians, Burmese, Nepalese and Bangladeshis.
Pesticide and hybrid seed sales booming, heavy machinery booming, construction of highrises (with thick rainforests in background) booming, investment companies booming, trucking companies working overtime.
An hour downhill toward Ipoh there are palm oil and rubber plantations and marble quarries also using imported labour.
Meanwhile in ten days in Malaysia all the carrots we have seen have been grown in China. Same with oranges, mandarins, pears, nashi and apples. Some are labelled "organic". One wonders about the standards and stringency.
Michel & Jude Fanton
Directors, Seed Savers Foundation Australia
Wild tree bean eaten as snack (Parkia sp) is obviously leguminous seen on Malaysian Market today
Duku in aboundance in Malaysian highlands (Lansium domesticum) Piles of Durians in villages sold by orang Asli
Gourds (lagenaria sp) and small squashes (Cucurbita pepo) traded for Chinese New Year in Penang Malaysia
2,1 kg = 4,5 lb mango near Penang Malaysia. This is a huge variety indeed not an astronomical individual!!!
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