Occasionally it fades a little into the background of our awareness alongside new, overwhelming topics, yet hunger remains one of the most pressing problems in this world. After all, well over 850 million people worldwide suffer from hunger. Withered harvests and pest plagues are a depressing everyday reality in countless countries, including in Europe. And after the harvest, mold during transport and storage repeatedly means that food has to be destroyed before consumption.
If the world’s population grows while the climate continues to deteriorate at the same time, food shortages will undoubtedly top the list of consequences.
But how can we secure abundant harvests without burdening the environment – and ultimately ourselves – with toxins? Is there even such a thing as biologically safe crop protection that works reliably and, above all, without side effects?
Whether fungicides, herbicides or insecticides: the conventional approach usually aims to incapacitate harmful influences. From insects to mold fungi – killing the attacker is supposed to provide protection for the plant. But what does that mean for consumers?
Widely used pesticides – including highly controversial ones – have long been detectable in the bodies of many people. Carcinogenic or genotoxic effects are often mentioned in this context. So we are poisoning not only the pests, but also our food and, in the long run, ourselves. Not to mention the dying of beneficial organisms such as the honeybee.
Are there alternatives? Wouldn’t rethinking mean protecting the plant instead of attacking the pest?
Gentle crop protection
A brief excursion into forestry: “wire trousers” is the name given to the casings used to protect young trees in the forest from voracious game. The same physical principle in a smaller variant would be ideal for arable farming, but of course not every ear of grain can be placed in a protective sleeve.
Or can it?
If it were possible to encase ornamental and crop plants with a protective layer that, on the one hand, physically protects against pests, but also against UV radiation and other stress factors, and on the other hand is non-toxic and biodegradable, an enormous step would be taken in the fight against crop failure and hunger.
Would, could, might?
With Nanopool, exactly that has long been possible! An ultra-thin protective layer makes the plant unattractive to pests, invulnerable to mold and, depending on requirements, can even block radiation. This not only prevents damage to the plant – it has been proven that the self-protection energy saved in this way also leads to faster growth!
By the way: even larger pests such as termites lose their appetite thanks to the NP® refinement – without the animals having to be killed!
Photo: Raphael Maas
Biologically safe pest protection
A study in India delivered exciting results on this: of two pieces of wood of identical size, one was given the NP® protective layer. Both test objects were then buried in a termite area southeast of Mumbai.
After a period of several months, which included both a dry season and a monsoon season, the two pieces of wood were retrieved. While the termites had eaten around three quarters of the unprotected wood, they completely ignored the coated piece next to it.
Without toxic additives and while fully preserving the wood’s breathability, it was efficiently protected in a natural way. A gift for every termite-plagued region!