Issue No 12, July 1999.

NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the Advice on Publications Available.

3. There are thirteen steps to heaven

[This note has recently come to us and may be of some edification and/or amusement; the Editor cannot vouch for any of the following statements]

Bonjour nouvelle croppiers. Comment allez-vous? La plume de ma tante est a cote de la fenetre chez Monsieur Smith; la plume est tres belle parc qu'elle est anglais.

I speak in this unusual manner because I am now cosmopolitan, having just recently returned from a new crops meeting in a wonderful place a long way away. Everyone treated me like an expert at the start of the meeting because I had come from such a long way away (and was bearing coloured overhead transparencies).

What does the title of this note mean?

I recall from my youth (1960), a catchy little tune entitled 'Three steps to heaven' sung by Eddie Cochran. The three steps are still relevant today:'There are three steps to heaven...

"Just follow steps one, two and three.
Step one, you find a girl to love.
Step two, she falls in love with you.
Step three, you kiss and hold her tightly.
Yeah, that sure seems like heaven to me."

Now that I'm older, I can see that Mr Cochran was probably as silly as I was in 1960. However, I can see now that he probably made more money that year by mining the lode of popularity for a while as I'll make in my whole working life.

The song's lyrics still remind me of the simplistic way in which many new crop product-champions introduce their new crop to excited potential growers.

Unfortunately, the meeting I attended was organised along the lines of Eddie Cochran's song:

"There are three steps to heaven...
Just follow steps one, two and three.
Step one, you find a new crop to love.
Step two, you fall in love with her.
Step three, you kiss and hold her tightly.
Yeah, that sure seems like heaven to me."

The meeting, to which I was invited to speak, was the twelfth annual conference of the Martinique Y Cacher Obeir Neuf, a local new crop growers' society in a wonderful setting a long way away. I don't wish to offend my hosts by specifically referring to them because they were very hospitable.

The plant grown by our group is Labrum auratus var certum, which we expect to be worth megabucks. The members of our group will be keeping this crop and the future earnings to ourselves.

The history of our group is typical of many new agricultural ventures world-wide. One person, who is now our product-champion, came across this obscure plant in a Buddhist manuscript dating back some centuries. After visiting the northern Himalayas, India, Bali and the Singapore Duty Free Shop, he managed to acquire sufficient plant material to commence substantial plantings, which he did in Martinique a least a decade ago. Our small crop industry was on its way.

The plant, according to those who know, is claimed to have wondrous medicinal properties. It can purportedly cure AIDS, something well known to the ancient people of the Tarim Pendi region, overcome menopausal problems, is particularly good on prostate cancers and on top of this is an aphrodisiac for the elderly (but I guess that follows if you believe in its other properties).

Western medicine, we are told, has recently analysed the active ingredients of the plant (which have been dubbed 'penile-amines') and it is claimed by the product champion that pharmaceutical companies in the US are offering almost $1 million per kilogram for the active ingredient - about the same value as taxol from the yew tree.

Apparently this claim derives from one sale of 100 milligrams of the material for $100, some time ago.

The plant produces and stores these chemicals in its roots in an alpha-carotene bound matrix form. They can easily be extracted on-farm. It takes about 1,000 plants to get one kilogram of penile-amines. This number of plants can be grown on 200 square metres of ground. The plant's horticultural requirements are such that it can grow in most localities, so long as there is adequate shade available. The only catch is that it takes ten years to reach maturity.

However, the real story has little really to do with the plant; in fact, the plant could be any old weed. This is the story of the promoters of this crop and the other members of our elite new crop group and my experiences at our group meeting a long way away .

I attended the meeting because I had been asked to share my experiences with this new crop. It appears now that the product-champion wanted me at the meeting to extract any original information I may have had and then to indoctrinate me with the 'official' line of labrum-hype.

I introduced my talk by asking those gathered to tell me what product they were going to produce and whether a market existed for that product. I consider this fundamental since otherwise, what is to be traded?

I was met with a mixture of blank expressions, shock and horror. Was the audience all French speaking? Was I the only one understanding English?

Not so. The problem was one of understanding, on my part apparently. Did I know nothing at all about this plant? How dare I question such things! They were growing the plant to produce the plant - wasn't that obvious?

In response, once again, its wondrous properties as sketched out above, were recited by the product champion and specially selected acolytes who had been anointed for this task. Of course a market exists - the product champion had told them so.

However, the product champion had done all the work.

[It is apparent in Australia also that there is a very conspicuous product-champion in most new crops, otherwise no-one knows that the new crop exists.]

This particular product champion knew more about this plant than anyone else. He had travelled widely to most of the well known destinations overseas and had even spoken to those who harvest this plant from the wild. It was also curious that most of the other growers had never travelled outside their own country.

The growing of this plant followed the seven steps to heaven of the Buddhist religion, but these had been distilled to three steps - grow it, sell it to the product champion through a cooperative about to be set up to support the development of the new crop industry and most important of all, be quiet about it so that competitors don't find out.

Quickly realising that I was committing heresy by my confrontational opening enquiries, I backed off a bit.

I nevertheless thought it was in the interests of all those at the meeting to at least outline some possible options. I drew on the board a list of product options that came to mind quickly - and I present them here for your benefit.

1. Seed (locally grown) so that the members no longer need to purchase seed from the product champion for $5,000 per kg.

2. One- and two year-old seedling plants for on-sale to other growers. This will enable them to by-pass the two years or more it takes for the seed to germinate, thus increasing profits.

3. Mature plants. This was the obvious option but there were many variations of this. For example, there could be organic production or high input, intensively farmed production or simply 'wild' production. Each approach would produce, according to the product champion, plants with differing concentrations of penile-amines, and hence of different value.

4. Concentrated penile-amine produced on-farm and sold directly to US pharmaceutical companies.

5. A range of value-added penile-amine retail products such as tablets, capsules, sachets of ground plant (which is the traditional use of the plant), teas, sweets - and the list goes on.

6. Tax-driven investment packages. Who cares what the plant or plant product is if this is the reason for the enterprise? Surely, if there is money involved, high income earners in Paris, Nice or Marseilles can get their accountants to have them accredited as primary producers, they can invest large sums in the crop.

7. Information books on growing and processing the plant. This, however, is a problem area, since the product champion has already saturated this area with everything but a musical CD release.

For each of these possible products, I suggested to the group, there is a clearly identifiable market and readily identifiable points of sale of the product.

I went on to suggest that before growing the plant, or as soon as possible thereafter, it is important to identify what the specific product is. Then, it is wise to work out where the market is and what it will pay. Finally, I encouraged the listeners to make contact with a number of potential purchasers of the product to determine what limitations might exist on supplying it.

I went further. I spoke of the thirteen step process recommended by the New Crops group at the University of Queensland Gatton College. These thirteen steps may not quite lead to heaven but they will certainly reduce the chances of a rapid descent into the hell of bankruptcy.

I had come across this article by chance in the ninth issue of The Australian New Crops Newsletter recently and was stunned by the blindingly obvious sense that it made. I suggested to all gathered they subscribe to this publication.

Still, stunned looks met me. But why? I was to find out why at the Annual General Meeting which followed my talk.

After a lengthy break, we gathered outside and once all were present, trumpets sounded and a robed figure gestured us to enter. The others did so with bowed heads. Once seated, and still bowing, the throng developed a slow, low chant.

Then, with due ceremony the product-champion entered, dressed in golden robes and surrounded by his green-robed followers. He introduced himself as chairperson for the meeting. He spoke to the throng about how he had run the society for their benefit; he introduced the new committee that he had selected so that they would not have to be bothered by trifles such as elections; he waxed lyrical about the new cooperative that would buy all of their product when they were ready to sell; he made it clear that he wanted the meeting to be short but asked for questions anyway.

One member rose. 'Could I please have a list of other members of the Society so that I could contact them to discuss issues of mutual benefit'.

A gasp of horror enveloped the room. The chairperson rose and with a steely stare and gruff tone informed the meeting (the enquirer was ignored) that the membership list was known only to him. This was for the protection of all members from outsiders finding where they lived and possibly stealing their crop.

The enquirer was quietly led from the room.Another member rose. He outlined that he had been growing the crop since the beginning some twelve years ago. He had yet to have a success. However, his question was more pointed. He told the gathering that the planned co-operative was promised many years earlier and yet was still in the planning stage.

Had he been able to grow the crop as well as the product champion had told him, he would have had a crop for which there was no market. 'Is the market really there?' he asked.

There was stunned silence. He too was led from the room.

The product champion rose and related the market size and the prices being paid in the US. It had all been written in his books and if any further detail was needed any member could approach him after the meeting.

My mind wandered back to my university days where I took a course in anthropology. I began to recall some of the criteria that made for successful religious cults. And there they all were. This was not a new crop society - it was a cult.

There was the high priest surrounded by his devout followers. They had been promised heaven. No one was prepared to question statements from on high. They were all prepared to invest and risk their life savings on the say-so of just one person - and that person was making his income from selling to them.

I began to understand why I got blank looks every time I asked them to think for themselves.

But on the plane back home it suddenly dawned on me. In essence this is little removed from the society of which I am a member. The crop may be different but the promises about returns are equally extraordinary.

The information comes from one source. Few growers question that source.

The constitution of the society does not allow its membership list to be distributed.

The AGM restricts the rights of members to comment.

At least, I thought, I have defined my product to be different from that of the product champion and the rest of the members. And I have done my market research and I am convinced the market actually exists.

Now all I have to do is grow the plant.

Why is it I can never seem to duplicate the results as described by the product champion?

Sadly, I am no longer an expert. My coloured transparencies were confiscated and placed on the Index by the product champion.

However, I do have a couple of colleagues in Australia.

I wonder if they want to make money?

Perhaps I can also become a product champion?

Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email: r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au

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originally created by: GK; latest update 17 October 2001 by: RF