Word: planting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Women the world over may find a miracle brewing in a place called Uruka Amahuaja, a cluster of huts in the Venezuelan rain forest, reachable only by dugout canoe. Biologist Ramiro Royero has set up a computerized field office there to collect data on a plant still unknown to the outside world: a shrub whose poinsettia-like leaves are steeped as a medicinal tea by the Piaroa tribe to relieve menstrual cramps--without the caffeine jitters and other side effects caused by most of today's commercial remedies...
Maria Lopez, 59, a tribal matriarch, assesses Royero's work with the eye of a seasoned businesswoman--and for good reason. She knows that if the plant has commercial value, Venezuelan law may soon give the Piaroa rights for compensation from drug companies, which would have to recognize what the community calls its intellectual property. In years past, says Lopez, "we always gave up our medicines without any economic gain for ourselves. We won't make that mistake again...
...quarter of all prescription drugs today are linked to the kinds of indigenous discoveries that make Brazilian catuaba bark a rain-forest version of Viagra for the herbal-supplement crowd. Two of Eli Lilly's more successful cancer drugs, Velban and Oncovin, were developed from Madagascar's rosy periwinkle plant, found through a shaman some 40 years ago. In the 1990s the two cancer drugs produced combined sales of $100 million a year. In September, Lilly, based in Indianapolis, Ind., agreed to pay up to $325 million to join San Diego's Amylin Pharmaceuticals in developing a potential diabetes treatment...
...some weeks, Ian Jobson makes 20 types of Kit Kat at the big plant he oversees in the northern English city of York, the largest Kit Kat manufacturing operation in the world. Nestle installed $11 million worth of robots on the production line last year, and a new $1.6 million automated packaging machine is due to be installed this year. The number of people needed to staff the round-the-clock operation has been cut to 28 from 60. Jobson patrols the factory floor in his white coat and hairnet, soliciting ways to improve production. Nestle sent a manufacturing SWAT...
...hopes of attracting critical investment. Piracy cuts into the profits of the big, predominately U.S. companies that produce so much of the global-entertainment menus. But Malaysia's legitimate CD producers feel the squeeze too. The government has encouraged legitimate digital production (which has expanded from one optical-disc plant in 1996 to around 50 today) as part of the country's effort to move up the technology ladder. Malaysian factories churn out an estimated 315 million CDs a year, worth $300 million. But producers who respect intellectual property rights complain that they can't compete with those...