Knowledge about traditional European nutritional und medicinal plants is increasingly repressed nowadays. Fast food, chemically manipulated and exotic foodstuffs are as integral a part of average European lives today as synthetically manufactured medicine and healing methods from the Far East. It was the right time to establish an institution which researches and further develops the plant knowledge of our European ancestors according to today's scientific standards. With the "Dr. Pandalis Foundation", founded in September 2003, a non-profit-making academy was established which concerns itself especially with research relating to traditional European plants for nutritional as well as medical purposes and the protection of the environment which is closely linked to this. Protection of flora and fauna here does not mean banishing nature into special reservations which people are not allowed to enter. Rather it is a question of learning and understanding that we ourselves are a part of nature and should live in harmony with creation.
Creating awareness
Some traditional European plants such as Cistus incanus ssp. tauricus, Salicornia europaea or Cichorium intybus ssp. silvestre have completely disappeared from our minds, others are just on the verge of doing so. Wild medicinal and nutritional plants which used to grow in woods and fields, and could indeed be found almost everywhere, became and are still becoming victims of the monocultures of our "modern" agriculture. Nobody wants to hear "mono-sounds" on the radio if they are familiar with the quality of stereo and nobody wants to live in a world which is only black and white. In the field of nutrition and medicine, however, we are not far off this: the richer we become in consumable goods, the poorer our nature becomes and thus the quality of life on earth is deprived for ever.
Over the course of the years Georgios Pandalis has got to know not only many doctors, natural healing practitioners and patients but also the European health systems. The sad conclusion: everything is in a deplorable state because we are constantly distancing ourselves further from our own roots – both in our everyday life habits as well as in nutrition and medicine. Here too, genetically manipulated foodstuffs are insidiously finding their way onto our plates. As a result of globalisation exotic products have also been increasingly penetrating European kitchens over the last few decades. Our digestive systems, however, are as unable to cope with the information conveyed by algae or bamboo shoots as they are with genetically manipulated vegetables or fruit contaminated by pesticides. "This fast alteration in nutritional habits represents a health risk which could, if at all, only be handled by means of adapting over the course of many thousands of generations", Prof. Elmadfa declared in his standard work "Nutrition of the Human Being". The Dr. Pandalis Foundation would like to put a fast stop to this and prevent us from heading straight into a major catastrophe for the world's ecological system as well as our own health!
What will happen when the older generation has passed on?
Patents for seeds are in big demand and special seedless strains of plants promote dependency on industry. Our lives are highly regulated and maybe it will soon be forbidden for us even to pick wild fruit in the woods. Perhaps, however, edible wild fruits will soon be a thing of the past anyway. Very few people stop to think about what it will be like when the generation of our grandparents' has passed on and with them a source of valuable wisdom which enables us to enrich our lives and add colourful and varied enchantment to our otherwise black and white world.
Gene technology – the death blow for wild plants?
Genetically manipulated soja beans, maize, rape and cotton are meanwhile cultivated throughout the world over an area of about 67.7 million hectares. Eighteen countries today use "Green Gene Technology“, including European countries such as Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and Germany. With apparently unstoppable momentum the avalanche of genetically manipulated plants and foodstuffs has been rolling over us since the middle of the nineteen nineties– an incalculable risk for human beings and animals, and – unless we take some action to stop it – the death blow for many of our traditional European plants.
Responsible action is required now!
The non-profit-making foundation sees itself as a forum for the forgotten edible and healing plants of our grandparents' generation. In order to achieve anything, however, it needs the support of many people who all make their own contribution – personally as well as financially. Because committed action for our aims cannot function without strenuous struggles against the chemical giants and the nuclear industry. Real personalities - not mere followers – are required! We provide a platform for courageous experts from the fields of nutrition, medicine and the environment who are condemned to silence by the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. We offer the opportunity to speak out! In addition we seek to co-operate with similarly orientated associations, initiatives and organisations, as well as with UNESCO.
In order to implement and publicise the planned projects, the Dr. Pandalis Foundation is also urgently dependent on financial support. Donations represent a very worthwhile contribution to the preservation and researching of our own indigenous plant world for future generations. The future lies in our hands – let's put them to work!
