Posted : Jan, 2007		Eating Fat Choy (Nostoc, 髮菜) in Chinese New Year damages the environment, and incurs huge costs on health and the economy
Dried fat choy (nostoc, 髮菜) looks like black hair. Eating fat choy turns dry lands and grasslands into deserts in China.		The custom of eating fat choy (nostoc, 髮菜) in Chinese New Year has contributed to widespread desertification and annual dust storms in China. Fat choy grows in the dry lands and grasslands of northern and western China. It plays an important role of retaining water and preventing soil erosion. Harvesting of fat choy has severely damaged the top soil and the ecosystems in these areas. The economic loss due to desertification in China is estimated to be 10 billion RMB each year . The health costs on allergy, asthma and other respiratory diseases due to dust storms is enormous. China officially banned the harvesting, processing and selling of fat choy in July 2000. However, fat choy can still be easily bought in Hong Kong, Taiwan or the China towns overseas. Let's join hands not to eat fat choy and spread the words to your relatives and friends.
Nostoc grows in the form of dark green gelatinous colonies of various sizes and shapes.   Each colony of Nostoc contains filaments called trichomes within its thin sheath.   The annual dust storms in northern China threaten the health of a huge population.		What is Fat Choy (Nostoc, 髮菜) Fat choy is a single-celled blue-green algae living on land. It grows in the form of gelatinous colonies, each composed of filaments called trichomes surrounded by a thin sheath. It is dark green in colour when moist and becomes black when dried. Fat choy belongs to the species of Nostoc flagelliforme. It is capable of undergoing photosynthesis. Its role as a nitrogen fixer allows then to maintian symbiotic interactions with other organisms such as fungi, lichen, mosses and ferns. Fat choy can endure long periods of droughts and it comes back to live when water is available. Therefore it plays an important role in retaining surface water and preventing soil errosion. Fat choy only has little nutritional value. The reason why Chinese people eat fat choy during the Chinese New Year is just because its name sounds close to "發財" , meaning getting rich. In reality, everybody is a loser because of the related harms to the environment and to health mentioned below.   Why eating fat choy harms the environment and health Fat choy grows in the dry lands and grasslands of northern and western China, including Inner Mongolia, Qinghai plateau, Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Shanxie. To harvest fat choy, a metal harrow with dense meshes is used to turn over the top soil. This tool is nicked name "dig the soil poor" (刮地窮) in Chinese because it removed all the surface plants and severely damaged the soil, which takes at least 2 to 3 years to recover. To get just one tael (一兩, equals to 37.5g) of fat choy, one quarter hectare of land is destroyed. Without the protection from fat choy and other surface plants, the dry lands and grasslands deteriorate rapidly into deserts. By the end of 2004, the area of deserts in China totaled 2.64 million square kilometers (1.05 million square miles), or 27.5 percent of total land area. Almost a million acres of land is turned into desert in China every year. The economic loss from desertification is close to 10 billion Chinese yuan (RMB) each year. The extensive deserts in the northern and western China give rise to severe dust storms each year. Dust and sands are carried by air currents across the whole of Asia, causing a significant deterioration of air quality. This has incurred huge costs on health care and lost productivity due to allergy, asthma and other respiratory diseases. In a research conducted by the University of Hawaii, USA, scientists discovered that 95% of blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) produce a neurotoxin called BMAA (β-N-methylamino-L-alanine). BMAA was found in the brain tissues of several Alzheimer's disease patients in Canada. Although a direct link between BMAA and neurological disease remains unproven, researchers suggested that BMAA should be monitored in water supplies contaminated by cyanobacteria. (Related News: Apr 4, 2005)
We need to stop eating fat choy now to prevent the grasslands in China from turning into deserts		It is illegal to harvest, process and sell fat choy in China To curb rapid desertification in China, the Chinese government officially banned the harvest, acquisition, processing, sale and export of fat choy in July 2000. (Announcement in simplified Chinese) However, this has little effect on the actual consumption because fat choy is widely available in the black market. In addition, shops in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China towns overseas are still selling large quantities of fat choy. Many people in these cities are not even aware that fat choy is banned in China. In Hong Kong alone, it was estimated that 2,050 kg of fat choy was consumed during the China New Year in 2006. (Source)  With ongoing consumer demand, fat choy is being illegally harvested in large quantities in China. Please join us in stop eating fat choy and spread the words to your friends.
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