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While there are many studies of the global influence of crops and plants, this is perhaps the first social history based around a plant in South Africa. Plants are not quite historical actors in their own right, but their properties and potential help to shape human history. Plants such as prickly pear tend to be invisible to those who do not use them, or at least on the peripheries of people's consciousness. This book explains why they were not peripheral to many people in the Eastern Cape and why a wild and sometimes invasive cactus from Mexico, that found its way around the world over 200 years ago, remains important to African women in shacks and small towns. The central tension at the heart of this history concerns different and sometimes conflicting human views of prickly pear. Some accepted or enjoyed its presence; others wished to eradicate it. While commercial livestock farmers initially found the plant enormously valuable, they came to see it as a scourge in the early twentieth century as it invaded farms and commonages. But for impoverished rural and small town communities of the Eastern Cape it was a godsend. In some places it still provides a significant income for poor black families. Debates about prickly pear - and its cultivated spineless variety - have played out in unexpected ways over the last century and more. Some scientists, once eradicationists, now see varieties of spineless cactus as plants for the future, eminently suited to a world beset by climate change and global warming. The book also addresses central problems around concepts of biodiversity. How do we balance, on the one hand, biodiversity conservation with, on the other, a recognition that plant transfers - and species transfers more generally - have been part of dynamic production systems that have historically underpinned human civilizations. American plants such as maize, cassava and prickly pear have been used to create incalculable value in Africa. Transferred plants are at the heart of many agricultural systems, as well as hybrid botanical and cultural landscapes, sometimes treasured, that are unlikely to be entirely reversed. Some of these plants displace local species, but are invaluable for local livelihoods. Prickly Pear explores this dilemma over the long term and suggests that there must be a significant cultural dimension to ideas about biodiversity. The content of Prickly Pear is based on intensive archival research, on interviews conducted in the Eastern Cape by the authors, as well as on their observations of how people in the area use and consume the plant.

Prickly pears --- Alien plants --- Non-indigenous wild plants --- Nonindigenous wild plants --- Introduced organisms --- Plants --- Plant introduction --- Pears, Prickly --- Platyopuntia --- Prickly-pear --- Prickly pear cactus --- Pricklypears --- Tunas (Plants) --- Opuntia --- Economic aspects --- Control

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Food packaging and shelf life have been the subject of remarkable research in recent years. They are so important because only by understanding a good storage system is it possible to avoid any food waste. Moreover, the best packaging has to prolong the food quality while also reducing the packaging volume or better, become itself biodegradable, and guarantee the nutritional characteristics of food products.In particular, the increasing interest in reducing packaging wastes is becoming a rising problem, just considering that food packaging alone contributes to a huge portion of total packaging wastes in the world. On the other side, consumers judge the food quality based on appearance and freshness, but also using their awareness of the environmental implications of packaging. Nowadays, many technologies can be applied to improve food quality and shelf life, such the application of edible films or coatings, from biodegradable materials or biopolymers, trying to reduce the package barrier requirements, incorporating natural bioactive compounds and lengthening shelf life making then packaging easily compostable.

asparagus --- enzyme activity --- lignin --- fiber --- weight loss --- color --- polypropylene film --- essential oil emitter --- globe artichoke genotype --- quality parameters --- microbial growth --- antioxidants’ retention --- biodegradable --- active --- natural --- essential oil --- shelf life --- antimicrobial --- sensory --- poultry --- PET --- sepiolite --- nanocomposites --- MAP --- microbiological quality --- chicken --- food packaging --- drip loss --- liquid absorbent pad --- chicken breast fillet --- texture --- sensory evaluation --- fresh-cut fruit --- pomegranate peel powder --- natural preservative --- by-product --- sustainable approach --- Lepidium sativum --- potato --- browning index --- oil uptake --- antioxidant activity --- Malvasia --- sweet wine --- shelf-life --- accelerated shelf-life test --- 5-hydroxymethylfurfural --- 2-furaldehyde --- antimicrobial activity --- fish storability --- prickly pear cactus --- by-products --- zero-waste --- biomaster-silver --- SANAFOR® --- tapioca starch --- polybutylene succinate