http://www.salemnews.com/lifestyle/x223906767/A-tree-grows-in-Eritrea
March 22, 2012
A tree grows in Eritrea
Professor to talk about his work to help the hungry
By Will Broaddus Staff Writer
Gordon Sato of Wenham has spent his life trying to solve some of the
world’s worst problems.
As a professor of biochemistry at Brandeis and the University of
California San Diego, his research led to breakthroughs in the
treatment of cancer.
But at the same time that he was fighting disease, Sato also used his
expertise to address some other chronic afflictions: hunger and
poverty.
Sato's Manzanar Project, which he will discuss at Gordon College on
Thursday, March 29, is feeding people by planting more than a million
mangrove trees on the shores of the Red Sea.
In 1988, Sato, who is 84, started his project in the village of
Hargigo on the coast of Eritrea, a country that was fighting for
independence from Ethiopia, which it won in 1991.
Hunger was a problem in Eritrea before the war, and it was worsened by
the conflict, which lasted for decades.
"In the beginning, we took the trees and we used it to feed sheep and
goats," Sato said. "Cut the leaves, and feed it to the animals. Then
in the meantime, we learned that there was increased fish nearby."
The fish ate mangrove leaves that fell in the ocean and also insects
that were attracted to the trees, Sato said. Fish waste, dried and
ground up, was also fed to the goats, allowing them to produce milk.
As a result, the 2,000 villagers of Hargigo were able to raise animals
that provide them with protein, while also enjoying some of the best
fishing in the Red Sea.
As simple as this sounds, Sato first had to figure out why mangrove
trees only grow where fresh water flows into the ocean.
"Mangrove trees grow only on about 15 percent of the shore," he said.
"Nobody had figured this out before. I discovered there's only three
things missing from seawater: nitrogen, phosphorous and iron."
Planting the trees with pieces of iron and plastic bags filled with
nutrients, which leak out through small holes, allowed them to grow
where they never had before.
This effort is the topic of "The Mangrove Tree," a book about the
Manzanar Project that served as a recent Community Read title, read by
many of the patrons at the Beverly, Hamilton-Wenham and Manchester
libraries.
The authors of the book, Susan Roth and Cindy Trumbore, will appear at
a reception at Gordon College before Sato's talk.
As the book describes, much of Sato's motivation to solve the problems
of a poor, embattled people stems from his experience as a
third-generation American of Japanese descent.
Born in Los Angeles, Sato was sent, along with his parents and
brother, to the Manzanar Relocation Center, where many
Japanese-Americans were forced to live during World War II.
While at Manzanar, Sato learned to grow corn to feed his family, even
though the camp was in a desert.
That directly paralleled what he later did for the villagers at
Hargigo and made "Manzanar" a natural name for his mangrove project.
At the Hamilton-Wenham Library, the Community Read campaign
supplemented "The Mangrove Tree," which is primarily a children's
book, with "Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American
Experience During and After the World War II Internment" by Jeanne
Wakatsuki Houston.
"We felt knowing more about Manzanar would be helpful to everyone,"
said Jan Dempsey, library director. "I would say people don't know a
lot about it."
Among Sato's many later accomplishments was running a laboratory at
the California Institute of Technology that included five scientists
who would go on to win Nobel Prizes, including James Watson, a
co-discoverer of DNA. But Sato's ambitions these days are to build on
the success of the Manzanar Project.
He has devised methods to farm fish by growing seaweed by fertilizing
the oceans on the continental shelf.
Sato also thinks growing mangrove trees could help solve global warming.
The trees could be grown in the deserts of North Africa, he said,
using seawater pumped by windmills.
"We can grow plants everywhere," Sato said. "But it will be difficult
to get people to think this way, North Africans. It hasn't gotten very
far yet, but it will. I'm confident, because it works."
If you go
What: The Manzanar Project, a presentation by Gordon Sato
When: Thursday, March 29, reception with Sato and Susan Roth and Cindy
Trumbore, authors of "The Mangrove Tree, Planting Trees to Feed
Families," from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Ken Olsen Science Center;
presentation 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the A.J. Memorial Chapel.
Where: Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road
More information: www.gordon.edu
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Received on Thu Mar 22 2012 - 10:30:39 EDT
