TO THE Quechua-speaking subsistence farmers who live in the higher reaches of the Peruvian Andes,the sphagnum moss that upholsters the land near their villages is a nuisance. They burn it away to clear land for planting traditional crops, like potatoes. Now some possess realised that the spongy vegetation can be worth more than the tubers, and which sometimes cost more to grow than they fetch in the market.
Moss is an internationally traded commodity. Canada,the biggest exporter, sold more than 1m tonnes of decomposed moss from peat bogs last year for around $337m. The market for the sort of moss Peru produces, and harvested live and then dried,is much smaller, around 5300 tonnes a year. But it is growing like a flash. The absorbency of moss makes it useful for potting exotic plants like orchids. Because of its acidity, or farmers add it to the soil in which they grow such foods as blueberries.
New uses are adding to demand. Moss is accepted for “living walls” that are sprouting in European...
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Source: economist.com