There is much activity going on with goji around the world. My research has uncovered some interesting things.
Emerging Markets
Companies in Eastern Europe apparently have been producing a goji jam from dried berries, which has fuelled a local movement to grow goji, which has in turn eased local prices of goji in that part of the world.
Goji growing operations are also underway in India, Pakistan, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania, Australia, Africa and all kinds of other places you may have never even heard of. It's easy to grow, cheap to start and in the right kind of soil, doesn't require a lot of agricultural inputs. The only real downside to establishing a goji growing operation is that there is a high labor cost associated with pruning and picking the fruit.
Edibility of Leaves
There is some conflicting information about the edibility of the goji leaves. First of all, it is a member of the
Solanaceae family, which includes many plants with edible fruit, and poisonous leaves. Secondly, many different sources proclaim that it is a common leafy vegetable in China.
In fact, if you do
a search for 枸杞葉, you get a very prolific list of recipes for soups and cooked vegetable dishes which include goji leaf, but the pictures shown do not look like the thin leaf goji plants that are in common usage in Ningxia. The leaves that are commonly consumed look more like the variety listed as
Botany Goji, a naturalized strain from Montana. Additionally, the FDA lists the foliage as poisonous so great caution should be exercised when experimenting with this plant.
Another interesting point is that the references to consumption of goji leaves in China which I have found are all for areas outside of Ningxia, which is in the North. This leads me to believe that they are not actually eating the leaves of Lycium Barbarum, the berry crop that everyone is so excited about, but in fact, are consuming the leaves of Lycium Chinensis, a slightly different plant.
The Ningxia Research Center of Wolfberry Engineering Technology is currently mapping the goji plant's genome and working on production of four specific strains of goji, one of which is developed specifically for production of edible leaf for public consumption.
Invasiveness
Invasive potential is a major consideration when developing a plan for any new crop. Goji has some invasiveness potential, which is generally location specific. Goji is easily spread by seed, and has some stolonaceous spreading tendencies, especially in disturbed land (when plowing or weeding). As goji establishes itself, it grows an extensive network of roots, which are very effective at helping the plant to survive droughts and to fix soil and prevent erosion and topsoil run-off. This network of roots, when disturbed, will tend to send up shoots, which will attempt to establish themselves as new plants.
Goji has naturalized in many parts of America without great impact on local ecosystems, yet caution and consideration should still be exercised when contemplating adopting goji as a crop in your area. Strains which do not sucker are preferred. The size of the seed is also important, since larger seeds are more likely to survive in the digestion of a browsing animal to be deposited in unintended locations.
Commercialization
As with any mass produced agricultural crop, standardization of product is important for the effectiveness of harvesting, transportation to market and consumption by the general public. Unfortunately, this process has a tendency to reduce the flavor and nutritional content of the product. With the current elevated level of activity related to the breeding and development of the goji berry genome, and the lack of solid research concerning it's benefits, I am concerned that modern cultivars may have a lowered quality and/or nutritional content. My personal preference is to protect and grow heirloom strains of goji for public use, although if there is demand, I intend to also produce and distribute commercial strains.
Additionally, it may be beneficial to breed or select a strain that grows and produces foliage more rapidly so that it can be mechanically harvested more brutally since goji plants are likely to be grown in locations where manual labor is scarce. Foliage and wood that is collected in this manner could be useful for biomass energy production and then converted into carbon rich compost, which further reduces water requirements and increases the soil's ability to convert nitrogen into more useful forms for plant growth.
Written by:
Paul Sober
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