Colombian Cashes In On Beetle-Mania
Los Angeles Times:
Cooing softly in baby talk, German Viasus gently uses a toothbrush to bathe the little animal he has raised since infancy and then pampers it with a fresh meal of mango, bananas and melon. The object of his affection? A beetle the size of a hamster with a hard, shiny shell and 2-inch-long horns.
Viasus, 36, is a Colombian entrepreneur who is exploiting the beetle-mania sweeping Japan by raising and exporting hundreds of the creepy-crawlies every month.
He has become a fearless (in more ways than one) pioneer of Colombia’s somewhat belated effort to promote the legal exploitation of its biodiversity, a stunning variety of plant and animal species that is second only to Brazil’s.
Despite its natural riches, Colombia produces only about $17 million in “bio-commerce” a year, mainly in native foliage used in floral arrangements and aromatic, medicinal and cosmetic herbs, said Jose Andres Diaz, a consultant to Colombia’s […]
Original post by Rich and software by Elliott Back