Word: osborne
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With a PhD in zoology from Cambridge University, Loki Osborn went to Africa intent on saving elephants. But after he got there in the mid-1990s, he realized the problem isn't too few elephants, but too many. Elephant conservation efforts in southern Africa, centered on setting aside parks and curtailing poaching, have been a great success, raising the population from 283,000 10 years ago to 400,000 today. But as a result, today elephants are killing people, as well as the other way around. The Kenya Wildlife service says elephants kill more people in its parks than...
...Osborn, you go back to your roots. He originally hails from Louisiana and is a member of the Mcllhenny family, which makes Tabasco Sauce. "I grew up with chilies," says Osborn, 41. "I'm kind of obsessed by them, actually." Of course, he is also pretty obsessive about elephants. He knew, for instance, that the elephant trunk is around 130 times more sensitive than the human nose. He could imagine what it would be like breathing in chili pepper with a probiscus like that. And he started to imagine what a boon it would be if he could persuade African...
...American shoppers will be able to buy the result of Osborn's ruminations from this Christmas: Elephant Pepper hot sauces, retailing at $3.99 from the Whole Foods Market chain. It's the culmination of a long travail. When Osborn founded the Elephant Pepper Development Trust in 1999, his main aim was to help farmers deter elephants. He initially went high-tech, consulting Israeli pepper spray manufacturers about designing an aerosol pepper grenade. It worked, but to catch on with subsistence farmers, Osborn had to find a cheaper solution. Hence his invention of the chili fence - a rope hung with rags...
...encourage farmers to spend time and money growing chilies, Osborn realized they had to see it as not just a defensive move, but as a business venture. "Then there's no question of sustainability," he says. So Osborn set up the Elephant Pepper Company, buying surplus chilies left over from what was needed for elephant deterrents and turning them into sauce. Initially he worked from his kitchen in Harare, Zimbabwe, making around 500 bottles of hot sauce a year, which he sold in local supermarkets. Today, with the help of new partner Michael Gravina, he has expanded, selling some chilies...
...Osborn's conservation methods are proving to be as popular as his hot sauce. It's a perfect win-win. With its rising funds, the Trust now trains wardens from as far away as India and Vietnam in chili deterrence. Wildlife groups from Sumatra to the Serengeti, including the Worldwide Fund for Nature, now use chilies to control elephants. Meanwhile, farmers who are growing chilies in Livingstone have seen their annual income triple from $90 before planting their new cash crop to $300 a year now. Osborn hopes the new Elephant Pepper sauces will create a demand that will allow...