This subject is not to be taken lightly. 

Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that at the end of this

"financial crisis" life will return to any past image of "normalcy".

It will never be the same.  Global change is not going to reverse.

Fossil fuels, which have been the engine driving our luxurious,

extravagant lifestyles are not going to define our future--not if we

are to survive.  Even if we do discover small pockets of ancient

sunlight remaining underground, we have discovered that it is

poison.  It poisons the earth, the air, the water, and our bodies.

Not being the same doesn't spell disaster.  It can as easily

produce a future far grander than we can now imagine.

We have been enculturated into believing that more is better,

bigger is better, that to climb the ladder of success means to

accumulate "stuff" and accolades, and figures on pieces of paper.

Just because society has taught us something does not

necessarily make it so.

Stop a while.  Get quiet.  Go into your heart and listen there.

What is it that we all want?  No, not that nice house or new

dress, or more money.  What do we truly want?  We all want

happiness.  Our error has come in allowing others to determine

for us what happiness looks like.  We all know how quickly the

luster wears off new things.  There is always the "next new

thing"--and its' shine wears off just as quickly.  Stop and look

at one of the "toys" you bought a while ago.  How does that

"feel"?  Inside.

Now recall the smile that lights a childs face when you arrive

home after being gone.  Recall how your dog wags his entire

body in greeting.  Recall that glorious sunshine after days of

rain (we've just had a few:>).  Feel your heart now.  It's

different, isn't it?  Happiness is an inside job.  It comes from

feelings of love and true appreciation and wonder for what is.

I believe there will be a time, in our not-too-distant future, when

goods and products which are produced at large distances will no

longer be available to us.  We will no longer be able to run to

Walmart to replace any small item, regardless how necessary it

may seem to us; when our food will necessarily be what we can

grow and raise locally. 

Do not believe the media.  They have gotten us here.  Their only

job is to sell us to the highest bidder (advertiser).Let us become

independent and think for ourselves.  Let reality and our feelings 

determine what we see and do. 

This future can be filled with wonderful times as we renew our

relationships with both the land and our fellow creatures (we may

eat less meat:>)--and  perhaps even get to know our neighbors.

Any of us who have made any attempt to transform ourselves or

our lives, knows that it is long-term, challenging and ultimately 

truly satisfying.  It is the journey where the fun takes place, and

not an end goal, that is in our sights daily.

I broke my neck in an auto accident ten years ago.  I had been

divorced for one week to the day.  I had no adequate medical

insurance.  But it wasn't the accident or the injuries that brought

my life to an about face.  It was two years later, when I lost the

job I had been doing for the previous fourteen years.  I'd lost my

partner, my health, and my livlihood--my reason for being.......my

Mother used to say that things came in threes!  It was then that

I stopped and questioned myself and my life.  And I learned that....

I have thoughts.  I am not my thoughts.

I have feelings.  I am not my feelings.

I do things.  I am not what I do.

I am the Consciousness in which my thoughts, feelings and

actions show up.

This is lesson number one on our Journey.  It takes constant

remembrance, especially in the beginning.  It gets easier over

time.

Therefore, let us pause here and practice Lesson #1.  It is one of

the most important lessons we will ever learn, and much depends

on it.  It may seem esoteric, yet its' practical implications, as

you shall see, are endless.

"When you are aware that you are the force that is Life,

anything is possible.  Miracles happen all the time, because

those miracles are performed by the heart.  The heart is

in direct communion with the human soul, and when the

heart speaks, even with the resistance of the head,

something inside you changes;  your heart opens another

heart, and true love is possible." 

(Don Miguel Ruiz)

  

***Heartmath takes us to the core of our Being.***

http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com 

 

One World, One Consciousness--that is Love.

Peace Day 2008!!

Well, how are we doing folks??  Peace Day '08--are we all feeling

more peaceful than in '07?

Peace begins at home.  It begins within and radiates outward.  If

there is not peace in your heart--and mind--then you cannot

purport to give, or teach, or share, what you do not have. 

We can only try to understand others by questioning our own

attitudes and feelings!  Understanding is something you reach

for; understanding is a process, it's a great search that we never

fulfill.

Peace, to me is like "being".  It is something one does every day.

I don't think I'm the only one that did not just suddenly wake up

one day infused with nothing but peace and love.  It was, and is

a journey for me.  I am more peaceful and loving than I was ten

years ago--but I'm not there yet.   I'm not even sure that there is

a destination--during this lifetime:>)  So I work on it every day

and every once in a while I actually notice that I am different

than I was previously.  It does take more to "get to me" and I

can sit back and remain calm in circumstances that might at

another time caused me to "lose it" entirely.

I had meditated for a number of years before I really moved from

meditating "in my head", with or without my thoughts, to truly

resting in my heart--where true peace is born and resides.

Learning and studying Heartmath helped me through that

transition.

Now, knowing that we cannot remain "in peace" while living

behind the walls we build to protect our "I's", and knowing that

we are in a dire situation where we must begin to replace those

"me" thoughts with "we" thoughts, I'm going to return to my

rather lengthy--as it's turning out--story about Our Planet.

We have an imperative before us--we're either facing a new

period of enlightenment and it's a new Renaissance, or

we're facing a new Dark Age.  And the choice is up to us and

we've got to hurry--and that means we have to be informed. 

There is a tremendous lot for us to educate ourselves about

however and that takes time and most often words.......

Join me at:

http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com

for some Heartmath.   Moving from your head to your heart is

without any doubt the very best gift you can give to yourself or

to the world...........and this is

Peace Day 2008!

The Swiss consume the equivalent of 5 global hectares to

maintain their lifestyle.  In the US we use 9.5!!   Do the Swiss

live lives only half as good or nice as ous?  Don't think so, they

just live differently.  It doesn't mean the end of progress or the

end of civilization it just means making some simple, easy to

incorporate lifestyle changes.

Realism in the US needs to change from "how little we can do"

to "what we need to do"........and for all of us to do all the

little things!

--use less plastics

--drive when it's necessary, not "for fun"

--eat less meat, and only good quality, well-raised meats

--buy locally grown and manufactured goods

--keep an eye on your thermostat

--&--change those silly light bulbs!!

I spoke about our furry and scaly friends, now I'll speak about

our food.

Our collective actions have massive impacts.  We have become

completely dependent on high-tech farming, which produces food

of much lower quality.  Our use of artificial fertilizers force feeds

crops to produce rapid growth while the "food" is drowning in

pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

"By the end of the century we are promised a dazzling new world.

A world in which man will be in control of his environment."  (Dow

Chemical ad/promo)

Man has been involved in agriculture for some 11,000 years.  More

than half of that had been done by hand--horses, mules etc.   In

the 1950's we went through the "great acceleration" with

increased nitrogen fertilizer, increased fossil fuel burning, intense

land use changes and globilization of the economy and agriculture.

Earth's biosphere is becoming more homogenous making it more

similar and destroying bio-diversity.

We lose relisiance in systems when we make them simpler.

Transorming the surface of the earth to nono-cultures (Freudian

slip?? "no-no cultures?  Of course meant to be "mono-cultures) 

creates extreme vulnerability........and...........

.....half the world's people (about 3 billion) live on less than

$2.00 per day and depend on biodiversity for their survival.

They depend on the services that Nature provides--that we

are destroying.

It is ensuring that these, the poorest, most vulnerable people on

the planet have the right kind of options so that they can have

access to the things that make life better for them--the things

that protect their natural environment.  That's at issue here.

For those who think the world is getting better, go live in a small

remote village in the Amazon, Zambia or Madagascar--then report

back to me.

Third-world poverty is a luxury we can no longer afford.

As the economy expands, we get more houses, cars, boats, and

it costs in terms of tearing up the ecosystem.  We get less

services from forests as we cut down their trees.

This shows us the difference between sustainable and

unsustainable growth.  Take for example, the Aral Sea, or Lake

Chad, the Dead Sea or Jordan River in Israel where the form of

economic development focused on cotton production which

totally destroyed the environment and ultimately also, the cotton

production, and the area is now left with a total desert, a poison

desert filled with pesticides, DDT and so on.  The tragedy that's

occuring at the Dead Sea is that the Dead Sea is disappearing.  In

the last 50 years we've lost one-third of the Dead Sea, we've

diverted the water primarily for agriculture in the belief that we

could turn what is a desert into a "bread basket".

Since 1991 not a drop of water has flowed out of the Sea of

Galilea.  Instead of water flowing into the lower Jordan, what

now flows into the Jordan is sewage.  What used to flow into the

Dead Sea no longer flows.  There has been a drop of 25 meters

in depth to where the Dead Sea is today.

When we lose that habitat, we lose the wildlife, unique

ecosystems and oasis that Nature has given us.  They are being

lost.  You don't need to be Jesus anymore to cross the waters.

The waters have gone!

Two-thirds of all major rivers no longer reach their mouth.

We don't know the number and the interplay between species, or

what really contributes to the Earth's systems.  We don't know

which species or groups of species are the really important ones,

or how many species we can lose before we have really big change

in the functioning of the planet.

So, until we truly understad how ecosystems play together to

make the whole system function, it would be exceedingly

dangerous to identify organisms and to say "gee, that's not

really important".

We don't know which species we can safely lose with regard to

the functioning of the planet, and which ones really matter.  This

is the biggest decision humans have made since we've crawled

out of our caves and begun to alter the face of the Earth in a very

adverse fashion that will persist for millions of years. 

Do we really know what we're doing?  NO!!  But, we're moving

ahead as though we totally know--and we don't.

It is not rocket science.   It has been said that, "the best of

sustainable design is merely the cessation of stupidity"....just

not wasting something when you can avoid it.

Unfortunately, here in the US we've had two decades of stalled

tactics and devisive debate.  In Europe the debate is really just

two sides:  everyone who agrees there's a crisis they really

need to act on--and the people everyone agrees is wrong.

Reflect back to what I said in the beginning about the Swiss vs.

American lifestyles.  The best innovative work is being done in

Northern Europe.  There are a number of places, especially in the

Netherlands and Scandanavia where they're committing all

initiatives for renewable energy, where they're re-inventing their

transportation systems, re-designing their cities, doing truly

remarkable work. 

They are committing themselves to dramatic reductions in their

environmental impact.  Sweden's official goal is to become a

carbon neutral nation--while we're still stuck in denial!

And to leave you on a beautiful thought for Peace Day, 2008, let

me tell you about the "landmine detecting flowers"---in the

presence of some of the nitrogens that come out of landmines as

they decay, their blooms turn from white to red so you know

there's a landmine.  When there are hundreds of millions of

landmines scattered all over the world that we don't know where

they are, blowing people up, killing them....let's have bunches of

bright red, beautiful blossoms instead! 

--how cool is that?  Defeat a really bad, old technology,

landmines, with a really cool, beautiful, natural technology--

flowers!

On Peace Day, 2008 let me leave you with my own challenge.

How should I spend my time on this earth?

Each and every one of you can make a difference.  Do the little

things.

There are 195 countries in this world but there is only ONE

World.

This luxury phase for humanity is now over.

http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com

--where we maintain our well-being and put that money from

medical costs to better use.

--where we find ways to promote happiness and peace from the

place where it begins, in the heart of every one of us, and let

that love and good health radiate out from us to the world.

Sandi--wishing you a lovely, joyous and peaceful Peace Day '08

"Strong collective emotion has a measurable impact on the earth's

                               geomagnetic field."

We can make a difference!  The time is now.

To continue on with the information presented in the Swedish

documentary "the Planet".  We had left off talking about the human 

impact on our Natural Resources.......

The greatest cost to the oceans right now are the fisheries.  They are

now fully exploited.  When we fish all the way down the species don't

come back.  They're gone.

More than 70% of the worlds fisheries are either fully exploited or

depleted. 

We've been treating our environment like an "all-you-can-eat" buffet

and we desperately need to learn better table manners.

By 2050, ten to twenty percent of the world's forests will have been

lost.  We haven't yet learned that we have to live with the earth's

system.  It won't adjust to ours.

Water is now become more precious than gold, one of the key

resources we must manage.

The UN has calculated that at least two billion people will be

suffering water scarcity by 2050.

We have to share these resources and we have to adapt or die.

In the past, if we screwed up where we lived we could move.  This

option is no longer available--there's only one single planet for us

and it has its' limits.

Coal currently generates more than half the US electricity and it's

the dirtiest, biggest danger the world faces.  The battle against

coal is the greatest battle of our time.  Contrary to what some

would have us believe, there is no such thing as "clean coal".

Big media is dependent on large corporations, how can we depend on

them to advise us how to live?

We must begin to make sure that carbon comes with a price tag

attached to it.  We have to do what the Europeans and the Japanese

have done.  Put a price on it.  Put a cap on it and rachet that cap

down, year after year--and, as that happens, all sorts of other

things will automatically start to happen.  People will stop building

coal-fired power plants, SUV assembly lines and the next ring of

suburbs further out and farther away.

CO2 driving global warming is the single most immediate problem

that we face.  We've treated it forever as though it's a free good.

Mankind seems not to want to think of himself as a finite creature,

he wants to think of himself as almost an in kind Creator--and

recently we're encouraged ever more to do so, to believe we're

capable of almost unlimited accomplishments rather than the

limited being that we truly are.

So, we have a frontier, and the frontier now seems to be almost

all used up so we'll just create a new frontier.  And the new frontier

now is thought to be outer space.  We'll go to the high frontier,

we'll go to outer space and just keep on growing--right??

--"have you ever wondered where we will find the food, clothing

and shelter we will need to sustain the world's exploding population

in the years' ahead?  In the timeless distances of outer space? 

Perhaps.

The technology today is already helping us penetrate the silent

darkness of space.  Man himself has taken his first tiny step into this

vast unknown, and we can only imagine what new resources will

soon be brought back to earth by these early pioneers."--that's what

we were saying years ago.

And today Bush tells us--"Today I announce a new plan to explore

space and to extend a human presence across our solar system.  We

will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as

2015 with the goal of living and working there for increasingly

extended periods of time.  We may discover resources on the moon

and Mars that will boogle the imagination, that will test our limits to

dream.  With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon we

will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration with

human missions to Mars and to worlds' beyond."

That's our plan?

We love dreams.  We think it'll be this magic bullet that takes us away

from the problems we've created on this rotten earth.

It's pretty unrealistic to think that moving people off the planet would

be a resource efficient way to deal with our expanding needs.  It's much

easier to live on the bottoms of the oceans than to live on Mars.

George says, "We do not know where this journey will end yet, we know

this, human beings are headed into the cosmos."

Living too much in fairy tales may be distracting us way too much from

taking care of our planet.

Twenty per cent of the Earth's population lives on less than $1.00 per

day.

In the poorest country, about 2.2 billion people, or about one-third of

the world population, the resource consumption has decreased by about

11%.  At the same time, in the wealthy countries, the wealthiest

country, about one billion people, their resource consumption has

increased per capita by 8%.  Will our "Secret--Law of Attraction"

make this okay?  Is it helping for us to spend our time seeking more?

THE WAY WE LIVE IN THE WESTERN WORLD IS THE PROBLEM!

Kibera is one of the fastest growing slums in Africa.  These are hard-

working people--and they have hope.

We are one world.  We are all connected.  It is all connected.

We all inhabit the same planet.  We've no choice but to live on the

same planet and we all have the same basic needs and basic

requirements from our planet.  Unless we can work together to

make sure that those needs are met without anybody's needs

being either neglected or excessively met, we have absolutely no

chance of a reasonable standard of life in the future.

Out of 2275 questions asked of our Presidential candidates by the

National Press since 2007, how many were about global warming?

                                          Three.

We, in the US have got to get on board.  If we can't get our act

together in this country, it's exceedingly difficult for the rest of the

world to do what needs to be done.

In Bali, the new treaty that will be the successor to Kyoto, under

discussion, was basically sand-bagged by the US as all the other

countries tried to sort out an agreement.  At one point everyone just

finally said--"look, if you can't lead, at least get out of the way."

The world is fed up with us trying to bring the whole thing to a halt.

So what are we going to do?  I mean you, and me.

Refer back to the quote that opened this post.   Our collective

thoughts and emotions can change the geomagnetic charge

around the earth.  There are lots of experiments going on to do

just that.  Join in!

Make the changes you can make in your daily living habits and

join the larger movement.  Change happens from the bottom up--

just like water boils!

The time is now.  The place is here.  We are the ones.

Sandi

Check at:  http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine/

for tools and ways that you can help me help.......

and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Also check out: http://www.1sky.org/  

And don't forget to remain light-hearted......

This week I'm going to do a series of posts about the state

of this Planet we call home.

Watch this great video that the folks at Heartmath made for

Earth Day.  Then see the offer at the end of the post and join

me and tens of thousands of others in using the Heartmath

solution to make a difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1aXaMsuWsI 

These posts are based on a documentary series that was

presented on Link TV.   I am reproducing my notes here because 

we are at tipping point.  We must act now. 

We've wasted decades hearing that the science is inconclusive.  It

is not inconclusive and the most knowledgeable minds on the

subject have been kept silent for far too long.

Part one is titled:

Global Change

Global change is not climate change.

This is the most essential issue of our time.

This is a wake-up call.

People began to think of the earth as a system when we began

flying around it in spaceships and looking back at it.

Edgar Mitchell was so taken with his epiphanies that he began

IONS (the Institute of Noetic Sciences) to study Consciousness

and our inter-relatedness with the Earth when he returned from

his mission to the moon.  The Institute continues to be on the

cutting edge of research in this area.

You can visit IONS at http://www.shiftinaction.com and sign up

for a trial membership.

This is a truly unique time in human history because for almost all

of our history it didn't matter that the earth was a system.  We

lived in small groups that affected only our immediate area.  Now

we live in a completely different situation.

When a group of scientists began to study the world as a whole

and to put their findings from their respective fields together an

entirely new picture of our planet emerged.

When you look at the earth, you get the feeling that it must all

fit together.  The different compartments must work together.

We are living in a very thin skin of the planet and--

--climate change is one of the greatest threats we face today

--global warming is too serious for the world any longer to

ignore its' danger

--global change is not climate change.  There's much more to it

than just climate change:  shrinking forests

                                     expanding desserts

                                     falling water tables

                                     eroding soils

                                     disappearing species

                                     rising temperatures

                                     ice melting

                                     more destructive storms

                                     rising sea levels

This is a long list of physical signs of environmental stress.

There are changes in the chemistry of the oceans, changes to the

chemistry of the atmosphere, population change, changes in

economics, changes in technologies, the fact that most of the

fisheries are now fully exploited, the fact that we're projected to

lose 10-30% of all mammals, birds and amphibians on the

planet this century, and huge changes to the biological fabric of

the planet. 

The signs are very clear that the environment is not very healthy

in many ways.  The signs are now very clear that we are

responsible.  It's due to our activities. 

This is a wake up call.  Every one who wakes up can, and does

make a difference.

When you see a wildlife program on TV you rarely see people.

They present as if there are very huge parts of the planet where

people don't engage and people don't live.

We create the artificial wilderness that was invented on television

by building "animal parks" and this gives a completely misleading

impression of how the world is and of how ecosystems function

and of their relation to human beings--because there are very

few ecosystems anywhere on earth that have not been

profoundly affected by human beings.

It's only on TV folks!

50% of the land surface of the Planet has been transformed

by mankind.

There is a consensus among leading biologists right around the

world that we are in the beginning phase of a mass extinction of

species.  There is no doubt about that.

It's likely that in our lifetimes half of all the organisms, plants

and animals that inhabited the earth when people first came

into force will disappear.

We're destroying tropical forests, and temperate forests too.  We

drain wetlands, we pollute lakes.  All that habitat destruction is

single main cause of extinction.

Until the next asteroid hits the planet, it's people more than any

other force that will dictate the future course of life. 

Over the past 100 years the total weight of wild, land-living

vertebrates has halved.  At the same time humans have

quadrupled.

We humans have become a geological force in our own right 

and we're affecting how the planet operates.

When did we really begin affecting life? Centuries ago when we

began smelting metals?  At the beginning of the Industrial

Revolution?  When we began using fossil fuels?

Now called "the great acceleration", research shows that the

steep incline began in the fifties--in--

population

GDP

water use

fertilizer (and other toxins) 

grain

fisheries

fast food restaurants

telephones

paper

logging

species extinctions

motor vehicles

oil

rising temperatures

natural disasters

emissions of CO2--all begin spiking in the 1950's!

And much of what we have done has been possible only because

we've had this cheap and very powerful energy source--fossil fuels.

Population growth has tripled.  But the economy has grown much

faster than the population.  

This, the economy, is the single most important phenomena

that is changng the global environment. 

Now we (6.3 billion people), are becoming economically more

powerful all the time.  We consume more.  We manufacture more.

We demand more services.

What we do, you and I, now effects people everywhere. 

That makes us responsible for people everywhere.

Each month 2500 tons of e-waste is shipped from the Western

world to Nigeria.

What gives us the right?

Pollution moves across the Planet.  No place is unaffected.

In Greenland, the Inuit have one of the highest concentrations

of toxicity from e-waste in their blood.

While the rest of the world may not be effected for a generation,

those who contaminate the least are affected first.

Now they are dependent on the rest of the world to prevent the

pollution which causes such irreversible damage to Nature.

 

Radioactivity cannot be diluted; every year the contaminants

spread further, underground, into the rivers etc.

Satellite images from the fall of 2007 show that we are losing an

area of ice at the polar ice caps, the size of California every week

during late summer and early fall.

The Northwest Passage has been completely free of ice for the

first time in history. 

Change is coming very fast.  We have less time than we thought.

We have to get off the treadmill of wanting more.

Global populaton is a minor factor.  A much larger impact comes

through the economic growth, the transition of developing

countries into economies that are more like those of our Western

world including Western Europe, the US and Japan.

Our Western lifestyle is the problem!

How can we possibly justify or rationalize our way of life as we

wake up to the results of our actions?

It's okay for us but not for you?  To be rich is a fantastic thing!

By 2031, at current growth rates, the income in China will be the

same as the US today.  If China has three cars for every four

people, as the US now does, it will have 1.1 billion cars.  The

world currently has 800 million cars.

What China is showing us is that the Western economic model--

auto-centric, throw-away, fossil fuel based--won't work for China.

If not for China, also not in India, where population by 2031 will

be even larger than China's. 

Nor will it work for the other developing countries who aspire to "the

American dream".

It will not work for the industrialized world either.  In a global

economy we all compete for the same oil, grain and steel.

Bottom line:  we have to restructure the global economy.

Shift from a fossil-fuel based economy to sustainable energy.

From auto-centric to a more diverse system.  From a throw-away

economy to a more comprehensive, recycle/re-use economy.

We don't have till 2031--by that time the game's over.

 

Come visit me at:  http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com

and watch the other Heartmath videos.

Call me at:  800-331-9547

or e-mail at:  sandi@macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com

and set up a free introductory session to learn more about and

to experience the Heartmath tools.

Using these methods we can truly make the changes needed

to turn this situation around, to halt the destruction.  

When we live from the heart, when we honestly connect to

our core values, and live them, the pieces fall into place.  

We "feel" our connection.

At MacArthur Park there are also other tools we can use to

address the issues that block us from living a heart-centered life.

Together we can!

 

                          PRAYER FOR PEACE

We are one global family, all colors, all races, one world united.

We dance for peace and the healing of our planet Earth.

Peace for all nations.

Peace for our communities--and peace within ourselves.

As we join together across the world, let us connect heart to heart.

Through our diversity we recognize unity.

Through our compassion we recognize peace.

Our love is the power to transform our world.

Let us send it out now.........

Sandi

 

 

World hunger?   Yes, it is that bad.   And we can make a difference.

See the offer at the end of this post.

 

Some facts......

1.3 billion people are living on $1.00 per day or less. 

The average per capita income in Burkina Faso is less than 200

euros annually (approximately $300.)

The cost of food is up 80% (wheat up 180%, poultry has doubled,

milk tripled) in the past three years. 

840 million people suffered hunger in 2000 (do you think it's better

in 2008?)

In developing countries three-quarters of peoples' income is spent on

food (compared with 11% in industrialized countries-Germany).

33 countries are currently at risk of famine.

It would take $11 billion to save 11 million from death by

starvation. 

$11 billion is spent by Europeans each year for ice cream.

The US is spending $12.3 billion each month in Iraq and

Afghanistan (figures from the Center for Arms Control as of Feb.

25th, 2008).   One month of war or 11 million saved from starving?

First we need to educate ourselves as to why this is happening. 

Then we'll talk about what we can do to fix the problems.  

Yes, we can each make a difference.   So,

Some history........

This current crisis is not primarily a result of population growth.  It

is man-made.  For decades rural areas have been ignored while

cheap, subsidized crops from the US and the EU (European Union)

have flooded markets.

This is a fundamental and global food crisis, the result of a system that

has consistently favoured the interests of the industrialized world at

the expense of the people and resources of the emerging world.

As small indigenous farming regions began to suupply greater than

their demands, the surplus began to drive down prices on the world

market as farmers moved from sustainability to over-production.  This

lead many governments to divert funds away from agriculture.

Development aid for farmers fell from over $6 billion in 1982 to just

$2 billion in 2002 (and continues to drop).  This diversion of funds

left the small farmers out in the cold and since 2000 this policy has now

come home to roost.

Then China and India, the two most populace countries in the world

entered the global economic equation.  Their demand for energy and

material resources to drive expansion fundamentally changed the

world market.

China controls just 7% of arible land but feeds nearly 20% of the

worlds' population.   Large parts of populations in China and India,

now entering the middle class are consuming more, and better

quality foods, eg. more meat and demand has out-paced supply

having a dramatic effect on prices.

Eating more meat demands more grain.

Biofuels demand grains and sugar to produce.

Converting farmland to biofuel production on a vast scale has driven

small farmers out of the cycle leaving them with no jobs and no

money to buy food.

But--small farmers are responsible for most of the world production

of food-stuffs.

In Brazil, 80% of agricultural produce has come from the production

of small holder families.  Now as Brazil tries to become a leader in

agri-fuels, small farmers are being pushed off their land and the

production of basic foodstuffs is declining. 

All this sugarcane, soy and other grains are being grown by large-

scale farming methods at the expense of ecologically very vulnerable

regions, at the cost of the rainforest and the people who live and

work there.

It's an illusion to think that jobs can be created in rural areas in this

way.

This is happening  all around the world.

More facts........

........disgusting, irrational thinking, also tied to our mortgage crisis.

Another factor in the equation is the stock market where investing in

agriculture has moved out of the realms of futures trading and into

share trading.

Soaring prices of wheat, cotton, corn, soy and coffee beans has

attracted the attention of the big players who have jumped on the

bandwagon with billions of dollars in leveraged capital, driving

prices to dizzying heights.

Every share point more translates into unknown hundreds of

starvation deaths.

Crops and livestock, known simply as "soft commodities" can make

a skilled trader a profit off any crisis.

Livestock prices overheated by 23%, vegetable oils by 43%, wheat

by 80% and corn has doubled.

As soon as food ceases to be regulated by supply and demand, and

enters the market of speculation, a bubble forms.

Higher prices, driven by speculative trading means yet more hunger

in the world.  Entire segments of populations fall into poverty.

Speculative trading plays a large role in what we're seeing, in the

activities of futures trading and in every fund that contains these

types of commodities.

Some examples and what we can do........

We must make it clear that it's a global problem and that a right

to eat is more important than the right to accumulate capital.

It's ridiculous that development funds are being used to pay for

higher food prices by making up for capital drained off by speculative

trading--just so traders can profit.

And EU and US subsidy policies can seem just as crazy.......it may

sound downright magnanaimous but they have devastating effects on

local economies.

India had become self-sufficient in milk.  It even had some to export.

It was the world's largest milk producer.  Even small, landless

peasants could participate in the market where most producers had

only two or three cows.

Then came the EU's subsidized milk and drove down prices such that

milk imported from Germany was actually cheaper than fresh local

farmers' milk, many of whom could no longer compete and lost their

livlihood.

Subsidies often breed only more poverty and hunger.  This has been

seen as at the same time the US, EU and Japan close off their

markets and local farmers can no longer keep up and stop producing.

The small holder in developing countries is stifled.  But a solid

agricultural sector is a pre-requisite for any economic development,

even an industrial one.

In the current situation the industrialized countries carry a

very great moral responsibility.

It's absolutely essential, and past due, for these countries in the

industrialized world to open their markets to the developing world

and to stop subsidizing its' production ruining the markets in the

developing world.

And we can?.......

We are all on constrained budgets these days but look at the

bigger picture. 

We know that discount chains with their aggressive purchasing

policies are responsible for field hands working 12 plus hours per

day for starvation wages and often being exposed to massive doses of

pesticides, many of which are prohibited in developed countries.

Consumers who care about workers, human rights, our own health 

and that of our planet, have no choice but to buy locally or to buy

only Fair Trade, organically grown. 

 

What we have now..........

--soaring demand for food and sky-rocketing prices

--a stock market produce bubble

--counter-productive farm subsidy policies

--aggressive purchasing by major discount food importers causing

inhumane working conditions

--climate change wherin countries like Africa, which puts out only

about 3% of global CO2 emissions is bearing the brunt of changes

due to global warming (in the South, the worst drought in 10 years

threatens 14 million people with famine)

 

which is.......

--an equation that adds up to prosperity and power for the few. 

A crisis of unforseeable dimensions.  The old, the sick and the weak

go hungry.

More and more the struggle for ever-diminishing resources lies at the

root of wars and refugee movements.

All over the developing world, the greater share of undernourished

people live in rural areas.  Their primary source of income is what

they can produce and sell to the urban population.  It is also their

primary source of food.

The ones who stand to profit from the food crisis, now as always,

are speculators and the exporters of whatever ideology.

The ones who stand to lose, as always, are the developing countries

that depend on the import of energy and foodstuffs.   But, now we're

at the tipping point and we all stand to lose--everything!

What can we do now........

A radical change in thinking must take place.  The overall neglect

of the rural areas has to stop.

The focus has to be on the small farmers.  We have to support

ecological agriculture.   How?  For one thing we can buy locally

grown and organic food that does not require fossil fuel consumption

either in getting to us or through pesticide use.

We can support outlets that provide Fair Trade products.  The

gentleman that supplies the African Imports at MacArthur Park

(http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com) buys direct from

the artisans and devotes a portion of his profits to support African

orphanages and education.    (see the special offer below)

This problem and therefore the solutions are just as much a

matter of the peoples' rights to their land, water and access to

resources.

The resources of any country belong to the citizens of that country.

Until Sept. 15th, receive a 25% discount on all of the African

products at MacArthur Park (http://www.macarthurparknaturalmedicine.com)

 

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