Xmas 2009: We are cut from one Spirit

I am sitting at the edge of Junin Pablo, a small tribal Shipibo village, 700 souls, way deep into the rainforest of Peru. There are no roads leading to Junin Pablo, everything travels by boat or an occasional missionary water plane. It is hot and humid, and it is easy to fall into a reverie listening to all the exotic sounds and bird cries.

Some Shipibo children enter my slow day dream, their voices quiet and curious. They look with large questioning and loving eyes, they touch with small and shy chuckles.....my blond hair is still a novelty.

They don't even fathom how they are bestowing gift upon gift so freely, every smile penetrating into the convoluted web of damaged relationships that is me, and slowly putting me back together, healing me inside. Forced to understand my humanity in their light, despite of being white, despite being born into  privilege compared to them, suddenly I realize that my wholeness depends upon my capacity to identify with them --not just in this moment, but in one's actions, in one's practice. Compassion, equality, communion, even enlightenment, they are just words, unless they are practiced -- they require bringing awareness to our way of live, our investments, our consumption, our (political) choices--our every move, and understand our impact on the global system.

If you are a buddhist, or if you want to walk any spiritual path for that matter, now is the time to realize that the children of the 3rd world, the poorest of the poor, are our teachers, and 'letting go' must be our path. As my dharma brother Baker Roshi once said in a lucid moment:"....detachment is our biggest gift....". We have to let go of what we are supposed to be (our families expectations and the endless barrage of media imagery and propaganda telling us who we are supposed to be), to become who we are. We are not the selfish, diminished, damaged charicatures that inhabit the census of capitalist' relations and the scorecard of rich versus poor. We are far more than that --we are equal humans beings, born naked on this earth, and paradoxically, we need each other to fully manifest ourselves. We are cut from one spirit and we breath the same air.

My attention turns back to the children. They embark a hollowed out tree trunk to go fishing in their still pristine lake, a far branch of what eventually becomes the great Amazon. In the current scheme of things:

At best their land will be monetized as a carbon off-set (so that someone else can pollute elsewhere) - at worst their lake will become another oil well. In either case they may have to move. This is the reality of one dimensional Capitalism.


These Shipibo children don't know that their fate is decided in Washington and in Wallstreet and in the offices of Climate Negotiations on Cap and Trade, such as just happened in Copenhagen. Their fate depends on how we in the developed world see ourselves....our willingness to share the earth's abundance realistically. That was really what was on the table in Copenhagen. We need to evaluate what these children are offering us, without exacting a price, fiscally or in climate debt. I am not talking just in economic terms here: They are the link to our original humanity, our authentic being, they are the caretakers of the forest, the garden. Tell me, at this point: what is that worth ?

And there is one more thing I want to say. People in the developed world often think that ultimately our problem is one of overpopulation --and who can't agree that there are too many of us ? Yet I would like to bring some sophistication to this notion.
As I mentioned before, Junin Pablo, the village deep in the Peruvian Amazon counts about 700 Shipibo and probably over 40% of those are children, at least 300 or so. The Shaman himself has at least 7 we know of. The Shipibo still enjoy making children (and no condoms around) and see children as the ultimate gift of Patcha Mama, the green, breathing & damp, pulsating and undulating, the hot moist 'Ronin Dragone', the magical snake singing everything into existence.

That is Great ! But looking at that a little longer we sober Dutch folk say:"WAIT ....that is too many children --that is bad for the future of our planet.." And that is true too.

                                      Katya in the rain forest

Bon visiting her chinese friend Bobo with Bobo's
Dutch mother Suzan in Amsterdam

I think back of that moment in the forest, closing in on the faces of the Shipibo jungle children and then my own one daughter comes into focus.  See how responsible ? -- I don't have 7 children --only one. She just turned 16 now.
Like all other parents we have tried to give our child the best. In her case that means that she has attended private and special education and has already travelled in Asia, Europe, Mexico and within the US itself with extensive stays in the Netherlands, in Bali, in France, Italy, Nepal, Mexico, Japan, New York, California, etc. All meant to give her a global awareness.

Then there is an even more sobering thought: my own one daughter whom I love and adore, already used up more resources, more 'carbon credits' --then all the children in that Shipibo village Junin Pablo will most likely use over their whole live times combined. And I am not even talking about myself and my carbon footprint....

What I am trying to get at here, is that it is not just a question of climate change or overpopulation or carbon. What humanity is facing is a question of justice and equality and solidarity. That involves all of us. It actually does....question the American way of live... and that should be on the table....

This is my Xmas message 2009 and my wish for 2010:  Happiness to all,
Willem Malten

Here are some videos with the Shipibo kids. In the first clip you'll see their Junin Pablo school with shaman Pancho Mahua thinking aloud about the role of Shipibo traditions and language in modern education and in the second one, our young friends go fishing in their abundant lake.
By the way --if you double click the pictures above (or anywhere in the vortex blog) they will enlarge.  Enjoy.

Copenhagen: Great Danger/The Plan....

A very dangerous gordian knot of illusions, expectations and emergencies is  quickly developing in Copenhagen. It is  becoming clear that the developed nations are not willing to commit to what is needed both in ecological terms and in terms of global justice and equality. The Americans are willing to commit to a 17 % reduction over the 2005 levels. It is like a bad joke, or worse a slap in the face of the vulnerable. They are the politics of genocide by starvation.


On the other hand there are the poorer nations and their representatives who think this may be their moment, now or never. They think the rich are still rich and Obama is a cool guy, and they are willing to fight for a real commitment. But the cards are stacked against them. Increasingly they have only a few tools left: civil unrest and demonstrations is one of them as evidenced in Copenhagen, but also in the more spontaneous and unpredictable food riots that have happened in the last few years. 


Once more some of the developed nations made a secret attempt to circumvent the international forum of Copenhagen (and the Kyoto Protocol). A memo was leaked out that indicates that the US, Great Britain, Denmark and others, agreed on (weak) emission standards for themselves, and make a 'grand' gesture of $10 billion dollar per year in wealth transference to make up for the climate harm done mainly to developing poor nations. 


The implication in this leaked memo is that inequality will be institutionalized, with people in the developed nations being able to consume twice as much energy than people in the developing nations, with poor nations expected to make the sacrifice.....this is a question of power. Obama will try spin this laughable farce as a victory when he finally arrives in Copenhagen......this is plan B......

The expectations of the developing countries and continents are so much higher. Why ? Because they have to deal with the immediacy of the global climate crisis and poverty all at the same time. Crisis are everywhere you look: Sub-sahara, Maldives, Philippines, Mekong Delta, Syria, the Amazon,  Bangla Desh, Borneo -- one way or another all these areas and so many others are suffering from Global Weir-ding.... The Erratic Times.....Or as Vandana Shiva calls it "Climate Instability".   Millions are on the run from hunger and desperation.

Unfortunately these emergencies are rarely seen and remain unacknowledged in the American Media and politics. Any deeper analysis of the 'Gestalt' of climate change -- droughts followed by floods-- is simply missing. People in America have to start speaking louder in solidarity with the poor and alleviate poverty and hunger.

What perhaps a lot of the delegates from the developing nations in Copenhagen don't realize is that Poverty and hunger are not just their fate. In the USA which still calls itself the richest nation on earth, there is a growing gap between "haves" and "have-nots". The  "North and South" divide is happening within America itself, with fifty million people suffering from hunger at times here, including 18 million children.

Meanwhile the government is financing it deficits and its bank buddies by printing money, some of it reluctantly underwritten by China....I say to the delegates in Copenhagen: you can do that yourself --print money all you want!  I don't want sound cynical, what I mean is this: Don't count on America to make any significant contribution --the value of money either comes from gold, from real economic activity or.....from military power. America is a military power  financed by borrowed foreign money and an absolute need to control resources for its insatiable appetite --the spiral of debt and military   aggression is rooted here.  The US feels vulnerable because it is.....It realizes, perhaps more than the rest of the world, that it has become what Mao called a paper tiger, more than ever before.

My recommendation is this: If the developing nations want a change in attitudes, they should strategize as an economic force. Hire a guy like Max Keiser, economist extraordinaire with lots of experience in Wallstreet itself, as consultant and get to work. The developed world needs the poor for all kinds of reasons I don't want to go into here. But trust me --in this situation there is all kinds of leverage ! It is like a house of cards. How did Jesus say it again about the "first" and the "last" ?

For now, with the economy in shambles, Obama has put all his eggs in the basket of military power and Wallstreet War profiteers, and goes all the way to Oslo to pontificate not about peace --but about just war. To my ears, Obama's words never sounded more hollow or Orwellian, and I hope that, after study of the facts, the Nobel committee will see the gravity of devaluating the Nobel Peace price by prematurely awarding it to Obama, and call him loudly on his mistakes and if necessary, take away his price. Things of that magnitude, The Nobel Peace Price, have to have meaning....

It is no wonder that Cap and Trade is the preferred option for the developed world. Cap and trade monetizes the Climate, and capital interests will see opportunities to make money --but this model doesn't do anything for the understanding of the real issues here.....the fulcrum of pollution, consumption, inequality and their relationship to environmental degradation (and vice versa). Climate change and it devastating economic impact, already is the primal cause of conflict. Access to water is in dispute everywhere --most likely even in your own city or state, and certainly between nations. To think that one can just walk away from Copenhagen without taking responsibility for the ensuing unravelling of civilization is naive.

The delegates of the developing nations want results: commitments on "climate debt", commitments on reparations and the financing of a green leap frog development program that puts developing nations on the very vanguard of new green technologies. Ten billion will not do that:"it will not be enough to pay for the coffins that will be necessary", as one of the African delegates remarked. They had been thinking that minimally 195 billion per year will do the trick. A sum like that could actually easily be raised in a very simple and effective manner, and here is the idea:


Tax Carbon (gaz, coal, oil)  at every stage it changes hands. And tax the oil companies and end-consumer most. Put these funds coming  mainly from the consuming nations -- the rich-- into an internationally administrated fund dominated by the interests of developing nations. The fund will provide for an equitable transference of wealth through restauration, conservation, and reparation of the natural world and the human habitat within it. It will address the needs of the many --not the few. 
(I don't know who could run such a fund, I would like to think it is the UN).

Technologies, and leap frog development into a green transformation of energy and sustainable agriculture practices, water management, etc., employing many -- they all need to come from this fund. The management of this huge fund will aspire to the values of equality and justice throughout, and its sole task is to make immediate investments on the local level in local communities --globally. The fund will dedicate its work to the 7 generations to come.

The responsibilities here would be awesome. We will be forced to widen our focus and invite religious principles here to avoid widespread conflict and lift the whole impasse out of its confinements. True religious leaders of all kinds should have a role in the vision of a good live for all and keep the discussions on track by infusing it with a spiritual calling. The Green patriarch for example has defined certain acts against nature a sin......   Now that is a new beginning..... A glimpse of a Post Capitalist World.

The model of directly taxing carbon at every transaction, could take away all the hocus pocus that will be allowed in the Cap and Trade model. It will cut the Gordian knot. Carbon Tax is simple, it is verifiable, and with enough awareness raised around the globe it is do-able.....Politically Attainable -- if there is enough populist pressure.

Lets face it: green transformation will not come as long as a carbon based economy is perceived to be "the cheaper way to go" by the people on top of the hill. It is not. In so many ways Copenhagen is about the true costs that have been incurred due to the Climate Instability this carbon economy has wrought. Now it is obvious that if one calculates the true ongoing costs, a green economy would be much cheaper and the developing nations should hop to it, enabled by such a fund.

Power versus the Masses are on a collision course here.....great danger....great opportunity.....

Here are some of the links to the great Copenhagen coverage of the issues and demonstrations done by Amy Goodman and her crew of Democracy now. Author & Journalist Naomi Klein: Fate of Planet Rests on Mass Movement for Climate Justice: 

Vandana Shiva speaks out in Copenhagen 

On the protests and arrests in Copenhagen 
On Cap and Trade versus Carbon Tax

Genesis of the Wheat Project

OOh....we still look so fresh here in 1998.

This was the action strategy that laid the foundation of the Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project (and can be used elsewhere):

-Call for action in agricultural publications: are there market opportunities to grow high quality organic grains in a decentralized manner?

-Establishment of an ad hoc committee of farmers and processors and interested parties

-Investigation of regional farming traditions of wheat

-Selection of wheat seeds for planting based on a series of criteria

-2 growing seasons for testing varieties for growing and processing qualities: do the 'bake tests' and analyse varieties for protein content

-re-establish regional food infrastructure including machines, storage, processing

-Promotion of regional brand name: Nativo

-Direct marketing through farmers markets

-Growing for diversity: establishing organic high altitude seed varieties

-Establish a confederation of farmers, processors and consumers that control Nativo grains and all its derivative products (such as organic straw bales, flour, bread, animal feed)

-Formulate Common Goals and Values:

-food security through genetic diversity and a healthy eco-system-

-bio-regional organic farming an a locally based economy-

-meaningful work and micro-enterprise opportunities-

-open space and restoration of fertile farmlands-

-a storehouse of agricultural information and knowledge-

-cultural integration through collaboration and 
the achievement of common goals-

Challenge for the Wheat Project (then as now) is to re-conceptualize the role of farming in our lives......to understand food not as a commodity traded on the cheap, but rather as the very source of nutrition and health....as the integrating force of vital communities.....

Obama goes to Copenhagen: What does it mean ?

Obviously there are enormous amounts of seemingly divergent issues at stake in Copenhagen --with climate change as their common denominator. These emergencies somehow need to be translated into action plans, new regulations, and long term monitary commitments to  dollars and cents by the developed rich countries.  Quite complex a process for it assumes that we will have the wisdom to compare justly apples and pears --bleaching of coral reefs with Sub-Sahara food crisis or receding glaciers -- and weigh our choices from the point of view of Being One -- One apelike   family that has gotten itself into a lot of trouble and now needs to find a way out. We will need to go way beyond the idea of nationalities (and.... by the way: that is not necessarily an argument for global governance and the spector of its repressive tools that are exercised by the very few --I want to get back to this later).

At this point in time, the path of survival for humanity is dependent upon how deeply we can identify with each other. We need to realize that we are on one cosmic boat charting the unknown.....together.

In a way we all know this --what most of us don't understand is why our reality is so divergent with our ideals and common humanity. How come the US until shortly thought it was normal to use 25% of the world's resources, and yet refused to play a contructive role in any type of climate regulation ?

It should be clear to everyone that this is ultimately a reflection of ruthless (super)power --to quote Mao, Political power grows out of the barrell of a gun.

The capitalist economic model acquired a new levels of predatory ruthlessnesss after it wed to the Rand corporation game theory model, which has now infected Wallstreet, the military and (sadly to say) also our education and higher learning, and  holds that billions of selfish acting people somehow can create some kind of self perpetuating (if unjust) equilibrium for all. Now, faced with its logical end point, a kind of predatory capitalism based on control of the markets and money supply, is ruthlessly grabbing power and looks for new opportunities for inflated bubbles and frauds, while meanwhile busily unloading the previous punctured frauds on to the sleeping populous by way of a corrupt congress, and weak presidency. It really is kind of a fascism, at least in the sense of Mussolini fascism, where corporate interests merge with the state while the population is marginalized into economic pions or worse: cannon fodder for the endless empire fights to control resources. How else can one explain that almost without a whimper 50 million people in the United States itself will suffer from food insecurity this year, including one in four children. And the strangest thing is.... that there is no outcry, no credible plan, no outstretched hand.....Food insecurity? We should really call it for what it is....Hunger. "Hunger" is a visceral word and using that we connect with the people that suffer from it. Humans know about hunger in their genes, while food insecurity is just some concept dreamt up by some bureaucrat somewhere to obscure the reality....

I am sorry --I wish I wouldn't have to say this, and history may very well prove me wrong. I hope so. But I say this to my brothers and sisters in many countries all over the world --cause I know that you, like many of us here, projected your highest hopes and aspirations on an Obama presidency. So, since I know that many of you have limited access to the media, it is easy to get stuck with your highest ideals pinned on Obama. I have to caution you here.

The political legacy of the Obama administration so far is dismal and doesn't strike me as any "change" at all. And I don't say that as a conservative or a liberal, since I am neither. There is a change of the guard in Washington from the massive influence of oil and the Haliburton and Bechtel 'construction' companies under Bush, towards that of the financial and pharmaceutical sector under Obama: apparently it is 'their turn' to rape and pillage. These sort of tips of the  corrupt government-corporate iceberg  float on top of the constant drone of  a hypnotized media-nized society, an 'underwater' militarized, nuclearized,  security state that demands all resources to its disposal and forces its citizens into terrible debt in order to fight wars that are largely (but secretly) fought to secure economic gain (i.e the control of the Iraqi war-fields as real motivation to declare Iraq war, --still in progress, by the way) and force further monopolization of the money supply. The fact that most of the wars have gone badly, doesn't mean that not enormous sums of money are being made, in all kinds of ways that perpetuate the wars. (Karzai brothers link: how we fund Taliban). That is the problem with corruption and the privatization of the war. What people are talking about in congress and the media is the 'militairy' involvement in the war,  but what is largely unseen is the commitment the US government has made to private security companies such as Blackwater. Privatizing wars with corporate armies to hide them from the public eye, will very much complicate solutions to these wars, for throughout history mercenaries have always been the conduits of corruption on all levels (including a corruption of ethics).


The relationship between paper tiger Goldman Sachs and the Obama administration is way too cosy, and I wouldn't be surprised that whenever the scales swing back to an empowerment of democracy, that heads may roll in the courts. It is amazing to see that the people who engineered the deregulation under Clinton, that lead to enormous fraudulent privately held wealth and a decapitation of the middle class, are in total control of the bailout and the financial future of America. Again, it is unfortunate to say.... but what that indicates is a weak presidency. Putin would have gone in with his gang and arrested them, and drawn power to the state, but not in this day and age in America. Clinton was a con who needed to be loved by all means. Obama, for whatever reason takes it one step further. Obama has  a deep psychological need to be loved by his enemies and childishly he thinks that somehow it will give him power over them and he will master them. Other than clear betrayal, that is the only clear explanation of why Obama sold out the promise of 'Change' to vultures like Geithner, Bernanke, Summers,  and why he has staffed his administration with people that work for the nuclear lobby, for genetic modification, for chemical farming, against organics (etc.etc.). 

Apparently Obama is not just beholden to the Wallstreet Banks. Somehow touched by the poison of corruption and co-dependency,  a robust public option health care bill morphed into health insurance reform that forces people under penalties by the IRS to sign up yearly for one private insurance or another. So here you got it: the corporate interests, such as insurance and pharma that wrote the law in concert with the Obama administration and congress, can now make use of the tools of government (the IRS in this case) to enforce 'toll' to themselves. Really....I am not kidding... that is an indication of fascism. 

And meanwhile the US two largely privatized wars keep going on or are expanding, in many ways only visible to the americans by the human wreckage that is returning home from the war or the desperate atrocities that happen here such as the killings  at Fort Hood or an epidemic of suicides and spousal abuse that tear the seams of civilization. 

So.... you can see.... that I am not happy with Obama, and please don't think that it will be a victory when Obama attends Copenhagen. What that really means is that the definition of success in Copenhagen will be watered down to such an extend that Obama will be able to claim victory with almost no commitments to CO2 reductions by the US on the table. Watch out for that. It is like getting the nobel price for peace and meanwhile sending in more troops. It is the one dimensional man needed to sell the plan.
Obama will try to direct money to nuclear energy interests instead of alternative energy, and he will commit to the Cap and Trade model, since this gives plenty of opportunity for Wallstreet  to make hay out of monetizing these models,  and weave them into endless webs of derivative value (of real trees...) that can then mysteriously be traded and will form the basis of the next speculative bubble being perpetuated on an exhausted world.

Copenhagen: Who will speak for the Poor ?

Copenhagen will have to address one really pressing issue and that is that of inequality: inequality between rich and poor, between North and South. It is sad that the current inequity between the  rich and the destitute  is much greater than ever in history. It is the divergence between the Pharaoh and his Slaves by a factor of a million or so. And...it is shameful. This is 2009, there are more than 6.25 billion of us, we need to find a moment of diplomatic enlightenment and throw off our chains to a system that has bred poverty and despair for the vast majority of humans living today. We have to go deeper. Cap and trade is not good enough (at all).

Nations and people often mention the ones that live on 2 dollars a day --realizing the abject poverty that this must bring is clear to everyone else. According to the 'stats' that includes actually 2.6 billion people of which 1.4 billion only have 1.25 or less per day. But how about $10 dollars a day ? Did you realize that 80% of the world population, or 5.15 billion humans live of $10 or less per day ? What many in the west don't fathom is that these people are not just sitting around being hungry.... most of them actually put in an over stressed and overstretched workday for that. Cash payment at the end of the day is often not a given --regardless of the effort made. This has to do with a global system that devours resources while disowning whole communities and any sense of commons.

The lives of the poor are more vulnerable to decease and hunger, and are often cut short due to violence and abuse of the people and land resources by corporate powers. The exposure to toxins that many indigenous communities all over the world have to endure because of toxic dumping,  nuclear experiments, military occupations, petrochemical contamination, drug wars and mining, is criminal. Yet these same communities have no access to media or money or courts to counter their abusers, and victories are at best temporary  -- like the one in Peru's latest confrontations between the (oil interests serving) army and several indigenous tribes. All the cards are stacked against them.


This constant conflict and need to repress is the actual face of inequality, and given the path that we are on, this face will start to distort and contort more and more deamonically. A lot of different capital entities (from drugs to mining) and corporations have interest in destabilization of a strong civil society (as Robert Kaplan laid out in his book: The Ends of the World ).  Even societies like the US itself are not immune: it is destabalizing under the weight of militarism and excessively self serving corporate entities. The US government is arguably fully corrupted by money interests, think healthcare, energy ( think oil), military, and above all Wallstreet, and whereas these entities should be governed by law and regulation --in fact it's the corporations that dictate the laws and demand 'toll' --utterly destroying the middle class in its way. This too is a recipe for undermining democracy and semblance of a civil society. Tensions due to unequality are also rising here. Within this context of corruption and paper money deals, cap and trade is asking for ecological disaster and further disempowerment of common people.

It is high time that we wake up to the ethical dimensions of inequality and the injustices it brings. Why not let ethics be a guiding principle in 'making the deals', rather than the brute power underlying international relationships now ? Who will step forward to lead the world leaders into a whole new 'Gestalt of Politics' -- will it be Obama (or is he bought and sold? --let's root for Michelle!) ? Will it be the young smart Medvedev ? How about maverick Sarkozy ( let's root for Carla Bruni), Or president Hu Jintao (or is it Who ?) ? Or will it be you and me ? Someone will need to address the real issues head on in Copenhagen and speak truth and speak for the poor. The poverty I am speaking of here knows no boundaries and recognizes no nationalities: it is the same in the Laguna pueblo in New Mexico as it is in the sub Sahara or the Amazonian rainforest. It is about people that are going hungry and have lost control over their futures.

In the coming entries I intent to look at what is at stake in Copenhagen in particular cap and trade. Here I like to introduce you to some of the people I met in the makeshift harbour of Pucallpa, on the muddy banks of the Ucayali river in the Amazonian Rainforest of Peru. They haul the resources out of the jungle like you'll see here, day after day.... the wood, the food: they are the ones that live on a few dollars or less per day.
Warning: this is considered to be a 'bad place' but don't feel scared:
                                         ........try to find yourselves.......

Decentralized Food Solutions: Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project

The Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project is a loose confederation of family farmers and local processors. There is no formal structure or incorporation thus far. Ultimately through the 'Nativo' brand name, it aims to localize production and market for high quality organic grains in particular wheat, but also spelt, rye, and barley and the processed foods such as bread that come from it.

New Mexico once had a culture of wheat production and diversity: in 1880 NM was 'best of fair' in Chicago for its quality and diversity (over 250 different varieties) in its wheat exhibit. Yet by the end of  WW-2 (1945) hardly any of that agri-culture was left. By the beginning of the 90-ties only Scout 66 was grown in remote areas of Eastern NM, mainly for cow and animal fodder.

After examining the market, in 1993 a group of family farmers started to grow high quality organic grains and mill them locally, as a strategy for rural subsistence and maintaining water rights by keeping the land under cultivation. Cloud Cliff, a locally owned medium size bakery in Santa Fe, was mostly the designation of the milled flour and grain, where the wheat was processed into Nativo Bread. Sin Brokerage !!

They were way ahead of the curve --and because of it, production and participation have fluctuated over the years. Yet in the economic crisis of the last years (and don't forget the foodcrisis that doubled prices for wheat) there are renewed efforts under way to integrate organic grain production and markets in New Mexico, also for other derivative items such as mushrooms (grown on straw), organic seed diversity, strawbales for building materials, eggs, chickens, etc.

It is a nice idea (for an intern ?) to document the history of the Wheat Project some time -- but that is not what I wanted to do in this space (right now).
Let's instead analyze some numbers of the NNM Organic Wheat Project in the light of world food production and growing shortages. What does a decentralized solution look like ? Through both videos (embedded on this page)  you can get a good sense of the scale of the project. Watch them now and then try to visualize them while reading the rest of this writing.

Real roughly, on the back of a napkin, let me have a shot at it here:

Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project:
Farmers: 8  Bakers: 5

Land under cultivation (fluctuating): 80-220 acres (thus far: dry land/flood irrigation)

Production of wheat in pounds 1995-2008: fluctuating  120,000 to 250,000 #.

Maximum  possible production on acreage: 400,000 #

Yearly capacity of Cloud Cliff: 400.000# flour or 350,000 loaves of bread or about 1000 per day

Market served: 70.000-100.000 people (which is more or less the population of larger Santa Fe)

Investment: close to 1 million $ (that includes buildings, storage and equipment, also combine,etc.)

World's growing food needs:
world population: 6250.000.000
yearly increase: 80,000,000 + people (1.3% per yr. -- slowing some now)
Hungry people estimate: 1.2 billion
increase in malnourished people since 2006:  400+ million

Amount of new Wheat (Grain) Projects and Cloud Cliff' sized decentralized processing plants needed to keep up with the growth in world population ( of 80 million/yr): 800 per year

Investment needed for establishment of similar projects to maintain food security: 800 million per year

Amount of  new acreage per year needed to be put under cultivation to keep up solely with the growth of population: 192,000 acres of irrigated land or about 1600 new "Center Pivot Crop Cicles"(120 acres ea)

Minimal new acreage needed per person (for grains only): .0024 acres  (this number seems too low)

Employment growth per year, to man projects:  10400

Now let's address the immediate needs of the 1.2 billion that are going hungry:
Amount of new decentralized Wheat (Grain) Projects and Cloud Cliff' sized  processing plants needed immediately to feed the hungry:  12000

Investment required immediately by international community in farming and food production: 12 billion

Minimal Amount of  new acreage needed for grain cultivation to alleviate existing hunger: 2.9 million,  say 3 million acres or about 24000 new "Center Pivot Crop Cicles"(120 acres ea)

Employment created:  156,000 people

This is something to chew on. I have no idea how my numbers compare with any official projections. For once I didn't look at them --this time I wanted to start from what I know and then 'project out' to come up with acreage, etc. They are 'wet' numbers... If anything my numbers on needs, on acreage, yield and investments  may be wildly optimistic: but may be they help provide a measure of scale. 

The above exercise was mainly meant to get decentralized solutions to our world food challenges into focus by highlighting a small local initiative: The Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project.

We need to resist food monopolies by creating local alternatives. Your engagement is Key.....

Harvest Time for Northern New Mexico's Organic Wheat

For awhile it was too wet (snow), too cold and too muddy to harvest the local wheat grown in Sunshine Valley,  Northern New Mexico -- a stone's throw away from the Colorado border. However last week there was a break in the weather delivering a glorious Indian summer: the fields dried up nicely and the wheat harvest was set in motion. Though farmed as dry land wheat, the wheat kernels looked healthy and plum.


In the coming weeks I would like to explore the whole scope of the wheat project as an example of a grassroots initiative that brings economic development to one of the poorest counties in the USA. Real briefly, the Northern New Mexico Organic Wheat Project is based on the idea that food security comes from a regionalization of food production and markets. Not just that.... true food security also has to do with bio-diversity, seed saving and perhaps most of all healthy communities.

Anyhow...here are some of the 'pics' for now...
click on picture to enlarge.... enjoy!!

The Paradox of the Economic Crisis

The economy has definitely slowed, and everyone is feeling it. I am thinking about all those Americans that are laid off, or worse: those that are on their last unemployment check or beyond. But not just them. What about the millions that are now homeless due to flooding in India and now Vietnam, the Philippines, Maldives.....all over it seems. What is their future going to be like? How will they economically survive? How does the global financial crisis impact their lives on top of the physical emergency they find themselves in ?

The world's GDP was coasting along till recently at the growth rate of about 3.5% per year. And every year CO2 emissions have increased: from about 18.500 million metric tons in 1990 to about 26.000 million metric tons per year in 2006 --a stunning 71% increase of CO2 emissions or also an increase of around 3.5% per year. In our economy growth in world GDP has meant growth in CO2 emissions as well.

 During this time only a few economists have fretted about the price that will be exacted to the natural world -- a price that has never been part of the profit driven equations. Or maybe we should ask that question the other way around: what is the price in ecological damage that will be exacted by the natural world, Gaia if you like,  as response to the manifestations of greed and senseless consumption? After all the natural resources and processes that create real wealth and allow higher levels of development are usually not extractive --they follow an economy of generosity-- and thus defy any quantitative equivalency in most economic models and thinking. In other words the resources that nature provides, such as clean air and rain, ecological abundance, diversity,  have yet to be duly calculated as real costs and benefits in prevalent economic models.

But even if you did bring those type of factors provided by nature into account --they wouldn't be able to count for the costs of natural disasters. Capitalism in the late 20th and beginning 21st century is coming to its logical conclusion within the context of resource depletion and extreme inequality, perhaps most grotesquely so in the US. Unregulated capitalism has not only been a financial disaster, it has brought  ecological disaster and lately it has ruined the very pillars of democracy.
Global 'Weir-ding' (global warming gives the wrong impression to the masses), the melting of the 3 poles (including the Himalayas), the agricultural  collapse, the drying of the Amazon, the depletion of the oceans, etc. -- they all have to do with an extractive greed driven model that monopolizes wealth and marginalizes most people in the world. The limitations of this model come into stark view when resources such as oil and food are getting scarce and inequality reaches its peak. It is now when the whole system breaks apart --it is so deeply unsustainable.

I am re-reading my own gloomy writing so far and was wondering where I might find a ray of hope --and that is where the paradox of the economy comes in.
Despite the best efforts of informed minds such as Al Gore and Lester Brown, the the vast majority of the body of politics, hasn't been able to hear  the 'inconvenient truth'  --let alone act on it with urgency. America, still consuming more than 20% of the worlds resources, curiously exempted itself from Kyoto, the urge to develop China has polluted vast ecological resources, hundreds of coal plants are still being built, and most politicians have never seen a dollar they don't like (and have thus sold their souls to the vested (corporate) interests and destroyed democracy). Next year, 2010 China's CO2 emissions will start to exceed those of the US.  Things have been stuck.

 Until now: the time of  the worldwide economic crisis: long simmering, but showing itself starting in 2007, growing into 2009 and probably reaching its low point in my estimate not until 2011 or 2012 --if at all. In 2008 the worlds GDP dropped by almost 3% and, in its footsteps so did CO2 emissions. Optimistically stated: since we assumed an increase of about 3% and we actually got about a 3 % decrease, CO2 emissions have dropped 6% in one year compared to what was expected. Say the crisis lasts another 3 years or so, and economic activity recedes accordingly, we can expect a drop of let's say another 10% to 15% or so in CO2 emissions. I just found some graphs from Lester Brown and his Earth Policy institute that thinks that emissions have dropped since 2007 by a whopping 9%. That is very significant.

Here is the graph for the US--look at the funny tail at the end -- brings us back to the CO2 emissions in the mid 90-ties:

As a consequence in the last year many plans for new coal plants have been shelved --there may not be any demand. Nobody is consuming in quite the same way any longer since people's budgets are limited and debt is seen in a different light: debt has become real since the days of easy credit based on housing hilarity are over for good.The recession succeeds where the politicians failed: a much needed drop in CO2 emissions. Clearly nature itself could be one of the 'winners' and CO2 may be brought back in line from about 390 ppm to the desirable 350 ppm by say 2040 (optimistically), not though the success of politicians, but through their failure.

I point this 'positive side effect' of the recession out --reduced CO2-- not to make light of human suffering during this transition when we see the end of capitalism in sight. Budgets are constrained due to lack of currency flow throughout the system, any credit is sucked into the hole of credit default swaps, while food reserves in storehouses have been strained to the max. In the resulting smaller and larger 'resource wars' there is very little consideration for the population itself  -- in fact many warlords feed on chaos and anomy--with failed states on the rise: think of Iraq or the Horn of Africa or Sub-Sahara or Afghanistan, some say even the US itself (and the list goes on and on) with countless dispossessed people on the run and war and violence becoming a way of live. Top that scenario off with Global 'Weir-ding' and its endless parade of droughts and floods and suddenly there are a lot of people driven out of their houses and off the land...... a flood of refugees, perhaps over a billion, is on its way.

from climate.....

or war....

Thus for the poorest and totally exposed and vulnerable, the capitalist crisis means: less help in an already desperate situation. Often times it means hunger and demise. A shocking 16.000 children per day die from starvation. That is 11 children per minute. That is right now.....and now......now again.....
Yet food aid has dropped dramatically: the US has pledged 800 million less to food aid in 2009. Rich Saudi Arabia went down from 500 million in 2008, to 10 million so far in 2009, the EU dropped its contribution by 130 million, etc.
Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the result of these drops in funding may well be the "loss of a generation of children to malnutrition, food riots and political destabilization".

What all of this points out is that conventional economic thinking has missed the boat completely on understanding the roots of the recession and thus failed to sound the alarm. Now the economic models and teaching should be overhauled and revolutionized to start actively creating survival models that are in tune with the planet we live on and who (and how many) we are as humans.
For models of economic sustainability in a post capitalist world, we need to be inspired by Gaia and its regenerative power more deeply, and start mimicking its intricate and inclusive 'economy of generosity" --if we want to survive as a human family.

Economic Rave: Jesus on Being Rich

I haven't read it yet but in his new book Ralph Nader makes real life people  like Yoko Ono and Warren Buffett spend their capital on righteous action such as rebuilding after Katrina (something our government has apparently been totally incapable of doing), and thus save the world. Whether or not the superrich have anything like this in mind, it is becoming increasingly clear that in our current circumstances the rich have a very special role to play.

To encourage you superrich humans among us, to not just think about capital creation but about saving the world, I would like to help set some things straight that were said some time in the past by you know who.

Recently someone told me: "water is the currency of nature".  Maybe we can extend that thought somehow: "Currency (money) is the water of human society.....it needs to flow". When money accumulates in the hands of a few masters, way beyond their ability to consume it or use it productively (like a good calvinist capitalist would), it gets stale and stagnant and finally toxic. It is at that point of unreality, that investments in paper derivatives upon paper derivatives start sounding like a rational investment...a good idea.... Because so many really rich talk themselves and each other into this delusional condition of market hypnosis, similar to a ponzi scheme, for awhile it seems to work flawlessly. Until the house of cards came tumbling down.

Lucky for the superrich, Obama and his team of Goldman Sachs alumni, were able to stave off the crisis (by a hair we are told) by bailouts to the bankers paid in taxes of commoners. People that are in the 'know' such as Max Keiser have assured me that this scheme amounts to the largest transfer of wealth in history.

Certainly even in the last half a year most of us must admit that life has become a lot tougher.....Meanwhile the money is still stuck... It doesn't flow..... too big to fail  ??--wait for the next round then...
There is no credit to do anything with.... No investments..... No currency..... No flow.... 
What if finally China calls it bluff..... Since the US has overplayed its hand so grotesquely, the only thing Obama can do is fold:  End of Empire......  Putin thumbs his nose....squinces his eyes and lets out a cramped smile....he knows: there is no coin without an army, no army without a coin.....Russia is in the right spot whoever gets the prize....  Medvedev is meanwhile cousying up with the Dutch queen Beatrix while behind her back Merkel winks her eye at him..... It is about oil, guys: ....pipelines.... flow....Putin invites Shell back in Sakhalin Russia....China making largest oil deals in Iran..... an Arabian dinar.... Once these deals are made in gold backed currencies the value of the dollar collapses.... inflation starts.... gold and oil sky rocket even after desperate bank interventions and draconian tax policies fail to put a back stop to the dollar...... Stores are empty, food is unavailable..... Obama's cabinet threatens to be reduced to a debating club in Washington.....The bill comes due: China takes what it can get in natural resources and president Hu Jintao demands direct taxes to Beijing while american workers are organized in Maoist style collectives...... This is a financial war.... not a shot is being fired but some nemesis is brought to its knees.... leaving heaps of scrap metal behind in faraway desert sands.....and endless papers blowing through an empty wall street...


Wait wait...Sorry, I am sorry... just waking up from a nightmare....some weird rave coming through --discard all that. 


It just points to one thing: It is time the rich leverage their money towards a more equitable green society and make it roll.  I know that a lot of  the rich feel reluctant to undertake such an endeavor. And some of you may have been discouraged by the supposed words of the savior himself. Here I feel privileged: I may be able to help set the record straight. 

As an aside here I will confess to you that I am not at all bible steady myself nor would I call myself even a christian (though I love Jesus), or particularly knowledgeable in the area of religion. For me to say anything at all I have to defer fully to my trust in the knowledge of my mother Bon Malten (1991+), who was by far the most well read person I have met, and though deeply humanist, had a particular interest in the teachings of the bible. Anyhow, she assured me that there is a widespread misunderstanding over what Jesus said about the rich.


The comment of Jesus on the rich that is repeated in every bible is this:


...."It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God..."


It was Bon's believe that Jesus never said that. After study ("Look at a camel, now think of a needle... --Jesus never said absurd things!") she came to the conclusion that this comment was translated in the wrong manner. According to her what Jesus actually said was  this:

...."It is easier for a camel-hair to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God..." 

In other words: It is hard but it can be done

Droughts and Floods: the Face of Climate Change

India is experiencing a severe drought (see Vandana Shiva). And if that is not enough, at the time of this writing India is hit by the worst flooding in many years, leaving millions of people homeless.

"Rice and other crops in an area of 260 000 hectares have been destroyed, The floods came at a critical time when many farmers had sowed their winter crops and much of this has been washed away or damaged." state Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Rao said. Worst timing. The government has not announced plans to help residents deal with food shortages.
There were concerns among aid workers that the damage would likely set off a wave of migration to nearby towns and cities .....

Droughts and floods have become  the demonic face of climate change for so many people, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Though they seem contradictory phenomena, they are actually two sides of the same coin.

Indian government data show that water levels in the 80 some mayor reservoirs are holding less than 40% capacity. India has seen the scantiest monsoon season in 7 years, until now when a sudden abundance of late rainfall has resulted in flooding of large areas.
Since the monsoon rains account for more that 75% of India's annual rainfall, this is a source of serious concern. Fluctuations in the monsoon, the timing and the amount have large consequences. Farming is severely affected by this lack of rain: 60% of Indian farmers have no irrigation systems. The monsoon rains are essential to the harvest of rice, soy, sugarcane and cotton.  Deepening the problem of lack of water is the use of hybrid seeds, some of which are real water guzzlers.

The official prognoses is that there will be a shortfall of about 10 %  of rice compared to 2008. The sudden current flooding will certainly make these numbers a lot worse. Food prices are sharply rising and the government has promised to open its storehouses in order to prevent social unrest and to compensate farmers. However for many farmers the situation is already dire. Andhra Pardesh saw a surge of farmer suicides (at least 20 at latest count), and some have tried to sell their wives and daughters in desperation.

Through special satellite images made over the 2002-2008 period, NASA detected an average drop in groundwater levels of about 4 centimeters per year which may not sound like a lot --but added up represents the loss of about 110 cubic kilometers of groundwater lost during that period. Some estimates are actually a lot higher and have predicted a loss of about 54 cubic kilometers of groundwater lost yearly in the Indo-Ganenic plains, the worlds most densely populated and heavily irrigated region. Studies have indicated that the depletion rate is accelerating in the last decade by up to 70 %.

Urbanization and industrialization take their increasing share of groundwater withdrawal, but estimates are that over 90%  of aquifer depletion comes from larger farming operations mainly of rice, wheat and barley. India's soviet style planners egged on by the promise of a Green  Revolution, have not given up on large, prestigious irrigation projects (usually involving big dams) serving hybrid seeds, despite their dismal consequences. All kinds of hybrid crop varieties that require large quantities of water, such as rice, sorghum, maize, cotton and vegetables, are still being promoted in the arid regions.

Due to deforestation higher up, the thinning in the icecap on the  Himalayas (also due to climate change), and the decreased water absorption capacity of the earth that comes with industrial agriculture, monsoon rainfalls all to often result in sudden flooding in the valleys downstream without necessarily replenishing the aquifers themselves. Once the waters recede, they leave depleted soil and human devastation in their wake, increasing the risk of a repeat scenario in the following years. Continued fertility is at stake here.

One very significant effort in this regard is the work of Rajendra Singh, an expert on traditional water systems.
Rajendra understood that the secret to remediation of desertification is two fold:

-increase the aquifer levels underground
-plant appropriate trees at the edge of the desert for water containment and soil generation

Rajendra taught the farmers of the desert state Rajastan how  to catch water in their johads, a system of rivulets and arroyos channelled into large and deep (up to 100 meters) underground water-storage areas that seep into the ground and recharge the aquifer underneath the desert. Participation in the program was successful enough to recharge several dry riverbeds into lively rivers and many wells. Where-as this year other areas in India were too dry to farm due to the lack of a monsoon spell, in Rajastan the effects have been relatively mild. Due to the communal effort and the insight of dr. Rajendra Singh the farmers of the Alwar district have to fear less for a bad harvests. Says Rajendra: "Unless you catch water it disappears quickly. Eighty percent of India's rainfall is just run off. Here too we have noticed too a decrease in rainfall, but through our johads we have saved enough water to bridge this spell of drought".

new mexico...can u c the desert....?

Living in the desert of New Mexico I can see benefits of application of the principles of dr. Singh here. After all we have a few mountain ranges catching a fair amount of water during our monsoon, usually from the beginning of July through August. We have been blessed with relatively good years of precipitation, but we have totally neglected the longer term outlook for New Mexico. Desertification in in the cards for this area also due to increased evaporation (climate warming) and it feels that New Mexico already takes part in one continuous low level dust storm that clouds the once clear mountains.

No large scale efforts are undertaken to head off disaster here. A serious communal effort to create some kinds of johads --let's call them 'recharge wells'-- along the feet of the mountains here would do the same thing: it would stabilize the march of desert lands, decrease the threat of flooding, increase fertility, minimize the effects of rainfall fluctuations, create jobs and realization of bioregional goals. It would establish a beautiful green mantle for the in New Mexico beloved Lady of Guadelupe.

Of course in our case here in New Mexico, we have our particular circumstances, such as making sure that nuclear contaminated run-off doesn't foul up the underground water supplies.... but we can figure those things out locally and share the information for similar efforts elsewhere. In order to cope with the local effects of climate change we should promote the idea of a 'global-local response movement', that shares its intent and experience through world wide networks.

Global systemic solutions to  water management are few since the issues involved are so large and so many national and corporate interests are at stake here, that it is hard to come up with any agreements let alone any practical measures to be implemented. However, it is becoming crystal clear, rapidly, that all countries and regions have to start focussing on long term solutions to the flooding-desertification complex, the loss of fertile soil and the related food crisis.

Prevention of hunger should become the organizing principle behind international cooperation and formulation of common goals.



also: see flooding in Mekong Vietnam here. and Mount Everest here
        a new one on the present and future of the Ganges
        Drought in Syria here