a workable solution? - Biophile Magazine

OUR READERS WRITEinboxIronic and propheticThank you for a fascinating and, Ithink, very important magazine.Was it not ironic – and prophetic– that Issue 1 had an article (printedbefore the disastrous tsunami)by Master Kuthumi which statedthat “Asia will experience what wemight call a detoxification wave,where victim consciousness andlust consciousness will be exposedto the rest of the world, bringingwith it immense shock...”?May you go from strength tostrength!J. Ramsey, OlifantsfonteinThrilled to seeBiophileThank you, thank you, thank youfor bringing Biophile into theworld!I was thrilled to see that yourmagazine covered the topic of thedevastation humankind is wreakingon our oceans, and dearlywanted to buy extra copies to usein my class (I’m teacher to a wonderfulGrade 7 class) but couldn’tafford the risk of offending parentsand teachers alike.To be frank, the spiritual “mumbo-jumbo”in one or two articleswill really offend many (most)parents... and I fear is diluting themessage your magazine is trying tospread.Please, please reconsider thespace you are devoting to wordswhich are “neither here nor there”when you could use the space totell your readers how they can helpsave our Mother planet.I love your magazine, but cannotuse it as a tool to spread the “Savethe Earth” message when suchquestionable content is included.And it seems to be at odds withyour intentions. Could you or yourbackers/financiers (whoever makesthese decisions) consider leavingtopics such as these to Odysseymagazine?South Africa needs a magazinewhich tackles environmental issueshead on, and Biophile could(should) be it... but not yet.Anthea Forbes-Smythe,BryanstonI understand that the spiritual“mumbo jumbo” might be a littledisconcerting if it is not somethingthat you are used to. We do believethat it is an important part of theprocess of becoming aware – on alllevels – of our being. It appears thatwe have been through a very unbalanced,“left-brained” patriarchally(yang) dominated period. This imbalancehas allowed us to forget ourextraordinary intuitive and psychicabilities and our connection to eachother, the planet and the divine creativeforce, mother/father God (callit what you like).If we are to truely become aware ofour planet – a living, breathing entityin her own right – we cannot viewouselves as separate from her or thespirit world, in what ever form ittakes for you.I think you may be surprised by thereaction of the parents, some mayfind it a little unusual, and somemay be completely at ease with it. Itis nothing new and the messages areimportant. The more you read of themessages that these extraordionarybeings of light bring us, to help usin these very challenging times, themore you will find it will resonatewith your heart feelings.Anthea.Plastic(dis)informationWhat a wonderful magazine!Welcome, and congratulations!I was so inspired, that I dashed offa possible article for you... however,there was one glaring problem - onpage 38 of Issue 1: the article on recyclingplastic was cause for greatconcern. I attach some informationon why plastics are actually verybad, and particularly to suggestthat burning them, especially chlorinatedplastics, may be acceptable,is of deep concern.I have been active in waste mattersfor many years now, and canconfirm that burning ANY waste• is poor practice• can never be considered sustainable• generates a demand for waste• releases extremely toxic pollutants• and allows the makers of unsustainableproducts to point to“energy from waste” as a “wastemanagement” option.In fact, it may be an idea to havea little network of people to bounceoff, to get clarity if any product orprocess is actually sustainable ornot – we cannot know everything,so I am sure help will be welcome?Many of us have been taken inby what appears reasonable in thepast, only to discover that we havebeen used by the industry in question.I trust that you will accept thisinformation in the spirit given- that of hoping to help make Biophilethe premier (and most honest!)environmental magazine inthe country.I also noticed that the headerparagraph for the “Biofiles” articleon mini-wind turbines callsnormal wind turbines “hideous” -please may I suggest that this sortof language associated with renewableenergy does the cause harm,rather than good?To fall for the propaganda of the“non-renewable energy” worldis not a good thing. For example,the issue of bird strikes is alwaysraised, as raised by EWT aroundthe Darling windfarm. Did youknow that the report they quote isvery old, and is based on a badlysituated windfarm in a canyon,which leaves little room for a birdflight path and that whole islandsof wind turbines don’t have a singlestrike for years on end?The far, far more damaging technologiesare power lines and cars,which account for an immeasurablygreater impact than all the windturbines in the world!Muna Lakhani, DurbanYou are quite correct when you saythat “we cannot know everything”and it is sometimes difficult for eventhe well-informed to distinguish betweenfact and a good “greenwash”of the facts.What you say about incineratingplastics is quite true, and we haveamended the information on ourwebsite to reflect this.As far as wind turbines are concerned,it is unfortunate that theydo make such a strong visual impact.As Caroline Stanton says inher report The Landscape Impactand Visual Design of Windfarms,“The powerful image presented byagricultural land is in part due to itsstrong visual elements of sky, horizontallines, and a formal pattern.. . . The location of wind turbineswithin such a landscape results in apowerful image of contrasting form,colour, shape, line and elevation.”And this is – by far – the most importantreason for planning permissionbeing refused for the constructionof new windfarms in Europe,and especially in the UK.The article was wholly in favour ofharnessing wind power in a decentralisedmanner, which is somethingthat Biophile supports:we’d like tosee a move away from monopolistic,centralised power generationthrough technologies such as solar,mini hydro and home wind turbines.There are many more reports ondevastating bird strikes than the oneyou mentioned, and it all boils downto the siting of wind farms, and notthe technology itself.SteveTo save the world?My criticism of the author of ToSave the World (Biophile Issue 3)is not in respect of his opinion ofthe Bush administration (sic) atall – I do however challenge someof his views on how to “change theway things are done”, or the waythings are.First, “food policy and food aid”is not “steered by owners of multinationalgenetically modifiedcorporates”. Certain US corporates BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

have recently been criticised formodified financial balance sheets,but not for genetic modifications.Secondly, how did Bush “twicegain power under dubious circumstances”?Once, yes, the first time.It is in fact an indictment of theUS voters that Bush won (or Kerrylost) by some four million votes in2004.Thirdly, if the “Bush regime” isfascist because “it is the merger ofstate and corporate power unitedunder an authoritarian, nationalistregime”, then SA, by that definition,is no less a fascist state.Fourthly, I don’t think that GeneralElectric “GE” manufacturesIsuzu?Fifthly, if 93% of the casualties inmodern war are civilians, includingchildren, that statistic is badenough without the author addinga further 48% children.Sixthly, the author proposes thatwe bring the Bush regime to itsknees by boycotting McDonalds,KFC, Coca-Cola, Frito-lays (whateverthey are), etc. With respect,the US has an annual GDP of approximatelyZAR 70 000 000 000000. Boycott them, by all means,for sound good-health reasons, butdon’t boycott them in the expectationof any other benefits.Finally, and rather surprisinglyafter four columns of vitriolic hysteria,the author seemingly relents:“They (the US) give Iraqis no sewage.”I disagree. On the basis thatsewage is faecal waste matter, Ithink that the Iraqis are at presenton the receiving end of a great dealof shit.Alan Yates, Camps BayGlenn Ashton responds:Thanks for your response and forbeing provoked by what is intendedto be provocative writing! Let us notsit on the fence; that is one thingthat Apartheid taught us. Speed upchange by being the change, don’tremain uninvolved.To respond to your points;1) Regarding the influence of GMfood multinationals, it is a well establishedfact that they, throughfront organisations such as ISAAA,BIO, CropLife, AfricaBio etc., haveextensive influence over US policyand that US policy is a reflection ofthe wishes of the corporate membershipsof these front groups. And it isthe same suspects every time; Monsanto,DuPont, Bayer, Syngenta, etc..The seed, pesticide and GM giants.At the start of his first stolen term,Pres. Bush said he wanted the US tofeed the world. In that administrationDonald Rumsfeld of Defence,Ann Veneman of Agriculture andTommy Thompson of health, allhave extensive ties to the GM industry,amongst others like ex-AGAshcroft.Lobbyists do the rest. Due to alot of hard work NGOs throughoutAfrica have managed to reduce theinfluence of USAid on the UN runWorld Food Programme but the assaultis far from over. I can send youa lot of background on this if youcare to peruse same.2) Bush clearly stole the first election.A recount - stopped mainly byBush’s proposed UN AmbassadorJohn Bolton - would have almostcertainly given Gore the election.The judicial interference by the SupremeCourt was a day of infamyin US justice. During this first term,and through close far right RepublicanParty relationships with e-voting companies like Diebold andES&S, owned by the Urosevichbrothers, counted 80% of the votesin the last election. In this way theBushites again managed to skew thevote to get Bush elected in his secondelection. It was less obvious but theelection was nevertheless stolen. Goto blackboxvoting.org for more.Call me a conspiracy nut, but anold intelligence proverb is: onceis chance, twice is co-incidence,three times is a pattern, four is aconspiracy. Examine the secondelection closely, connect the dotsand you may see what actually happened.It was very, very smart andvery, very smooth and not coveredby CNN and Fox and or even theBBC, but it was as rotten as thethugs in charge of the asylum.3) The US junta fits the definitionEDITORIALWe are living in suchextraordinarily interestingand challengingtimes!It seems that no lies canbe hidden for long, and ifpeople want to find out thetruth about any topic theycare to choose, it is reallynot very difficult any more.We have been receivingamazing information fromaround the planet andthere seems to be a commonthread running through it: it is time to join up the dots of theleft-brain logical with the right-brain intuitive; the physical withthe metaphysical; or spirit with matter. Whichever angle you wantto view it from, it is the same. It is time for impeccability and balanceon every level, as Ghandi said “You cannot do good in onearea of life and not in another.”We have focused on the “left-brained” (il)logical money systemthis issue. It is patently obvious that the system, which is motivatedby fear, lack and greed, lacks the right-brained, feminine, nurturingelement that would allow for compassion and love to balanceit. It’s like building a house: if a part of the foundation is missing,sooner or later it will start to crumble. The lies and deceit cannothold up the house for much longer, surely? A typical example is theabsurd taxation system that perpetuates the lies and deceit. We alldo our best to get out of paying taxes – lying and cheating wherepossible. The excellent ideas put forward by Margaret Legum on analternative taxation system should be implemented immediately.The money saved by doing away with policing people into givingaway their hard earned cash would soon pay for its implementation.Another area of imbalance is the gross over expenditure ondefence. The South African defence budget for 2004/2005 is 20.3billion rand! Imagine how many people could be housed and fedwith all that money. Worldwide industries/individuals profit morethan we could ever imagine from stirring up the patriotic, fearbasedsentiment “protect your country” which is based on a beliefof separatism, which is totally unnecessary. No wonder John Lennonwas so conveniently murdered; they couldn’t have the massesbeginning to think like this…“Imagine there’s no countries,It isn’t hard to do?Nothing to kill or die for,And no religion too,Imagine all the peopleliving life in peace...You may say I’m a dreamer,but I’m not the only one,I hope some day you will join us,And the world will be as one…”It is time to become active. Get off that fence or take your headout of the ground and DO something (turn to page 63 where, onthe “Connect Up – Get Active!” page, we have provided some linksthat may help). Firstly, it may be a good idea to look at the fearbasedsystem that runs virtually every aspect of your life, from yourchildren’s schooling to your local bank. Once you recognise it andeducate yourself, you have the power to change it. Fear is the mostdisempowering emotion of all. There is a simple rule to live by thatcould change the world so quickly and we all know it… “do to othersas you would have them do to you”… IMAGINE!AntheaBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

OUR READERS WRITEinboxof fascism under both general andpolitical science definitions of thataffliction. South Africa does noteven come close. It did under apartheidbut we now live in one of thefreest nations on earth.On the other hand, over the past5 years of the Bush junta, we haveseen the final seamless integrationof state and corporation. Their dismantlingof the last of Roosefeldtsreforms goes way beyond the farmilder plutocracy that may otherwisesuit as a description of this pillaging,fascist junta.4) Isuzu is now owned by GMhere, not GE. That’s a typo that musthave crept in somewhere. Two of theUS’s greatest generals, electric andmotors!5) 48% of the 93% of civilian casualtiesin war are children. Is thatclear enough?6) As far as boycotting goes, surewe are only one cog in a global wheelbut neither I, nor others in the globaljustice movement aim to have a boycottfrom one nation, but from theentire world, of American goods.This must continue until the constitutionof that once great nation isrestored to legal supremacy. I havespent over 2 years living in the USA,more in its colonies. I like yanks andI like much of and about America.What we have now is the underbellyof humanity that has seized controlunder deeply questionable circumstances.It is my duty as a writer,who sees the big picture, to share itwith the world. It is our world anddoes not belong to corporations orany one nation, or worse, to a subsetof morons running that nation intothe ground. Frito-Lay is to quotetheir website, the world’s largestsalty snack food manufacturer andmarket leader in most of the world’slargest snack food markets. It is asignificant part of PepsiCo Inc.Finally there is no hysteria norvitriol in my writing. That is in theeye of the beholder. The way I dealwith topics may be passionate but itis a lack of passion and emotion thathas landed us all in the dwang fromwhich we now have to extricate ourselves.We are all Iraqis in one wayor another, all being abused for ourpound of flesh, literally, indirectly orfiguratively, all sitting in the shit, asyou so succinctly put it.Can you help?Sacred Cow WeekThank you for a great magazine.I have read with interest all thearticles you have had on vegetarianism.I am at present running acultural village in KZN and havetried to keep it connected as muchas possible to old traditions. Wegrow a wide range of biodiversefoods and plant organically and useearth Divas to guide us on what toplant and when. We also propagatemany medicinal plants.We also have our own small herdof ten Nguni Cattle from which wemake all our compost. Two yearsago I was in India and visited anorganic farm in Nagpur where theymake compost, medicines and pestcontrol formulas from cow dungand cow urine, ghee and maas(soured milk). It was here that Irealised the importance of cattle tohumans in a much broader sensethan before and realised why Hindushave such a respect for cattle.The Zulu nation also has manysimilar thoughts about cattle andwere not the great meat-eaters theyare often made out to be; most oftheir diet was vegetarian.The point is that I am off to Indiaagain on the 16 June to bring peopleout from India to compare the importanceof cattle between the Hinduand Zulu cultures and showcaseall the uses of cow products: aliverather than as dead meat!I approached the Departmentof Arts and Culture in December2004 and have been kept ona string and have had no fundingand co-operation whatsoever. I amdesperately trying to find sponsorsfor this project and am hoping youmay have some contacts who willsee the bigger picture and supportthis with funding of air tickets oraccommodation and marketing.The date I had planned was theweek of the 19 to the 25 September.I am looking to bring out an AyurvedicDoctor, a representative ofthe organic farm and Swami MaaPrabuddananda to officiate theblessing ceremonies.Please any suggestions you mayhave would be greatly appreciated.Cedric Hood, Ecabazini ZuluHomestead, KZNI’m sure that our readers will havesuggestions and offers of help, whichwe will be sure to pass on to you,Cedric.Flatland thinkers’scare tacticsI was at first excited about Biophile.But after reading the 2ndand 3rd issues I realised that KenWilber, writing in Sex, Ecologyand Spirituality, was correct inexposing most ecological movementsas one-dimensional or flatlandthinkers.They see the world only in termsof objective reality, putting animalrights above human rights. Thesebunny and tree huggers want theworld to go back to a pre-rational,pre-agricultural phase when peopleapparently lived close to theearth, worshipping the Goddess.This fallacy is popular with deepecology gurus like Thom Hartmanin his book The Last Hoursof Ancient Sunlight and TheodoreRoszack in The Voice of the Earth.What they don’t tell their readers isthat the ancient people were just asdestructive towards nature as modernhumans.The only difference is that therewere only about 5 million peopleliving on planet earth, while todaywe count more than 6 billion. Ofcourse, their impact on the environmentwas minimal comparedto what 6 billion people are capableof. The Native Americans chasedthousands of buffaloes over cliffs,just to get to the juicy parts. Themovie “Dances with Wolves” abhorsthe senseless slaughter of buffaloesby the white man, convenientlyforgetting the Sioux’s owndestructive history.Human consciousness hasevolved from an archaic, magical,mythological, rational level, to aspiritual level. The first three levelsare pre-rational and the last one ispost-rational or mystical. The lastlevel is divided into psychic, causaland non-dual. The Omega point, touse Teilhart de Chardin’s phrase, isour ultimate goal. On this level yourealise that there is no differencebetween you and Spirit, no I-you,or I-it, only I-I. We are all one.The eco-movements believe theyare on this higher spiritual levelwhen they call upon Mother Earthand Father Sky, ancient metaphorsfor Spirit.When Michelle Eloff writes, “Godcreated man in his image, thereforeevery single man, woman and childis God, an embodiment of God”, inher article Religion vs. Spiritualityon page 58 of Biophile Issue 3,she uses pre-rational, mythologicaland not trans-rational, spirituallanguage. We are not God becauseGod created us, but because thetrue self is Witness, is Spirit.Furthermore, you are as biased asyour opponents. Biophile promotesa vegetarian lifestyle and calls meateaters murderers without givingmeat eaters a chance to state theircase. Article writers accuse othersof manufacturing mountains oflies while they hide behind partialtruths.Lastly, your scare tactics mightpush the few undecided to become“green” and you might get applausefrom the converted, but you are alienatingthose who belong to thenew religion called economism.Their god is endless economicgrowth, their priests are the economists,their evangelists are the advertisersand their congregation isall consumers.They are totally unaware of thedestruction but you must changetheir mindset before you canchange their actions. Scare tacticswill not work.Naas Ferreira, ElsparkI don’t believe that anyone who isconcerned about the state of ourplanet (“tree and bunny huggers”as you call them) wants mankind torevert to a pre-agricultural state ofexistence, as you claim.We certainly don’t.You have yourself mentioned one BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

of the reasons for the situation wefind ourselves in: there are now somany of us, that it is impossible forthe planet to successfully deal withthe huge impact we are having onher air, water, soil and other livingsystems.The Native Americans did not, infact, chase thousands of buffalo overcliffs “just to get to the juicy parts.”One of the best-researched killsites, named Head-Smashed-In,in southern Alberta, was in use forover 5000 years, a very clear indicationthat it was a very sustainableuse of the buffalo.And very, very little of the carcasseswent to waste: archaeologists describethe processing of the buffaloas “like a production line... everyscrap was used, even the bones weresmashed to remove the marrowwhich was processed into pemmican...huge quantities of meat weredried for the winter, and the hideswere tanned for use as clothing andshelter.”Meat eaters are welcome to debatetheir case on these pages, and on ourwebsite, but we will definitely neverallow meat-eating to be promotedas acceptable. It’s very simple: youCANNOT call yourself an environmentalist,and you definitely cannotexpect us to believe that you are seriousabout saving the planet, if youinsist on eating meat.As far as our “scare tactics” are concerned,my answer is once againvery simple: the truth IS scary, andwe need to let people know the truth.We don’t make up the facts, nor dowe embellish them. We simply tell itlike it is.Steve.A farmer’s challengeMy husband and I were givenIssue 1 of Biophile by one of ourvisitors at Christmas.We have not read the entiremagazine, but have read articleswhich were of particular interestto us. Notably the health article onmilk and the ethical consumerismarticle on leather and wool. As weare farmers these articles caughtour eye and after reading them wedecided that we would have to contactyou to express our opinions.As far as the milk article is concerned,we keep a few cattle for ourown milk and have never pasteurizedmilk, but neither have we givenour cattle any form of antibiotics,growth hormones, or tranquillizers.Our cattle are fed on homegrownlucerne and occasionallya little maizemeal to supplement.They are stall fed as we have experiencedbloat when allowing themto free range on the lucerne landsand Karoo veld is not suitable formilk production!My husband and I both drinkmilk at least twice a day and haveraised four healthy children on themilk we produce.I also make butter (free of anyadditives) and have buttermilk fordrinking, rusks and marinades. Weoften have visitors who profess tohave milk-related allergies, but theysoon succumb to the “temptation”of home-grown produce withoutany ill effect! So I guess our milk isnot the kind you describe !Mulesing – we hold no brief formulesing whatsoever! We feel thatthis is a dreadful practice and isquite unnecessary as we have bredthe problem out of our sheep usingperformance testing. It may takelonger than mulesing, but it eradicatesthe problem for ever.Leather – we slaughter sheep primarilyfor meat. The skin is mostdefinitely a by-product. The factsare that the meat of a sheep sells forabout R500 and the skin sells forabout R20! This equation applies togoats as well as sheep. How can theskin then “represent the most economicallyimportant by-product ofthe meat-packing industry...” Thisis just not true!Down – I have raised geese fortheir feathers and I can assure youthat if the down is not pluckedfrom geese it falls out naturally andis seen floating on the air, caughton bushes or simply lying in thenests where they sleep. Pluckingonly takes place when the feathersare ready and it is as harmless ascutting a baby’s fingernails!Should the feathers be pluckedbefore they are ready to fall outthe quality is poor and the featherssmell and rot. We have never keptgeese for eating as we do not likethe meat.Your statement about down beingexpensive is correct, but thereis no synthetic fibre that can comeclose to it for insulation.Wool – we appreciate your concernfor animals, but one needs tobe realistic about certain things.To shear a sheep takes a maximumof ten minutes by hand andI can assure you that a sheep is notseverely physically or psychologicallydamaged during this shorttime. Cuts are always treated immediatelywith antiseptic and sheepare returned to grazing as soon aftershearing as possible, which isalways during the course of the dayin which they are shorn.When our sheep need to beslaughtered they are transported tothe local abattoir by truck, which isone hours drive away and they areslaughtered the following day.It would appear that you are advocatingthat all kinds of farmingconnected with animals should beboycotted. Do you not think thatyou are generalising too much andtaking matters to the extreme?If we are not to eat meat, fish orpoultry where or how do you suggestthat we as the human race areto find sufficient protein? Surely wecannot be expected to eat only nutsand pulses ?Hilary Steven-Jennings, BeaufortWest district, Great KarooOur “beef” is with industrialisedagriculture which is busy destroyinglandscapes and forests and replacingthem with monocultures from horizonto horizon.Our strong desire is that these hugecentralised farming industries willbe replaced by smaller famers justlike you and your husband, whocare for the earth and the animalsthey farm with, and who producehealthy, organic, ethical produce.(The leather mentioned in the articleis that produced from cattle hides.As you no doubt know, sheep havea very thin skin, which cannot beprocessed into leather.)Steve.Subscriptions, backissuesI recently bought your 3rd issueand am digesting it in small bites.(I’m a mother of two under two, sosmall bites is all I can manage...)I am thrilled at your missionstatement and the standpoint youtake to bring the truth to us ignorant/ignoringsouls.Please be so kind as to let meknow how I can subscribe to yourmag and how I can get my paws onthe first two issues.Sandra van der Westhuyzen, RadiokopBack issues are available at R10+ postage each, and a subcriptionform is printed on the last page ofevery issue. More information (andan electronic subscription form) isavailable on our website:www.biophile.co.za/subscribeFrom Japan toTunisiaCan you believe what a friendfrom Tunisia told me about yourjournal three months ago: whileshe was in Japan, someone toldher about Biophile...She asked me to send the first onelast month and I did it, and nowshe would like to subscribe!Another thing is that I told mycolleagues at TUKS about Biophileand no-one knew about it. It will begreat if you could contact the universitiesin SA maybe the head ofdepartment or the libraries. I likeyour journal and as a research officerI will be glad if my studentscould also read Biophile.Thanks for the very nice magazine.If you need us to send yousome article about our researchplease let us know we will do itwith pleasure.Dr. Thierry Regnier,Research officer,Plant Pathology, Universityof PretoriaWe would be very interested in anarticle on your research – or anyother topic – which you are welcometo send to editors@biophile.co.zaBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

NEWS AND VIEWSthe biofiles NEWSAND VIEWS FROM AROUND OUR WORLDEnvironment diarygives pupils dateswith destinyMore than 10 000 diaries packedwith information on the environmenthave been given to 16schools in Cape Town, most ofthem in townships.The diaries include informationon nature and energy conservationand offer advice on reducing waste,preventing veld fires, water sanitation,food gardens and other ecofriendlypractices.They are distributed under a programmethat has as its motto “Empowera child, empower a nation”and, as its aim, teaching childrenresponsibility for the environmentand showing them how they canmake a difference.The programme is in its 13th yearand former South African pacebowler Van der Bijl, an environmentalactivist, became involvedfour years ago, helping to attractmany sponsors, including Santam,Old Mutual Bank, and Avis.Source: Cape TimesRobben Island’scats shot to savebirdsSeabirds on Cape Town’s most famousisland are no doubt muchhappier these days: 50 feral cats– which were feasting on theirchicks – have been killed.About 50 cats on Robben Islandhave been shot in the past fewweeks in an effort to save the island’sseabirds. There are still about40 wild cats left, but not all will bekilled.The plan is to capture 12, havethem sterilised and inoculated andthen re-released on the island tocontrol the number of black rats,which are another invasive speciescausing ecological problems.The cats are decimating the island’sindigenous seabird population,which includes several endangeredspecies.The rapidly growing number offeral cats on the famous island wasraised as a concern by a UnitedNations monitoring team after avisit in February last year to assesswhether the island was stilldeemed worthy of World HeritageSite status.Cats are believed to be behind thedrop in African black oystercatcherchicks – a threatened species. In2001/2, a total of 59 were raised,but this dropped to 35 the followingyear, to 19 in 2003/4 and to justfour in the past breeding season.Source: IOLRenewable sourcescan meet half ofSA’s energy needsSouth Africa could generate 50%of its total energy supplies fromrenewable energy by 2050, accordingto a study commissionedby nongovernmental organisationEarthlife Africa.These sources include biomass,wind, solar energy and water.“But for us to reach the 50%mark, a lot of planning will beneeded,” Richard Worthington,co-ordinator of Earthlife’s SustainableEnergy and Climate ChangeProject, said.“What this study says is that itcan be achieved.”Government has looked to cleanerand affordable renewable energyalternative sources to fossil fuels,which currently account for about90% of SA’s energy.In the minerals and energy department’swhite paper on renewableenergy, published in 2003, governmentset itself a target of 10000GWh renewable energy contributionto final energy consumptionby 2013. The document said thiswould translate to 4% of the projectedelectricity demand for 2013.About 9% of the country’s totalenergy supply currently comesfrom renewable energy sources– and most of this comes from fuelwood and animal waste.The environment departmentapproved plans for SA’s first commercialwind farm in the Darlingdistrict of Western Cape in Februarythis year.“Reducing our country’s dependenceon conventional energy isinevitable over the long-term, butwill be at far greater cost and withlittle prospect of a just distributionof costs and benefits, if we do notstart to plan now,” Worthingtonsaid.Although they were cheaper tomaintain, renewable energy technologieshad higher start-up costs,compared with conventional energy,government said in its whitepaper. Government said it wouldconsider the central energy andequalisation funds as sources offunds for renewable energy technologies.“It is hoped that this study willprompt a more responsible, forward-lookingand optimistic approachto energy planning.“For too long, vested interestshave kept renewable energy restrictedto niche applications, persuadingour decision-makers thatthe exploitation of stock energy …is the only possible route to development,”Earthlife said.Source: Earthlife AfricaChina’s GE rice ‘outof control’A report in Science has describedwhat appear to be unregulated trialsof the GE rice variety found byGreenpeace to be available on theopen market, in an investigationearlier this year.The environmental group claimsthat the evidence is indicative ofChina’s failure to implement GMOcontrols and protect its conventionaland organic food suppliesfrom contamination.“The Science paper states thatfarmers cultivated the GE ricewithout the assistance of technicians,and that quite a number ofthe randomly selected participantsgrew both GE and conventional varietieson their small family farms,”said Sze Pang Cheung, of GreenpeaceChina.“In other countries GE field trialsare tightly regulated, monitoredand separated from conventionalrice crops,” Sze continued. “TheChinese system of regulating GEfield trials is failing. It looks like GErice has grown out of control underthe very noses of the scientists thatwere trusted to control it. The Governmentneeds to act immediatelyto stop further contamination, touphold the law and to investigatethe scientists who have releasedunapproved GE rice,” added Sze.Source: Green Consumer GuideHuman activitychanges globalwater vapourpatternsFuture action taken to increasefood production in sub-SaharanAfrica could indirectly affect thecapacity of South Asia to producefood, according to researchersbased in Sweden.Their suggestions are based onthe results of their study showingthe extent to which human activity— in particular deforestation andcrop irrigation — is affecting theglobal circulation of water vapour.Agricultural production of foodcauses water to evaporate intovapour. Large-scale irrigation offields, for example, increases theamount of water vapour in theatmosphere. Conversely, cuttingdown trees — or “deforestation”— reduces the amount of water vapourreleased into the atmosphere.Line Gordon, of the University ofStockholm, Sweden, and her colleagues,looked at how much watervapour is being produced aroundthe planet and compared this toestimates of what would have been BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYa workable solution?THE CASE FOR REGIONAL CURRENCIES...a way to achieve social, cultural and ecological gainsby Prof. Dr. Margrit KennedyTechnically, we are currently able to realize humanity’s dream of providing for the needs of every person onearth and letting machines do the most unpleasant kinds of work. What is missing is the money to do it.Yet money is nothing but an agreement among people to accept and use as a means of exchange a certainmedium — be it paper money, coins, shells in some parts of the world, or cigarettes during a war.Could it be that our thinking has become stultified because of our entrenched understanding of money?If we look a little closer, it becomes clear that there isn’t a shortage ofmoney at all. There is actually an abundance of it. What is missing is itsequitable distribution, together with an equitable distribution of accessto the resources of our world.Today, only 3% of global financial transactions involve the exchangeof real goods and services; 97% of money transfers take place for speculativepurposes.My basic thesis is that thelack of equitable distributionof money is a result of themonetary system itself;therefore, I focus on two questions: How can we create a money system,which in itself would be neutral in respect to its distribution? And whatare the practical means for bringing this about? To begin, there are a fewbasic concepts essential to understanding not only the solution but alsothe proposal for its realization.An analysis of the problemThe money we deal with on a daily basis serves two contradictory purposes.On the one hand, as one of humanity’s most ingenious inventionsit functions as a means of exchange and is the prerequisite for a functioningdivision of labor, i.e., it is the foundation for every civilization. On“... at an annual interest rate of 5%... thepenny would have earned 134 billionballs of gold, each weighing asmuch as the earth!”the other hand, it can also be hoarded, and in this capacity as a meansof storing value it often inhibits exchange. For example, take two individuals,one who has a bag of apples and another who has the moneyto buy those apples; the apples will rot within a few months whereasthe money will keep the same value. Money’s attribute of permanenceand its ability to function as a joker card (it can be exchanged for anythingelse) provide both the necessary mechanisms for the owners ofmoney to earn interest without lifting a finger.The fact that we now take it for granted that interest is chargedand must be paid can be attributed to three fundamental misunderstandings.Ever increasing quantitative growth?The first misunderstanding has to do with differing processes of growth.Human beings, as well as plants and animals, show “natural growth” inthe physical realm: we grow relatively quickly during the early phasesof our life; then physical growth slows and eventually stops when wereach our optimal size at around the age of twenty-one. From thispoint on — i.e., for the longest part of our life — we change, with allour subsystems, almost exclusively qualitatively, not quantitatively.10 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

Wörgl“Interest behaves like a cancer within theeconomic system and therefore equally sowithin our society, our ‘social organism.’ ”Therefore, I want to call this curve, the “natural”or “qualitative” growth curve.There are two other fundamentally differentpatterns of growth. One of them, mechanisticor “linear” growth — i.e., more machines producemore goods, more coal produces more energy,and so on — is of minimal importance toour analysis. Nevertheless, I want to emphasizethat this kind of constant increase in productioncannot be sustained in view of the earth’slimited resources.On the other hand, it is very important thatwe understand the concept of exponentialgrowth, which one might call the antithesis ofnatural growth. The former starts very slowly,increasing continuously, and then enters a stageof almost vertical quantitative growth. In thehuman body such growth usually indicates adisease. Cancer, for example, follows an exponentialgrowth pattern. At first it grows slowly,one cell splits into two; then its rate of growthincreases continuously, splitting into 4, 8, 16,32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and so on.Therefore, not understanding the problemsassociated with this kind of growth results in aserious misconception concerning the functionof money, because similarly, interest and compoundinterest cause money to double in valueat regular intervals. In other words, it growsexponentially. This explains why we are experiencingsignificant problems with our moneysystem.Joseph’s pennyThe famous example of “Joseph’s penny” illustratesthat interest as a means of ensuringthe circulation of money can function only inthe short or medium term. If at the time of thebirth of Christ, Joseph had invested one pennyand the bank had given him an annual interestrate of 5%, by the time of German reunificationin 1990 and at the then current price of gold,the penny would have earned 134 billion ballsof gold, each weighing as much as the earth!This shows that although the continuous accumulationof interest can be calculated mathematically,it is in fact an impossibility; therefore,interest as we know it cannot function inthe long term as a means of guaranteeing continuallythe circulation of money.Interest actually does behave like a cancerwithin the economic system and thereforeequally so within our society, our “social organism.”If we were able to introduce instead amoney system that corresponds to the “natural”growth curve, then the zero-growth or qualitativegrowth that has long been called for byecologists and economists would be possible.Fun was made of those Albanians who believedsome investment bankers when theysaid a so-called pyramid scheme would bringmonthly returns of 25%. Because of the exponentiallyincreasing amount of money invested,this was a reality, but only in the short term.As soon as the rate of increase of investmentsslowed down, however, the system inevitablycollapsed. Basically, we are not much smarter,because whoever accepts our current moneysystem runs precisely the same risk, albeit overa longer period.In high interest countries e.g. in LatinAmerica, this collapse happens about everyten to fifteen years. In low interest countrieslike Switzerland or Germany it happens everyforty to sixty years. And then a major breakdownoccurs in the form of financial collapse,social revolution or war.Is interest paid only on loans?The second misunderstanding is to think thatwe pay interest only when we borrow money.That is not the case, because every price we payincludes an interest portion: exactly that portionof interest that the producer of the boughtgoods or services had to pay the bank in orderto purchase machines and equipment.For example, in Germany the share of interestin waste management fees is around 12%,Have you ever wondered at the beautyof buildings from the 12th and 13thcentuaries in Southern Europe, whenabout 600 new towns were built with solidstone houses that have survived to thisday?Ironically, it was not a politcally stableperiod. The wars waged by the Churchon the Cathars necessitated muchreconstruction. The wars were partly aboutreligion and partly about the Church’s lossof revenue.Inadvertantly, a rather strange systemof money was responsible for thereconstruction that gives us suchpleasure today.In the Holy Roman Empire rulers of thedozens of small independent states issuedthin silver coins called bracteates whichwould be reclaimed at three quarters oftheir value when the ruler died. Realizingthat this was rather a good idea the rulerssoon got the idea of reclaiming andreissuing them more frequently.So holding on to money was risky - it wasno store of value; better to use it while youhad it to build houses with lasting value.This led to a high demand for constructionlabour so wages were good, workinghours were short (about six hours aday) and there were at least 90 religiousholidays a year. It greatly improved thequality of life and was wonderful for thelocal economy.But when gold coins were introducedin the fifteenth centuary it becameworth storing money instead of using itbecause of the amount of precious metalit contained. You could keep it under yourmattress.So demand for labour dropped, wagesfell, unemployment appeared, somebusinesses closed down because peoplecould earn more by lending the moneythey had accumulated on interest ratherthan by trading.And, to cap it all, rulers had to find othermeans of taxation.From Short Circuit by Richard DouthwaiteBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 11

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYa workable solution?in the fees for public water supply around 38%,and in the rent for public housing 77%. On average,we pay 40% interest or capital costs aspart of all prices we pay for services we need inour daily lives (Creutz, 1993, pp 338-339).If interest could be replaced by anothermeans of securing the circulation of money,most of us would be able to almost doubleour income or work proportionally less in orderto maintain the same standard of living.Is interest a fair charge?The third misunderstanding is to believe thatinterest represents a fair charge because it hasto be paid by all of us for loans and in the pricesfor goods and services. And we all receive intereston our savings. Only the very few understandto what degree the effect of interest andcompound interest causes — completely legally— an on-going redistribution of money fromthose who have to work for their income tothose who receive income because they can affordto lend out money.If you divide German households into tengroups of equal number and you look at whatthey each pay in interest and what they get, itbecomes obvious that 80% of households payalmost twice as much in interest as they receive,and only 10% of the population receives whatthe large majority loses in interest.This means that, upon closer inspection, the“fairness” inherent in the fact that we all receiveinterest on our savings and investments provesto be deceptive.In reality the system works profitably only forthose people with interest-bearing assets worthover 500,000 Euros. In 2001 the sum that wasredistributed through the interest system withinGermany amounted to approximately onebillion Euros per day.Banks, insurance companies, and multinationalcorporations are the major partieswhich profit from the interest system.In this respect, the interests of mainly smalland medium sized business employers andemployees are more similar than political partieson the left suggest: there is a bigger differencebetween those who have to work fortheir income and those who receive an incomelargely without working. Interest is thereforethe wrong pricing mechanism in a “free marketeconomy”: the “team-mates” — the actorsin economic life who take risks and contributeto wealth creation — are punished by interestcosts; the “spoilsports,” who can afford to holdon to their money, are rewarded with incomefrom interest, an income inherently void ofself-actualized productivity.In addition to reinforcing pathological economicgrowth, this money system inevitablyleads to an ever more uneven distribution ofincome and wealth, i.e., to a polarization ofsociety.The attempt of the traditional left to solve thisproblem by socializing the means of productionwas not successful because the problemof redistributing wealth through the monetarysystem was largely unrecognized and still remainsa much respected taboo.Admittedly, the production of goods in theUser fees instead of interestSince 1916 we have known of a solution thatisn’t only surprisingly simple and elegant,but is also practical and easy to understand.It was discovered and first published in 1916by Silvio Gesell, a German-Argentinean businessman.Instead of charging interest in order to assurethe circulation of money, Gesell proposed a feewhich would act as a “circulation incentive” or“demurrage”, thus largely limiting money to itsfunction as a means of exchange, and as a stablemeans for storing value. If you have moremoney than you need, you take it to the bank,which lends it out, returning it to circulation,and then there is no fee.Not much would have to be changed fromour current way of doing things. The incentiveto save money would continue. While moneyin your checking account would be treated likecash and subject to the circulation incentive,money in the savings account would be free ofthat fee, retaining its value. A borrower would“Today, investments are made only if they amortize* in five years at themost, and what do we leave to our children? Depleted oceans, pollutedrivers and lakes, radiating waste dumps.”*amortization: The gradual elimination of a liability, such as a home loan, in regular payments over a specified period of time. Suchpayments must be sufficient to cover both the amount borrowed and the interest payable on that amount.production sphere creates the “added value”,but the distribution is determined in large partwithin the circulation sphere of money and finance.We know today that state socialism insteadof private capitalism is no solution to thedilemma.Neither socialism nor capitalism has beenable to reform the so called “social marketeconomy” towards the direction of greatersocial and ecological justice. This is becauseneither type of societal organization is a truealternative; they are more like two sides of thesame coin.The current problems in the banking and financialsystems and the increasing polarizationof society through the redistribution of wealthare not, as is claimed repeatedly, caused by alack of social laws or the corruption of decision-makersin politics and the economy.These are admittedly factors that add to theproblems, but some of the most importantreasons, which are little known and rarely discussedopenly, are to be found in the way ourmonetary system works.have to pay for the bank’s services in additionto a risk premium, both fees that are currentlyincluded as a small part of each loan. These feesusually don’t amount to more than 2% to 2.5%in interest charges, and would not lead to exponentialgrowth as they just pay for the workdone and would not accrue compound interest.The hoarding of cash can be prevented in avariety of ways. For example, there could bea color series of bank notes, which are devalued(6-12%) once a year or continuously (0.5-1% monthly) or which carry expiration dates(similar to those on perishable food items).This is even easier to implement now with theincrease of monetary transactions by means ofchip cards or smart cards, which are capable ofaccepting up to twenty different payment options.All that is lost within the new money systemis the compulsory exponential growth in savingsand the distortion of the “free” marketthat results in the accumulation of money inthe hands of a few. Until now, the economy12 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

has been dependent on capital (Hans-MartinSchleyer, the former president of the GermanIndustrialists Association once said, “Capitalmust be served”). With the new system, moneyhas to make itself available to the demands ofthe economy in order to avoid a loss in value.This means that capital would finally serve us.In this sense a sustainable economy andprosperity for all are possible for the first timebecause we can create a money system that followsa natural growth curve. In other words,it stops quantitative growth at an optimal sizeand allows for more qualitative growth.That could signify gradually: instead ofexcessive consumption, more quality of life;instead of resource depletion, more environmentalprotection; instead of individual travel,more car-sharing; instead of ever cheaperclothing, more quality garments; instead ofcut-backs in social and educational institutions,their expansion.And all this would be possible in part becausethere would no longer be any pressure from themoney system to demand exponential growthfrom the economy and ultimately from thepeople. Perhaps we would then even find timeagain for our parents and our children, for artand culture as integral components of everyhuman life.People had a different attitude toward culture,art, and time during the historical periodswhen money was based on a circulationincentive. For example, during the High MiddleAges the “Brakteaten” money which was recalledevery third or fourth year and devaluedby 20 to 30 percent – which was also the waythe “mint sovereigns” (bishops, kings, dukes)collected their taxes —was the basis for thegrand cathedrals we still admire today. Theywere financed through contributions from thesurrounding communities, and they representedalso public works programs. It was clearto everyone that their construction would createemployment over a period of two hundredyears – and some of them (Chartres, Bamberg,Regensburg, among others) retain this functionup to the present day.Today, investments are made only if theyamortize in five years at the most, and what dowe leave to our children? Depleted oceans, pollutedrivers and lakes, radiating waste dumps.If we were to introduce a new monetarysystem, the majority would have much to winand nothing to lose.Combined with a new system of land tenurebased on the communal ownership of land,that passes to one’s children the value addedto the land (Gesell, 1949) by each generation,these two major causes of poverty as well as theincreasing gap between poor and rich could be We tend to believe that there is only one type of growth, that is, the growth pattern ofnature which we have experienced ourselves. The Graph above, however, shows threegenerically different patterns:Curve A represents an idealized form of the normal physical growth pattern innature which our bodies follow, as well as those of plants and animals.We grow fairly quickly during the early stages of our lives, then begin to slow down inour teens, and usually stop growing physically when we are about twenty-one. This,however, does not preclude us from growing further “qualitatively” instead of “quantitatively.”Curve B represents a mechanical or linear growth pattern, e.g., more machinesproduce more goods, more coal produces more energy. It comes to an end whenthe machines are stopped, or no more coal is added.Curve C represents an exponential growth pattern which may be described as theexact opposite to curve A. It grows very slowly in the beginning, then continuallyfaster, and finally in an almost vertical fashion. In the physical realm, this growth patternusually occurs where there is sickness or death.Cancer, for instance, follows an exponential growth pattern. It grows slowly first, althoughalways accelerating, and often by the time it has been discovered it has entereda growth phase where it cannot be stopped.Exponential growth in the physical realm usually ends with the death of the host andthe organism on which it depends. Based on interest and compound interest, our moneydoubles at regular intervals, i.e., it follows an exponential growth pattern.This explains why we are in trouble with our monetary system today: interest actslike cancer in our social structure.BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 13

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYa workable solution?greatly diminished or eliminated.It is easy to see how historical and systemicdefects in our monetary system — namely, themechanisms of interest and compound interest— are responsible not only for the ongoingredistribution of the common resources of thisworld for the benefit of a small elite but also theimposition of an artificial need for permanentcompulsory growth, which nobody can escape.Neither debt relief for the countries of theThird and Fourth worlds that are paying morethan $350 million a day in interest to the richindustrial countries nor the development aidfrom industrial countries can get to the root ofthe problem. The total amount of aid collectedby welfare agencies world-wide for the poorestcountries merely offsets the interest paymentsof these countries for approximately fourteendays a year.Even more dangerous and destructive thaninterest itself is one of the unavoidable resultsof the exponential growth of our monetarysystem, the unrestricted mobility of capital,which allows and in many ways forces the productionsector to locate and relocate whereverthe cheapest labor and lowest environmentalstandards are to be found.It compels all nations to take part in the sociallyand environmentally destructive race tothe bottom.Bringing about change at the regionallevel(The term “regional” here is used to define a level inbetween the local and national level and not to includeseveral nations as it may be used in another context.)This brings us to the most important questionsthat must be asked: How might we realisticallyintroduce and test a money system, whichproves to be a viable solution to the problemsaddressed above? A system that would balancethe negative effects of globalization, that isdurable, sustainable, and fair?The local level seems too small to make a difference.For example, in the LETSystems (localexchange and trading systems), the shareof goods and services, which the average individualparticipants can usually obtain, does notexceed 3-5% of their needs. Transaction costs —or the time it takes to receive the desired productor service — are normally too high to advocatethis solution on a large scale. (One possibleway to eliminate these disadvantages would beto establish clearing-houses that would connectlocal exchange systems to form larger units andto professionalize the book keeping. This is currentlybeing developed in the Austrian regionof Vorarlberg.)We know that in theory those economictransactions which occur within a region canbe made with a regional medium of exchange.If this special currency could be designed to includea circulation incentive this would substantiallyinvigorate exchange within a given region.Obviously, not all regions are equally equippedto adopt this solution. Economic autonomy ismore easily attained in regions with greaterdiversity of production. Such a region wouldtherefore be a better candidate than those wherethe majority of people work in the same factoryfor one dominant employer.There is little in the way of research or datathat can be used in this context because our definitionof “region” emerges only once the newregional currency itself is established. Where arespective region begins and ends depends onthe willingness of the majority of people to usethe currency. Obviously, nobody can be forcedto do so. Willingness to participate may be determinednot only by geographic boundarieslike a valley surrounded by mountains or awatershed, but also by economic, cultural, andhistorical factors. The development of complementaryregional currencies enables us, for thefirst time since the introduction of national currenciesin the nineteenth century (the departurefrom regional currencies wasn’t that long ago),to support the regional production of goods andprovision of services, and — if identifiable assuch — to make a point of purchasing regionalgoods and services preferentially.Regional currencies bring new potential foreconomic growth for the small and mediumsized enterprises, which are responsible for creatingmost of the jobs and profit primarily bymeans of production, not investment. The costof creating workplaces for regional productionis a fraction of the costs of workplaces that serveinternational markets. So why shouldn’t banksbe willing to collaborate with local and regionalgovernments in order to offer a regional currencywithin their portfolio?The goal is to create another means of paymentthat is feasible and operational in order totest whether or not the model of a stable currencybased on a circulation incentive works inthis context.Components of a fully-fledged regionalcurrencyIn order to achieve this goal, a regional currencymust not only be legal, but should realisticallybe introduced in stages, and should beable to quickly gain legitimacy through the trustof the population. On the basis of the currentlegal system in Germany and the experienceswith complementary currencies in recent years,this is possible only if three partial models arecombined. Together, these models embrace allthe functions which the present internationalmoney system fulfills, but on a regional level:• Firstly, a voucher system — used today bymany commercial enterprises to enhance customerloyalty — can be used as a means of paymentto further the economic development ofa region.• Secondly, a cooperative barter system increasesthe liquidity of small and medium-sizebusinesses through a system of accounts andthe establishment of credit lines for each participant.It combines the professional features of acommercial barter club with the non-profit featuresof a local exchange and trading network,and offers the inhabitants of the region an opportunityto exchange skills among themselves.• Thirdly, a member bank, serving long-termlarge-scale credit needs. Members receive interest-freeloans linked to an interest free savingsplan.This amalgam of various regional currencymechanisms performs virtually any functionof the current money system. The voucher systemis used, like cash, for everyday payments ofsmall amounts. The cooperative barter systemallows for the exchange of goods and services,as well as granting lines of credit between individualsand between small and medium-sizebusinesses. The member bank provides forcredits based on savings deposits — both in thenational currency and in the specified regionalcurrency — for individuals and entrepreneurs.This combination has several advantages: allof the components can be introduced separately,but together they allow for an orchestra ofsynergetic effects.All three can be depended upon because theyhave either a history of success in another context(i.e. commercially, geographically or culturally),or they have already been in use formany years.Differences between national and regionalcurrenciesA regional currency has the following characteristics:• It is not an “official” means of payment,which means that nobody has to accept it, itsacceptance is entirely voluntary;• Its use is limited only by geography andin each region the currency bears a differentname;• Exchanging it for other regional currenciesor for the national currency imposes an exchangefee;• It does not earn interest.According to Gresham’s Law, these characteristicsmake the regional currency “bad” money— in other words, everybody will always be14 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

eager to get rid of this means of exchange beforespending the “official” national currency.This, however, is exactly the intention. We areessentially turning Gresham’s Law on its head,because in terms of optimizing the exchangefunction, the regional currency is inherently“superior” money. It would be more correct tosay that the two currencies — the national/internationaland the regional — are individuallydesigned to fulfil different functions.The national currency is well suited for internationalexchange, competition, and the accumulationand redistribution of wealth throughsavings and investments that claim exponentiallygrowing interest or dividends. In contrast,the regional currency is suitable as a means ofexchange that intentionally promotes social,cultural, and ecological goals.• The regional currency can also be used topromote the efficient use of non-renewableresources within the defined geographic areasthat people relate to personally and emotionally.The regional currency is, so to speak, atrademark, which ought to have — and perhapseven guarantee — a certain quality. With thedevelopment of quality standards, the regionalcurrency deliberately distinguishes itself fromother complementary currencies.The regional currency has its own distinctivefeatures within this diverse landscape:• Regional currencies connect different partnerswithin the region and benefit all participants• Regional currencies function within the contextof regional economies• Regional currencies are complementary to theexisting national currency• Regional currencies reduce the long term risksof inflation and deflation• Regional currencies systematically promotecirculation with incentives• Regional currencies are non-profit as well asprofessionally organized• Regional currencies are democratically controlledand function transparently• Regional currencies serve individual communitymembers, small and medium-size businesses,and institutions• Regional currencies encourage ecologicallysound thinking i.e. inter-community and regionalrelationships and create shorter, moreefficient transportation routes• Regional currencies embolden regional communitiesby reinforcing traditional identitiesand/or forging new ones.The question is whether or not the value ofregional currencies should be equivalent orcalibrated to that of the national currency. Thismight — at first — be useful, because it doesnot require the calculation of exchange rateswhen shopping or paying bills, it also makes iteasier to calculate income taxes in the regionalcurrency. But it is very important to include aclause in the by-laws of the issuing associationthat permits a transfer to other monetary units— in case the national currency should undergogalloping inflation. In this case, for example, theaverage hourly wage could instead be used as aunit of measure. The price of a kiloWatthour ofelectricity or a cubic meter of drinking watercould also be used as units, especially if voucherswere issued as a means to pay for such services.A practical example in ChiemgauOne of the first attempts to introduce a regionalcurrency in Germany is the “Chiemgauer.”Initiated as a complementary currency bythe Waldorf School in Prien near Lake Chiemsee,it uses an Australian voucher plan as itsmodel. In this model, all participants benefit.When somebody in Australia exchanges $100in one of the “clubs” that have been started forthat purpose, he or she receives vouchers witha value of $110. Someone who exchanges $500receives vouchers worth $600.In contrast to the Australian model, with its10% and 20% discounts, a discount is not givenfor purchasing Chiemgauer vouchers, however,the buyer can choose a non-profit organizationto receive the 3% bonus that is granted if Eurosare exchanged for vouchers.The first buyers of the new currency wereBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 15

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYa workable solution?Waldorf School parents, who bought vouchersto support construction of an addition to theschool. Since then, five non-profit projects havealso become involved, and participants comefrom different parts of the region. Buyers acceptan annual fee of 8% to guarantee circulation:four times a year a stamp worth 2% of thevalue of the voucher has to be attached in orderfor it to retain its nominal value.The businesses that accept the vouchers inpayment can exchange them for the nationalcurrency at a five percent fee, or they can usethem for payment to other businesses, to employees,or to the publisher of the local newspaper,etc.If they pass the vouchers on, they won’t haveto pay the fee. For the majority of businesses,accepting vouchers is a matter of cultivatingcustomer loyalty. This usually creates costs upto ten percent of their gross turnover. Thus acceptinga small fee, which is tax deductible, topay for a regional currency does not entail anyadditional expenses. Customers are motivatedto go to stores where they can pay with the regionalcurrency.More and more, businesses are realizing thatthey too can make payments in the regionalcurrency — afforded of course the advantagethat they don’t need to pay the 5% fee for exchangingthe vouchers for Euros.When students from the Waldorf School goto stores at the end of the month to change theiraccumulated vouchers into Euros, the shopkeepersare more and more unable to facilitatesuch an exchange because they have alreadyspent them.In Australia, 70% of the vouchers were exchangedfor the national currency during thefirst year, during the third year only 7%. Thus,the vouchers are being used as a complementarycurrency, and the exchange fee serves as anadditional incentive for circulation. Adapted from Regio Complements Euro: NewPaths to Sustainable Prosperity, a paper presentedat the “Local Currencies in the 21st Century” Conferenceof the E.F. Schumacher Society, Bard College,New York in June 2004.About the author: Prof. Dr. Margrit Kennedy isan architect with a Masters Degree in Urban andRegional Planning and a Ph.D. in Public and InternationalAffairs. She has published books, articlesand reports for UNESCO and OECD on communityschool planning and building. Her work on womenand architecture, urban ecology, permaculture,money, land and tax systems has been recognizedinternationally. Projects in ecological architecture forthe International Building Exhibition Berlin in 1987led her to the discovery that it is virtually impossibleto carry out sound ecological concepts on the scalerequired today, without fundamentally altering thepresent money system or creating new complementarycurrencies.Her book “Interest and Inflation-Free Money,Creating an exchange medium that works for everybodyand protects the earth” was first publishedin 1987, and has since been translated into twentylanguages. A second book, together with Bernard Lietaer“Regional Currencies -A New Path to SustainableAbundance” (translated title from the Germanpublication) will be published by Access Foundation,Boulder Colorado in 2005.Kennedy can be contacted through her website:http://www.margritkennedy.de/english/bank charges:are we being ripped off?Bank charges in South Africa are, on average,higher than those in other countries:• South Africa’s bank charges on a particularset of transactions are, on average, 142 percenthigher than those in Canada, the country withthe second-highest charges.• South African banks charge an annual fee forcurrent accounts as well as fees for each type oftransaction, such as deposits and withdrawals.Canada is the only other country where banksalso levy charges on each transaction type.• Although annual fees levied on current accountsare relatively low in South Africa, theother fees banks charge make current accountsin this country the most expensive ofthe countries surveyed.Banks in other countries typically make moneyon current accounts by paying low interestrates on positive balances.• South African banks charge for making deposits,whereas most banks elsewhere in theworld do not.• Average annual fees for credit cards issuedby South Africa’s four major banks — Absa,First National, Nedbank and Standard — haveincreased 29 percent since 1999. Over thesame period, the average service fees chargedby these same banks for current accounts havedoubled.• South African banks pay relatively low interestwhen you invest your money and chargerelatively high rates when you borrow money.The net interest margin that South Africanbanks make on your deposits is higher thanevery other banking regime studied exceptAustralia’s.• South Africans pay far higher interest chargeson their home loans than consumers inother countries.• In terms of profitability, South African bankshave out-performed their peers in the top 100international banks over a sustained period.• Small and medium enterprises are paying ahigher price to access banking services thanbig business — both in terms of the interestrates they pay and are paid, and the transactionfees they are charged.A lack of competition among South Africa’sbanks is to blame for the high charges we allpay, and particularly for the problems thatlow-income earners face.Source: Competition in South African BankingReport, 2004.in a nutshell:our banking systemThe heart of South Africa’s banking system isthe South African Reserve Bank, which is theprimary monetary authority and custodian ofthe country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.The Reserve Bank is managed by a board offourteen directors, seven representing majorcommercial and financial institutions, industry,and agriculture, and seven appointed bythe government. Of the latter, one serves asgovernor, and three serve as deputy governorsof the Reserve Bank.The Reserve Bank’s primary functions are toprotect the value of the rand and to controlinflation. The Reserve Bank regulates themoney supply by influencing its cost i.e. interestcharged on loans to other institutions. It istechnically independent of government control,but in practice it works closely with theTreasury and helps to formulate and to implementmacroeconomic policy.The Reserve Bank issues banknotes and is responsiblefor the sale and purchase of foreignexchange for the government, as well as forthe administration of the treasury-bill tendersystem. Its major customers are governmentagencies, private banks, and discount houses,although it also performs clearinghouse functionsfor private banks and assists banks thatexperience liquidity problems.Finally, the Reserve Bank is the authorizedbuyer of gold bullion, thereby acting as agentfor the gold-mining industry in effecting saleson their behalf in the private market.The Reserve Bank uses monetary policy tocontrol inflation, primarily by adjusting theliquid-asset requirements of private bankinginstitutions and by restricting bank credit inorder to control consumer demand.16 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

ethical bankingby Ed StapletonSPECIAL REPORT: MONEYWhy is it that when I mention ethical banking, the immediate responseis one of laughter and derision? “Bankers think ethics is a county northeastof London” I am often informed!Why is this so?Some banks, like the UK’s Triodes Bank and the Go-operative Bank,promote ethical banking. They invest in projects that assist ecology,global care, organic farming etc., and avoid lending to, or investing in,organisations that promote the misuse of drugs, weaponry and more sinisteractivities.So what’s the problem?Let’s explore ethics in banking and see if we can sort out the confusion.What is a bank? Silly question? Read on.As a result of the recent and current mega merger-mania in all aspectsof commerce, banks are now global banking supermarkets offering alltypes of financial services for the global corporate, global consumer andglobal asset management businesses.However, within commercial banking, problems arise in the PrivateBanking segment due to money laundering which is a major problem formost banks. In addition, Investment Banking is now virtually gambling,using the options market as a casino. Banks are also involved in Insurance,which is a fear-based commodity.Banks are amongst the most powerful institutions in the world, increasinglyso today. When used positively, they can finance ethical projectsbut when used negatively they can control and dominate governmentsand nations. Do they really? Are the Commercial banks the culprits, orare they victims, or both? What about the Central banks such as the USFederal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England and the Central EuropeanBank? What part do they play in the ethical scheme of things? We shallsee in a moment.Let’s look at “ethics”Are you an ethical person? Am I an ethical person, I ask myself? Whatdoes it really mean to be ethical? My dictionary says that ethics are “Principlesassociated with the social conscience of the time”.Excellent, but who sets the principles? And who and what determinessocial conscience?Where does ethical individualism fit into the equation?Here’s a clue: in esoteric astrology, ethics is a Uranus issue, relatingto technology, freedom, brotherhood, humanity, ethical individualism,higher consciousness and Christ Consciousness. Aha! Now we are gettingcloser to the issue.So what’s the real problem?James Madison (1751-1836), the fourth President of the USA (1809-1817) had the following to say: History tells us that the Money Changershave used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent meanspossible to maintain their control over governments and countries bycontrolling money and its issuance.Then consider the statement by Amschel Rothschild, a name synonymouswith money and banking “Let me control the issuance of moneyand care not I who make the laws”. The Central bankers again!Further investigation reveals that we really have a debt-based bankingsystem, whereby we and governments have to constantly borrow in orderto pay the mounting accumulating interest and that there is no way wecan pay off the National debt without reforming our banking system.Even the very basis for lending, fractional reserve lending, is questionable- even a financial scam! How dare they lend out my £1,000 investmentand re-lend it ten times over, without security, and keep the intereston the £10,000 for themselves! Never mind the issue of usury which isa separate subject. Who are these mysterious Central bankers, who canhave such control over governments and people?The plot thickens!If world debt continues on the current scale, will we have a globalisationof poverty, mass unemployment, even a collapse of globalcapitalism? Are we dealing with ignorance, greed and self-interest ora sinister organisation with a historically well-designed plan a dynamicstructure for a New World Order? Or a conspiracy theory?Certainly no laughing matter now.The Eagle, Lion and the Bull represented by the US, European (German)and Japanese Central Banks paint a different picture for the future!The German Government and all Europeans will rue the day they gaveover monetary control to the European Central Bank.However, spiritual investigation shows that within the structure of thebanking system lies another mystery. In the global corporate bankinggame, which I believe it is, there are many players; the Overlords, whoare the “Pigs”, who cause Panic, display Ignorance and manifest Greedwith their snouts in the trough and seats on the Concorde across the Atlantic;the Masters of the Universe (the traders whose days are definitelynumbered) and the numerous decent individuals trying to do an honestand professional job in difficult circumstances.And the mystery?That the battle is not only for the control of power and money, but abattle for the Tree of Knowledge. We are still struggling with the Cainand Abel archetype within our consciousness; the issue of the male Cainwisdom versus the female Abel wisdom; King versus Priest;Pharaoh versus Hierophant; Anthropos versus Sophia, all representedtoday in the western hemisphere by Freemasonry on the one hand andthe Catholic Church on the other hand.Both organisations, struggling and apparently consumed by their ownshadow in the form of power, corruption and ignorance at the hands of asmall minority within. Sound like life?What does this mean for us?Loss of individual freedom and being dominated and humiliated? Dothese organisations, which also control the media, stifle our striving forthe Truth, even though they purport to adhere to moral and spiritual ethics?How can we develop an ethical morality born out of freedom in thisclimate? Are we witnessing a battle for the Soul of the World? Are bankersand certain multinationals going to take on the Grail motto “KnowThyself and Serve Humanity” or just continue to serve themselves andthe Brotherhood? Can they come to terms with this misplaced loyaltyand perhaps the worst form of pollution, the pollution of ignorance andgreed? Beware of fattening the camel! About the author:Ed Stapleton is a business graduate, an educational psychologist and amember of the Anthroposophical Society.He has over 25 years executive exerience in CIS and European MultinationalCorporations. He has no political affiliations and is a researcherfor the truth.BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 17

SPECIAL READ REPORT: THE LABEL! MONEYMOVE OVER, MR. MANUEL!what we need areALTERNATIVE TAXESby Margaret LegumThe search for alternative taxation world-wide is driven by two imperatives. First, we need to diminishdependence on conventional sources of public revenue, without depriving governments of funding. Second,taxation is the least authoritarian and invasive way to limit activities which are destructive to people andthe planet. Without actually banning anything, taxation can encourage people to act in the interests of thecommon good while also meeting their own needs.Conventional taxation may be divided into five broad categories:• personal income tax• company profits tax• taxes on consumption via VAT• local rates on land and property, and• levies on goods like petrol and alcohol.Except for the last, all are taxes on the money that has been earnedby work. Thus conventional taxation penalises work which produces income.This is the first reason why in principle we need to replace conventionaltaxes: they tax what we want to encourage, instead of what wewant to discourage.Moreover, there are reasons why these conventional sources of taxationare drying up. The globalised markets in capital and skills mean that governmentsdare not introduce high tax regimes for fear of losing mobilefactors of production. Thus they are forced to cut expenditure on publicactivities and services previously taken for granted.Second, with ageing populations, it becomes increasingly difficult tofinance governments’ needs from a diminishing proportion of its citizenry.Third, growing volumes of e-commerce through the Internet meansthat an increasing proportion of transactions fall outside the remit ofnational taxation systems.Therefore we need to find other ways to raise funds for the publicpurse. The New Economics movement believes governments can raiseeven more revenue than today, and by means that have a benign effect onthe future of the planet and humanity.Taxes on income and consumption are perverse if we want to encouragework. It is true that as a redistributive tool, income tax has somemerit, since it can be tailored to different income levels. But VAT, the taxon consumption, is highly regressive, being paid equally by everyone.Poor people feel the effect of VAT much more than the rich.The positive reason for using alternative taxes relates to the negativeaspects of the levies described above. Through taxation we can encouragenew forms of economic activity and discourage — rather than simplybanning — some of the old. In particular we need to shift activityaway from the consumption of non-renewable or limited resources andaway from activities which have destructive effects — such as pollutionof land, air and water.It has become clear that the planet’s natural environment is under severethreat from modern economies. It is also clear that some aspects ofmodern economic activity create dangerous self-destructive instabilitiesas well as inequalities of access to income at an exponential rate. Thetaxation system could be a means to reconcile modern economies withsustainable ecosystems, sustainable economic systems and human fairness.On a small scale governments already do this. We tax cigarettes andalcohol explicitly to discourage addiction, as well as to raise funds; andwe exempt certain basic and nutritious foods from taxation to encouragehealthy eating by poor people. In other words we have taxed things wedo not want to happen, and removed taxes from what we do want. Butso far the scale is tiny.Another reason for new taxes is to incorporate into the price of theproduct all of its costs. At present some products cause problems to societyat large which society has to resolve. Industrial air pollution, forinstance, causes ill-health which individuals, health services, tax payersand others have to treat at cost to themselves.The cost of responding should be built into the product itself. This hasthe effect of ‘internalising’ the full cost, by making consumers pay a tax.For lack of this “full cost accounting” — which is used in measuring efficiencyin the market system — most goods and services traded todayhave been chronically under-priced and over-consumed. To not do soconstitutes a serious “market failure.”I propose that governments move from the first type of taxation (onwork, production and income) to the second (undesirable activity or useof scarce resources). Clearly the process needs to be gradual and strategicallyphased.For example, choosing to end corporation tax first would have the immediateeffect of encouraging investment; and would also gain powerfulallies for the alternative taxation approach. It would release resourcesfrom the often ill-matched cat-and-mouse game played between governmentsand corporations, the latter being adept, through the efforts oftheir well-paid advisers, at finding ways to hide profits.A very detailed study of alternative taxes has been carried out by anAmerican organisation, Sustainable America (SA), which describesthese as Taxes for Sustainability. Its latest report enumerates ten kinds ofenvironmentally friendly taxes. They provide income for governments,incentives for protecting the environment, and healthy development forcities. They are:A Land Value TaxThis proposes removing taxes on buildings and other improvements toland — and instead taxing the commercial value of the land only. This18 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

“People who create waste should pay for it directly rather than indirectlyas part of their payment of general rates...”would discourage speculative hoarding of land, encourage its best use,and reward decentralisation of activity to where land is cheapest. Theprinciple behind it is that when we use land we deprive others of its use,since it is a fixed and limited asset.Because its commercial value is a measure of its value to others it islogical to tax that value. It is not logical to tax the effort and resourcesthat people put into improving the land with buildings or other assets.A Tax on Carbon in FuelsThis would tax all non-renewable sources of energy, all of which arecarbon based. Clearly we need to discourage their rapid depletion, andencourage instead the application of technology to renewable energysources. Taxing carbon “upstream” — when it is mined — would privilegealternatives. Moreover, all production which uses carbon-basedprocesses, like transport, would be more expensive than those which donot. This would constructively privilege, for instance, locally grown foodover food which travels distances to consumers.A tax on motor vehicle emissions,managed through regular compulsory tests to all vehicles.A tax on industrial pollution of land, air and waterSo far, self-regulation and the use of legislation prohibiting such activityhas not been successful, but in the US there are already schemes interms of which companies must buy ‘permits for pollution’, which are ineffect taxes on discharges into the air, the earth or water.Some companies who discharge more than the legal amount can buypermits from others who do not need their full allowance. These chargesare used for the cleaning up process. There are moves to allow this samekind of trading in permits to take place between countries.A tax on municipal solid wastePeople who create waste should pay for it directly rather than indirectlyas part of their payment of general rates. Already some municipalitiesmake a charge for enterprises which need to dispose of waste. Othersmake a positive virtue of recycling by paying for waste products andturning them into new resources.A tax on fertilisers and pesticidesWhile adding to the profitability of the product to the owner, these createhealth hazards in the general population; and attention to these is notincluded in the price to the consumer.Taxation provides a way to internalise into the price of the product thefull cost of producing it. This would encourage organic food productionwhich would become relatively cheaper for not having used toxicsubstances.A tax on paperand other uses of timber, where the timber is not replaced by new planting.A tax on the use of water,especially in agriculture, to encourage least wasteful ways of irrigation,and to encourage recyclingA tax on fish harvested using methods that deplete stocksA tax on the mining of minerals, which are non-renewableresourcesAll of these will raise money by discouraging activity that poisons theearth or diminishes its capacity to regenerate. But it will be seen at oncethat some of them are in effect regressive, since poor people may be atleast as hard hit as the rich. A tax on petrol and all its uses will, for instance,make all transport and heating fuel more expensive. There is acase for subsidies where such hardship and inequality is caused.However, subsidies are not a new idea. At presently we perversely subsidisedestructive activities like the use of petrol-driven cars, by buildingroads, financing parking regulations and so on. Subsidies to reduce hardshipwould not be a new principle — only its more constructive aspect.Some alternative taxes would be best introduced at an international orregional level to limit the chance of tax evasion or disadvantaging onecountry as against another.But the great majority could be introduced by governments of nationstates without disadvantage. If for instance there were no agreement totax carbon fuels upstream, governments could tax the carbon content ofproducts as they landed: this is not much different from the marked differencesnow obvious in the rates at which petrol is now taxed.International taxesTwo other taxes are now under serious international consideration.“In particular we need toshift activity away from theconsumption of non-renewableor limited resources and awayfrom activities which havedestructive effects – such aspollution of land, air and water.”BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 19

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYalternative taxesThe first is the Tobin tax — named after a Swedish economist — whichwould help to reduce destabilising speculative capital flows by taxingeach transaction. As well as discouraging speculation — as opposed tocapital investment in productive enterprise — the tax would raise verylarge sums indeed.Currently $2-3 trillion is traded daily so that a tax of only 0.01% wouldraise enough money, say, to run the entire operations of the UN. Clearlythere is scope for a higher tax if it is to make an impact on the dangerousflows of speculative capital; and that would make chicken-feed of currenttax revenues.The second is a tax being taken up by Klaus Topfer of the UN EnvironmentProgramme. It is rather along the lines of the American traded‘pollution permits’. Topfer points out that the effects of climate change,due to the use of fossil fuels, are now so severe that they cannot be reversed,only contained. They include severe flooding, drought, El Ninoand rogue hurricanes.Every year the rich countries produce some 90% more greenhousegasses than the earth can cope with. Topfer proposes that since the richcountries apparently lack the political capacity to reduce their consumptionof these fuels, they should “buy” from the poor countries their allocationof the right to produce greenhouse gasses.The level of taxation is set by calculating how much the Earth can standin the way of destructive emissions and still regenerate. This total of sustainableemissions should be divided as to entitlement between the nationsof the world by population.The rich countries — who now use many times their entitlement —should pay the poorer countries for the use of their quota. The G7 countries(Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, andthe United States) are now running up annual carbon “debts” to the valueof $13 trillion. The Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), by contrast,have carbon credits to the value of £612 billion.This is three times the size of their conventional debt, on which Jubilee2000 is trying to make an impact. This constitutes not exactly a tax, but itshould be included in our thinking about alternative tax systems.Total Economic Activity Level (TEAL) taxationFinally, it is worth mentioning the fruits of a new Alternative TaxationAssociation, calling itself TEAL, which stands for Total Economic ActivityLevy. It suggests a transactions tax that would replace all others.Its principle virtue is that it is an extremely simple way of collectingtaxes. Its principle failing is that it does not specifically use taxation todiscourage harmful and encourage benign activities.The basic concept of a TEAL tax structure is the following:A small tax — say 0.5% — is levied on both sides of all transactionswhich are routed through financial institutions. For example if a R100transaction is effected, the seller is credited with R99.50, and the buyerwill pay an extra R0.50.Both will go directly to the Reserve Bank from the bank which has madethe transaction. The advantages are huge, including tax collection beingimmediate, unavoidable, continuous and predictable. It would spell theend of tax returns; the redeployment of tax lawyers and accountants tomore productive activities; and increased government revenues at muchlower cost. Attempts to avoid the tax by using cash would run up againstthe shortage of notes in the economy — now a small proportion of themoney which circulates.Although the simplicity of the TEAL proposal would be compromisedby widening it to include other taxation objectives, it does not seem inprinciple incompatible with alternative taxation having wider social purposes.The role of governmentWhatever our personal ideologies in terms of what proportion of nationalresources should be directed by government and what throughthe private sector, one thing is accepted by everyone, from the IMF toCOSATU.There is a potent role for government in all societies. Only governmentscan create national strategic public education and health systems,defence arrangements as well as transport infrastructures. Governmentsare needed to design and oversee energy creation and agricultural policies.In terms of productive enterprise, at the very least governmentsare needed to create conditions in which private enterprise can flourishwithin a regulatory framework. None of this is disputed today — noteven by the most fervent advocates of minimum government and privatisation.But government is inevitably inefficient, particularly if it is chronicallyunder-funded.“...taxation is set by calculatinghow much the Earth canstand in the way of destructiveemissions and still regenerate.”If the salaries paid are poor, if services provided decline, or if the publicsector is demoralised, the rest of the economy will decline with it. For thepast ten to fifteen years, governments everywhere have been teeteringon the edge of that situation because conventional forms of taxation arebecoming scarce. They still are.We need urgently to secure an agreed way to fund government activityout of the undoubtedly enlarging international capacity of regeneratingthe earth and its resources and of distributing them effectively. Thesealternatives deserve serious consideration.It will be argued that to the extent that alternative taxes have the desiredeffect of discouraging unwanted activities, they will also reduce revenues.That is true for some of these taxes, but by no means all.Land value taxation will bring in revenue, as long as humanity needsland to live. Most taxed activities will persist and the movement of internationalfootloose capital will continue.Cigarette and petrol taxes have reduced smoking and motoring to someextent; but revenues have risen as taxes have increased. There is no signthat increased taxes will succeed in altogether ending these practices.Indeed, alternative taxes and alternative tax structures have a great roleto play in the creation of a sustainable world. About the author: Margaret Legum helped found, and is chairpersonof, SANE, the South African New Economics Foundation. She studiedeconomics at Rhodes University and Cambridge. She and her latehusband, Colin, were banned from South Africa in 1962 after Margarethad launched a call for international sanctions against the apartheidregime. She now lives in the fishing viillage of Kalk Bay outside CapeTown and works as a lecturer and journalist.Find out more about SANE on their website: www.sane.org.za20 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

SPECIAL REPORT: MONEYyour money or your lifeThe World Bank, IMF, and neo-imperialismIf you’ve ever owed money to a bank, you’ll know it’s not a pleasant experience. Dependingon whether they think you’re good for the money, the bank will either screw you in the shortterm or milk you dry over the long term. Banks are in the business of making money andgenerally they’ll stop at nothing to get their way.Right now across the world, the lives of millions of people are in thehands of two of the most powerful financial institutions ever created– the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).These banks hold the lion’s share of the debt currently owed by the “ThirdWorld”. This debt first accumulated in the 1970s when poorer countriesborrowed in order to develop their economies. But when the world recessionhit in the 1980s huge numbers of countries found they couldn’trepay their loan – this was when the IMF and WB first stepped in.TurmoilTo understand why the so-called “debt crisis” has happened we need tolook back at why the WB and IMF were set up. This relates to when theworld economy collapsed for the first time 70 years ago – an event oftencalled the Great Depression.One of the major consequences of the Great Depression was the acknowledgementby those in power that the world economic system wasunstable. This instability has given rise to massive poverty and social turmoiland, for the elite, one of the most worrying consequences of thiswas the trend towards revolution in Europe, Asia and South America.When World War II neared conclusion, Bankers and Financiers fromthe Western countries met at Breton Woods to consider how best to minimisefuture economic instability and collapse. One of the key decisionstaken was to set up the IMF and WB.These two institutions would be financed by the Western Powers andtheir primary role would be to “manage” the international financial markets– realising money in times of shortage, withdrawing cash in timesof surplus. The WB and IMF played a major role in avoiding a world depressionwhen they took over responsibility for the “bad debt” incurredby the “Third World” countries by the mid-1980s.Much of this debt was initially owed to private banks like Barclays,Credit Lyons, Chase Manhattan etc. In order to stave off a disaster (andthe collapse of a number of major Western banks) the IMF and the WBmoved in and “loaned” money to a wide range of countries who wereabout to default on these loans.This saved the big “private banks” from disaster, and gave the IMFand WB a position of overwhelming power that they have never relinquished.ForceSince the mid-1980s nearly 70 countries in the world have been forcedto adopt “Structural Adjustment Programs” as conditions of loans andinfrastructural projects designed and developed by the WB and IMF.Backed up by the massive economic power of the United States, Japanand European Union these SAPs (as they are known) were supposed to“revive” Third World economies. Instead they have led to disaster andmassive poverty.Because of SAPs, local economies and wages have collapsed; basic serviceslike sanitation, water, housing, health and education have fallenapart. Meanwhile the burden of debt has been forced onto the poorest of“Right now across the world, thelives of millions of people arein the hands of two of the mostpowerful financial institutionsever created”the poor with the result that poverty has increased, life expectancy hasdeteriorated and infant mortality has soared.While it is not difficult to see why the SAPs have failed (instead of promotinginvestment they suck the money supply from local economies) itis important to remember that these programs were never intended to beanything other than harsh.More to the point SAPs have played an important role in the long-termeconomic strategy of the West. This strategy is all about making ThirdWorld economies more dependent on (or “integrated into”!) Westernneeds and in particular more open to exploitation by Western multinationals;SAPs also guarantee the West a massive supply of cheap labour.Democracy?The power that the IMF and WB now have is enormous. They are dictatingto millions of people how they should live and what they shoulddo. For many their policies mean a life of harsh exploitation and lowwages, or even an early death. We all want a world of freedom and justice,in which we have effective and meaningful control over the conditionsof our lives. A world economy in which the lives of millions arecontrolled by a small number of Western bankers leads in the oppositedirection. In fact, despite rampant poverty and desperation in the world,there is a massive surplus of wealth.The personal fortune of Bill Gates alone would sort out the majorhealth and educational needs of billions of people (with change left over).In other words, the problem is not the generation of wealth but how itis distributed. And the problem of wealth distribution, as we all know, isone of power and politics. Wealth is distributed according to the interestsof those with the power. After all, why is the “global South” in such debt?The historic exploitation of Africa, Asia and Latin America by Europeanimperialism is the root cause not only of the economic, political, andcultural destabilisation of most of the world’s people, but the continuinglegacy of the WB and IMF themselves. In the current era, these centralisedfinancial institutions are simply puppets of the Northern politicalelite and their corporate bosses, designed to maintain control on thehands of a few. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 21

CLIMATE CHANGEdry... or ice?GLOBAL WARMING REVEALEDby Drunvalo MelchizedekWhat you are about to read is going to changeyour world forever, this I can promise you. I actuallyapologize that I have to be the one whobrings this unsettling news, but you must knowif you wish to survive, for what is coming willeither be DRY and heat or ICE and freezing.Global warming has been in the news for over40 years, and by this time we have become complacent.Our scientists have come to the agreementthat global warming will eventually causemajor changes and problems in the world, butin their way of thinking it will be 50 to 100 yearsbefore we will actually have to deal with the effects.The general idea is that global warming willbe slow and the world will find time to discoverthe solutions to the problems. New powerfulevidence strongly suggests that this scenario issimply wrong, and we had better prepare for anothermore abrupt possibility.Discovery MagazineOne of the first hints that something may bedifferent than what we are being told (especiallyhere in the US) was published in Discovermagazine in September 2002 with the cover announcing“Global Warming Surprise, A NewIce Age”, “Oceanographers have discovered ahuge river of fresh water in the Atlantic formedby melting polar ice. They warn it could soonbury the Gulf Stream, plunging North Americaand Europe into frigid winters.”That was almost two years ago, and no onelistened. Life goes on oblivious to the incredibledanger approaching.England & Sir David KingThen in January 2004 enter Sir David King.Sir King is the Prime Minister of England’s chiefscientist. Sir King went to Mr. Blair and toldhim of the impending worldwide disaster andthat they needed to tell the world of what wasabout to happen.Tony Blair told Sir David King to be quiet andnot speak. But Sir King felt that this was simplytoo important for him to say nothing, so inJanuary of this year he deliberately went aroundMr. Blair and went straight to the Americanjournal Science where he published his informationand concern.Sir King said in this article, “In my view, climatechange is the most severe problem we arefacing today, more serious even than the threatof terrorism.”England placed a gag order on Sir David King,and now he is not even allowed to discuss thissubject publicly without threat of detention.America & The PentagonA month later in February 2004, the Pentagonbecame involved, which has stirred the world toaction.The Pentagon has been studying GlobalWarming for many years because of its possiblenational security problems associated with thekind of changes that could present themselvesto the world through Global Warming.A special study was conducted through oneof the Pentagon’s departments, the Office of NetAssessment, which is directed by Andrew W.Marshall, 83, who has the responsibility of identifyinglong-term threats to the United States.Mr. Marshall went to a US based think-tankcalled Global Business Network to compile thepossibilities of Global Warming on US nationalsecurity. A study was completed in October of2003 and released to the Pentagon, which waslooking at this problem from the point of viewof what is the worst that could happen. It wasnamed “An Abrupt Climate Change Scenarioand Its Implications for United States NationalSecurity.” The summary went far beyond whatmost Pentagon experts had expected.Realizing the incredible possibilities of thisstudy, Mr. Marshall made a decision to publiclyreport this and other information to the Americanpeople. And probably because of PresidentBush’s stance on Global Warming, which isbeyond negative, he also decided to go aroundthe president, and he published his informationand concern in Fortune magazine on February9th 2004.In his article in Fortune, Mr. Marshall explainshow the melting North and South poles and glaciersfrom around the world are composed offresh water and within this fact is the basis ofthe impending global weather disaster.The Gulf Stream or scientifically referred toas North Atlantic thermohaline conveyor is astream of warm water that comes from southof the equator and flows over the surface of theocean toward the north where this warm waterkeeps Northern America and Northern andWestern Europe from freezing. It also holdsmost of the world’s weather patterns in the waywe are used to.Then as this Gulf Stream cools down, it dropsto the bottom of the ocean and returns as a riverin the ocean to the south where it warms upagain and rises to the surface and then returnsto the north one more time in a continuous convectioncurrent. It is a huge three dimensionalfigure eight.The motor that keep this warm water flowing isfound in the north where the Gulf Stream dropsto the bottom of the ocean. It is the salt densityof the ocean that causes this river to drop andpulls the warm water up from the south.Now that the poles are melting and fresh wateris flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and thesalt density is decreasing, the Gulf Stream doesnot drop quiet as far, which results in a slowingdown of this Stream. The Gulf Stream has beendramatically slowing down now for at least tenyears.As the Gulf Stream slows down, the warmthis not brought to the North Atlantic region, andthe weather patterns begin to change for theyare dependent on this warmth to keep a balance.The Melting PolesThe Bush AdministrationDuring the Bush administration when discussionshave been held on the melting of theNorth & South Poles, this government and UScorporate entities alike have stated that theworld’s scientists are all wrong on their conclusionsthat say there is great danger, and have ledthe American public to believe there is no realproblem at all.However, George W. Bush was the focus of attackby Sir David King when he wrote his articlein Science, for the world’s greatest scientificminds, at least one thousand seven hundred ofthem with the Union of Concerned Scientistssay that Mr. Bush is ill informed at the least.Since the US government is 25% of the CO2pollution in the world that is creating Global22 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

“The general idea is that global warming will be slow and the worldwill find time to discover the solutions to the problems. New powerfulevidence strongly suggests that this scenario is simply wrong, and we hadbetter prepare for another more abrupt possibility.”Warming, a discussion of Mr. Bush’s GlobalWarming policies is paramount. Perhaps oneof the best articles that summaries Mr. Bush’sposition will be found in the Rolling Stonesmagazine article of May 19, 2004 by Tim Dickinson.What follows in italics is a portion of thisarticle. Given the imminent threat from globalwarming, even the Bush administration mightbe expected to launch a War on Heat. After all,as a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush vowedto “establish mandatory reduction targets” forcarbon-dioxide emissions, saying he wouldmake the issue a top priority.Once Bush became president, however, reducingcarbon emissions was the first promisehe broke – and his record has been all downhillfrom there. Only two months after taking office,the administration withdrew from the KyotoProtocol, the global treaty that the United Statessigned in 1997 to set strict limits on greenhouseemissions. Instead, Bush instituted a voluntaryemissions plan that has been an abject failure:So far, only fourteen companies have pledged tocurb their CO2 output.The president also folded the interagencygroup that monitors climate change into theCommerce Department -- led by Secretary DonEvans, a former oil and gas executive. And hecalled for additional climate research that woulddelay any meaningful regulation for at least anotherdecade. “We do not know how much ourclimate could or will change in the future,” Bushdeclared in a speech in the Rose Garden. Suchstatements spurred an open letter signed bytwenty Nobel laureates, who blasted the administrationfor having “consistently sought to undermine”public understanding of man’s role inglobal warming. (Bush’s science adviser refusedto be interviewed for this article.)Then the censorship began. In September2002, the Environmental Protection Agency releasedan air-quality report that - for the firsttime since 1996 - included no mention of globalwarming. Seven months later, the White Housemade wholesale revisions to the climate-changechapter of the EPA’s “Report on the Environment,”playing down human influence, deletingreferences to the health impacts of globalwarming and inserting climate data funded inpart by the American Petroleum Institute. TheThe Muir and Adams Glaciers in 1899 (top photo)... by the time the bottom photo wastaken in 2003 the Muir and Adams glaciers have disappeared, and the hills are coveredin vegetation.EPA withdrew the altered chapter, acknowledgingin an internal memo that it “no longer accuratelyrepresents scientific consensus on climatechange.”Even some Republicans have been astoundedat Bush’s meddling in EPA affairs. “What seemsconstantly evident with George W. Bush is thatEPA is expected to take its marching ordersfrom the White House on regulatory matters,”says Russell Train, who headed the agency underRichard Nixon and Gerald Ford. “Duringmy time, I never had that happen. Never.” Train,a recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedomfrom the elder Bush, calls the administration’sapproach to global warming “totally wrong”and “irresponsible.”Bush can rely on key Republicans in Congressto block any efforts to curb pollution andstave off disaster. Sen. James Inhofe, chairmanof the Environment and Public Works Committee,dismisses global warming as a “hoax.” In aspeech last July, Inhofe compared the IPCC tothe Soviets and extolled the virtues of what hecalled a “CO2-enhanced” world. “It is my ferventhope,” he concluded, “that Congress willreject the prophets of doom who peddle propagandamasquerading as science in the name ofsaving the planet from catastrophic disaster.”From another point of view in the same articlewe hear: “They (the Bush Administration)BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 23

CLIMATE CHANGEdry... or ice?do not have a credible plan, either domesticallyor internationally, for addressing the problem(Global Warming), says Michael Oppenheimer,a climatologist at Princeton University. They(the Bush Administration) argue that they don’twant to address global warming, he says, ‘becausethe science is shaky’. And that approach isindefensible, because the science isn’t shaky.”The North Pole MeltingLet’s look at the facts. Two summers ago theNorth Pole completely melted for the first timein history that we know of. Both private andmilitary ships floated directly over the actualNorth Pole as it was completely water. This areahas never been seen to be less then ten feet ofsolid ice.Greenpeace a few years ago announced thatthe North Pole’s winter to summer snow packhad receded by around 180km, but no one listened.Larsen B ledge that was behind Larsen A ledgewould never melt as it has been there for manyice ages. Yet last year, Larsen’s B ledge broke offand went to sea.These same scientists said that it would takesix months to melt because of its immense size,but again they were wrong. It melted in a mere35 days, and more significant, it rose the entireworld’s oceans by almost an inch.Now with Larsen’s B ledge gone, an incrediblyenormous ice shelf called Ross’s Shelf isexposed. If Ross’s Shelf were to slide into theocean, it has been estimated that it would raisethe entire world’s oceans by 5 to 8 meters.And that, my friends, would change the world,as almost every coastal city in the world andmany islands along with the Netherlands wouldbe underwater.Perhaps it will take an event like this to wakeup the world to become serious about GlobalWarming.bowl and the mountain forests burned to theground, just as they are doing right now today,for you see, this slowing down of the GulfStream has been going on today for about tenyears. It also affected Europe dramatically astheir weather changed completely during the“Little Ice Age”.A study of the Anasazi Indians of the 14thcentury is enlightening. In Chaco Canyon inNew Mexico the Anasazi completely disappeared,and where they went no one is sure.But one of the reasons that has emerged fromthe study of the New Mexico environment fortheir leaving the area is that soon after the turnof the 14th century, Chaco Canyon went into adrought where they didn’t receive a drop of rainfor 47 years! 47 years of drought will definitelycause anyone to move. No water, no life.The archeologists who presented this studydidn’t know why the drought happened, but it isclear why it happened with the information of“If Ross’s Shelf were to slide into the ocean, it has been estimated thatit would raise the entire world’s oceans by 5 to 8 meters. And that, myfriends, would change the world...”And today, as I am writing this article, we arewitnessing the Alaska fire that has consumedover one million acres of forest. This fire isburning in an area that is always wet with rainor snow until now. And this fire, as you will understandin this article is directly related to themelting of the poles and the Gulf Stream.But finally the Pentagon, thanks to AndrewMarshall, has told the truth in the Fortunemagazine on February 9th. The Pentagon showsa satellite photo of the North Pole in 1970 andthen in 2003, which reveals that, according tothe Pentagon, 40% of the North Pole has meltedin just 33 years.And it is melting faster and faster now. ThePentagon has now proven that all these governmentstatements that the poles are not meltingwere simply a lie.The South Pole MeltingIn the South Pole a couple of years ago LarsenA ledge broke off, which surprised many scientists.At that time we were told by the scientificpersonnel that were studying this event that itwas no big deal since this ice ledge had onlybeen connected to the South Pole for about thelast ten thousand years.And these same scientists also added thatThe Ancient Past: 1300 ADThe Pentagon in their study of what is nowhappening in the North Atlantic ocean, haslooked into the past to see when this slowingdown or stoppage of the Gulf Stream has happenedbefore and what actually took place atthose time in the world’s weather patterns.In actual fact, this North Atlantic ocean slowingor stoppage has happen hundreds of timesbefore in the past going back hundred of millionsyears, but in our recent past of the last10,000 years, it has only happened twice.The most recent time was in the year 1300 AD,and at that time it simply slowed down. It neveractually stopped. And why it slowed down, scientistsare at the moment theorizing. They don’treally know why.It resulted in abrupt global climatic weatherchanges that never returned to normal for 550years. This period of time in our history hasbeen named the “Little Ice Age” because of thehavoc it caused to our weather and the dramaticcooling that resulted.What the Pentagon has realized is that atthat time of the “Little Ice Age”, the East Coastof America became extremely cold, while themiddle and Western areas of the United Statesbecame so dry that the Midwest became a dustthe Gulf Stream slowing down just before thisperiod. And this is exactly what the Pentagonbelieves is about to happen here in America,Canada and Europe.8200 Years AgoHowever, the Pentagon report believes thatthe Gulf Stream, from everything they know, isnot just going to slow down, but rather it is goingto stop. And the last time this happened was8200 years ago.And according to the Pentagon, from their research,this is a much more dramatic scenario.When the Gulf Stream stopped 8200 years ago,it soon left Northern Europe under 800 metersof ice, and New York and England quickly enduredweather similar to Siberia.Furthermore, it resulted in a true “Ice Age”that lasted about 100 years, and so you can seewhy the Pentagon is so worried.Realize that without stable weather conditions,the growing of food becomes almostimpossible, and according to the Pentagon,this could become such a huge problem for theworld in the near future, that wars will begin toform all over the world, not for oil or energy, butfor food and water.And with whole countries having to evacuate,24 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

if this were to happen, such as Finland, Swedenand Denmark, which will all be under ice, andmany other countries for other reasons, thisenormous immigration is what will cause themost threat to national security, again accordingto the Pentagon report. This is why AndrewMarshall and Sir David King wanted the worldto know about what was coming so that theworld could begin to prepare for the inevitable.The US SenateThen in March 2004 the US Senate becameaware of what the Pentagon was saying and theyappropriated 60 million dollars to the studyof abrupt global climate changes. This offershope that soon the US Senate will begin to tellthe world of these coming climate changes.The United NationsIn June 2004, ending on June 29th, a meetingwas held at the United Nations to considerwhat to do about Global Warming and the GulfStream. 154 countries participated with the resultthat the only thing they could figure outwhat to do was to eliminate the use of oil andgasoline as soon as possible.There are those who believe that if we continueto lower the CO2 levels, that possibly wecan slow down the problems, and, of course, wemust do everything we can. But really, to changeor increase the current of the entire Atlanticocean to bring it back to “normal” is beyondthe capabilities of the human race and all of itstechnologies.It is too late, by the estimate of most of theworld’s scientists, to alter the course of what isabout to happen.The 40-foot WallIn the Pentagon report it suggests that theUnited States build a 40-foot wall around theentire country to keep out people who are immigratingand trying to escape world weatherproblems. The Pentagon believes that food andwater will be the biggest problem, and sincethe US has the money to buy food, they believethe US will be best able to resist this particularproblem longer than most countries.This sounds like something out of a weirdmovie, but in fact the US government has alreadybegun the construction of this wall betweenthe US and Mexico.Speaking of movies, The Day After Tomorrow,which was recently released is based onthis information of the Gulf Stream stopping.However, Hollywood exaggerated the resultsof the storms so much that most people simplythought it was fantasy.It is not fantasy, it is really happening, but willThe bottom photo, taken in 2004, of Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park shows changesto Riggs Glacier in Muir Inlet and the growth of vegetation from 1941 (top photo), whenthe glacier was 800 meters thick.it happen as this movie predicts? And in thismovie you saw massive amount of Americansfleeing to Mexico to escape the extreme coldweather.I recently spoke with a US military personwho is involved in the construction of this 40-foot wall. In the discussion, with him aboutthe Gulf Stream, which he was unaware of, hesaid, “Oh, now I understand. You see, the wallis straight up and down on the Mexican side,but it has steps and ladders on the US side to getover the wall and into Mexico. I never could understandwhy the government was doing this.”In the Pentagon report they said that theybelieved that the stoppage of the Gulf Streamwould probably happen in three to five yearsfrom October 2003. This was their best guess,and admittedly it was only a guess and a theory.But what they didn’t know, because it wasbeginning at the actual time of their release oftheir report, was that the Gulf Stream was beginningto change shape.The change of shape of the Gulf Stream isthe beginning of the breakdown and stoppageof this warm water current and the end of ourcivilization as we know it. More on our website:www.biophile.co.za/climatechangeBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 25

PEAK OILwhen the oil runs out...CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT IS COMING TO AN END SOON.This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society.Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, and investmentbankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by aphenomenon known as global “Peak Oil.”David Ross interviews Dr. Richard HeinbergHow important is oil to industrial societies?HEINBERG: It’s about as important to industrialsocieties as water is to fish. The industrialrevolution was, basically, all about fossil fuels.Coal came first, but when oil was harnessed,humankind discovered the cheapest, mostabundant source of energy ever. As a result,we’ve increased our human population fromjust a few hundred million at the start of theindustrial revolution, to over six billion, threehundred million now. We’re adding about abillion people every 12 years at current rates.This is something that’s never been seen before.We’ve added more people since 1999 than existedin the world just a few hundred years ago.This is an indication of the incredible impactthat fossil fuels have had on human societies.Additionally, we’ve invented all sorts of technologiesto take advantage of this energy subsidythrough transportation, communications,manufacturing, etc. Machines now do thingsthat were formally done by human or animalmuscle power. We also do all sorts of thingswith machines that we didn’t do at all before.So fossil fuels have changed our way of life, ourview of the world, how many of us live on theplanet, how we live, and where we live.You talk about the Hubbert oil curveand its implications?that curve. If there’s a war or the price of oilchanges, or a country voluntarily decides to restrictexports, those can alter the oil extractionprofile. But even so, what goes up must eventuallycome down and so depletion can be mathematicallymodeled even if the graph is fairlybumpy.When Hubbert applied his methods to theUnited States, which was the world’s foremostoil producing nation for many decades, he determinedthat the halfway point of extractionwould occur around 1970. Sure enough, just asHubbert predicted, US oil production peakedin 1970 and it’s been going down ever since.We’re extracting about as much conventionalonshore oil in the US now as we were in 1940,which is much less than was being extractedin 1970, and that’s the reason we’re more andmore dependent on imported oil from placeslike Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iraq.Using Hubbert’s method, it’s also possible topredict when global oil production will peak.The scary thing is, the peak is likely not thatfar off. No one is absolutely sure, because it isimpossible to determine exactly how much oilis yet to be discovered. Some countries havepolitical motives for underreporting or overreportingtheir reserves. But the best guesses arethat we’re only a few years away from the globaloil production peak.What will happen when we pass thepeak of the Hubbert oil curve?Once we hit the peak, every year thereafterwe will be unable to find and pump more oil.If the demand continues at the present rate orgrows, the supply will be inadequate and thatwill have tremendous economic implicationsfor the whole world. Either we have to find otherenergy sources to make up for what we losefrom petroleum as it begins to run out or elsewe will go into permanent economic declinewith vast implications for the economy, foodproduction, transportation, and so on.Can we find alternative energy sourcesin time to replace oil?That’s a surprisingly tough question becausethere are very few scientists out there who aredoing good comparative studies of the variousenergy alternatives. We have companies thatare invested in particular energy alternatives,M. King Hubbert was the first geologist tomake a fairly accurate estimate of the total recoverablequantity of oil—first in North Americaand then later in the world as a whole. Hewas also the first petroleum geologist to understandthe principles of oil depletion.Hubbert realized that, for any given oil province,when about half the oil is gone, productiontends to peak. The reason is that we naturallygo after the easy, cheap oil first and, bythe time about half of the total amount of oilis gone, the easy stuff tends to run out; then itbecomes more difficult to extract what’s left.So there’s a bell-shaped curve to productionthat seems to apply across the board. Economicand political factors can change the shape ofThe Hubbert Curve predicted that US oil production would peak in 1970, and that world oilproduction would peak around 2000.26 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

Richard Heinberg is a professor at the Santa Rosa branch of the New College of California where he teaches courses on Culture,Ecology, and Sustainable Community.He is the author of five books, including A New Covenant with Nature: Notes on the End of Civilization and the Renewal of Cultureand Cloning the Buddha: The Moral Impact of Biotechnology. His latest books include The Party’s Over: Oil, War, and the Fate ofIndustrial Societies and Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World.that are doing their own studies, but they understandablyhave a certain bias. What we needare objective studies comparing the alternativeson the basis of a series of clear, transparent criteria,like: Are they renewable?What’s their environmental cost?What’s their energy profit ratio?You see, it takes energy to get energy. It takesenergy to drill an oil well. It takes energy tomanufacture a photovoltaic solar panel. But theenergy profit ratio is different for each of the alternativesand that figure needs to be objectivelydetermined. Suppose we were to invest $100billion dollars over the next ten years in makinga transition to a hydrogen economy and thendiscovered that, in fact, hydrogen has a lot ofhidden costs. Well, we can’t afford to lose tenyears and $100 billion dollars going down thewrong road at this point.and the problem of radioactive waste storagehas not been solved.With wind, you can only place turbines incertain places. (Wind is probably the best of thealternatives, in my view.) With solar, the sunonly shines part of the day and some regionsare often cloudy. Photovoltaics, right now, arestill quite expensive and not very many peopleare willing to make the investment.Hydrogen is not even an energy source; it’sjust an energy storage medium. Yes, we couldrun cars on hydrogen, but where are we goingto get enough hydrogen to run millions of vehicles?Either it has to be made from fossil fuels—which are the source of nearly all commerciallyavailable hydrogen today—or from water usingelectrolysis.But making hydrogen from water takes moreenergy in the form of electricity than the hydrogenwill give you later on.Again: Where will we get all of this extra electricity?Are we going to get it from nuclear, solar, orwind? If we choose any of these alternatives,it means dramatically increasing our energybudget for electricity production at a time whenwe’re going to be suffering from the economiceffects of petroleum and natural gas depletion.We’re not prepared to make a huge investmentin new electrical generating capacity nowand we will be even less prepared then.this is what William Catton—who wrote thebook Overshoot, in the 1980s—called phantomcarrying capacity. It’s carrying capacitythat may vanish as fossil fuels disappear fromour lives.What’s the size of that phantom carrying capacity?Nobody knows for sure, but if we lookback to how many people planet Earth supportedbefore we started using oil, we find itwas fewer than two billion. We now have oversix billion.So, even granting that we’ve discovered waysof keeping people alive through better sanitationand so on, ways that might be sustainableusing relatively little energy, the fact is thatwe’ve probably overshot our carrying capacityand we may need to find ways to reduce the humanload on the environment if we’re all goingto survive.Are there alternatives that can replaceoil?We don’t know for sure, but there’s little causefor complacent assurance right now. The reasonI say that is that most of the renewable alternativeslike nuclear, wind, and solar have variousdrawbacks.Nuclear power is expensive and dangerousHow does human carrying capacityfit into the context of the Hubbert oilcurve?Can you talk about the different optionsfor our future as we pass thepeak of the Hubbert curve?Plan A, what I call Plan War, is what we’repursuing right now. Whoever has the mostguns and bombs will compete with everyoneelse for the remaining resources and use themtill they’re gone.“Powerdown would require changing our whole way of life, going from aconsuming society to an efficient society, going from a growth society toa society that’s steady-state and even reducing its scale year after year.”We have artificially increased the carryingcapacity for human beings on planet earth.Carrying capacity is how many individuals ofa given species can be supported by the environment.That number tends to vary, dependingon weather, rainfall, etc. Carrying capacitychanges for just about every species from yearto year.Human beings have found a way to artificially—andprobably only temporarily—enlargeour carrying capacity with industrial agriculture,expanded transportation networks, technology,better sanitation, better medical care,etc.The problem is that this expanded carryingcapacity is dependent on a non-renewable resource,namely, fossil fuels. So this is not permanentcarrying capacity that we’ve created;Of course, the situation is a bit more complicatedthan that. Obviously, the US didn’t conquerIraq so that we could literally build a pipelinedirectly from Basra to Houston. I think theUS has economic and geopolitical reasons forwanting to control the price of global oil. Iraqis a pivotal country in terms of the future of oilproduction. It has the second largest reservesand it’s between Saudi Arabia and Iran.Saudi Arabia has the largest reserves, but it’spolitically unstable and it’s unclear what wouldhappen in Saudi Arabia if the governmentthere were to fall. Having a large military pres-BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 27

PEAK OILwhen the oil runs out...ence next door to Saudi Arabia must make a lot ofsense in the minds of the geostrategists.So that’s Plan A and it doesn’t look like it’s goingto have a very happy ending because one canforesee more and more armed conflicts betweenheavily militarized consuming nations and poorerresource-rich producer nations. Eventually, therewill be conflicts between competing consumingnations. China, for example, wants to industrialize.China is using more and more oil every year.But if global oil production peaks, that meansthe Chinese will be in direct competition for everybarrel of oil with the already developed countrieslike the US So how are we going to work that out?Using nuclear bombs? I hope not, but right now Idon’t see any other thinking going on.Plan B, what I call Plan Powerdown, wouldentail some kind of national and global processfor deliberately reducing our dependence onfossil fuels.It would require changing our economy so it’s nolonger a growth economy. It would require dealingwith population issues, so that we’re puttingless of a load on existing resources. It would requiredealing with the problem of economic inequalitywithin and among nations because themore economic inequality we have, the higher thelikelihood of conflict.Powerdown would require changing our wholeway of life, going from a consuming society toan efficient society, going from a growth societyto a society that’s steady-state and even reducingits scale year after year. That’s politically very difficult.The last person to attempt something likethat, in this country anyway, was Jimmy Carter—and look what happened to him when a politicalopponent came along promising a return to timesof plenty. Still, if in the US, people realized what’sat stake and what the long-term consequences oftheir path will be, I think many, if not most, wouldbe interested in following Plan B.Plan C, what I call Plan Snooze, entails doinglittle or nothing while the problem is temporarilydenied or wished away.There are all sorts of people assuring us that themarket can take care of any resource shortages. Orthat all of the intelligent people working on theproblem will surely come up with an easy solution.Or that we will see an effortless transition toa hydrogen economy.If you watch television and read the newspapers,you will see that this is a popular message. It’s whatthe corporations are telling us and it’s what we allwant to hear.Unfortunately, the problem with Plan C, as faras I can tell, is it’s probably wishful thinking. Thenthe only option we will likely have left is militaryconfrontation over the remaining resources. Is peak oil a secret?Don’t bet on a conspiracy here, but plenty of players aren’t forthright, oneseems blind, and OPEC hides the ball.The oil industry’s job is to extract oil and make a profit for investors. They’reunder no obligation to study peak oil and sound an alarm. Most avoid thesubject, with some exceptions. In 2000, BP’s CEO Lord John Browne showedworld economic leaders BP’s projection that world oil would peak and flattenout by the year 2010. Back in 1989, Shell’s retiring CEO projected a peakin world oil production of 2010.A review of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) take onpeak oil disappoints. Essentially, they project what future demand will be,then calculate where the oil could come from to meet the demand. The resultingmessage: don’t worry, be happy. Futurist Peter Schwartz, author ofThe Art of the Long View, says bluntly, “...the Federal government in D.C.is systematically unable to think about the future. By definition, all theirpolicies must be successful and they have fore-seen every problem.” EIA’sforecasting resembles that remark.OPEC is the wild card here. How much oil do they really have? How fastcan and will they produce it?Two reactionsBack in 1956, when Hubbert told the oil industry that U.S. oil productionshould peak in about 1970, he nailed it. In an interview with this writer in1988, Hubbert recalled that in 1956, oil industry and government reactionssplit evenly. Half his audience was in denial. “It won’t happen during ourlifetimes” was a typical line. The other half was bummed: “Why did youhave to ruin our day?”Most economists who examine the peak oil issue today complacently figureit will be a non-issue tomorrow. “We’re clever. We’ll figure out substitutes.The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.”I’ve read their perspectives and am not persuaded. They highlight newprojects, yet ignore the daily declines of older fields worldwide. They soundlike the critics during the 1950s and 1960s calling Hubbert a fool for hispeaking prediction that ended up on target.Today’s peak oil alarmists include retired petroleum geologists and scientists,primarily Europeans. Given the world’s lack of awareness about peakoil, they foresee the world economy smashing into a wall. In this country,Simmons speaks out more frequently and forcefully than anyone else aboutworld oil issues. Back in 2001, he urged a “Marshall Plan” to drill our wayout of our looming oil and natural gas problems. Now he seems more soberedby the scale of the changes we face, stressing the need for a balancedenergy policy and the probability of a gradually shrinking economy.Why does this matter?We’re the Oil Tribe. Oil is our lifeblood. No other material has so profoundlychanged the face of the world in such a short time.Oil supplies about 40 percent of the world’s commercial energy needs vs.25 percent from natural gas and 25 per-cent from coal. Most importantly,the transportation sector relies 95 percent on petroleum products. That’sbecause oil is our most concentrated, flexible and convenient fuel. Withoutoil, 2 percent of Americans don’t feed the remaining 98 percent. Oil is thefeedstock for paint, plastics, pesticides and thousands of other products. by Steve Andrews, Built Green Colorado28 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

GENETIC ENGINEERINGwas learned all to harshly in Cambodia duringthe rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.Cambodia lost most of its native species of ricewhen Pol Pot insisted on bringing in Chinesevarieties. Those varieties were ill-suited toCambodian conditions and the result was famine.While returning refugees did bring some ofthe traditional varieties of rice back with them,many species have been lost forever.The lessons of history are lost on the Bushgovernment and their former Coalition Proviit’stime to stop the ordersploughing for profitsA US PLOT TO PATENT LIFE IN A COUNTRY THAT HAS BEEN FARMING FOR OVER 11 000 YEARS.Under the guise of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally re-engineer the country’straditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. They’ve even created a new law – Order 81– to make sure it happens. By Reverend Blair of Vive le CanadaBetween 9,000 and 10,000 BCE small groupsof hunter-gatherers living in the fertile crescentthat is now Iraq began saving seedsfrom wild grains and planting them.People began domesticating dogs and sheepin the region at approximately the sametime. It was the beginning of agriculture andthe single development that allowed modernsociety to form.“In other words a farmer who has done nothing but to follow traditional farmingmethods that go back to the very dawn of human civilisation can lose not only hiscrop and the bread made from it, but may also lose his tractor, plough, and storagefacilities. ”The saving and sharing of seeds in Iraq has, asin other places, always been a largely informalmatter. Local varieties of grain and legumeshave been adapted to local conditions over themillennia. These strains of plant, developed bytraditional methods, are resistant to desert conditions.They are not only a national treasurefor Iraq but could well hold the genetic key toagriculture in other areas as global warmingshifts our climate.Before the US invasion of Iraq many of theseseeds were being kept at a seed bank in the AbuGhraib suburb of Baghdad. The facility was destroyedduring the invasion, but Iraqi scientistshad sent the heritage seeds to InternationalCenter for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas(ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria.According to Fred Pearce in an article inNew Scientist, Adel El-Beltagy, director-generalof ICARDA, described the importanceof that single box like this. “When the time isright, its contents will form the basis for plantbreeding to restore Iraqi agriculture and endthe country’s reliance on food aid. The box alsohas a global importance, as among the seedsare varieties of crops with inbuilt resistance toextreme heat, drought and salinity. These couldbe invaluable for plant breeding programmesworldwide in the coming century.”That may be overly optimistic.Although heritage seeds can address manyissues exceedingly well, they tend to becomeextremely rare or extinct when varieties fromelsewhere are introduced. This is a lesson thatBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 29

GENETIC ENGINEERINGploughing for profitssional Authority administrator in Iraq though.On April 26, 2004 Paul Bremer issued Order 81,Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information,Integrated Circuits and Plant VarietyLaw into Iraqi law.Order 81 makes a very basic change to Iraqipatent law.It allows the patenting of biologic material,opening the way for genetically modified cropsto be introduced into the country. This isn’t surprisingconsidering the massive political contributionscompanies like Monsanto contributeto political parties. The inclusion of plant materialsinto Iraqi patent law is little more than ablatant political favour in return for campaigncontributions.Order 81 very much goes against the UnitedNations Millennium Forum Declaration whichstates the goals of governments involved in theproject being, among other things, “To movetowards economic reforms aimed at equity, inparticular to construct macroeconomic policiesthat combine growth with the goal of humandevelopment and social justice; to prevent theimpoverishment of groups that have emergedfrom poverty but are still vulnerable to socialrisks and exclusion; to improve legislation onlabour standards, including the provision ofa minimum legal wage and an effective socialsystem; and to restore people’s control over primaryproductive resources as a key strategy forpoverty eradication.”The declaration goes on to say, “To promotethe use of indigenous crops and traditional productionskills to produce goods and services.”Then later, “To exempt developing countriesfrom implementing the WTO Trade-RelatedIntellectual Property Rights Agreement and totake these rights out of any new rounds of negotiations,ensuring that no such new issues areintroduced,” and,“To examine and regulate transnational corporationsand the increasingly negative influenceof their trade on the environment. Theattempt by companies to patent life is ethicallyunacceptable.”That all seems fairly clear. The internationalcommunity very much wants to protect theright of farmers in developing nations to continueplanting crops that they have developedto grow in the climate and soil conditions of thearea they live in.The Bush administration, as usual, hasput the profits of multinational corporationsahead of the needs and rightsof people.Order 81 not only prohibits the practice ofsaving patented seeds brought into the country,but allows the patenting of new varietiesdeveloped from existing seeds through scientificplant breeding or genetic modification. Toachieve a patent on a new plant, that plant mustmeet stringent standards that farmers’ seedscannot meet, so only corporate-owned seedstrains can be patented.Since it is almost impossible to prevent geneticpollution once a variety of seeds is releasedinto the environment, it is likely that any cropsgrown in Iraq alongside genetically modifiedor scientifically bred and patented varieties willpick up part of patented genetic codes within adecade.This is even more probable given the recordof illegal releases of such materials in places likeIndia. Once a plant is found to have patentedgenetic material it belongs to the company thatdeveloped that particular material.If an Iraq farmer saves traditional seeds andhis crops have been cross-pollinating with aneighbour’s patented variety, then the seed-savingfarmer no longer owns his crop or anythingmade from it.According to Order 81, “The court may orderthe confiscation of the infringing variety as wellas the materials and tools substantially used inthe infringement of the protected variety. Thecourt may also decide to destroy the infringingvariety as well as the materials and tools or todispose of them in any noncommercial purpose.”In other words a farmer who has done nothingbut to follow traditional farming methods thatgo back to the very dawn of human civilisationcan lose not only his crop and the bread madefrom it, but may also lose his tractor, plough,and storage facilities.That seems a rather unfair price for an Iraqifarmer to pay for George Bush’s campaign contributions,but the bio-tech companies neednew markets.In the end the Iraqi farmer will have twochoices. To try to grow crops from seeds of existingcrops that have become rare during decadesof war and sanctions or to buy seeds fromcompanies like Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta andBayer. If they choose the first option they riskaccidentally running afoul of a law imposed onthem by the US government. If they choose thesecond option they risk poverty and future foodshortages. Quite the choice to have to make.While Iraq does represent a lucrative marketfor the patented seed companies, there is alonger-term goal being sought by the Bush administrationand its friends in the business ofgenetically modifying crops.By introducing more and more geneticallymodified plant varieties into the world market,the world’s supplies of non-patented, non-geneticallymodified crops slowly become contaminated.Eventually those governments thathave resisted allowing genetically modifiedcrops into their markets will have little choicebut to capitulate to demands that they allow geneticallymodified materials.Iraq and other nations that can be forced toaccede to the demands of the US governmentrepresent a beachhead, a foothold to force thewill of George Bush’s campaign contributorsonto the rest of the world. 30 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

GENETIC ENGINEERING12 reasons for Africa toreject GM cropsAfrica is fast becoming a dumping ground for the GM industry and a laboratory for frustrated scientists.The proponents of GM technology sell a sweet message of GM crops bringing the second green revolutionand the answer to African hunger, but a closer look makes it clear thatGM crops have no place in African agriculture.By Zachary Makanya of PELUM (Participatory Ecological Land Use Management) AssociationThe push to bring genetically modified (GM)crops into African agriculture is not letting up,even as (and partly because) the GM industryis faltering in much of the world. A growing listof organisations, networks and lobby groupswith close ties to the GM industry are workingto promote GM agriculture on the continent.GM crops are so far only commercially availablein South Africa, but there have been fieldtrials in Kenya, Egypt and Burkina Faso, andalso in Senegal and Zimbabwe where there wasno public knowledge or regulatory oversight.At least12 African countries are carrying outresearch on GM crops, including Egypt, Uganda,Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Cameroon,and a long list of GM crops are in the pipelinefor introduction in various African countries.There’s also concern that GM crops are comingin by way of food imports and seed smuggling,even for countries that have taken measuresto prevent imports of GM food, such asZambia, Angola, Sudan, and Benin.GM crops have no place in African agriculture.Here are twelve reasons why:1. GM Crops will contaminate non-GMcrops; co-existence is not possibleGM crops are plants and, as such, they cannotbe easily controlled. Pollen can travel longdistances by way of wind and insects. Humanerror and curiosity or simply regular farmingpractices also help seed to spread.GM crops can therefore never co-exist withnon-GM crops of the same species without therisk of contaminating them, especially in Africawhere tight controls over seeds and farmingis unrealistic.This contamination would have serious implicationsfor small-scale farmers. For instance,it would endanger the indigenous seeds thatthese farmers have developed over centuriesand that they trust and know.Farmers with contaminated fields could alsoend up being forced to pay royalties to the companiesthat own the patents on the GM cropsthat contaminated their fields.2. GM crops will foster dependence ona corporate seed supply.Most GM seed manufacturing companiesprohibit farmers from saving their on-farmproduced seeds for the next season and fromsharing them with their neighbours, relativesand friends. This is imposed through elaboratecontracts, agreements, and conditions, whichare imposed by the multinational GM seedcompanies.More than 80% of the small-scale farmers inAfrica today save their on-farm produced seedsfor the next season. Farmers sometimes do thisbecause they do not have enough money to buynew seeds and sometimes because they valuetheir own seed.Also, seed sharing (with neighbours, relativesand friends) is a cultural norm in manyAfrican communities. The introduction of GMseeds will jeopardise these traditional and vitalpractices.3. GM crops will usher in ‘Terminator’and ‘Traitor’ technologies.‘Terminator’ and ‘Traitor’ technologies aretwo examples of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies(GURTs). ‘Terminator’ seeds are geneticallymodified so that the plants that theygrow into produce sterile seeds (seeds that areinfertile cannot germinate in the next season orany other time).‘Traitor’ technology produces GM crops thatneed to be sprayed with certain chemicals inorder to grow properly. It is important to notethat these technologies are targeted specificallyat developing countries but offer no positivebenefit to farmers at all.GURT technologies will cause African farmersto become wholly dependent on companiesfor their seed supply and for the costly chemicalsthat their seeds will not be able to growwithout.The technologies promise rich rewards forthe multinational companies, but they spelldoom for small-scale farmers in Africa.4. GM crops will increase the use ofchemicalsMore than 70 % of all the GM crops currentlygrown in the world are genetically modifiedto resist certain herbicides. Farmers that growthese GM crops must use the herbicides soldby the very companies selling the GM seeds.Not surprisingly, studies show that these cropsare increasing the use of herbicides, especiallyas certain weeds develop resistance to the herbicide.Once again, the GM seeds promises hugeprofits for multinational corporations, but onlyincreasing costs for small-scale farmers in Africa.5. GM crops are patentedTransnational corporations own nearly 100%of the agricultural biotechnology patents andthe majority of these patents are controlled by ahandful of pesticide corporations.These companies will use their patents toblock research that does not suit their interestsand to trap farmers into paying them royaltiesevery year on seeds and into a never-ending dependenceon their chemical inputs.6. GM crops favour industrial agriculturesystemsThey are designed for agricultural systemscharacterised by:BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 31

GENETIC ENGINEERING12 reasons to reject GM crops· Large farms: In Africa, 80% of the populationare small-scale farmers with 0.5–3 acresof land. Appropriate agricultural technologiesshould help small-scale farmers to diversify andintensify their on-farm enterprises.· Monocropping: Due to the small size offarms and challenging environmental conditions,monocropping is not favourable to Africanagriculture.· Subsidies: While the farmers in the west arehighly subsidised, African farmers do not getany subsidies and cannot even recoup the costof their crops production.· Mechanisation: While farming in the developedcountries is highly mechanised, mostAfrican farmers depend on human and animalpower.· Reliance on external inputs: African farmerscannot afford the high cost of inputs that accompanythe growing of transgenic crops. Thisis one of the main reasons for the failure of thegreen revolution in Africa.7. GM crops threaten organic and sustainablefarming.Most of the farmers in Africa practice organicagriculture (by default or by choice). Geneticengineering poses a great threat to such farmersin several ways, including the following:· Many farmers in Africa rely on Bacillusthuringiensis (Bt), a microbe found in the soilthat farmers can use as a natural insecticide.The toxin-producing genes of Bt have also beengenetically modified into certain crops so thatthese GM crops constantly express the Bt toxin.The widespread growing of GM Bt crops willencourage the development of resistance to Btamong important crop pests, thus renderingthis natural insecticide useless.• Organic farmers practice mixed croppingand crop rotation. These practices will be threatenedby herbicide-tolerant GM crops, whichuse broad-based herbicides that kill all plants,not just the weeds that farmers may not want.• Natural fertility is a key factor in organic/sustainable agriculture. The herbicides encouragedby GM crops kill fungi and bacteria essentialto soil fertility management.8. The biosafety systems required areunrealistic for African countriesAfrican nations lack the expertise, equipment,infrastructure, legislation and regulatory systemsto implement effective biosafety measuresfor GM crops.They also lack the funds to build these up andwill therefore have to look for outside funding,which will increase their already heavy foreigndebt loads.Should the development of GM agriculturereally be a priority for African governments atthis point in time?9. GM crops will not reduce hunger inAfricaHunger in Africa is not due to a lack of food;there is enough food for all. The main problemis the poor purchasing power of the populationbecause of poverty. This poverty is exacerbatedby trade liberalisation in the context of deepglobal inequality.With trade liberalisation, African farmershave to compete directly with the heavily subsidisedand marketed agricultural products fromthe West. It’s like a soccer match with the smallscale farmers playing uphill.10. GM crops will not resolve problemswith pestsGM crops encourage the prolonged and continuoususe of herbicides and pesticides, includingthe pesticides expressed by GM plants. Asa result, pests and harmful weeds inevitablydevelop resistance, forcing farmers to use morepesticides and more toxic mixtures.Attempting to overcome pests by the selectiveuse of pesticides targeted at one particular pest,is particularly short-sighted in tropical agriculture,because simply eliminating one pest allowsspace for secondary pests to proliferate and takeover.11. GM crops will encourage the arbitrarydestruction of biodiversityAfrican biodiversity is rich and complex, butit is also fragile. GM crops could easily upsetthe ecological balance, bringing serious repercussionsfor farming and the surrounding environment.12. GM crops are a threat to humanhealthLittle is known about the impacts of GM cropson human health. Extensive and independentstudies have simply not been done.But the risks are clearly real, especially for Africa,where diseases that are effectively controlledin the West still run rampant.HIV/AIDS, for instance, was first discoveredin the West but it is now decimating the Africanpopulation, and few Africans can affordthe cheap retroviral drugs that can lengthen thelives of those who are infected.Today, every person in Africa is either infectedor affected by the disease or both.What is to be done?Africa needs to apply the precautionary principlewhich advises to not proceed when thereis no certainty for safety of health and the environment.Given Africa’s constraints – lack of resourcesfor effective biosafety measures and lack ofawareness about GM crops among the publicand farmers in particular – the only practicaland appropriate position for African governmentsto take at present is to declare a moratoriumon the commercialisation of GM crops.This must be upheld until adequate researchhas been carried out into the different socioeconomic,environmental, and agronomic issuessurrounding GM crops and until there isenough public awareness for proper public consultationsto be carried out.The right of African governments to maketheir own decisions should be respected byother countries. This does not imply that Africancountries should put agricultural researchon hold. To the contrary, African countriesshould enhance their investments in agriculturalresearch. But such investment must supportfarmer-driven research and it must focuson the specific and local problems that affectfarming communities. It is time for Africangovernments and their development partnersto address the root causes of poverty and foodinsecurity. In line with this, much more can bedone to support:• fair trade and improved food processing andmarketing systems,• improved rural infrastructure,• farmer-friendly credit schemes,• low cost irrigation systems,• rural training to sharpen the skills of localfarmers in food production and food processing,• rangeland management.Only Africans can provide African solutionsto African problems. Outsiders may help, butthe insiders, those who are affected, must do thejob. The best way to bring about sustainable developmentis to strengthen existing, local productionsystems, while protecting them fromsuch threats as GM crops. 32 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

ETHICAL READ CONSUMERISMTHE LABEL!how to end crueltyto people, animals and natureand create a world without war and environmental destructionby Mike Adamsthe caveman with the berries, take his fruit, andbe all the more successful for it, at least in termsof survival and control of resources.From an anthropological point of view, thereis an incentive for deceit, theft, and even harmingother individuals, as long as it results insome sort of personal gain. In fact, we see thisacross virtually all species, but especially inthose that are most closely related to humans,such as primates.Today, we see the very same thing happeningwhen one nation attacks another nation in orderto control its resources. Attacking a nationto take control of its oil supply is essentially thesame as beating a caveman over the head andstealing his berries. It just goes to show how littlewe’ve actually advanced over the years.This brings us to a salient point:ending cruelty requires moving past our ancestralroots, and past the behaviors that arebeings for any reason, and certainly not to takecontrol of their resources in order to enrichourselves – exactly what is happening in theIraqi War.Likewise, it is not acceptable to exploit poverty-wagelabor in third-world countries in orderto enrich corporations and their CEOs in developednations. But this is no anti-trade rant: freeand fair trade is essential for lifting poor nationsout of poverty, but only when combined withmechanisms that respect the sanctity of humanlife such as safe working conditions, living wages,and a system of recognizing private propertyownership for the poor.Read The Mystery of Capital by HernandoDeSoto, which is among the most importanteconomic books of the last 100 years, to learnthe real reasons why free trade has failed to provideeconomic freedoms for underdevelopednations (and what we can do to change that).“I believe that the greatest animal cruelty happening right nowis in the food industry, where we are growing living beings andharvesting their flesh in order to feed people beef and other meats.”What is cruelty? It is any harmful action takenagainst another living entity that disregards itsconsciousness or awareness. In this essay, we’llexplore some of the levels of cruelty: how ithappens, how it’s defined, and what we can doto help end cruelty and enhance compassionin the world.Cruelty exists in three distinct realms: crueltyagainst mankind, cruelty against animals, andfinally, cruelty against nature.Let’s start with cruelty against mankind, inwhich one individual may be cruel to anotherfor a variety of reasons, usually relating to gainingpersonal control over resources (food, money,etc.) or other people.This concept of personal gain is an importantfactor in understanding human cruelty, sinceindividuals are usually only cruel to others becausethey gain something from it. In fact, thisis designed into our behavior and has been carriedthrough our ancestry for hundreds of thousandsof years. Picture this: two cavemen aresitting around a fire at the end of the day. Onespent hours gathering berries, and the other hasnothing. The caveman with nothing can attackprogrammed into us because they once helpedus succeed in an uncivilized world.Today we have to recognize that cruelty is notacceptable in the international community. It isnot acceptable to attack and kill other humanBeyond war and economics, we also see crueltyin the world of medicine. Conventionalmedicine has a long and sordid history of usinghuman beings for medical experiments. In fact,news recently surfaced about a hospital that34 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

The Biggest Seal Hunt in 50 Yearshad been using retarded children in radiationexperiments.This and many other medical experimentshave been conducted on living, breathing peoplein the United States. This is one of the mostegregious forms of cruelty, in that it is a harmfulaction taken against these people, and thatit refuses to recognize the consciousness, spiritor awareness of these individuals. Just becausesomeone cannot speak in words that we understand,or communicate with us in the mannerin which we are used to communicating, doesn’tmean that they don’t feel pain, fear, pleasure orlove. Thus, these medical experiments are a horrifyingform of cruelty, and many continue tothis day (behind closed doors, of course).In the realm of war, we see examples of crueltyas official policy. In the United States military,for example, cruelty against Iraqi prisoners hasbecome a global scandal. We have seen photographsand heard testimony from individualswho were engaged in all manner of crueltyagainst Iraqi prisoners, many of whom were innocentcivilians. These people were subjected toappalling acts, including sexual torture, humiliation,and execution (as was actually caught ontape). Notably, it appears that the American soldiersengaged in this activity rather enjoyed it.In the United States and many other “FirstWorld” countries, we increasingly find a culturethat supports cruelty. Much as we saw inNazi Germany, this mindset often accompaniesnationalism and pride in one’s country. It goeshand in hand with the fervor surrounding fearbasedpropaganda typically orchestrated by anational leader in response to some sort of militaryattack.In Germany, it was the Reichstag. In the US,it’s 9/11. Regardless of the justification for militaryaction, the apparent military goal seems tobe little more than control of resources, whichonce again likens us to cavemen in my earlierexample. Except in this case, we don’t have tolook at the faces of those we kill because it isall censored out of the press. The Pentagon evenbanned the filming of flag-draped coffins carrying(dead) soldiers back from Iraq.So what does it take to stop crueltyagainst fellow human beings?First, it requires teaching compassion. Wemust understanding that other human beingshave souls and consciousness, and that is it notright to ignore those souls for personal gain, beit power, control of resources or some kind offinancial gain. This is a lesson that isn’t beingtaught in our schools, it’s not an element of freemarketcapitalism, it isn’t something propagatedby the press, and it certainly isn’t practicedby the current government administration. Wedon’t seem to understand that compassion isimportant.The next step toward ending cruelty is tostop meeting violence with more violence. Ifthe problem is violence, then solving it will requirea different approach, such as compassion,negotiation, or even an apology. The predominantmindset in response to terrorist attacks, forexample, continues to be revenge. This revengeis propped up by the media and the war-mongeringrhetoric of the current administration.But when we act on revenge, we simply createmore hatred and more violence.We take out one Saddam Hussein, but we create40 more who believe they have even morejustification to attack the United States and killeven more Americans in future terrorist attacks.It is a Medusa: kill one snake, and two more appearin its place. This is nothing but an escalationof violence, and it can lead only to morewar, pain, suffering and death. Of course, allcompanies that manufacture military hardwareprofit handsomely. The war industry dependson war for its economic survival.The way to stop this escalating cycle of violenceis to adopt humility and compassionrather than ego and cruelty. Again, that stancedoes not seem acceptable by most of the Americanpopulation, who continue to boast bumperstickers that read, “These colors don’t run,” or“American Pride.” My favorite is “God blessAmerica,” which implies two rather bizarreideas:1) that God blesses war, and2) God shouldn’t bless anybody else.I don’t claim to know the mind of God, butI doubt the atrocities being committed againstthe Iraqi people in the name of the United Statestoday are worthy of any divine blessing.To name just one such atrocity, the widespreaduse of depleted uranium in ordinance used bythe US military in Iraq is, itself, a weapon ofmass destruction that is being used in clear vio-Many people mistakenly think Canadastopped hunting baby seals decades ago. Butas many seals are killed today as during the1950s and 60s when overhunting significantlypushed seals down the road to extinction.In this section you’ll find out the real storyabout what’s happening on the ice each year,and why the Canadian government doesn’twant you to know about it.Each spring, the East coast of Canada ishost to one of the world’s most beautifulwildlife spectacles. It is here that femaleharp seals gather by the hundreds of thousandson newly formed sea ice to give birthto their pups.The seals give birth from late February untilmid-March, transforming the once barrenice floes into a huge, white nursery. Thenewborn pups will be transformed into fat,fluffy ‘whitecoats’ in about a week, thanks tothe high-fat content of their mother’s milk.After about 12 days, the mother leaves herfully fed pup to join adult males for the annualmating ritual. The baby seals remain onthe ice, crying for their mothers at first, thenbecoming extremely quiet and still.During this time the seals survive on thethick layer of blubber they have accumulatedduring nursing. A few days later, theirwhite coats are lost to reveal the sleek, blackspotted,silvery pelt of the young harp sealknown as a “beater.” A pelt they will soon beclubbed or shot to death for.From Beauty to Devastation in Just AHeartbeatThe scene is stunning – a world built entirelyof blue, grey and white. The onlysounds are the wind, the ice cracking andheaving, and the soft mews of the pups.Yet just days later, this pristine wonderlandis transformed into a makeshift factory forthe mass killing of baby seals as sealers descendupon them in boats, helicopters andsnowmobilies, armed with clubs and guns.This year’s annual hunt will continue untilthe industry reaches its quota of 319,500dead seals. But many more will die and neverbe accounted for, leaving more than a millionseals bludgeoned or shot to death in justthree years, all in the name of profit. Protest against this savage act of cruelty:www.biophile.co.za/activismBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 35

ETHICAL CONSUMERISMhow to end crueltylation of the Geneva Convention, and that willcreate lingering radiation throughout the Iraqination for generations to come. Depleted uraniumis not at all selective in who it radiates. By itsvery nature, it is a weapon of mass destruction.It’s all the more ironic, it seems, since Bush’spromised WMDs never showed up in Iraq inthe first place – so the US military decided tobring its own and use them against the very nationit attacked on the premise that Iraq mightsomeday develop WMDs and use them on othernations.To end these cruelties, we must move past thecaveman mentality that tells us to take revengeon the caveman who beat us up and stole ourberries. Unfortunately, that’s the mindset we areoperating with today, which brings into questionwhether we are correct in calling moderncivilization advanced at all. We really haven’tadvanced that far. We still act on the same basicemotions and stimuli as our ancestors.Cruelty to AnimalsMoving on, let’s discuss the highly controversialsubject of animal cruelty. Let’s start with thepremise that animals have souls and consciousness,and that they can feel pain. We now knowthat even simple-minded creatures such as fishcan sense and feel real pain.And yet animal cruelty continues. Many thinkof animal cruelty as limited to people treatingtheir dogs unfairly, or beating their pets out ofanger. But as serious as that is, it is the least ofthe animal cruelty concerns. I believe that thegreatest animal cruelty happening right now isin the food industry, where we are growing livingbeings and harvesting their flesh in order tofeed people beef and other meats.The conditions under which these animals areraised and harvested are atrocious. I believe itis cruelty at its worst to put a chicken in a cageso small it can barely turn around, and cut offits beak so that it can’t kill another chicken orpluck out its own feathers. Cattle feeding practicesare also a form of cruelty, since matter suchas dead animals and chicken excrement areground up and fed to cows. This is a standard,approved feeding practice in the cattle industry,by the way.I also believe that the very practice of raisinganimals in confined environments, subjectingthem to atrocious feeding habits and killingthem in inhumane ways in order to harvesttheir flesh and turn a profit is an outrageousform of cruelty to animals. I believe that inany advanced society such practices would beoutlawed entirely. I find no justification in thissociety to harvest the organs of animals for theconsumption of human beings.People ask, “What about the protein needs?”and “How will we feed the world if we don’t harvestcattle?” Actually, they have it backwards:if we don’t switch to plant sources of protein,we’ll never have enough land to feed the world.Harvesting and growing spirulina, for example,takes 1/100th of the acreage required by cattlefor the same amount of digestible protein. Andgrowing vegetables only takes 1/10th the acreageof raising cattle.Spirulina, by the way, has twelve times the digestibleprotein of beef, gram for gram. Raisingcattle is one of the least efficient ways to feedthe world.As long as people demand beef, though, animprovement over current cattle industry practiceswould be to mandate organic free-rangepractices, in which animals are still raised forfood, but they live healthy, sane lives, and aregiven free access to the outdoors.They should have sunlight and clean waterand the ability to live out a relatively normal,healthy life. And when they are slaughtered, itshould be conducted in the most humane mannerpossible – one that respects the life of eachcreature and how that creature is giving up itsflesh for the purpose of sustaining the life of ahuman being. That is slightly better approach tocreating meat for consumption by human beings,and it is practiced by a few small organicand Kosher beef producers. Organic, free-rangemeats are available, but they don’t make up themajority of meats available at grocery stores today.Another form of cruelty to animals is usingthem in experiments, which is often done bythe cosmetic industry, the food industry, andto some extent by the military. Animals areroutinely used in painful experiments, whichis an unacceptable practice. These are living,breathing, conscious creatures, and just likehuman beings, they should not be subjected tocruel treatments if we are to call ourselves anadvanced civilization of any kind.These animals feel the pain of these experiments.If a research worker is giving a pig thirddegreeburns so it can test burn-recovery drugs,that is cruel and unnecessary, and should beoutlawed.Cruelty to NatureLastly, we must discuss cruelty to nature.This is a phrase that’s not often used in popularculture. To explain this concept, we must firstrecognize that plants are also living, breathing“Little by little we are destroying nature here on Planet Earth, butthis is not just an environmental issue: it’s an issue of cruelty. ”36 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

eings. They have a nervous system, a structuralsystem and a circulatory system. They are verymuch alive, although not in the same way thatmammals or human beings are alive.Plants are indeed living creatures, and we needto recognize that and start looking at trees, forexample, as tree-shaped beings. By and large,we fail to do that today, and through this failure,we as a species allow ourselves to commit outrageousacts of cruelty towards nature.Some of the ways we express that cruelty is bypolluting the rivers, streams and air with industrialwastes. We are killing the oceans throughsound pollution and military sonar buoys(which is one reason why so many dolphins andwhales are turning up on beaches these days).We are killing the coral by dumping toxic metalsonto our crops, which creates toxic runoff thatempties into the rivers, streams, and oceans. Weare cutting down rainforests and systematicallydestroying the natural ecosystem of the planet.Little by little we are destroying nature hereon Planet Earth, but this is not just an environmentalissue: it’s an issue of cruelty. It is cruel todestroy an ecosystem, because doing so simultaneouslydestroys the life that depends on thatecosystem.Too often, those of us in western society thinkof plants as inanimate objects. However, if wecould see them on time-lapse photography, wewould recognize that they are living, breathing,moving creatures. On a slow scale of time, populationsof trees actually migrate. A sunflowerwill track the sun as it moves across the sky,minute by minute, so that it’s always getting themaximum sunlight possible.Flowers open and close in response to thecycles of daylight. These are not just automatic,machine-like reactions, as some might argue.These are the conscious actions of living,breathing creatures that deserve to be treatedhumanely. If we fail to recognize this in natureand continue to behave cruelly toward it, we willfind that there are terrible, devastating, naturalresults of our actions.Nature will eventually return to a state of balance,but finding that balance may involve somedramatic and unpleasant changes in the worldaround us. Nature can do just fine without humanbeings, and if we continue on our currentpath of cruelty towards nature, I have no doubtthat we will be setting in motion a chain ofevents that will result in the sharp reduction ofhuman population on this planet.I believe this will occur through so-called“natural disasters,” such as climate change orpandemics of infectious disease (the bird flu(see related ebook on bird flu) virus is a strongcandidate). This is not nature’s revenge. This issimply cause and effect of our cruelty to nature.It’s a reflection of our own cruelty to nature,coming back to haunt us.When we are cruel to animals, they can’t fightback. But nature is resilient when we are cruel toit. Nature doesn’t fight back; it overcomes. If wewere to wipe out every single tree, uproot everyblade of grass and kill every plant on the planettomorrow, we might think we had conquerednature.But within a few short years, humanity wouldbe wiped out due to climate changes and thedevastation of the food supply. And a fewshort years after that, nature would return infull force, with far greater health and biodiversitywithout mankind. The wildlife, rivers andstreams would, in time, return to their pristine,original state, and life in the oceans would againbecome abundant. All without man.I only hope that our civilization can find waysto put an end to this cruelty without having tobe wiped out by nature. I hope that we can finda way to live in balance with nature. But to dothat, we must put a stop to our cruelty. Thismeans changing the way we live in harmonywith our surrounding environment and takingan honest look at how we pollute the rivers andstreams, oceans, airways, and the entire planet.There is no “them,” only usWhether discussing cruelty towards people,animals or plants, all cruelty stems from a prevailingdistortion carried by nearly everyoneon this planet: the belief that we are separate. Ifperson A attacks person B, it is only because hebelieves he is separate from person B. If a societyattacks and destroys nature, it is only becauseit believes it is not part of nature.But this is a distortion: we are all connectedthrough an intricate web of intentions, energyand chemistry. One act of cruelty towards a humanbeing gives rise to many such cruel acts inreturn.One act of cruelty towards an animal is returnedto us in a darkening of our own hearts.One act of cruelty towards nature sets in motiona chain of events that ultimately returns tothreaten our health, our food supply, and thevery life of our planet.Cruelty can only be acted out by those whosuffer from the illusion that we are separate, individualpeople who exist in isolation from ourworld, our conscious animals, and the abundantplant and microbial life that sustains us. Andthus, the solution to cruelty seems clear: teachconnectness.Call it Karma, or call it quantum physics. Youcan calculate it with mathematics and the lawsof life sciences, or intuit it from feelings andemotions.Either way, it is the same truth: we are all connected.We are part of the same system, and wedepend on each other. All of us: the people, theanimals, the plants, even the planet... we all experiencethe reverberations of cruelty created bypeople, industries, or nations. Simultaneously,we all benefit from the waves of peace, love andconnectedness being broadcast by those whomeditate with positive intention in churches,mosques, shrines and temples all around theworld.Without them, frankly, we would already belost. Perhaps you should consider joining them.Any moment in which you find peace, silence,clarity of thought, and love for others is a momentof creation and connectedness that ripplesout through the lives and souls of every livingthing on this planet.You can make a change through intentionalone. Ending cruelty starts with having sufficientnumbers of people meditating on connectedness.BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 37

THE FOOD WE EATFrom baby formula to burgers, soyproducts are touted as a healthysource of protein, with a reputationfor being all natural and good foryou. New studies have howeverraised questions over whether theingredients in soy might increasethe risk of breast cancer in somewomen, affect brain function in menand lead to hidden developmentalabnormalities in infants. The coreof their concerns rests with soy’schemical makeup: in additionto all the nutrients and protein,soy contains a natural chemicalthat mimics estrogen, the femalehormone.Some studies in animals showthat this chemical can alter sexualdevelopment. And in fact, 2 glassesof soy milk/day, over the course ofone month, contain enough of thechemical to change the timing of awoman’s menstrual cycle.the truth aboutSoy issoynot the health food that you think it is,says Kate Smulian.To see, read and hear about the “innocent” soybeanin most mainstream media you’d thinkthat the soy bean and its derivatives are themost versatile, natural, heart friendly, healthimproving,fat preventing and generally loveablefoods ever grown on our good earth.A simple, easily-cultivated bean, promisinghealth and vitality to the lactose-intolerant, thenew-born, the aged, the menopausal, the frail,the athletic, the health conscious and just abouteveryone else as well.It is inexpensive and available everywhere, eitheron its own or as an ingredient in thousandsof other food products, such as bread, cakes,baby formula, milk and meat substitutes, breakfastcereal, sauces and pasta. Soy also forms thebasis of non-stick cooking sprays.Doctors, farmers, nutritionists, athletes, respectedcompanies whose household nameshave become part of our culture, governmentauthorities – all make a point of telling us howsafe and health-giving this wonder food is forus. Try getting soy-free bread at your local supermarketand you will have a problem. It is sogood and harmless, they tell us, that it is oftennot even listed as an ingredient in many processedfoods. And even when it is we don’t mind;everyone knows it’s safe.All soybeans contain natural toxinsand it makes no difference whetherthey are organic.The trouble with modern soy products is thatmodern industrial processing cannot equateto the ancient methods of fermenting “for twosummers” or boiling “for the length of an incense”Few people are aware that most soil containsaluminium. It is one of the most prevalent minerals,but doesn’t affect most crops.Soy, however has an affinity for aluminiumand extracts it from the soil and concentrates itin its beans. This contamination is made worseby the aluminium tanks used in the acid washsoy is subjected to as part of its processing.So when you ingest soy in any form you alsoingest aluminium which is known to causemany health problems.Soymilk contains 100 times more aluminiumthan raw cow’s milk. And, while on the subjectof so-called soymilk, no one has ever seen asoy cow. You cannot milk a soy bean; in orderto obtain that pure looking, inviting stream ofwhite, pictured so appealingly in the ads, manyprocesses are needed. Soybeans are first mixedwith an alkaline solution to remove fiber, thenprecipitated and separated using an acid washand, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution.Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches highlevels of aluminum into the final product. As aresult, soy-based formula also has over 1000%more aluminum than conventional milk basedformulas.Finally, the resulting curds are spray-dried athigh temperatures to produce a high-proteinpowder. A final hardship to the original soybeanis high-temperature, high-pressure extrusionprocessing of soy protein isolate to producetextured vegetable protein.Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, areformed during spray-drying, and a toxincalled “lysinoalanine” is formed during alkalineprocessing. Numerous artificial flavorings,particularly MSG, are added to soy protein isolateand textured vegetable protein products tomask their strong “beany” taste and to impartthe flavor of meat.Yet soy protein isolate and textured vegetableprotein are used extensively in commercialbaked goods, fast food products and diet beverages.They are heavily promoted in 3rd worldcountries and form the basis of many food giveawayprograms.Claims that soy products are a good sourceof calcium are false. Because soy contains morephytic acid than any other grain or pulse, andbecause phytic acid impairs absorption of allminerals, especially calcium, soy actually stripsyour body of calcium.The enzyme inhibitors in soy beans blocktrypsin and enzymes, which are essential forhealth. This can produce serious stomach problemsand reduce protein digestion. In seriouscases, soy can cause pancreas enlargement andeven cancer.Isoflavones in soybeansSoybeans contain an impressive array of phytochemicals(biologically active componentsderived from plants), the most interesting ofwhich are known as isoflavones. Isoflavones arethe compounds which are being studied in relationto the relief of certain menopausal symptoms,cancer prevention, slowing or reversingosteoporosis and reducing the risk of heart disease.Soy critics point to the fact that soybeans, as38 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

Just How Much Soy DidAsians Really Eat?In short, not that much, and contrary towhat the industry may claim soy has neverbeen a staple in Asia.A study of the history of soy use in Asiashows that the poor used it during times ofextreme food shortage, and only then thesoybeans were carefully prepared (e.g. bylengthy fermentation) to destroy the soytoxins.Yes, the Asians understood soy all right!Many vegetarians in the west would thinknothing of consuming 250 grams of tofuand a couple of glasses of soy milk per day,two or three times a week.But this is well inexcess of what Asians typically consume;they generally use small portions of soy tocomplement their meal.It should also be noted that soy is not themain source of dietary protein and that a regimeof calcium-set tofu and soymilk bearslittle resemblance to the soy consumed traditionallyin Asia.Source: mercola.comprovided by nature, are not suitable for humanconsumption. Only after fermentation for sometime, or extensive processing, including chemicalextractions and high temperatures, are thebeans, or the soy protein isolate, suitable for digestionwhen eaten.Soy – more negatives than positivesI feel the positive aspects of the soybean areovershadowed by their potential for harm. Soybeansin fact contain a large number of dangeroussubstances. We already mentionned “phyticacid”, also called “phytates”.This organic acid is present in the bran or hullsof all seeds and legumes, but none have the highlevel of phytates which soybeans do. Phytic acidblocks the body’s uptake of essential mineralslike magnesium, calcium, iron and especiallyzinc. Adding to the high phytate problem, soybeansare highly resistant to phytate-reducingtechniques, such as long, slow cooking.Soybeans also contain potent enzyme-inhibitors.These inhibitors block uptake of trypsinand other enzymes which the body needs forprotein digestion. Normal cooking does not deactivatethese harmful antinutrients, which cancause serious gastric distress, reduced proteindigestion and can lead to chronic deficiencies inamino acid uptake.In addition, soybeans also contain hemagglutinin,a clot-promoting substance which causesred blood cells to clump together. These clusteredblood cells cannot properly absorb oxygenfor distribution to the body’s tissues, andare unable to help in maintaining good cardiachealth.Phytoestrogens:Panacea Or Poison?The male species of tropical birds carriesthe drab plumage of the female at birth and“colors up” at maturity, somewhere betweennine and 24 months. In 1991, Richard andValerie James, bird breeders in Whangerai,New Zealand, purchased a new kind of feedfor their birds – one based largely on soyprotein.When soy-based feed was used, their birds“coloured up” after just a few months. Infact, one bird-food manufacturer claimedthat this early development was an advantageimparted by the feed: a 1992 advert forRoudybush feed formula showed a pictureof the male crimson rosella, an Australianparrot that acquires beautiful red plumage at18 to 24 months, already brightly colored at11 weeks old.Unfortunately, in the ensuing years, therewas decreased fertility in the birds, with precociousmaturation, deformed, stunted andstillborn babies, and premature deaths, especiallyamong females.The birds suffered beak and bone deformities,goiter, immune system disorders andpathological, aggressive behavior. Autopsiesrevealed digestive organs in a state of disintegration.The list of problems correspondedwith many of the problems the Jameses hadencountered in their two children, who hadbeen fed soy-based infant formula.Startled, aghast, angry, the Jameses hiredtoxicologist Mike Fitzpatrick, PhD, to investigatefurther.Dr Fitzpatrick’s literature review uncoveredevidence that soy consumption hasbeen linked to numerous disorders, includinginfertility, increased cancer and infantileleukemia; and, in studies dating back to the1950s, that genistein in soy causes endocrinedisruption in animals.Dr Fitzpatrick also analyzed the bird feedand found that it contained high levels ofphytoestrogens, especially genistein. Whenthe Jameses discontinued using soy-basedfeed, the flock gradually returned to normalbreeding habits and behavior.Source: mercola.comHemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors areboth “growth depressant” substances. Althoughthe act of fermenting soybeans does de-activateboth hemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors,cooking and precipitation do not.Although these enzyme inhibitors are foundin reduced levels within precipitated soy productslike tofu, they are not completely eliminated.For this reason, if you are going to consumesoy, I would recommend limiting your soy useWill Soy Be The NextAsbestos?“Against the backdrop of widespreadpraise... there is growing suspicion that soy– despite its undisputed benefits – may posesome health hazards,” wrote Marian Burros,a leading food writer for the New YorkTimes. More than any other writer, Ms Burros’sendorsement of a low-fat, largely vegetariandiet has herded Americans into supermarketaisles featuring soy foods.Yet her January 26, 2000 article, “DoubtsCloud Rosy News on Soy”, contains the followingalarming statement: “Not one of the18 scientists interviewed for this columnwas willing to say that taking isoflavones wasrisk free.” Ms Burros did not enumerate therisks, nor did she mention that the recommended25 daily grams of soy protein containenough isoflavones to cause problemsin sensitive individuals, but it was evidentthat the industry had recognized the need tocover itself.Because the industry is extremely exposed...contingency lawyers will soon discoverthat the number of potential plaintiffscan be counted in the millions and thepockets are very, very deep. Juries will hearsomething like the following: “The industryhas known for years that soy contains manytoxins. At first they told the public that thetoxins were removed by processing. When itbecame apparent that processing could notget rid of them, they claimed that these substanceswere beneficial. Your governmentgranted a health claim to a substance that ispoisonous, and the industry lied to the publicto sell more soy.”The “industry” includes merchants, manufacturers,scientists, publicists, bureaucrats,former bond financiers, food writers,vitamin companies and retail stores. Farmerswill probably escape because they wereduped like the rest of us. But they need tofind something else to grow before the soybubble bursts and the market collapses:grass-fed livestock, designer vegetables...or hemp to make paper for thousands andthousands of legal briefs.SOURCE: Nexus Magazine.to fermented products only, like tempeh ormiso.Only after a long period of fermentation (asocurs in the creation of miso or tempeh) arethe antinutrient and phytate levels of soybeansreduced, making their nourishment available tothe human digestive system.The high level of harmful substances remainingin precipitated soy products leaves their nutritionalvalue questionable at best, and potentiallyharmful. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 39

OUR CHILDRENeco-friendly nappiesAfter having a baby in 2002, Vicki Penfold was shocked not only at the enormous cost involved in using disposablenappies, but also at the devastating environmental consequences. After nearly two years of testing, Vicki has developed are-useable nappy which is friendly to baby, your budget and the environment.After having a baby in 2002 I was not onlyshocked at how much money I would spend on“disposables”, but also highly concerned aboutthe effect that the use of these nappies has onthe environment. Moreover, I was uncertainabout the unknown effects that the chemicalscontained in “disposable” nappies would haveon my baby.When I first started using nappies in 2002, theonly alternative on the South African market todisposable napies was the “Terri nappy”, whichis the one that you have to fold, use a safety pinand a plastic waterproof with. This just seemedto be so “old-fashioned” and far too much effortfor me, especially since I had seen fitted nappiesused by friends who had bought them overseas,where they are readily available.I wondered why there was nothing like themavailable in South Africa. That is when the Bio-Baba “project” started!I called a dress-maker friend and gave her apattern to make up some samples which wereduly tested on my son. Every month the designwould change, the layers and types of fabricwould alter, until, finally, after 18 months ofchanges and testing Bio-Baba was born!Bio-Baba nappies incorporate an all-in-onenappy, liner and waterproof with clever featureslike:-• Multi-padding for extra absorbency• Wide-band Velcro for snug fitting• Tab fold feature which protects Velcro duringwashing• Soft breathable outer waterproof... not plastic!What are disposable nappies made of?How do they get to be so white?How do they manage to absorb so much?Disposables are made mostly of soft, fluffy pulpwhich is produced by chemically treating woodfibres. The pulp undergoes a whitening andsoftening process when it is exposed to chlorine-basedbleaching agents. This produces amultitude of toxic chemical by-products whichare released into the environment during manufacturing.For example, substances called organochloridesare produced. These are found in largequantities in wastewater released into the environment,and they remain in minute quantitiesin the paper fluff itself.One of the most well known organochlorides isthe dioxin group. Dioxins have been called themost toxic substances ever produced and havebeen associated with birth defects, miscarriage,cancer and genetic damage. No one knows exactlyhow much exposure to dioxin is requiredfor disease to develop. They are toxic in verysmall amounts.Another chemical found in “disposables” is sodiumpolyacrylate. This substance is what turnsyour baby”s urine into gel. Sodium polyacrylatecan absorb 100 times its weight in liquid andmakes for a very absorbent nappy! However, ithas been linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome intampon use and is no longer used in their manufacture.It is still used in disposables though.Moreover, as much as clever TV adverts wouldhave us believe that this astonishing absorbencyand resultant “dryness” makes for a betternappy, this is simply not true.Perfectly absorbent cloth nappies such asBio-Baba do the trick without chemicals.Also, studies show that wetness is not the primecause of nappy rash. If it was, all babies in clothnappies would have a rash.In addition to the notorious “landfill” storiesthat everyone has heard about, disposable nappies• require more energy than cloth nappies toproduce• use more non-recyclable materials• produce more solid waste and• need more land for growing the natural materialsused in nappy productionthan cloth nappies do.If you only use disposable nappies, your childwill have used the equivalent of 45 trees worthof paper before it is 2½ years old.From birth to toilet training, a child will useapproximately 5400 disposables (at an averageof 6 a day over 2½ years). 40 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

COMPANIONSpet food labels1 Don’t believe everything you read!Apart from the government stipulations regardingthe listing of the guaranteed analysisand the contents, there’s a good chance thatwhat you think is in your pet’s food... isn’t.Always bear in mind that most, if not all that yousee on the packaging, is designed to make youbelieve that your pet is getting everything thatthey need. In other words, a “balanced meal”.Nothing could be further from the truth!2 Minimum labelling requirementsPet food manufactured in south africa must beregistered at the National Department of Agricultureunder Act 36 of 1947. Once registered,a “V” number is issued and registration mustbe renewed each september.The label must show an “id/batch number” or“date of manufacture” and a “best before date”.The crude protein, moisture, crude fat, crude fibreand crude ash analysis must also be shown.“Crude” in this instance does not describequality, but rather the method of measurementof these constituents.3 The ingredients... Are they or aren’t they?So what does it really mean when your food isdescribed as “chicken flavoured” or “beef dinner”?I’ll use “chicken” as an example:“With chicken flavour” - up to 4% chicken“With chicken” - at least 4% chicken“High/rich in or with extra chicken - at least14% chicken“Chicken dinner, chicken recipe or chickenmenu” - at least 26% chicken“All chicken” - at least 65% chicken“Chicken cubes or any other form” - at least26% chicken“Cubed chicken” - at least 65% chicken4 So, what’s in it?Ingredients are listed in descending order byweight. You would definitely want to see theprotein source listed first. The greater the detailregarding ingredients the better the quality ofthe food. This stands to reason, as the manufacturerof a higher quality food definitely wantsyou to see as much as possible. This also allowsyou to compare the contents more accurately.However, chicken meat and chicken meal arenot the same thing. Chicken meal consists ofa ground-up composite of animal feed-gradechicken parts.If you are in doubt about what an ingredient isor what it does, you can contact the manufacturerand request the details. Reputable companieswill take there time to explain in detail oroffer to send you written information. If you getvague answers then move to another brand.Your vet is also a source of information. However,vets seldom have the time to look carefullyat what the various brands contain outside ofthose that they stock. Be prepared to read thelabel carefully and do a little investigation ofyour own.Check for harmful chemicals such as BHT,BHA and ethoxequine. These antioxidants andpreservatives are linked to cancer in companionanimals and their use has been condemnedinternationally. You can be sure that food thathas a “best before” date up to 18 months in thefuture is preserved using these ingredients.Food that is naturally preserved using vitaminsC and C has a shorter shelf life but is far healthierfor your pet.5 Who died for your pet?Globally, the pet food industry is a multi-billionrand business. It is not surprising then,that most of the better known brands belongto some of the worlds worst offenders when itcomes to environmental and animal rights issues.Who owns whom?Royal Canine, Vets Choice, Pedigree, Whiskers- Master Foods.Hill’s Science Diet - Colgate Palmolive.Iams Eukanuba - Proctor And Gamble.Olympic, Friskies, Alpo, Epol, Pamper - NestlePurinaAll these companies conduct animal testingon a regular basis. The inhumane and invasivetesting that is performed on the animals unluckyenough to be caged in research facilitiesworldwide is done with the express purpose ofproviding new marketing material to supportsales and marketing campaigns.By law, any claims a manufacturer makes regardingtheir food must be supported by approvedtesting.6 Are you recycling?Check to see whether packaging material isrecycled or recyclable. Most foods, especiallyimported ones, are packed in thick plastic bags.Consider the vast quantity of plastic that is beingintroduced into the environment. Buy inbulk where practical.Try, if at all possible to select locally manufacturedproducts that are produced by companiesthat respect the environment and use packingmaterials that are environmentally friendly.Look for indications that the inks used are leadfree.

READ DO IT THE YOURSELF LABEL!how to have a safer homeWe all are concerned about our health and that of our family. We all tend to be concerned about the environment,which is being damaged beyond repair. What, you may ask, can one person do to reverse this? Actually, quite a lot – butusually, we do nothing. Not because we don’t care, but because we are not always sure of what to do. This guide will helpyou. Don’t try to do it all at once – maybe try one new thing every week. Trying to do it all may be difficult, and maystop you from trying. Information supplied by Earthlife Africa: www.earthlife.org.zaDust• Dust is full of many toxic substances in the home. Children are particularlyat risk, as they typically ingest 5 times more dust than adults.House dust exposes children to chemicals that are like smoking threecigarettes a day (benzo(a)pyrene); they are also exposed to cadmium,lead, and other dangerous heavy metals. PCB’s and other persistent organiccontaminants (which are being banned worldwide over time) arealso a risk.So, what do you do?• Leave your shoes off at the door – using a dust removing doormatcan reduce the amount of lead by a factor of 6. Pesticides also remain incarpets for decades, where sunlight and bacteria are not found to breakthem down.• Bare floors are best – carpets trap a lot of dust, and vacuuming will notremove it all. Alternatively, use rugs made from natural fibres that do notuse toxic chemicals and do not let off chemical gases.• If you do use carpets, rather nail them down with strips, instead ofglueing them to the floor, to minimize exposure to more chemicals.• Make sure that children and pets are not in the room when you vacuum,and make sure that windows and doors are open while you vacuum.• Avoid indoor pesticides – cockroaches are tough creatures (althoughunlikely to cause harm) and the chemicals used to kill them do a greatdeal of harm to us! Cleanliness is a good way to keep insects down.• Dust, in the form of human skin, also accumulates in mattresses andpillows – take them outside, and beat them, to minimize a breedingground for bugs and other allergy causing microbes.Improve ventilation and air quality• House plants help clean up the air – spider plants, philodendron, andothers have been shown to absorb as much as 80% of formaldehyde in aroom in 24 hours.• Improve the ventilation of your kitchen, bathrooms with showers, andwhere you wash clothes. Most people’s highest exposure to chloroform isfrom water vapour from showers, boiling water and washing machines.• Ionising air filters remove particles as small as 0.1 microns, but cheapermodels tend to emit ozone and electromagnetic fields.• Our biggest exposure to benzene comes from indoor cigarette smoke,although 82% of benzene missions come from vehicles.Buy organic, and other food issues• Buying organic is more than just having healthy food for yourself andyour family – this also means less chemicals on farms; workers not beingexposed to pesticides and herbicides; and, of course, good nutritionfor all.• For the sake of your health, and that of the planet, eat less meat. It takes2500 litres of water and up to 17 kg of vegetable protein to make 1 kg ofmeat. This poor use of our protein resources is partly the reason whywe have world hunger. One-third of all fish caught are fed to land basedanimals as feed – what a waste!• Cook in a non-aluminium pot – although not conclusively proven,aluminium pots are implicated in, for example, Alzheimers Disease. Ifyou have to use aluminium pots, avoid metal spoons, so that aluminiumis not scraped into your food.• If you use enamel pots, stop using them once you can see the metal, asthe rust will contaminate your food.• Use oil instead of fat, and if you can afford it, oils such as olive andpeanut are very good for you.• There is no real benefit using margarine or butter – the manufacturingprocess for margarine is questionable, as some of the waste it producedexplodes into flame without any help! Not too healthy!• Try to eat red meat no more than twice a week, and white meat nomore than twice a week. The other three days should be vegetarian.• Wash all fruit and vegetable (that is not organic) to remove pesticides,herbicides and hormones.• Rather scrub, instead of peeling, vegetables, as much nutrition is closeto the surface.• Eat fruit and vegetables in season – they are usually cheaper, and providejust the nutrition that we need at the right time.Clean and green• Most household cleaning can be done with a half and half mixture ofvinegar and water, or liquid soap and baking soda.• Use baking soda and hot water for basins, tubs and tile cleaning.• Use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning drains, or hydrogen peroxide(from the chemist) and a plunger for serious clogs.• For hand dish washing, use a plain soap (like cheap bar soaps) or nonphosphate“green” dishwashing liquids. A slice of fresh lemon in therinse water will leave your dishes sparkling! For automatic dishwashers,use equal parts borax and baking soda – you will be amazed how well itworks, and how much you will save.• Use about a cup of baking soda, white vinegar, or borax instead oflaundry detergent.• If you really have to use a bleach, rather use sodium hexametaphosphatebased, not chlorine.• Instead of adhesives, try nails, screws and bolts.• You do not need expensive chemical sprays to dust – a damp rag workswell, and cleans just as well.• Never use optical brighteners to wash your clothes – they disrupt theecosystems in the rivers because they cannot be broken down.• Wash the car with a few buckets of water rather than the hose.• Keep water level in pools low to minimize splashing.• Don’t use the hose to sweep the driveway / patio... a broom will dothe job.House maintenance and decorating• Use a mask, and keep children and pets away from where you aresanding or stripping paint.• Use water based paints, and avoid solvents (turpentine, lacquer thinners,etc)• Look for these safer alternatives on the label – borax, beeswax, boricsalt, chalk, milk casein, and titanium dioxide.• Use water based strippers – they do take longer, but are much safer.They are also safer than sanding, scraping, or burning paint, which createdangerous fumes and dust.42 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

READ THE LABEL!• Wear protective clothing and a dust mask while doing renovations– keep children away.• Avoid chipboard and MDF (Medium density fibreboard) – they havea high formaldehyde content, which gases out of the board over time.This is a recognised carcinogen (cancer causing) which also irritates thelungs, throat and eyes.Water• Although most tap water is safe to drink, certain contaminants (suchas chlorine, heavy metals, etc) are still in it – so try and filter the wateryou drink and cook with. Tea and coffee will taste much better!• Replace tap with taps with aerators – this will cut down your waterusage.• Fit lo-flush or dual flush fitting to the toilet.• Use short bursts of water from the tap when brushing your teeth.• Put a water-filled plastic tub in your toilet cistern - this will save manylitres of water with every flush.• If you have sufficient pressure, then fit a lo-flow showerhead.• Avoid things that colour your toilet water – the dye is hard to removewhen the water is re-processed. The flush cleaners are usually unnecessary.• Leaving the window open, and possibly some baking soda on a saucerwill remove most odours. Some aromatherapy oil is also nice. This ischeaper and nicer than chemical air fresheners.Get rid of PlasticsVinyl chlorides, which include polyvinyl chloride (PVC), are the mainones to avoid. They let off toxic gases, especially when they are new, andcan leach into food, especially hot and fatty food.PVC is found in water pipes; food containers; pacifiers (dummies andteething rings); squeeze toys; crib bumpers; garden hoses; playpens;shower curtains; shopping bags; inflatable toys; upholstery; raincoats;some gumboots; shoes; household chemicals and adhesives.• Never heat food in a microwave in plastic• Get rid of as many plastic items as possible, especially those that arelikely to be used to hold food or be put into childrens’ mouths.• Replace plastic shower curtains with cotton or other natural material.• Find natural replacements for plastic products, such as: wool nappycovers; wood boxes; grass baskets; glass containers; glass dishes; metalknives, spoons and forks;• Use cloth shopping bags – get a whole lot, or if you are handy with asewing machine, make your own, and for our friends.Energy• Replace your normal lightbulbs with energy savers – they will last aslong as 8 ordinary globes, and save you money spent on electricity.• Put a timer on your geyser, and set it lower than “boiling hot” – trydifferent temperatures, and see what works for you.• Walk or cycle instead of always using the car.• Don’t leave lights and appliances on when unnecessary.• Turn appliances off instead of switching to standby.• When you make a cup of tea or coffee boil only the amount of wateryou need. If everybody did this just for one day, you could all saveenough energy to light every street light at night.• Invest in insulation, double glazing, and other energy-saving measures,like low-energy light bulbs. They really do give you a better rate ofreturn than any bank account.• Consider using a solar water heating system in your house because itcan pay you back in two or three years, and thereafter start saving youmoney.Gardens• Try and make your garden as indigenous as possible. Not only dothey look good, but this will also cut down on water, chemical, fertilizer,herbicide and pesticide use, and their nasty health and environmentalimpacts.• Avoid large lawns – they are energy and water intensive to maintain– use groundcovers where possible.• Mulch, mulch and mulch some more – and watch your garden grow,with less water than ever before.• Plant many different things, which will also encourage a wider varietyof birds, butterflies, and other elements of nature.• Stop using all chemicals – they really are not necessary.• Use organic fertilizers and lots of compost – you will soon stop usingartificial chemical fertilizers.• Water in the morning or the afternoon – that way, you will lose muchless water through evaporation.• Plant trees whenever possible – they provide welcome shade, andmuch more besides.Waste• Buy products that are not over-packaged – choose products that havethe least number of layers, for example.• Choose glass over plastic; cardboard and paper is fine too. Avoid theones that look like cardboard boxes – they have plastic, foil and cardboardall together, and are nearly impossible to recycle. Deposit containersare best of all, as they are re-used, and not thrown away.• Separate your waste – paper and card; glass; cans and other metals;plastics; and organic materials, ideally to make your own compost.• You can even keep worms in your house (in a container) to turn yourkitchen waste into natural fertilizer (vermicomposting)• Remember to Re-Use, Repair, Recycle! - it’s better to find another usefor something or to use it again; if it is broken, repair it; and if you can’tdo either, take it to be recycled. Anything is better than landfill.• Homes have much that is classified as hazardous waste, such as batteries;fluorescent tubes; medical waste (leftover medicines and pills); paintthinners; nail polish and nail polish remover; these should be collected,and taken to a hazardous waste site. Look out for when you chemist has a“take back day” of old medicines. They will dispose of the waste safely.Personal• Never use an aerosol – although they no longer contain ozone depletingCFCs, many still contain hydrocarbon propellants that contribute toair pollution and when inhaled, irritate the lungs.• Avoid deodorants containing aluminium – most commercial deodorantscontain either aluminium chlorohydrate or aluminium zirconuim,which are both easily absorbed into the skin.Once in the body, it passes across cell membranes and absorbed by theliver, kidney, brain, cartilage and bone marrow, thus increasing the riskof blood poisoning.• Swap to non-chlorine bleached sanitary pads and tampons. Chlorinebleaching leaves residues of dioxins on the pad which is carcinogenic.• Buy products whose that have not been tested on animals – be careful– this is NOT the same as saying that the product has not been tested onanimals – some ingredients may well have been. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 43

COMPANIONSswimming with dolphins atPonta do Ouroby Angie Gullan, Dolphin Researcher, DolphinCare-AfricaI found the “Save Our Seas” and “Fishing ForFun” articles in Issue 1 of Biophile particularlyintersting, as I have seen, first-hand, the slaughterand uncaring (or should I say total unconsciousness)of recreational fisherman here inPonta do Ouro.Late last year I saw the attempted export of aZambezi Shark across the boarder by a recreationalfisherman whose response to the authoritieswas simply “I haven’t caught such a big fishin such a long time, so I thought I would take ithome!” Unfortunately, southern Mozambique isone of those places where South Africans thinkthey can simply come in and plunder. Littlethought is given to the guidelines set out withinthe community and government and the damageis now very apparent. From the catching ofbill fish as trophy’s (which by the way is illegalif not registered with the relevant departmentin Maputo) to bottom fishing and sharks (whoare rapidly on their decline due to the trade inshark fins). I remember Ponta do Ouro 10 yearsago and the amount of fish stocks there were.Nowadays the fishing boats come back empty,day after day. One of the most saddening facts isas recreational fisherman plunder the coast andrealize that their are no fish stocks left, so theymove further up the coastline, taking, taking,taking as if there was an endless supply.Unfortunately, the further north you go ofPonta do Ouro the less conservation presencethere is, resulting in indiscriminate catches ofjust about anything! It is a very sad reality thatthe majority of humans still believe that there isa never ending supply of resources.Government and media fail to drive home thepoint that the entire population of earth is sustainingitself on 30% fish-stocks. Having beenin the tourism industry in Ponta since its newbeginning after the war in 1995, I now activelycampaign against supporting the commercialfishing industry and fully support tag and releaseprograms.Last but not least are the dolphins of Pontado Ouro with which we have developed a trulymagical relationship over the past 10 years. Thisunique relationship is unfortunately at risk, dueto the ever increasing number of jetskis anddolphin operators.Dolphin Encountours together with Dolphin-Care-Africa and the Dolphin Center in Pontado Ouro, Mozambique actively work at sustainingdolphin tourism in the area, but due tothe lack of control over illegal operators we arefinding it very difficult to sustain the beautifulrelationship we have formed with the dolphinsof Ponta do Ouro. “Unfortunately, southern Mozambique is one of those places whereSouth Africans think they can simply come in and plunder.”46 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

DolphinCare-AfricaDolphinCare-Africa (DCA) is a non-profit organizationthat funds the Dolphin Center inMozambique and was born at the height ofthe dolphin controversy in 1998 with whalewatchingpermits coming into place andthe banning of swimming with dolphins inSouth Africa.DCA had at that stage already been workingwith the resident bottlenose dolphinsof Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique. Working inconjunction with Dolphin Encountours sinceits inception in 1995, DCA has managed toestablish the Dolphin Center in SouthernMozambique from where it actively worksat conserving the local dolphin populationand the environment in which they live. Theorganization’s projects include education,conservation, investigation and generalcommunity awareness on dolphins and theenvironment.The Dolphin Centre is an educationaldolphin and marine centre with a number ofinformative displays, explaining the potentialrisks and harm caused by diving, swimming,driving on the beach, pollution, etc.The Dolphin Centre believes that the marineenvironment is extremely important, notonly for the local community that dependson the various marine related activities thattake place at Ponta do Ouro, but also for thedelicate marine environment that is underconstant threat. Raising the awareness ofthe locals that live in Pontado Ouro, and the tourists that partake in amultitude of different marine and watersport activities, we hope to protect and conservethe marine environment and the animalsit supports for future generations.The Dolphin Centre is the central data collectionpoint for sightings of dolphins, whalesand whale-sharks. It is from this centre thatongoing research is undertaken, data recordingsof the dolphins are documented,and lectures and slide shows are given.Contact details:Telephone: +27 11 462-8103 / 082 330-3859Fax: +27 11 462-4551E-mail: dca1@mweb.co.zaWebsite: www.dolphincare-africa.org.zaPostal: PO Box 2318, Cramerview, 2060WIN A WEEKEND SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS INPONTA DO OUROPrize includes package for 2 people on the Dolphin Centre’s “Dolphin Encountour Full Tour” Programs.This includes 3 night’s dinner/bed and brunch. 4th night free accommodation only. 3 dolphin launches, Snorkelling (free-diving)course, educational slide show and return border transfers from the Kosi Bay Border.For more information, and to enter, please see page 64.Dr. DolphinDavid Cole knows that people consider hima little odd. He spends much of his free timeswimming with dolphins, and has enoughperspective to realize that this makes him,by most people’s standards, eccentric. Hedoesn’t mind.Cole, a 28-year-old computer scientist,lives about half an hour south of Los Angeles.Cole works for a computer hardware manufacturer,but in his spare time he heads theAquaThought Foundation, a cadre of computerwizards, doctors, and naturalists researching“dolphin-assisted therapy.”For about two decades, physical therapistsand psychologists have argued that swimmingwith dolphins can help the sick and handicapped.Dolphin-assisted therapy seems toaccelerate the vocal and physical developmentof autistic and mentally retarded children, forexample. Some researchers claim that dolphinswims also boost the human immunesystem. Most proponents of the therapy sayit helps patients’ psychological well-being; thedolphins distract them from their suffering.But Cole doesn’t buy this conventional wisdom.He rejects the idea that dolphins makehumans feel better simply by making themhappy. That’s what clowns are for. Cole believesthat swimming with dolphins can havea profound physiological effect on humans.The health of your immune system, the stateof your brain, the makeup of your cells – thesethings, Cole believes, can be radically alteredby dolphins. A self-described “neurohacker,”Cole is a new kind of scientist: a laypersonwho studies dolphins and neurology not witha degree in marine biology or medicine butwith a computer.Like any scientific novelty, Cole isn’t alwaystaken seriously. He gets a lukewarm andsometimes hostile reception from the practitionersof orthodox medicine. “It’s way tooesoteric for a lot of them,” he admits.At first I thought our equipment was notworking,” Cole remembers. “We were usinga fairly conventional statistical evaluation ofEEG – ‘This is your brain, this is your brainon dolphins.’ The level of change was likenothing I’d ever seen.”Essentially, Cole found a far greater harmonybetween the left and right sides of thebrain after a subject swam with dolphins – acrude suggestion that the brain is functioningmore efficiently than normal.When Cole studied the medical literature totry to explain this phenomenon, he couldn’tfind anything. So in 1991 Cole foundedAquaThought to pursue his dolphin research.Three years later, Cole thinks he has figuredout why dolphins have beneficial effects onSource: MotherJoneshumans. He warns, however, that a lot of peoplearen’t going to believe what he has to say.Cole thinks these beneficial effects arecaused by dolphins’ sonar, which they useto scan the water around them. The sonaris incredibly precise; dolphins can “echolocate”a shark half a mile away in the oceanand determine whether its stomach is full orempty – and, consequently, whether it mightbe feeding. “The dolphins produce an intenseamount of echolocation energy,” Cole says. “Itresonates in your bones. You can feel it passthrough you and travel up your spine.”Cole’s theory goes basically like this: A dolphin’ssonar can cause a phenomenon calledcavitation, a ripping apart of molecules.“It’s very possible that dolphins are causingcavitation inside soft tissue in the body,”Cole says. “And if they did that with cellularmembranes, which are the boundaries betweencells, they could completely changebiomolecules.” That could mean stimulatingthe production of T-cells or the release ofendorphins, hormones that prompt deep relaxation.Someday, Cole says, scientists may be ableto replicate dolphin sonar and use it in a precise,targeted way to bolster the immune system.But for now, he says, “the dolphin is apart of the experience.” BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 47

KNOWLEDGE IS POWERreviewsMOVIE/DVDWhat The BLEEP Do We Know?Kids think we adults are by and large boringand narrow minded and love Harry Potterand his friends because they know thatthere’s more to life than the Muggles’ quietdepressed collusion of a restricted and restrainedreality.They are kind of like Quantum physicistswho have been talking about these things sincethe 1950s and yet it still is not taught in schools.Why is that?Because it’s not good for business. Imaginethe chaos if everyone had the confidence thatthey could interact with reality and change it byusing their mind. People would be happy andno longer in need of something to fix the emptinessand weakness that they have lived withfor so long.This does not bode well for people andcompanies that make their living off of theinsecurity of others.But do we blame the smart policy makers in“Imagine the chaos if everyone had the confidence that theycould interact with reality and change it by using their mind.”the world or is there also another reason wedon’t incorporate the fantastic into our life.Perhaps somewhere along the way when welost our innocence as a child and bought intoour parents painful and struggling realities, wetook all that was wonderful and filed it in thedrawer in our mind called “FANTASY — Niceideas but impossible to actualize.”In this film Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. (psychiatry),M.S. (physics) and author of “The QuantumBrain” (which explores the interface ofneuroscience, computation, artificial intelligenceand quantum mechanics) describes people’sreaction to the bizarre findings of QuantumMechanics:And this from a man who has completed amaster’s degree as a member of the TheoreticalCondensed Matter Physics group and Yale’snewly-established W. H. Keck FoundationCenter for Quantum Information Physics. Hisarea of research is in supersymmetric manybodytheory as applied to quantum computation.A mouthful?Yeah but rather impressive nevertheless.These down to earth scientists are doing researchinto areas that are so fantastic it seemsto those who haven’t experienced it to be purelyscience fiction. Bi-location, objects in two ormore places simultaneously, parallel worlds, 11dimensions, time running backwards and forwards,non-local communication between anytwo objects simultaneously no matter the distance(i.e. faster than the speed of light- morelike the speed of thought), the observer (youand me) affecting matter with our attentionor thought and that our reality is inseparablefrom our mind, and that there is no real matter— beneath the sub-atomic realms there isonly possibilities or tendencies of consciousnesspopping in an out of existence giving usthe illusion of a solid reality.“Bull!” the protectors of our sanity (and theirlimited world view) say. This isn’t real It’s a fantasyconcocted in scientists’ minds. They aregiving you false hope. We are carbon-basedbeings hurtling aimlessly through space on aninanimate Rock.End of story.Uh-Huh...So why is AT&T and Monsanto among othersspending Billions of Dollars on harnessing theprocessing power of Parallel Universe Computers.In other words, they know that a computeras well as any other object exists in a number ofparallel slices of time or Universes simultaneously.So all they have to do is figure out how, sothey can make computers so fast and efficientthat it’ll blow a single reality computer out ofthe water. Seems like an awfully large amountof money to spend on a fantasy.This film explains that quantum mechanics isputting the Power of God back in the hands ofthe common man and woman. But it’s not justsome new-age feel-good ideology. The enormousresponse this film has been having suggeststhat something else is going on.What The BLEEP Do We Know talks abouta science that says that anything is possiblelimited only by the one observing it. And thenof course what is so great is that the film evendeals with our doubt and disbelief. It suggeststhat we are neurally wired to reject informationthat we are not familiar with.Well, that puts a wrench in the works of thecynic. Perhaps the cynics are only right in theirown mind. For their neurology doesn’t allowthem access to the fantastic. 48 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

BOOKOut of the Box – ZERI Management StoriesOut of the Box offers a practical insight intosystems thinking and how to use these insightsto do business differently. Doing business in anew way means being able to think differently,being able to move from the current comfortzones of “profit-margins”; knowledge hoarding’and competition.Using the medium of very simple children’sfables written initially to expose children to the“new thinking” Gunter Pauli takes the readerthrough a fascinating journey of corporateworld some success stories, some falling on theway side. Learning by stories and learning fromtrial and error is the best way to put life intocomplex concepts.He challenges business executives to stretchtheir imagination, creativity and innovation; asure formula for the brave ones waiting to getout of the straight jacket of business as usual,with a light touch of sustainability thrown infor good measure.The book is brought out by the local ZERInetwork on behalf of ZERI global by FutureManagers. To get a copy of the book contactFuture Managers on 021 448 1725 or visit www.futuremanagers.netFor more information on ZERI’s global practicesand local operations visit www.zeri.org orcontact Nirmala Nair, Director ZERI SouthernAfrica on 021 762 1228ZERI Design PrinciplesThe 1st design principleNo species eats its own waste; whatever iswaste for one, is food for another species.If one species starts to eat its own waste itwill deteriorate. When cattle farmers started tofeed cows with waste from other cows they violatedthis principle – and it led to the outbreakof mad cow disease. Shrimp farmers made thesame mistake when shrimps were fed their ownwaste – leading to white shrimp virus.There are exceptions which confirm the rule;occasionally a dog may be spotted eating itsown waste, though this is a matter of strengthening,challenging its immune system. If ananimal were only ingesting its own waste, andbehave as a cannibal, it would never survive. Ifindustry were to re-use all its own waste, thenit decreases its flexibility and increases the riskof failure.The waste of one industry should be used as avalue-added input for another industry. If onespecies is fed its own waste, it will degenerate.Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives (ZERI)is a global network of creative minds seekingsolutions to world challenges. ZERI views wasteas resource and seeks solutions by using nature’sdesign principles as inspiration.The 2nd design principleWhatever is a toxin for a species belongingto one kingdom will be neutral, or a nutrient,for another species in at least one otherkingdom.As humans we tend to classify things that aretoxic only from a human point of view. We assumethat anything that is toxic for us must alsobe toxic for all other species in every kingdom.In addition, we view viruses as universally dangerous.The reality, though, is that viruses arekingdom-specific and can be eliminated if weapply the first design principle. The reason whythe slaughter-house practice of boiling wastemeat prior to feeding it to other cattle won’tnecessarily work is precisely because of thefirst design principle. The prion causing madcowdisease could survive high temperatures.To eliminate the prion or a virus, the left-overwaste meat must go through the other 4 kingdoms.Cyanide and Arseincum are well knowntoxin for animals, but several plant species produceit and use it effectively as a defense againstpredators.Apples are rich in cyanide, and so are peaches,though none of these have to be labeled “dangerous– cyanide inside”. If you have a problemwith an old gold mine, and cyanide leaching,simply plant an apple orchard and over theyears the toxins will be eliminated. Probably,the cyanide will be gone well before the lawyerswill come to a final agreement settling on responsibilitiesand costs.If one species eliminates toxins or viruseswithin its own system, it will degenerate.The 3rd design principleThe more diverse and local the systems, themore efficient and resilient their operations.When systems are more efficient and moreresilient, the more diverse and the more localthey are operating.A group of plants and trees in a temperateclimate do not feel the need to bring somefungi from the tropics. The plants and trees incoexistence and in co-evolution with speciesbelonging to the other four kingdoms will createthe best, most effective system from withinthe boundaries of its own micro system. Relat-BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 49

KNOWLEDGE IS POWERout of the boxing this to our global economy we see that wewant everything from everywhere at any placeand time. We have increased the fragility of ourown system because if one or two links break,the whole system could fall apart. The morelocal the activities, the stronger they are – andthere will be much more flexibility as diversityincreases.A system that is local will be more efficientand resilient. Companies are in search of localsupply and better integration into the localeconomy. Whereas global (out)sourcing, supplychain management and customer relations areconsidered key components of a successful business,the capacity to be local globally requires anew wave of creative and innovative strategies.If non-native species are forced to becomepart of the ecosystem, it will degenerate.The 4th design principleAll kingdoms combined, integrate andseparate matter at ambient temperature andpressure.A spider makes its nylon-like fiber at ambienttemperature and pressure, from diverse rawmaterials. The moment the tension drops, itstarts disintegrating. The spider operates at ambienttemperature and pressure with fungi in itsguts, and bacteria to control the process, withplant components as food. The mollusk in thecold water produces a ceramic that is strongerthan bullet-proof ceramic.In nature, no one knows how to make fireor change pressure at will, yet products fromnature outperform human made artefacts. Industryhas set up a supply chain managementwhich delivers components within very preciseand uniform parameters.All assembly and disassembly requires hightemperature and pressure, causing pollutionand entropy. It is considered that the use ofchemistry, temperature and pressure speed upproduction and facilitates standardization.Creativity and innovation on the other handis the only way to find the best of both worlds.If industry emulates the “all-inclusive approach”of nature, it will be able to produce more efficiently,at lower, cost-slashing energy needs.Whereas this seems impossible today, it is thistype of creative approach that requires a passionfor thinking out of the box. This requires takingrisks. This is the unique role corporations mustassume.When business understands the five kingdomsand the four design principles, as well asthe principle of sustainability as defined before,then it will realize that there is a tremendouspotential for creativity, innovation and leadershipredefining the competitive framework ofbusiness for decades to come. computers...A study of 100,000 pupils in 31 countries around the world has concluded thatusing computers makes kids dumb. Avoiding PCs in the classroom and at homeimproved the literacy and numeracy of the children studied. The UK’s RoyalEconomic Society finds no ground for the correlation that politicans make betweenIT use and education.The authors, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann of Munich University,used the PISA tests to measure the skills of 100,000 15 year-olds. When socialfactors were taken into account, PC literacy was no more valuable than abilityto use a telephone or the internet, the study discovered.“Holding other family characteristics constant, students perform significantlyworse if they have computers at home,” the authors conclude. By contrast, childrenwith access to 500 books in their homes performed better. The negativecorrelation, the researchers explain, is because children with computers neglecttheir homework more.The Royal Society’s quantitative approach mirrors concerned raised by qualitativeanalysis of technology in education. Children are now awash with “facts”,but don’t know what to do with them.Schoolchildren are developing a “problem-solving deficit disorder”, and losingthe ability to analyze. A better way, experts insist, is to encourage creativity. Andthe best remedy for this is to turn off the computer and stimulate childrens’imaginations.The value of creativity, imagination and critical thinking over “information” accessis self-evident, you’d think. But an alliance of convenience between technologyvendors, who want to stuff more unwanted computers into classrooms,lazy governments, for whom IT is a way of appearing “modern” while cuttingeducation budgets, ensures the issue doesn’t stay in the headlines for very long.In the US, programs designed to connect schools to the internet have become apork barrel for questionable sales tactics from the some of the industry’s biggestvendors.“Technology is not destiny, its design and use flow from human choices” the USAlliance For Childhood wrote in its critical report Tech Tonic: Towards A NewLiteracy last September. This was a follow-up to the Alliance’s scathing reportFools Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood.“The pervasive use of advanced technologies and their low cost have reducedhands-on experiences for children, including the simple but overwhelminglyrewarding experience of taking things apart and putting them back together.Without this, technology becomes a mystery, leading to a perspective thatmight well be called “magic consciousness,” observe the Alliance for Childhoodauthors.“This consciousness is a perversion of the magical enchantment that naturallypervades a child’s world and is too quickly destroyed by adult insistence onviewing the world mechanically.”Long distance informationA few grown-ups would benefit from following the recommendations too. Foryears technology-advocates have made the lazy equation that “information” is“power” - but “information”, we’re belatedly discovering, doesn’t in itself meananything. As anyone who’s watched the quality of online discussions deteriorateover the past ten years, “problem-solving deficit disorder” isn’t entirely confinedto schoolchildren. Many of today’s debaters prefer “Fisking” - line-by-line rebuttalswhere facts are dropped like radar chaff - to rational debate or buildinga coherent argument.During the 2004 Presidential TV debate season, technophiles advocated extendingthis approach to real-time “fact checking” of the candidates. But not all factshave equal value. And neither do they necessarily supply context - a blizzard offacts obscures the moral choices a voter weighs in making his decision.For people who consider “facts” are an adequate substitute for knowledge,Google and the internet couldn’t get here quickly enough. 50 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

OUR CHILDRENmake kids dumbIs TV Turning Your Child Into a Bully?Just because a TV show or movie is made for kids, doesn’t mean it’s goodfor them, explained the lead researcher of a study that linked television toaggressive behavior in children. The study revealed that younger childrenwho watch television are more likely to become bullies, mainly due to theincreasingly violent nature of animated videos and cartoons.Researchers compared existing data from a national study of more than1,250 4-year-olds to follow-up reports with their mothers later on (betweenages 6-11), specifically to learn if their kids had become crueler toothers or had indeed become bullies.The numbers tallied are shocking:Four-year-olds were 25 percent more likely to become bullies if theywatched merely the average daily amount of television--3.5 hours.Kids who watched eight hours of TV a day were 200 percent more likelyto become bullies.Thirteen percent of the kids surveyed eventually became bullies.Violent animated shows are causing kids to become “desensitized” toviolence. Therefore, researchers suggested parents follow the AmericanAcademy of Pediatric guidelines, which recommend no TV for childrenunder 2 and no more than two hours of viewing time a day for olderkids.Aside from bullying, other potential negative influences of watching toomuch TV include obesity, inattention and other types of aggression.A Ray of HopeYet unlike other studies that focus on TV viewing, researchers of thisstudy found that in addition to eliminating or severely limiting viewingtime, kids were almost one-third less likely to become bullies if they received:Cognitive stimulation--exposing children to new ideas by reading aloudto them or taking trips to museums.Emotional support from their parents--talking regularly as well as eatingmeals together.These findings add fuel to the fire of a Kaiser Family Foundation studythat exposed some startling numbers about the amount of time kidsspend in front of the television. It’s not only to watch mind-numbing farefilled with fast-food commercials but also to play video games and eattheir meals.And just like the study above points out, the Kaiser study highlightedthe fact that children’s exposure to violent video games and TV has beenfound to encourage aggression.In fact, a number of studies have proved time and time again how detrimentalTV’s influence is on your child: One study that involved morethan 700 families found that 14-year-old boys who watched relativelymore television were more likely to have assaulted someone or committedany serious act of aggression by the time they were 22 years old. Asimilar pattern was found among females, but the relationship was muchweaker.Another study found that violence in the media can have a profound effecton the behavior of children and teens and that TV violence was associatedwith aggression among children as young as 4 years.Researchers involved in another study suggested physicians and parentsunderstand that popular video games may be a source of exposure toviolence and other unexpected content for children and that games mayreward the players for violent actions.Preschoolers who watch television violence and play violent video gamesare more likely to show high levels of aggression and antisocial behaviorthan those not exposed, according to another study.Take a Proactive Step Now!Many of us fail to appreciate the enormous influence we have on ourchildren’s lives. Kids are easy and impressionable targets; therefore, it’s upto us to step in and place some serious limitations on the amount of timethey are allowed to watch TV.All it takes is one simple step: Turn off the television (or video games) andencourage your kids to take part in a productive activity like physicallyactive play or reading. There are far too many things to do in life – placesto visit, books to read, sports to play--to waste so much of your life sittingin front of a box. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 51

EVOLUTION...the true cost of buying cheapWhen buying anything in this modern age we all tend to buy the most cheaply priced articles. We buy not so muchfor value as for cheapness, ignoring the real costs of our false economies, for that is what they are when carefullyexamined.Cheap clothing is manufactured by abusinghuman rights, using sweat shops in nationswithout labour protections and by the abuseof national and international trade distortingsubsidisation, tax breaks and the likes. Nikehas copped a lot of flak for their past practicesof sweatshop labour and books such as NaomiKlein’s “No Logo” accurately analyse the backgroundto these inherent problems that aredriving our markets toward their inevitable selfdestruction by concentrating wealth amongstthe already rich by raw exploitation of peopleand the environment.Just as our cheap clothing exploits people,cheap food exploits the environment. By buyingcheap food we support environmentally destructivefarming practices, we support farmingthat is increasingly industrialised, chemicallybased and unsustainable. And needless to saywe also support GM products, the first livingproducts that have been patented and massmarketed.I have just returned from a visit to the WestCoast of South Africa, from an area known asthe Sandveld. This semi-desert area supportsover 7000 hectares of potato farming, all carriedout by using centre pivot irrigation systemsthat daily delivers the equivalent of 8 mmof rain to the crop. That equates to 80, 000 litersof water, per hectare, per day. Just one such potatocrop circle covering more than 10 hectares,uses more water than the largest town in thearea, Lamberts Bay. There are hundreds of suchcircles in the area.The fragile Strandveld vegetation is cleared bybulldozers and burned. No environmental impactanalysis of the area is required before thevegetation is cleared, despite its specialisationand uniqueness. This is also despite this areabelonging to the Cape Floristic kingdom, recentlydeclared South Africa’s fourth world heritagesite. The area also falls into the proposedCederberg Biological Reserve, which will runfrom the inland mountains to the coast.After the area is cleared and the massivepumping equipment installed, fertilisers andpesticides are applied in a heavily chemicallyreliant regime. A crop of potatoes is then harvestedafter using vast amounts of precious waterfrom the aquifer of a semi-desert area. Thecircle is left to lie fallow for the next 4 years.With nothing to hold the sand together it becomesairborne, creating an effective dustbowlover the area of the circle. The vegetation willnever recover; neither will the associated biodiversity.The fauna, the flora and the microbial life yetto be classified is effectively lost forever.All for a “cheap” pocket of potatoesThe real costs and value of the water, the environmentalvalue of the land and the biodiversityare all ignored factors in the productionof our food. If the water is saline, or brak, asmost of the water in that area is, even greatervolumes need to be applied to wash the saltthrough the soil and to prevent salt build-upfrom rendering the soil useless. Because of theporosity of the sand in the area – it’s not knownas the Sandveld for nothing! – most of the fertiliserand chemicals are leached through the soilto return to the groundwater, further damagingthis valuable resource.Many of the areas along the coastal zone areextracting water that lies well below sea level.This will only encourage encroachment of seawaterinto the water table further damaging theground water.52 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

y Glenn Ashton, Director: Ekogaia Foundation (ekogaia@iafrica.com)It is obvious to all but the blind that what ishappening on the Sandveld is unsustainable,to put it mildly. One wag in the area said thatwhat the Sandveld was presently producing wasnot potatoes but water contained within potatopeels.Given the extraordinarily high evaporationrates in the area a large proportion of water appliedto these fields is lost to the atmosphereby evaporation. This in turn increases the riskof salination of the soil, inevitably rendering ituseless for agriculture and unable to be rehabilitated.Potato farming is turning the semidesertinto desert.The Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, inpresent day Iraq and Iran, the home of globalagriculture was once a lush, temperate region.The increased pressure of agriculture, coupledto irrigation, salination, destruction of forests(the last forest in the region was cut down bythe Ottoman army in the early 20th century inJordan), inevitably transformed this once lushMarkets are distorted by subsidies, by concentrationof mega retail companies like Wal-Martand Pick ‘n Pay, that have survived and thrivedby their purchasing power driving prices forproducers ever lower while increasing profitfrom consumers under the guise of bulk purchasing.The free market is in fact anything butfree. Just try to start a supermarket or an airlineand you will rapidly find out how the odds arestacked against you by the established playerswho have figured out the system and who milkit for all it is worth.But more relevant is the role that the freemarket plays in destroying our agriculturalenvironment. Cheap is good goes the mantraof the buyer. Farmers are pitted against eachother and inadvertently against nature in theirattempt to produce their food as cheaply aspossible.Of course environmental costs, such as excessivewater use, destruction of habitat, pollutionof watercourses and so forth are never factoredThe third and most important is to informourselves, our neighbourhood, our childrenand our nations. An informed population is theonly way to save ourselves from ourselves. AsSir Norman Angell warned us years ago, “Thevested interests – if we explain the situation bytheir influence – can only get the public to actas they wish by manipulating public opinion,by playing either upon the public’s indifference,confusions, prejudices, pugnacities or fears.And the only way in which the power of theinterests can be undermined and their manoeuvresdefeated is by bringing home to the publicthe danger of its indifference, the absurdity ofits prejudices, or the hollowness of its fears; byshowing that it is indifferent to danger wherereal danger exists; frightened by dangers whichare non-existent.”We won’t starve if we farm sensiblyWe can change the world for the better, notthe worse. Most global food production goes“It is obvious to all but the blind that what is happening on theSandveld is unsustainable, to put it mildly.”but fragile region into desert over the courseof a few millennia. This was the real cause behindthe collapse in the empires of Assyria andPhoenicia.While human intervention has only recentlybeen recognised of being capable of alteringour global ecosystems, hindsight has shownus how the Sahara, a sparsely grassed expanseof seem-desert a mere 10 000 years ago wasturned into desert by nomadic grazers andpossibly by the use of fire. The great empireof Carthage in North Africa declined becauseof similar human induced local biological andclimate change consequences on the North Africancoast. Carthage was once a primary supplierof food to imperial Rome.This serves to illustrate how local ecosystemsare being affected; we have a proven ability toimpact regional, continental and global supportsystems.This is neither the direct fault of the farmer orof the consumer. The real problem that drivesthis is the so-called free market system. I say‘so-called’ as the free market system as theoreticallyenvisaged and as sold to us all through advertising,corporate public relations and industrialisationfriendly government spokespersonsis anything but a free market system.in as a cost of production. Instead they are externalisedand passed on to future generationsto deal with. Under the ‘rules’ of the free marketsystem greed pays, conservation does not.How do we turn this around?Solutions to complex issues are seldom simplebut we do have the ways and means to turnthis around.The first and most obvious solution is tobuy wisely and support farmers who practiceecologically sound farming practices such asorganic farming, permaculture and modernintegrated sustainable farming practices. Theseseek to reduce the impacts on the environment,to reduce chemical and pesticide inputs and tobuild soil rather than deplete it.And no, the present GM crops on the marketdo not hold out any hope of assisting us in anyof these goals, despite the corporate hype. Thepresent GM varieties on the market will exacerbatenot diminish the problem.A second solution is to demand that farmingpractices that do damage the environment havesubsidies removed and that sustainable farmingpractices are actively supported and subsidisedto the same extent as industrial mono-cropfarming practices are at present.toward feeding animals for the meat market.We do not need to eat as much meat as most ofus do. Meat consumption is cumulatively one ofthe most environmentally destructive practicesin which humanity engages. The best bet wouldbe to have the world become vegetarian. Wecould realistically cut meat consumption andproduction by 90% with little difficulty. Thiswould have a massive positive contribution.We must ask ourselves where the food thatwe select from featureless supermarket shelvesoriginates. Those of us who do not actively participatein conscious, wise purchasing patternsare as implicit in the destruction of our worldas an oil baron or as a corrupt politician. Andhave not most politicians been corrupted bythe siren song of the corporate greed machine,itself driven by the impossible lure of ever increasingprofits?Only by arming ourselves with sufficient levelsof knowledge and then using that informationto act in a consciously responsible mannercan we work our way out of the conundrumthat enmeshes us all. The escape route is clear;we must simply share our common vision of abetter world and then live it.The time for talking is over; the time for actionis now. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 53

GREEN GARDENINGsoil for lifeHow many of us are truly aware of the critical role that soil plays in our health and well-being?Soil, and its legions of microbes, is one of our most precious natural resources, and it makes sense, therefore, to gothat extra mile when preparing the soil for your vegetable garden.Not many people are aware that a mere 20cmof topsoil is all that separates mankind fromstarvation.We do not have to rely on costly supplementarydiets to obtain the nutrients we need; wesimply need to ensure that the food producedin our back- (or front-) yard gardens is grownin healthy soil, is well prepared and properlycooked. The amount and type of nutrientsfound in food depend on a number of factors,most important of which is the soil in which itwas grown.Most of the soils around the world are exhaustedfrom years of poor agricultural practices;their structure and life forms have beendestroyed by extensive use of agro-chemicalsand pesticides. They are depleted of the vitalelements for healthy plant growth. All food ultimatelycomes from the soil. By concentratingon restoring the harmony in the soil with goodsoil building practices, we are working towardsgood health for all.It makes sense, therefore, to go that extramile when preparing the soil for your vegetablegarden. Trenching, as was discussed in theprevious edition of Biophile is undoubtedly themost effective way to boost soil nutrients and toundo years of damage in terms of a reduced humuscontent, a lack of soil life and compaction,which reduces the amount in air in the soil, andalso its water-holding capacity.Soil preparation is the food gardener’s mostimportant task. Hard work it may seem, but itpays off in the end with increased production insmall spaces and a major boost to soil fertility(and your health). And remember, this methodis a most efficient and effective and environmentallysound way to recycle household andgarden waste. Your waste becomes your health,and your wealth.There are other methods of preparing thesoil in your vegetable garden; all are dependenton the type of soil you have, although bear inmind that most soils in South Africa are poorand compacted and that this country is shortof water:1. Single digging means that the soil is loosenedor turned to the depth of one spade-head(30cm). If your soil is deep and fertile, is notcompacted and you have plenty of water, thismethod is a good one.2. Double digging is a good method forheavy clay soils where drainage is a problem.Dig out the soil (topsoil) in your bed to a depthof 30cm (one spade head) and put it to oneside of the bed. Using a fork, loosen and turnthe soil at the bottom (subsoil) to a depth of30cm . This means that the soil is loosened to adepth of two spade-heads (60cm). Then add a10cm layer of compost, well-rotted manure orany other organic matter in the bottom of thetrench. Cover this with the topsoil.Over time, through the action of rain and anamazing variety of soil life, the organic matteryou introduce into your soil through goodpreparation and mulching will decompose intoa rich, brown loamy material called humus.This awesome substance literally changes yoursoil into gold dust. It holds water and nutrientsand releases them on demand; it prevents theleaching of valuable plant foods from the soil; itsticks soil particles together and prevents themfrom blowing and washing away; it makes thesoil light and fluffy for good root growth. Vigorousroot systems are essential for strong andhealthy plants.Having prepared the soil and planted yourveggie beds for maximum production, yourwork as a gardener is not quite over. The goodnews – the heavy part is complete and, providingyou never walk on the beds, and that youkeep them covered with compost and mulch,you need never till them again. You can sit backa little and ponder the wonders of nature whileyour garden grows.Your garden is like a child; it needs constantattention if it is to flourish. There are a lot ofthings that you will have to do to keep it healthyso that you can harvest good crops:WateringVegetables needwater if theyare to growwell. Youngplants mustbe kept damp. Check the garden every day – insummer, twice a day – to make sure that the soilis not dry. Stick your finger into the top layer ofthe soil; if it is dry you need to water. The besttimes to water are early in the morning and/orlate in the afternoon. Avoid using a hosepipe asit wastes far too much water. Use a bucket and awatering can made out of a tin or plastic bottlewith holes punched in the bottom.Try not to get water on the leaves of pumpkins,squash and marrows. Wet leaves encourage thegrowth of powdery mildew which stunts thegrowth of the plants. Try using a simple systemof drip irrigation by burying a plastic bottlenext to the spot where you plant the seeds. Tinyholes poked in to the bottom of the bottle (usea thin needle that has been heated in a flame)will allow water to very slowly seep out into thesoil next to the growing plant.WeedingCheck everyday for weeds. Keep the bedsfree of weeds because they compete with yourvegetables plants for the food and water in thesoil. The smaller the weeds are when you pullthem out, the less disturbance there will be tothe roots of your crops.Use the weeds to make ‘weed tea’ or to mulchthe paths, make compost or to put into the nexttrench. Diseased weeds must be burnt and theashes sprinkled in the garden as a fertiliser.Some weeds, like wild spinach, stinging nettle,chick weed, fat-hen, milk thistle and pigweed,are eaten in relishes and as vegetables . Othersare used as medicines. Find out about weeds byasking the people around you.Weed teaMany weeds, such asdandelion and chickweed,have deep rootswhich take up valuableminerals from54 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.

Plastic cool drink bottles make good plant labels: cut up the bottles with a sharp knife. Make a sharp point at one end so the label can stick inthe ground. Alternatively, make them rectangular, poke holes through the top and bottom in the middle, and then thread a stick through. Usea permanent marker to write on the label. And remember, they can be reused when you replant after you have harvested.the subsoil. When weeds are used as a mulch,or dug into the ground, they enrich the soilwith these minerals and provide food for thevegetables that are growing.Make a weed tea by soaking the weeds thatyou pull up in a bucket of water, leaving themfor a few weeks and then watering your plantswith the diluted tea.Mulching means covering the soil with dryplant waste . A well mulched garden is a healthygarden. There are a lot of reasons why this is themost important job for any gardener to do.Mulch:• slowly breaks down or decomposes and feedsthe soil with organic matter and improves itsstructure.• prevents the garden beds from drying out andso you do not have to water so frequently. Itkeeps water in the soil.• keeps the soil cool in summer (so that plantroots do not get burnt) and warm in winter• slows down or prevents weed growth. You willnot have to work so hard!• encourages earthworms to your garden. Theselittle guys are your best friends when it comesto fertilising the soil, bringing air to the rootsand improving drainage.• provides a home for useful creatures – frogs,lizards etc who eat the pests that come to yourvegetables.When the wind blows the mulch away – addmore; as it decomposes into compost for thesoil, add more. You can never afford to stopadding mulch to you garden. If you don’thave dry plant waste, cover your soil withnewspaper,cardboard and even stones. Mulchyour beds; mulch your paths; mulch everything!And this is not all.Once your seedlings start emerging from thewarm, dark earth, they will need some extraspecial care. More of that later.Tips for more successful (and cheaper)gardeningIf you started your vegetable gardening withthe second edition of Biophile you will alreadybe harvesting and eating your very own fresh,delicious produce. You may well be on the vergeof planting out your second crop in some of therows in your beds.With time you will soon discover that it is nota good idea to grow the same crop repeatedlyin the same soil. Plants do better if they are rotatedin the following order:First crop: Leaf crops, for example – cabbage,kale, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli,parsleySecond crop: Root crops, for example – carrot,turnip, beetroot, leeks and onionsThird crop: Legumes such as peas, beans, broadbeans, lucerneFourth crop: Tomatoes and potatoesCrop rotation makes the beds last longer, andmaintains and increases soil fertility.Lucerne: a high protein vegetable and agood crop for a quick winter and early summerharvest …Most people think that Lucerne is only forcows! But it is actually an important source offood for humans as well; rich in protein, vitaminsand minerals. Cook it with spinach orbeetroot leaves, or cabbage or turnip leaves. Itis delicious and nutritious.Autumn and winter are the times to plantLucerne (the seed remains viable for up to fiveyears) so that by the end of July you will be ableto start harvesting the young tips. Add them tosoups and stews, and chop them into salads.You can also tie the tips into small bunches andhang them in a cool airy place to dry out. Crushthe dried material into a glass jar, seal and keepas a sprinkle for your food.After harvesting continually for three months,cut the plants down to the ground in October,chop them into small pieces with a spadeand dig them into the soil. Lucerne is a leguminousplant and this process of digging theplant remains into the ground is called greenmanuring. It makes the soil nitrogen-rich forthe growing of the next crop of leafy vegetablessuch as spinach, cabbage and lettuce. No fertilisersnecessary – nature does it for you.Nitrogen-fixing legumes should have nodulesscattered throughout the root system. Themore nodules the better. These are little fertiliserfactory sites that fix nitrogen from the atmosphereinto a soluble form that can be takenup by plant roots. To all who must eat to live, there is hope:GROW YOUR OWN FOODIt’s the simplest (and cheapest) way to good health.soil for life is a Cape Town-based NGO which teaches people to grow their own organic food.soil for life membership costs very little and entitles you to access to fresh, low cost seed (R2.50 a packet), access to theResource Centre, a telephone advice service, a quarterly newsletter and an opportunity to help others to help themselves.Become a part of the food-growing culture in South Africa.soil for life membership forms can be obtained by phoning Pat or Moira on 021-794 4982 during office hours.BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 55

YOUR READ QUESTIONS THE LABEL! ANSWEREDask anritaDo you have a question in search of an answer?Send it to anrita@biophile.co.zaI feel depressed at what is happening tothe world today. What can I do that willreally make a difference. Maybe there arenot enough of us conscious to do so.James M.It is easy to become disillusioned when we seehow much destruction is taking place, throughabuse and misuse of power, famine, war, religiousand cultural differences and so on, andmuch of this has to do with a “lesser than andbetter than” consciousness, created through thefree will of man.There is often an innate survival instinct, aself-preservation, that creates for many peoplea sense of poverty consciousness, and neverhaving enough, no matter how much they have,always needing to protect and claim ownershipof what was never theirs to claim in the firstplace.The universe has freely given its fruitful giftsof land, and food, and the ability for us to live inharmony with one another, and this is what wemust create as our reality. There is no dominionship,only what has been created when oneAnrita Melchizedek is a channel, author,healer, Light essence producer and internationalSpiritual facilitator, working with natureintelligence and the Company of Heaven.She has appeared on Free Spirit, as wellas in numerous print publications, such asNamaste and Renaissance magazines.Anrita has a private healing practice inCape Town, offering readings and Spiritualcounselling. For further details on Anrita, orher ascension network, please visit her website:www.pleiadianlight.netperson gives there power to another.When we understand that we are co-creatorsto the Company of Heaven, and peace keepersto the earth, we can start to make the appropriatechanges, which requires a level of consciousnessawareness and a Spiritual practice inour everyday lives that takes us into a servicerole, rather than self preservation.Also, there needs to be a shift out of povertyconsciousness, into abundance consciousness.There is what I call the “Options” program.At every minute of every day, you are makingdecisions based on belief systems, that either allowfor a reality in which there is never enough,or trusting and knowing that you have all youneed in any given moment. It is like choosing amovie. You can choose one that plays out yourfears, and create this as your reality, or you canchoose a movie that allows you to see your preciousnessand the preciousness of all of thosearound you.It is simply a mindset.As the universe always supports your reality,if you perceive the world to be a place full ofhardship, and play out the victim and persecutorconsciousness, so the universe will supportyou in this too, as you are the co-creator, and itis your choice as to how you view your realitywithin the one Reality of All That Is.On a personal level, be conscious of the foodsyou eat, the household cleaning products youuse, the people you choose to interact with, andalways see the highest potential of those aroundyou and within the world. Look at what servicerole you can take on to support your localcommunity, and give freely of your time andenergy where you can, without expectation ofwhat you are getting back in return. Send healingenergy, or intentions of peace and harmonyinto areas that you feel need it, and take timeout to enjoy the little pleasures in life, appreciatingthe extraordinariness in the everydayordinariness.Understand that many of the seeminglytragic events that have occurred around theworld have been Divinely orchestrated to bringbrought people together in compassion, andLove, and honour the Divine Perfection of AllThat Is in the Now. Separation is an illusioncreated by man, and each perceived challengeor tragedy brings with it many gems to be exploredand integrated.There are so many incredible and humblepeople make changes in their lives and the livesof others, and you are not alone in the networkof Light. There are further legions upon legionsof Angelic Beings who are working with Humanityto bring about the co-creation of heavenon earth.This is the Reality of One Unity Consciousness.Trust that you make a difference. You arean essential part in the earth changes, and holda precious puzzle piece in making an enormousdifference, in your life, and the lives of others.I have had a lot of x-rays, includingdental x-rays, and haven’t felt well since.It is possible that this can be affecting myenergy levels.Julie T.Absolutely. In fact x-rays of any kind interferewith the natural energetic frequency of thebody, and misalign your energy field, in particularaffecting the carbon atoms in the bones,which take on an unnatural direction. This canalso cause physical problems, such as backache,muscle problems and disc trouble in the body.The carbon and calcium atoms in the bodyshould flow through the energy field to truenorth and south of the planet.There is an energy technique, given by JudyJacka, in the book “Healing through earth energies”,which assists in correcting this, throughapplying carbon frequencies to the body.Fill a brown paper bag or plastic bag withcharcoal (carbon), which you can get fromyour fireplace once the wood has burnt.Stand facing approximately north, and placethis charcoal bag on your head, thinking of carbon.Do this for about 30 seconds.Then turn, and face south, and think of theword calcium.Again face north, and tap your body, yourarms, chest, back etc, and then take the charcoalup and down your upper body.Then face south, and think of the word calcium.Again face north, and continue to think ofthe word carbon, while tapping the rest of thebody, and facing south when this is done.End by putting the bag under you feet, andfacing true north and then south.I also like to put a charcoal tablet in themouth for dental x-rays, which I then throwaway, but this exercise will be equally effectivewithout this.56 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za56 BIOPHILE

I have been involved with a magneticwoman for the past six months. Shecomes from a Spiritually based backgroundfocused on eastern philosophies,and I feel I have a lot to experience andgive in the relationship.The problem isshe can be verbally abusive sometimes,and then apologizes, making everythingseem all right.I feel mesmerized by her, and can’tseem to leave the relationship, althoughI know there is a part of the relationshipthat is destructive and unhealthy. Shesays we have come together to heal themale/female dynamic. How can I shiftthe relationship?Paul G.My sense is that you are both playing out oldfalse beliefs and patterns regarding male/femaledynamics in your relationship. When I tune in,it seems your partner has experienced a lot ofcontrol and domination issues with men, startingwith her father, which in turn is played outby her taking on the persecutor role, imaginingthat all men just want to control and dominatewomen, and use and abuse them sexually.Furthermore, it seems that you have somemother issues too, taking on the wounding ofthe Divine Feminine, which would have beenpassed down from your mother, herself experiencingabuse issues and instability in her relationships.This makes you receptive to yourpartner’s issues, as you empathize with her inbelieving that most men have abused the goddessenergy.The problem with playing out these false beliefsis that you continue a cycle of abuse, andperceived separation between men and women.Men have also experienced abuse and misuseof sexual energy, and it is not only possible,but also essential in coming together to healyour sexual wounds, that you talk about howyou feel, and your perception of old patternsthat you bring into the relationship. Don’t playgames. Communication is essential in buildingup trust in a relationship, and knowing that youcan touch the Soul of another in a loving andgently manner is the way forward in a relationshipof Love particular.You also need to look at your own issues ofself worth and self esteem here, as you do notyet see your full preciousness. Each one of us isunique and magnificent in our own way, andwhen you value yourself for the many gifts youbring, and when you can see the magnificenceof yourself, this is what will be reflected backto you.Coming from a Spiritual understanding is awonderful way to move forward together, butsadly your partner is experiencing fragmentationand a misalignment in her Spirituality.Another thing that I wanted to mention hereis the power of sexual energy, which can takeyou into places where you lose your integrity.Feeling mesmerized by your partner is oftenan aspect of sexual energy that makes you feelpowerless in standing in your Truth.You need to take back your power, and notallow yourself to be abused. If you feel the relationshipis something you want to pursue, andyou feel deeply in Love, ensure that you comefrom a heartfelt place, and work through theseissues together from the heart and not the sacralcentre.A relationship of Love particular can be themost beautiful and magical experience but itrequires that both partners are ready to healtheir wounds, and step into the next stage oftogetherness in a conscious and loving manner.Then you will truly have come together to healthe wounding of the male/female dynamic.I meet a wonderful man a few monthsback, although he lives in another part ofthe country. We sms each other regularlyand speak on the phone, and the conversationsare of an intimate nature.A little while back, I asked him if wewere in a committed relationship togetherand he suggested that we shouldgo with the flow, particularly as we arenot able to see each other in person.I am a little confused about this, andfeel perhaps that I have stepped outsideof my integrity in forming a connectionand sharing intimacies in a dynamic thatI am not sure is going anywhere.Is he committed to me or not?I feel like I am getting confused signalsand am not sure whether I should pursuethe relationship or not?Jenny J.There is something to be said about goingon a journey with no particular destination inmind. In other words, stepping outside of yourprojections and expectations in a romantic relationship,and just seeing where it leads you.My sense is that this man is interested in you,but not ready for a commitment at this time.So, you can choose to let go of this dynamicfor now, or possibly choose to experience amale/female dynamic that sees you steppinginto another weaving of the magnificent tapestryof life.Without bringing in your preconceived ideasof how the relationship should be, trying to puteverything into a little box, it is possible to stepoutside of a limited way of thinking and just experiencethe male energy in a loving way, andif it is coming from the heart, you would not bestepping outside of your natural integrity.You could become good friends, and experienceaspects of your Self in a beautiful and interestingway, if you allow yourself to flow inthe Now, without expectation of a romanticisedideal of what a relationship should be.Give your friendship some time and go withthe flow.You never know how it will turn out. “The universe has freely given its fruitful gifts of land, and food, and theability for us to live in harmony with one another, and this is what wemust create as our reality.”BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 57

OUR CHILDRENsynergy schoolingWhat does school have to do with now, today, this moment of life?A school with answers to this question has emerged in the rural setting of Noordhoek, says Robin Booth.Many young people wonder why they are in school. To learn, of course,they are told. But why and to what end, they rightfully ask. To becomeproductive members of society; education is your portal and path to opportunity,they are reminded.But that isn’t the future they protest!What does school have to do with now, today, this moment of life? Formany young people the experience of school is an exercise in waitingfor the present to matter. The justifications for their schoolwork seemrelated only to some invisible future. The present has little more thanoperational value; deeper meanings, understandings, contributions andsatisfactions are not the goal here.Childhood is little more than a holding pattern, a phase to pass throughon the way to maturity. And children are not seen as capable of doinganything particularly useful, except ‘getting ready’ to do something useful.This disregard for the capacities of children and this dismissal of anyvalue in the period of life we call childhood are all too common in oureducational system.No wonder young people question why they are in school.The “schooling’” f our future will become an environment where teachers,parents and children co-construct a shared learning environment.A space where there is a shared sense of belonging and active participation,where the nurturing of self esteem and values of integrity, creativityand respect are valued as the core priorities of schooling and of living.Conflict is not seen as threatening but is seen as a driver of growth anddialogue, a process to further our understanding of ourselves and ourworld views. Relationships are seen as the underlying force of developingemotional, social and academic intelligences.And such a school is has emerged in the rural setting of Noordhoek.Set on a large portion of land with a full sized sports field, farm animalsand with horses as neighbours, Synergy Schooling is a new approach“...children are not seen as capable of doing anything particularlyuseful, except ‘getting ready’ to do something useful. This disregardfor the capacities of children and this dismissal of any value in theperiod of life we call childhood are all too common in our educationalsystem.”58 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

emerging out of the need for an educational visionthat addresses the complex needs of humandevelopment in the 21st century.Robin Booth, one of the founding membersand school principal says “We seek to consciouslydevelop the skills, knowledge and life wisdomthat children need to foster their individual andcollaborative talents, passions, dreams and potentials.These children aim to achieve synergiesthroughout their lives through experientiallearning and quality relationships. We have let goof the dogmatic and inflexible approach of traditionalschooling. We have moved away from tryingto ‘teach’ children,to the exciting paradigmof ‘supporting authentic learning’.”They believe that the empowerment of peopleis developed and realised in relationships, betweenchildren, teachers, parents, and in communities.The Synergy Approach also encourages thegrowth of core values and strong inner personalities,fundamental to the creation of meaningful,passionate, and productive lives.The emergent curriculum and all their activitiesseem to draw fully on cognitive, emotionaland symbolic experiences, seeking to ensure richand meaningful learning for each child and thegroup.Central to the curriculum is personal awarenessand responsibility, emotional intelligence,the articulation of our identities, attitude andthe development of learning skills. The generalenvironment is to encourage students to learndirectly from their experiences (academic andlife) and to provide space and support for reflectionand review.Synergy Schooling is experiential learningbased in quality relationships.Synergy Schooling strives for authentic livingand learning.Synergy Schooling is about understanding whoI am, who you are and who we are together.For further information on the school and andto see concrete examples of why this approachis appealing to so many other school principals,teachers, parents and children, see their websiteon www.synergyschooling.co.za or phone Ingaon (021) 785 5500 to make an appointment tosee the school. BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 59

TOUCH • CONNECT • EVOLVEthe back pages HEALYOURSELF, HEAL OUR WORLDSix Principles forLiving on the EarthFor at least 2500 years, humankindhas struggled with basicquestions about who we are, whatwe are heading for, what kind ofreality we are part of.Ecologist Arne Naess offers hissix thought-provoking and inspiringprinciples to help answer thosequestions.These are important guides forall of us who strive toward selfrealization,and who yearn to livein a more balanced way upon theearth. Find out these importantprinciples here:1. We underestimate ourselves. Iemphasize self. We tend to confuseit with the narrow ego.2. Human nature is such thatwith sufficient all-sided maturitywe cannot avoid identifying ourselveswith all living beings, beautifulor ugly, big or small, sentientor not.3. Traditionally the maturity ofthe self develops through threestages--from ego to social self,and from social self to metaphysicalself. In this conception of theprocess nature--our home, ourimmediate environment, wherewe belong as children, and ouridentification with living humanbeings--is largely ignored. I thereforetentatively introduce the conceptof an ecological self. We maybe in, of and for nature from ourvery beginning. Society and humanrelations are important, butour self is richer in its constitutiverelations. These relations are notonly relations we have with humansand the human community,but with the larger community ofall living beings.4. The joy and meaning of lifeis enhanced through increasedself-realization, through the fulfillmentof each being’s potential.Whatever the differences betweenbeings, increased self-realizationimplies broadening and deepeningof the self.5. Because of an inescapableprocess of identification with others,with growing maturity, the selfis widened and deepened. We “seeourself in others.” Self-realizationis hindered if the self-realizationof others, with whom we identify,is hindered. Love of ourself willlabor to overcome this obstacleby assisting in the self-realizationof others according to the formula“live and let live.” Thus, all that canbe achieved by altruism – the dutiful,moral consideration of others– can be achieved (and muchmore) through widening anddeepening ourself.6. The challenge of today is tosave the planet from further devastationwhich violates both the enlightenedself-interest of humansand non-humans, and decreasesthe potential of joyful existencefor all.Adapted from Thinking Like a Mountain,by John Seed, et al (New Society Publishers,1998).10 ShamanicMeditations“Quite simply, Spirit is a state ofbeing” goes one Shamanic meditation.Another: “Let the patterns ofenergy expressed by the way youlive your life be ones of beauty, forthen others would be touched bybeauty.”Read these 10 shamanic meditationsfor their simple, clear guidance.They can help you to live ina natural way so that you resonatein harmony with your being, yourSpirit:• Creativity is not the makingof something through a qualityof the mind. It is a spontaneousmovement of Spirit energy withinthe Soul, like the revolving of theEarth round the Sun which createslight and day.• Determination is the powerthat gives momentum to desire.• Everything that can be understoodis already within us.• Follow your heart, for what youfeel is nearer the truth than whatyou think.• Happiness is unattainable alonefor it can only be shared.• Innocence is not that which isseparate from moral wrong, forinnocence is not divisive. An innocentchild lives for the moment.The past is forgotten and the futuredoes not exist. Only the momenthas important. That is innocence.• Look to a Way, that is not aroute to a destination bur ratherthe journey itself, for you cannotbecome what it is you aspire tounless you can be it where you arenow.• To love Nature is to love yourReal Self, for Nature itself is anexpression of the essence of whatyou are.• Spirit is obscured when the Egois allowed to get in the way.• You alone have the power tomake something of yourself simplyby choosing to do so.Adapted from Shamanic Spirit, by KennethMeadows (Inner Traditions, 2004).The Treasure WeSeek – A HealingStoryWhat is the treasure we seek aswe pursue healing and spiritualgrowth? Stories can help us to answerthis primary question. Whenwe read or listen to stories, we canfeel excitement as we are remindedof what we truly desire and the differentpaths we can take in this life.Stories remind us of what is importantand what will quickly passaway. We need these stories for inspirationon a daily basis as muchas food. This story from India canhelp us gain a stronger feeling forwhat we are really after:Once on the outskirts of a village,a holy man slept against agnarled tree. As the sun rose overthe forest, a man from the villageran to the sleeping man and shookhim awake.“The gem, the gem, where is thegem? I had a dream in which LordShiva told me to find a holy manat the edge of the forest who hada gem that would keep me wealthyfor the rest of my days.”The holy man reached into hisbag and produced a diamond thesize of a coconut. “I suppose youmean this?” he said. “I found it onthe path.”The villager took the diamondand ran back to his home. There hepaced and paced through the dayand all that night. Early the nextmorning the villager was back atthe gnarled tree.“Please,” he asked the holy man,placing the gem at his feet, “sharewith me the wealth that allows youto give away this gem so easily.”In our own ways we are allsearching for the wealth describedin the tale above: that connectionto, and experience of, what is sacred,timeless, mysterious, andlove-filled.Adapted from Healing the Heart for Families,by Allison M. Cox and David H. Albert,editors (New Society Publishers, 2003).Follow Your Truth– MeditationHow would it feel to be completelytrue to yourself? To feelcompletely alive and empowered?Isn’t that a yearning most of usshare? Here is a meditation to helpyou recognize, find, and follow,your own energy.It’s in recognizing your own energy,and learning to follow yourinner guidance about it, that wonderfulthings will unfold for you,things that you may not yet evenimagine. Here is a restful meditationto start you in the processright now:Sit or lie down in a comfortableposition. Close your eyes.Take a deep breath and relax yourbody. Take another deep breathand relax your mind. Continue tobreathe slowly and deeply and letgo of all tension or anxiety.As you relax, you find yourselfin a deep, quiet place inside. Allowyourself to just rest in that placefor a few moments, with nothingyou need to do or think about.60 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za

From this deep, quiet place, beginto sense the life within you.Imagine that you are followingyour own energy, feeling it, trustingit, moving with it in every momentof your life.You are being completely trueto yourself, speaking and livingyour truth. You feel alive and empowered.Imagine that you are expressingyour creativity fully andfreely, and let yourself enjoy theexperience.Do this meditation as often asyou like.Adapted from Developing Intuition, byShakti Gawain (New World Library, 2000).The Gaia Quiz– Two Views of theNatural WorldWhat is your view of the world?Is a tick worse than a mosquito,and are rats the worst of all?Or do you feel as if the tick andthe rat are independent, interconnectedparts of the whole and allare inextricably linked?Do you believe that nature is aliving being, or that nature is hereto support us?Take the thought-provokingGaia Quiz and find out:1. A. Humans are the most importantspecies on the planet.B. Every species, human to theamoeba, is equally vital to theEarth.2. A. The Earth was created forhuman benefit and for us to use aswe desire.B. Humans are here as custodians,to ensure that the Earth ishealthy for all.3. A. Whoever owns a propertyhas the right to use whatever resourcesit contains.B. All life depends on the samematerials. To use more than weneed is immoral.4. A. In time, technology andscience will find solutions to allour problems.B. Technolgy can never transcendthe natural laws that governall life.5. A. Competition is the naturalorder of the world.B. Cooperation is the natural orderof the world.6. A. I am only one person. WhatI do is too small to make a real differencein the world.B. Every individual is equallyimportant to the well-being of thewhole.7. A. There’s not enough to goaround, so I have to get as much aspossible for myself and my family.B. What we have belongs to all,so the way to live well is to sharewhat I have with those who needit.8. A. Human life is sacred andimportant above all else.B. The balance among all livingspecies is sacred and importantabove all else.9. A. To be truly spiritual, I haveto transcend, or rise above, thephysical world.B. All things are part of Spirit,every rock, tree, and person. Spiritualitymeans right living, hereand now.10. A. I’m independent. I can behappy and healthy even if the restof the world isn’t.B. My welfare depends on thewell-being of the whole. I can behealthy and happy only when theworld is.What did you find? If you answeredmore As than Bs, then youthink that Nature is somewhereseparate from where we live.If you answered more Bs thanAs, then you believe in the GaiaHypothesis – that the Earth is aliving being.Adapted from Earth Spirit Warrior, byJohn R. Stowe (Findhorn Press, 2002).Sleep SecretsAre you getting enough sleep? Ifnot, you are not alone: researchershave found that most of us arelacking an adequate amount ofsleep.The jangling pace of modern lifeseems to be wreaking havoc onour sleep patterns, and draggingaround after not enough sleep isnot only no fun, it can also be adanger when we drive or do ourjobs. Here are twelve secrets forgetting more good-quality, restfulsleep.1. Create an optimum sleep environment.This includes a mattressthat offers ideal support andcomfort; a dark room (see below);steady, soothing, low sounds like awhirring fan; and a room temperatureof 16 to 18 degrees Celsius,which is optimal for sleep.2. Don’t miss sleep to get extrawork done. Most people shovesleep aside in favor of workingmore hours with the belief thatthey’re maximizing efficiency, butin fact the opposite is true.You will be more creative, moreexpressive, and so much more efficientwhen your brain is alert andoxygenated.3. Relax before bedtime. Findyourself too geared up to fallasleep at bedtime? Create a ritualfor quality sleep.A cup of hot chamomile or catniptea works wonders. Hot milkwith a dash of nutmeg or a cup ofhomemade, low-sugar hot cocoaare also helpful for many people.You may want to take a soothingbath and soak in aromatherapeuticbubbles scented with lavender,Roman chamomile, or neroli essentialoil.4. Eat several small mealsthroughout the day to stabilizeyour blood sugar level. If you’rehungry and hypoglycemic whenit’s time for bed, you will havetrouble falling and staying asleep.5. Exercise vigorously in themorning. By evening you’ll benaturally tired. Vigorous exerciseright before bedtime can be toostimulating for many people.6. Avoid hot, spicy foods at dinner,as well as caffeine or alcohol.7. Wear comfortable, preferablycotton, clothing to bed – orsleep au naturel.8. Keep your bedroom as darkas possible to enhance melatoninproduction. Melatonin is thehormone produced by the pinealgland that brings on drowsinessand sleep. Even small amounts oflight entering your bedroom caninterrupt its production, so pullthe shades and put the nightlightin the bathroom. If you must, weara sleep mask.9. Go to bed by 10 P.M. Generally,the more sleep you receive beforemidnight, the better you’ll feelin the morning.(The Centre for Integrated Healingsays, “From a complementarymedicine perspective, an hour ofsleep before midnight is worth 2hours of sleep after midnight, becausesleep before midnight optimizesmelatonin production.”)10. Don’t work or discuss workin the bedroom. It’s too distracting.11. Give yourself a nice foot orhand massage prior to sleep. Evenbetter, offer to give your significantother a brief massage if they’ll returnthe favor.12. Once in bed, lie on yourback, close you eyes, place yourarms by your sides, and take long,deep, easy breaths through themouth. Let your mind focus onlyon your breathing. This exercisealmost always lures the author intoa deep, sound sleep. Adapted from How to Feel Fabulous Today!by Stephanie Tourles (Storey Books,2001).BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 61

the GreenDirectoryA Directory of Products & Servicesfor the Ethical ConsumerTo advertise,please contact Odette Livni:odette@biophile.co.za or 021 706 6749

ALTERNATIVE MONEY SYSTEMSCESCommunity Exchange SystemWeb: www.sane.org.za/ces/SANESouth African New Economics NetworkPO Box 44928 Claremont 7735Tel: +27 (0)21 689 6892Fax: +27 (0)21 689 6892Email: sane@iafrica.comWeb: www.sane.org.zaANIMAL RIGHTS/ACTIVISMBeauty Without Cruelty (SA)Web: www.bwcsa.co.zaPeTAPeople for the Ethical Treatment of AnimalsWeb: www.peta.orgConnect Up – Get Active!SAFeAGESA Freeze Alliance on Genetic EngineeringTel. +27 (0)21 447 8445Fax +27 (0)21 447 5974Email: safeage@mweb.co.zaWeb: www.safeage.orgGOVERNMENTDept. of Environmental Affairs/TourismMinister: Marthinus van SchalkwykMinister’s spokesperson: Mr Riaan AucampPretoria telephone: (+27 12) 310-3611Pretoria fax: (+27 12) 322-0082Cape Town telephone: (+27 21) 465-7240Cape Town fax: (+27 21) 465-3216Mobile: (+27 83) 778 9923E-mail: raucamp@deat.gov.zaWeb: www.environment.gov.zaTELKOM ACTIVISTSAntiTrust SAWeb: www.antitrust.co.zaHellkomWeb: www.hellkom.co.zaMyADSL ForumWeb: www.myadsl.co.zaCONSERVATIONWildlife and Environment Society of SAWeb: www.wildlifesociety.org.zaWWFWeb: www.panda.org.zaENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISMEarthlife AfricaWeb: www.earthlife.org.zaEnvironmental Justice Network ForumTel: +27 (0)11 403 8978Fax: +27 (0)11 339 3859Web: www.ejnf.org.zaFriends of the Earth South AfricaWeb: www.groundwork.org.zaGMO ACTIVISMBiowatchPO Box 13477 Mowbray 7705Tel: +27 0(21) 447 5939Fax: +27 0(21) 447 5974Email: biowatch@mweb.co.zaWeb: www.biowatch.org.zaFinance MinisterTrevor ManuelPO Box 29 Cape Town 8001Tel: 021 464 6102Tips for Trevor: tipsfortrevor@treasury.gov.zaSecretary email: patti.smith@treasury.gov.zaWeb: www.finance.gov.zaLEATHER ALTERNATIVESVegetarian Shoes Online Store (UK)Tel: +44 (0)1273 691913Fax: +44 (0)1273 626376.Email: information@vegetarian-shoes.co.ukwww.vegetarian-shoes.co.ukMEDIA50/50Web: www.5050.co.zaEarthyearWeb: www.mg.co.zaThe EnviropaediaWeb: www.enviropaedia.comBIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za 63

COMPETITIONWIN A WEEKEND SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS IN PONTA DO OURO IN OURDESIGN A COVERCOMPETITION!Prize includes package for 2 people on the Dolphin Centre’s “Dolphin Encountour Full Tour” Programs.This includes 3 night’s dinner/bed and brunch. 4th night free accommodation only. 3 dolphin launches, snorkelling (free-diving)course, educational slide show and return border transfers from the Kosi Bay Border.You could win this wonderful prize by creating a cover for a future issue of Biophile.All styles of illustration and art are welcome and encouraged.All entries must be original, unpublished work by the enteringartist, with no copyright infringement.How to enter:Email digital works of art or scans of the illustration tocompetition@biophile.co.zaor post your entry to Cover Competition, Biophile Magazine,PO Box 817, Constantia 7848PLEASE NOTE THAT ORIGINALS SENT BY POST CANNOT BERETURNED!For more information, and for the full competition rules,please visit our website: www.biophile.co.zasubscribe and save 20% off the cover price!Subscription rates:South AfricaNeighbouring Countries6 issues: R95.95 R180.00 (surface) R200.00 (airmail)12 issues: R191.90 R360.00 (surface) R400.00 (airmail)Please post the form below (make a photocopy ifyou’d rather not cut it out), together with a cheque madepayable to BIOPHILE: Biophile, PO Box 817, Constantia 7848Name:______________________________Address:_______________________________________________________________________________________Tel: ______________________________Email: ______________________________04/05Or pay the amount directly into our bank accountAccount Name: BIOPHILEBank: Standard Bank ConstantiaBranch Code: 02530917Account Number: 271 596 791and fax the form below, together with proof ofpayment to 021 706 7642I would like to subscribe for: 6 12 issues,beginning with Issue #________This is a gift subscription; please post the magazine to:Name:________________________GIFTAddress:_______________________________________________________________________________________64 BIOPHILE – Issue 4/2005 – www.biophile.co.za