A new article by Lester Brown of the World Watch Institute in the latest issue of Scientific American Magazine examines this question. This is a highly important issue, and the GROW BIOINTENSIVE approach we are teaching here at Ezemvelo produces food with a fraction of the energy, water and soil amendments of conventional approaches. 34 students on a the Leadership Course here this week, spent this morning learning how to make new soil from plant based compost and how to conserve water and promote healthier plants with higher yields by double digging a new vegetable bed for our new GROW BIOINTENSIVE demonstration garden.

The following two posts are alarming, and one needs to remember that the root of the word "crisis" has the same origin as "circle", ie that a crisis represents lack of balance, and the beginning of a return to balance again. It seems we humans need to be pushed to the brink of catastrophe before we will change our ways! Also the word for "crisis" in Chinese is associated with the word "opportunity".

From the May 2009 Scientific American Magazine

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse

By Lester R. Brown

X

• Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
• Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees.
• Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production.
• Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, the author argues, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order.

One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis.

For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could disintegrate probably seems preposterous. Who would not find it hard to think seriously about such a complete departure from what we expect of ordinary life? What evidence could make us heed a warning so dire—and how would we go about responding to it? We are so inured to a long list of highly unlikely catastrophes that we are virtually programmed to dismiss them all with a wave of the hand: Sure, our civilization might devolve into chaos—and Earth might collide with an asteroid, too!

For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy—most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures—forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.

Full article here...

A Water Warning

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Nestlé, argues that water shortage is an even more urgent problem than climate change

Reuters

The rise in the price of basic food has had devastating effects on the most vulnerable—the poor who spend up to two-thirds of their income on food. Some of the measures taken in response, such as export restrictions, have been highly counter-productive. In 2009 the world needs to reflect on the underlying causes of the food crisis and start addressing structural factors, in particular the link to biofuels and water.

Frank Rijsberman, from the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, gave warning in 2003 that if current trends continued, the livelihoods of one-third of the world’s population could be affected by water scarcity by 2025: “We could be facing annual losses equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States combined.” Normally, when people hear about water scarcity they think of tap water; he talked about crops. And the dimension of the problem ahead is vast: America and India combined produce about 30% of globally consumed cereals.

Continued here...

Student Hike

Students from the Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg begin their one week course on Leadership with a 3 hour hike. We walked from Reception past remains of a kraal and rondaval hut east of the main dam. From there we followed animal tracks to the old farmhouse (middle picture), and up by single file on a well-used animal track to the spring (at lower left in bottom picture) near block 14. Just close to this spring is another old kraal where the students rested (top picture). This path marks the main route between the spring and the Wilge River and is likely thousands of years old. There is evidence of human habitation in this area dating back to the Middle Stone Age (about 250,000 to 25,000 years ago).

Understanding the environment of our ancestors here provides an opportunity to understand how people have learned to live in harmony with nature over the ages.

Enlightened Leadership

Today a group of 40 students arrive at Ezemvelo from the Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg for a weeks course on Leadership. So it's very fitting that this week in a newspaper report from London the former President of Mozambique, while receiving a $5 million award for Achievement in African Leadership, is quoted as crediting group practise of Transcendental Meditation for bringing "political peace and balance in nature in my country."

An excerpt from London's Independent:

Joaquim Chissano: Democrat among the despots

Sunday, 19 April 2009
By Claire Soares

Yesterday, however, at City Hall in London, the focus was on Africa's good things. Well one good thing to be precise – Africa's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, whose very first winner is Joaquim Chissano, the former President of Mozambique.

It was without doubt the most lavish of all the presents Mr Chissano received as he celebrated his 68th birthday yesterday. The Achievement in African Leadership, to give it its proper name, comes with $5m in prize money, making it the world's largest individual award.

While the financial gains leave the real Nobel (with its comparatively paltry $1.5m pot) for dust, the African version lags behind the Oslo original in one respect. It is not quite so slick at getting hold of the winner. "It has been difficult to reach the former president," Mr Annan, the former UN Secretary-General who led the panel of six judges, said with a sheepish grin.

Yet there was no need for embarrassment. The absence of Mr Chissano from the ceremony was, in fact, entirely in keeping with the Mozambique leader, who is the antithesis of the stereotypical African Big Man. While egomaniacs would be fidgeting by the phone, waiting for that all-important call, Mr Chissano was busy in southern Sudan on a United Nations mission to broker peace between the Uganda government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. "It shows the dynamism of the ex-president that he is still travelling and doing his good work. But we will find him," Mr Annan promised.

Mr Chissano is living proof that power doesn't have to go to the head. Perhaps his zen comes from the Transcendental Meditation he is said to practise. Indeed, in literature published by devotees of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Mr Chissano is quoted as saying: "First, I started the practice of Transcendental Meditation myself, then introduced the practice to my close family, my cabinet of ministers, my government officers and my military. The result has been political peace and balance in nature in my country."

Full story here...

Today also is the day after South Africa's General Election. It seems fitting then that the new government should take heed from this giant among African Leaders, and that political peace and balance in nature is available now following the experience learned in Mozambique.

Related links:

Recent editorial in USA Today by Dr John Hagelin and Maj. Gen. Singh describes how Invincible Defence Technology can help any nation

Major Werner Klokow in the South African army suggests the South African military should follow the example of Mozambique and have the soldiers practice Transcendental Meditation in a group to promote peace in the country.

See articles Major Klokow has posted here:
http://rsasoldier.blogspot.com/2009/02/meditation-is-path-to-peace-mozambique.html
http://rsasoldier.blogspot.com/2009/02/invincible-south-africa.html
http://rsasoldier.blogspot.com/2009/01/invincible-defence-technology.html

Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa

By Adriana Stuijt.
Published Mar 29, 2009

South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation.

Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged 'underfertilisation processes in the laboratory". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems.

Urgent investigation demanded

However environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto's genetically-manipulated technology.

Willem Pelser, journalist of the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport, writes from Nelspruit that Monsanto has immediately offered the farmers compensation in three provinces - North West, Free State and Mpumalanga. The damage-estimates are being undertaken right now by the local farmers' cooperative, Grain-SA. Monsanto claims that 'less than 25%' of three different corn varieties were 'insufficiently fertilised in the laboratory'.

80% crop failure

However Mayet says Monsanto was grossly understating the problem.According to her own information, some farms have suffered up to 80% crop failures. The centre is strongly opposed to GM-food and biologically-manipulated technology in general.

"Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory, however we say that biotechnology is a failure.You cannot make a 'mistake' with three different varieties of corn.'

Demands urgent government investigation:

"We have been warning against GM-technology for years, we have been warning Monsanto that there will be problems,' said Mayet. She calls for an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods in South Africa.

Of the 1,000 South African farmers who planted Monsanto's GM-maize this year, 280 suffered extensive crop failure, writes Rapport.

Monsanto's local spokeswoman Magda du Toit said the 'company is engaged in establishing the exact extent of the damage on the farms'. She did not want to speculate on the extent of the financial losses suffered right now.

Managing director of Monsanto in Africa, Kobus Lindeque, said however that 'less than 25% of the Monsanto-seeded farms are involved in the loss'. He says there will be 'a review of the seed-production methods of the three varieties involved in the failure, and we will made the necessary adjustments.'

He denied that the problem was caused in any way by 'bio-technology'. Instead, there had been 'insufficient fertilisation during the seed-production process'.

And Grain-SA's Nico Hawkins says they 'are still support GM-technology; 'We will support any technology which will improve production.' see

He also they were 'satisfied with Monsanto's handling of the case,' and said Grain-SA was 'closely involved in the claims-adjustment methodology' between the farmers and Monsanto.

Farmers told Rapport that Monsanto was 'bending over backwards to try and accommodate them in solving the problem.

"It's a very good gesture to immediately offer to compensate the farmers for losses they suffered,' said Kobus van Coller, one of the Free State farmers who discovered that his maize cobs were practically seedless this week.

"One can't see from the outside whether a plant is unseeded. One must open up the cob leaves to establish the problem,' he said. The seedless cobs show no sign of disease or any kind of fungus. They just have very few seeds, often none at all.

The South African supermarket-chain Woolworths already banned GM-foods from its shelves in 2000. However South African farmers have been producing GM-corn for years: they were among the first countries other than the United States to start using the Monsanto products.

The South African government does not require any labelling of GM-foods. Corn is the main staple food for South Africa's 48-million people.

The three maize varieties which failed to produce seeds were designed with a built-in resistance to weed-killers, and manipulated to increase yields per hectare, Rapport writes.

Read the source and comments here...

A new map of Ezemvelo

We've completed a new map of Ezemvelo. Click on image to enlarge. This is being distributed at Reception. On the back is the map of the very popular Penduka Trail.

A simple water system

We finished the fence enough to begin the gardens last week. Still have to add electric fencing on the top for the baboons and monkeys. To source water, we made a simple dam from a small trickle of water higher up the hill. This drains a large marshy area and flows most of the year. 70 meters of pipe was all that was needed to give us a very adequate supply of water. The outflow is seen at top soaking the ground in preparation for double digging to 2 foot depth. The interns each have their own GROW BIOINTENSIVE 10 square meter bed so they can learn all stages of biointensive food raising.

Interns start work on Biointensive Gardens

We're putting in a gravity fed water system for the garden so we won't have to pay electric bills to pump from the main borehole. Walking up to a marshy area to locate a site for a dam I found the remains of an ancient dam. A few large stones in a straight line deep into the grass. So it seems a validation of our choice of location - people have found this area many years before us and captured the very same water we'll be using in the garden.

We have not yet made wooden seed flats to start seedlings so local intern Thabo is pictured improvising with cardboard boxes lined with plastic. They seem pretty strong so it will be interesting to see how long they will hold up. All made from materials that would otherwise go to the landfill. (Like many rural areas in South Africa, there's no recycling yet in Bronkhorstspruit).

Top picture is our two new interns from Mpumalanga Province, training at Ezemvelo to learn Biointensive food raising to support a community garden project. We're very grateful for their support in creating the garden for the first GROW BIOINTENSIVE five day workshop in South Africa, here at Ezemvelo in September.

The view to the North East

The view above the reception is quite stunning. The Ezemvelo and adjoining Telperion Nature Reserves stretch for as far as one can see. Without a building in sight except the reception, the stillness and silence is almost palpable. I found another ancient kraal at the top of this hill, as well as a perfect skull of a small monkey.

Ancient Stones and Cacti?

Walking just one minute up the hill behind Eland Lapa presents a glorious view of the entire reserve to the north and northeast. It is quite a surprise from living under the trees in the campground. The view is enabled by a rocky outcrop just above the trees. These rocks have been worked into many ancient buildings the remains of which are dotted around Eland Lapa. I believe they may be hundreds of years old. I often find cacti wherever I see evidence of old buildings. The prickly pear and this less common variety pictured here. The prickly pear was cultivated for food.

Veggie Garden at Ezemvelo

We started the fencing for the veggie garden this week close to the student housing at Eland Lapa. This will be the demonstration garden for our upcoming Food and Our Future 5 day workshop on GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini farming in September. We are also planning a 3 month course in Sustainable Agriculture to begin with this workshop.

Pictured at top is Simphiwe Tinini and Sandile Nkosi with their students in South Africa's first GROW BIOINTENSIVE courses at CIDA City Campus in Johannesburg. Their programme has over 200 graduates since it started in 2007.

The lower picture shows Simphiwe next to the fence for the new Biointensive demonstration garden at Ezemvelo.

Change Begins Within

The most common report of new visitors to Ezemvelo is the silence. So close to the noise of Johannesburg, the economic powerhouse of Africa. I believe it is this silence more than anything that draws people to this place. We all need some silence in our busy lives.

Ezemvelo was donated to the Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg last year by Strilli and Nicky Oppenheimer for the express purpose of protecting this haven of silence and natural beauty, and to provide an opportunity for the Maharishi Institute to extend it's Consciousness Based Education programmes to Ezemvelo.

There is an exciting promotion of the benefits of this system of education today by a group of celebritries including Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Russell Simmons, David Lynch and others in New York City. This will be followed by a benefit concert to raise money for one million students to learn Transcendental Meditation. Russell Simmons in particular is devoting a considerable amount of his time to raise funds for South African students to learn Transcendental Meditation.

Basking in the silence and beauty of Ezemvelo provides a good backdrop to consider what is most important in our lives. Giving more young people the opportunity to experience deep silence within regardless of where they are is perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give. As the slogan for the concert and press conference reads: "Change Begins Within".

The organiser of the event, film producer David Lynch, has edited a two-minute summary of the Beatles in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. When he showed it to Paul, there were tears in his eyes. People in Paul's office said they haven't seen him this happy in 20 years.

After the concert, Paul will be auctioning a signed guitar, Ringo will auction signed drum skins, Donovan, a guitar that he said was George Harrison's favorite.

Read more about the press conference here.

Silence and Antiquity on the Veld

Tramping the 4,500 hectares of the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve is the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of everyday life for most of us. Leave the car at reception and enjoy one of the many hiking trails and an abundance of wildlife awaits, as well as archaeological treasures. Earlier this week I found this stone bowl for grinding grain just sitting on the ground not far from the remains of an ancient rondaval style hut (lower picture - click to enlarge). This bowl is a very rare specimen and we'll be putting it on display in reception. What grains were ground in this bowl? Not maize - that was introduced to Africa from South America by Europeans. Were the grains cultivated here, or harvested from the wild? If they were cultivated, how did the farmers protect their crops from wildebeeste, warthogs and other wild animals? I am keen to find the answers!

Evidence of past human inhabitants here is found in many places. It gives cause to wonder at the immense scale of time humans have occupied this land. I have yet to visit the caves here with paintings recording the different people that have lived at Ezemvelo over the ages. So that will have to wait for another day.

Meditation in the Classroom

Students around the world are benefiting from
the practice of Transcendental Meditation –
academically, emotionally and socially

By Steven Yellin

According to an American Psychological Association poll in 2007, one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress and nearly half of Americans (48 percent) believe their stress has increased over the past five years.

And our students are facing the same challenges.
Consider the facts: There are 10 million kids on antidepressants, and 5 million kids have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), a stress related disorder, of which 4 million are on Ritalin. And the third leading cause of death among teenagers is suicide.
This is not a pretty picture. Certainly the growing tendency to prescribe high power, potentially dangerous adult drugs to treat this epidemic of stress is not the answer.

Another option, proven effective in schools around the world is Transcendental Meditation (TM), which is a simple, natural and effortless mental technique practiced for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, and gives deep rest to the mind and body.

During the practice, the mind settles down and experiences finer levels of the thinking process.
When the mind settles, the body settles, and deep rooted stresses and strains are released. When coming out of meditation, a person feels like he or she has taken a bath from the inside out — the mind is clear and alert, and one has more energy and happiness radiating from within.

More than 6 million people from all countries, religions and educational backgrounds have learned the technique, and hundreds of scientific research studies confirmed the practical benefits of the TM program for mind, body, behavior and society as a whole.

Research shows this state effectively reduces stress and vulnerability to stress — and protects the developing brain of a student while fostering learning and emotional development.

Full article here...

Friends of Ezemvelo

A dedicated team of volunteers took part in the monthly work party last weekend, staying at Bambanini. On the Saturday we collected about 20 bags of litter and a trailer full of large items that had been dumped by the side of the road 3 km from our gate. It looks so much better now! Then we painted the kitchen at Bambanani - one of the cottages on the Reserve and made signs for the Protea and Burkea trails which will be put up at the next work party weekend in April.

New Trail in the making

We are working on a new trail in the east part of Ezemvelo. The idea is to open up this area to hikers, since it's close to the river and contains a rich variety of wildlife. There is also a rich variety of sites to see. The glacially polished rock surfaces date from around 290 million years ago. These are fresh on the surface just as if the glaciers left yesterday. The significance is that this indicates that some of the landsurfaces at Ezemvelo have been left virtually unchanged for 290 million years. Truly among the oldest landsurfaces on earth.

There's also a natural spring near there which is about the only water on the high plateau so is rich in bird and animal life. A well made animal track leads from the Spring all the way to the Wilge River. The trail goes past an amazing early pioneers farmhouse and outbuildings.

Some of the animals I've seen in my first week: pictures here...
More pictures here...

Hikers Paradise- the Penduka Trail

After a week at Ezemvelo I’ve done a fair bit of walking and today I hiked the Penduka Trail. It is spectacular and has been created and maintained by a wonderful group of volunteers called the Friends of Ezemvelo. It’s possible to walk to the Penduka Trail from the main camp in a hour. I took a longer route along the Wilge River trail beginning north of Rhino House. The wildbeste were very close by on this little used trail. This leads to the picnic area at the start of the Penduka Trail. The trail itself took me 2 hours including a break at the Valley View lookout. From there I could look down on the Wilge River (pictured above). It is an exhilarating and delightful spot, very silent except for the sound of the river far below. I was lucky enough to see a large bird on a rock in the river far below with wings outstretched to dry after it had taken a dive in search of fish. My bird watching neigbour at the camp, tells me it was a Darter and is rather rarely seen around here. This is the perfect halfway resting spot on the trail.

On the way back I stopped at the rapids below Raptor Ridge, and found the remains of a small crab – left most likely by an otter. The Cape Clawless Otters are seen along the Wilge River here.
Walking the road back to the camp one can enjoy expansive views of undeveloped land looking to the north east across over 10,000 hectares of nature reserve. Nearing home I was met by a group of horse riders setting out for an afternoon ride. It was long hike and very interesting with a wide range of landscapes and wildlife along the way.

More pictures here...

One hiking family has made a nice website of their hiking weekend at Ezemvelo, including pictures of 2 hikes: the Protea Trail and Day 2 on the Penduka Trail. Click here.

South Africa becomes net importer of food for first time in 20 years

In 2007 South Africa became a net importer of agricultural products for the first time in more than 20 years as local food output failed to keep pace with a growing population, according to the National Agricultural Marketing Council.

Also the number of farms in active production fell by 12.7 percent to fewer than 40 000 in the five years to 2007, Statistics SA said yesterday. Agriculture experts attributed the decline to consolidation while discounting a government view that food producing land was being bought up for golf courses and game farms.

Full story in the South Africa Business Report

And another threat to the food supply ...

In the Wheat Fields of Kenya, a Budding Epidemic
Stem Rust, Vanquished by Science Five Decades Ago, Has Returned in a Destructive New Form

By Sharon Schmickle
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 18, 2009; A08

GREAT RIFT VALLEY, Kenya -- A virulent new version of a deadly fungus is ravaging wheat in Kenya's most fertile fields and spreading beyond Africa to threaten one of the world's principal food crops, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

Stem rust, a killer that farmers thought they had defeated 50 years ago, surfaced here in 1999, jumped the Red Sea to Yemen in 2006 and turned up in Iran last year. Crop scientists say they are powerless to stop its spread and increasingly frustrated in their efforts to find resistant plants.

Nobel Peace laureate Norman Borlaug, the world's leading authority on the disease, said that once established, stem rust can explode to crisis proportions within a year under certain weather conditions.

"This is a dangerous problem because a good share of the world's area sown to wheat is susceptible to it," Borlaug said. "It has immense destructive potential."

Full story...

Source: http://africanagriculture.blogspot.com

Outcry against GMO's continues to grow

South Africa has been Africa's leader in terms of use of Genetically Modified crops. But the outcry against GMO's is growing stronger all the time as seen in recent press articles here:

EU court attacks GM crop secrecy

Anti-GM campaigners have widespread support in the EU

Europe's top court has ruled that EU governments have no right to conceal the location of field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.

The European Court of Justice was responding to a case brought by Pierre Azelvandre in Alsace, eastern France.

He wanted to know where GM field trials had taken place in his local area. Continued here...

Germany May Ban Monsanto Corn, Minister Tells Berliner Zeitung

By Rainer Buergin

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government may revoke a license for the cultivation of Monsanto's genetically modified corn because neither consumers nor farmers want it, Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner told the Berliner Zeitung.

Genetic engineering “has so far not yielded tangible benefits for the people,” the newspaper quoted Aigner as saying. Germany has granted a license for the cultivation of MON810 while France and Italy haven’t yet, due to environmental concerns, the newspaper said.

Continued here...

Leading scientists publicly denounce unethical use of children in GM experiments

This formal letter of protest relating to a severe breach of medical ethics has been sent by 22 senior scientists from around the world to the Tufts University School of Medicine, together with a call for these GM feeding experiments to be terminated immediately. Read more...

Some Photos at Ezemvelo

ezemvelo nature reserve.bn, originally uploaded by Ezemvelo Nature Reserve.

wow!

More photos here...

Top Bar Hives Produce More Honey

Case study: Mrs Nyani

With Practical Action's advice and training, Mrs Nyani's bees give her 480 bottles of good-quality honey a year, and with good access to market she can sell it at twice the price of honey she previously harvested before using the top bar hive. Surprisingly, Zimbabwe still imports 60% of honey for domestic needs. So there's a ready market for this liquid gold. Mrs Nyani continues to use honey for medicinal purposes, and also makes floor polish from the beeswax the hives produce, and hopes to start producing candles as well. She has no fear of her family going hungry, and is passing on the benefit to others by teaching her bee-keeping skills to local women through the bee-keeping association. "My friends the bees work hard for me so we need not go without food. Now I shall show others how to use their hives to good advantage."

From the Practical Action website.
Top bar hives are favored by Biodynamic Beekeepers and are considered a more natural way to keep bees. See the Barefoot Beekeeper website.

Shaping eco-leaders of the future

(click picture to enlarge)

THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT AUGUST 17 2008

by ELEANOR MOMBERG,

Previously disadvantaged youths are to benefit from the donation of thousands of hectares of land to the Maharishi Institute by the Oppenheimer family

Prominent conservationists and philanthropists Nicky and Strilli Oppenheimer, of E Oppenheimer and Son and De Beers, this week donated the 4 500-hectare Ezemvelo nature reserve to the institute with the aim of promoting environmental and conservation-related education among South Africa’s youth

Nicky Oppenheimer said at the handover ceremony in Johannesburg that this was the fulfilment of a dream for the couple who had wanted to share “something special” since their purchase of the adjoining property 35 years ago

“We believe this will make a difference to the whole of South Africa,” he said

The reserve will be used to develop a rural eco-campus as well as promote ecotourism and conservation of the area situated on the Bankenveld, a transition ecozone between the grassland and savanna biomes, about 20km from Bronkhorstspruit

“Ecologically this is valuable as elements of both biomes occur within the reserve, creating a rich biological diversity,” said Duncan MacFadyen, manager of research and conservation at E Oppenheimer and Son

School-leavers attending the institute are taught not only business skills but also life skills through what is known as consciousness- based education, which includes transcendental meditation, the creation of a “safe, happy, harmonious” school atmosphere and the elimination of stress in the educational process as key elements

MacFadyen said more than 100 students had already attended structured leadership camps at Ezemvelo, with which a partnership had developed since its opening in Johannesburg a year ago

Although the donation of the reserve means that the land has been transferred to the institute, the Ezemvelo reserve, which boasts more than 34 species of animals and 250 bird species, will continue to remain open for business as an ecotourism destination

Taddy Blecher of the Maharishi Institute said the university’s intention was to create a showcase of sustainability using a maximum of possible alternative energy sources to move Ezemvelo off the electricity grid and to implement fair trade practices along with community upliftment programmes, such as access to further education

There were plans to expand the reserve to include an eco-campus where young people from previously disadvantaged communities would be trained for careers in conservation, guiding, eco-tourism management, organic farming, as well as alternative energy

Besides the eco-campus, the institute planned to create a centre of excellence in natural law-based programmes at Ezemvelo that would include consciousness- based education, a permanent exhibition venue for the total knowledge of natural law, a health spa, training in transcendental meditation and an organic vegetable farm

Dr Richard Peycke, the Maharishi Institute’s national director, said the combination of the university’s educational methods to develop the full potential of each person, combined with the beauty of the reserve, promised to create great future leaders for South Africa

Strilli Oppenheimer said she was confident that the institute would be successful in training future conservationists and environmentalists as the founders of the organisation had been with the training of business managers

“Ezemvelo Nature Reserve will be used as a tool, a rural, outcomes-based university, to allow these young men and women to connect and build their relationship with the environment we all so desperately want to conserve for future generations,” she said.

What Inspires You?

Huffington Post editorial,
by Russell Simmons Editor-in-Chief of Global Grind

Valentine's Day is here and we are thinking about love. Not the passionate, intense, anxiety-producing am-I-worthy/are-they-worthy kind of love. Not the dim the lights, cue the Al Green music, heart pounding, getting lucky kind of love that can leave you electrified or electrocuted by the object of your desire.

Today we are thinking about compassionate love. The kind that comes from empathy, affection, care, trust, and, above all, a shared respect for all people. This is the kind of love we are after, the kind you see when an elderly couple spend their time joyfully helping each other through aches and pains that escalate to terminal illness and end-of-life small gestures to insure that dignity and love are the last things they share. The kind of love that is everyday business as usual for teachers, physical therapists, nurses, well-diggers, and just about anyone of any profession who has the ability to be kind in handling their affairs no matter the chaos they may be living in.

We are thinking about the question "What inspires you?" and we are inspired by compassionate love. With great love all things are possible. This is true. In Mahatma Gandhi's words, "love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable. "Mother Teresa spent her life working to give a voice to the poor and to promoting love as an essential ingredient to life. Her life devoted to the poor was among the richest in human history. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years imprisoned because of his actions to end the loveless and dehumanizing oppression of Apartheid. After surviving circumstances and abuses that would seem impossible to endure, this giant among leaders and humanitarians presided over the transition of South Africa to a post-Apartheid democracy with justice and compassion. In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela wrote of love, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela both were awarded Nobel Peace Prizes, and Gandhi sadly was overlooked for that honor, but we can safely say we believe these three know their stuff and that love is central to human rights, civil disobedience, ending poverty, and achieving peace.

Continued here...

Agriculture and Climate Change

Distinguished panel tells packed room of environmental journalists that the way we grow our food matters to a heating planet.

A top USDA climate-change scientist, a university professor specializing in agriculture in developing countries, and the farm director at the Rodale Institute agreed: How we reward farmers to produce our food across the planet will have great bearing on our ability to dial down the mercury and deal with other coming consequences of global warming.

These specialists comprised the “Climate Change and Agriculture” panel, moderated by National Geographic Executive Editor Dennis Dimick, as part of a recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference that brought together environmental writers, educators, policymakers, industry leaders and special-interest groups from around the nation and globe, included Nobel Prize winner and International Panel on Climate Change chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, who delivered the conference keynote address.

Organic solutions for a broken food system

“It’s become painfully clear over the past few weeks that our banking system is broken, and I think it will become equally clear that our food system is broken,” said Rodale Institute Farm Director Jeff Moyer, at the October 2008 event.

The Rodale Institute, he said, has been working to connect the dots between agriculture and climate change and to help farmers make the necessary changes to become more environmentally responsible while maintaining yields. Research at the Institute has, Moyer said, shown that organic yields hold up to conventional ones—and even surpass them in times of extreme weather conditions such as drought or excessive moisture.

But in an age of global warming, he said, yield is not the most significant issue. “How we produce food is the critical issue,” he said.

In the Rodale organic research trials, Moyer said, “We are able to sequester three times as much carbon,” compared to conventional no-till systems, when utilizing cover crops, crop rotations and the application of compost. “We are changing the soil’s ability to support life, to sequester carbon and, ultimately, to feed us.”

Farming organically with a focus on long-term biological interactions actually turns soil into a carbon sink, or reservoir, while conventional farming with chemicals has the opposite effect of releasing carbon into the atmosphere, Moyer told the packed room.

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Malawi strikes organic gold

Poverty and penury often push people in Africa into innovation. So it was with Jailos Kanyanga. The story began when government agents arrived at Mr Kanyanga's compound in this central region of Malawi, and demanded that he immediately repay money he owed under a fertiliser credit scheme – with "no further excuses".

The sum involved was 3,750 kwacha (about £17) – an amount that it was unimaginable the poor subsistence farmer would have to hand. If he couldn't pay, the agents said, they would seize his 11 pigs – livestock Mr Kanyanga saw as ensuring the survival of his family of eight. He was lucky. The local pastor lent him the money. But it was then that Mr Kanyanga resolved he could not allow himself to fall into such peril again.

"I decided the only way out was to resort to the methods of growing crops using the composts that we were taught in the old days, when we didn't know fertilisers," he says. He gave up expensive chemicals and went back to the organic ways of his father and grandfather.

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