2011-04-02T01:00:03Z User 195 http://soundingcircle.com/ OrgSpace NewsLog

"Probably the best place to be in this situation [economic collapse precipitated by peak oil and a changing climate] would be on a subsistence farm in a village in Sub-Saharan Africa or someplace that's not much effected by what happens in the rest of the world. I think most people don't realize h...

-Lester Brown, "The Planet's Scarcest Resource is Time," March 22, 2011.
OrganicConsumers.org]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001108.htm 2011-04-02T01:00:03Z 2011-04-02T01:00:03Z

This is a Native American flute solo I did in July 2009 for Jonathan McCuen. I don't believe it was ever released. So let's call it a collectors item. :)

This is a Native American flute solo I did in July 2009 for Jonathan McCuen.
I don't believe it was ever released. So let's call it a collectors item. :)


]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001107.htm 2011-03-11T01:23:37Z 2011-03-11T01:29:51Z

Hello friends, What an incredible summer it has been thus far at Calliote Canyon. All of our guests have been awed by the beauty here and several are already booking their returns. We are offering a special summer rate, though most of July is already booked. Check this out: End of Summer...

Hello friends,

What an incredible summer it has been thus far at Calliote Canyon. All of our
guests have been awed by the beauty here and several are already booking their
returns.

We are offering a special summer rate, though most of July is already booked.
Check this out:
End of Summer Special
July-August
10% off 2-3 nights
$990 night (reg. $1100) 2-12 people/ 13+ $108 pp/pn
15% off 4+ nights
$935 night (reg. $1100) 2-12 people/ 13+ $102 pp/pn
plus 8% tax
$150 cleaning fee
children under 7 years stay free
$300-600 refundable damage deposit

Send me an email at: info@calliotecanyon if you have any questions or want to
inquire about specific dates

In Peace,
Raymond
http://calliotecanyon.com]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001106.htm 2009-06-25T09:13:10Z 2009-06-25T09:15:10Z

Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis' By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Barcelona The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study. It puts the annual cost of fore...

Capital losses

Speaking to BBC News on the fringes of the congress, study leader Pavan Sukhdev emphasised that the cost of natural decline dwarfs losses on the financial markets.

"It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year," he told BBC News.


Teeb will... show the risks we run by not valuing [nature] adequately."
Andrew Mitchell
Global Canopy Programme

"So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year."

The review that Mr Sukhdev leads, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb), was initiated by Germany under its recent EU presidency, with the European Commission providing funding.

The first phase concluded in May when the team released its finding that forest decline could be costing about 7% of global GDP. The second phase will expand the scope to other natural systems.

Stern message

Key to understanding his conclusions is that as forests decline, nature stops providing services which it used to provide essentially for free.

So the human economy either has to provide them instead, perhaps through building reservoirs, building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or farming foods that were once naturally available.

Or we have to do without them; either way, there is a financial cost.

The Teeb calculations show that the cost falls disproportionately on the poor, because a greater part of their livelihood depends directly on the forest, especially in tropical regions.

The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas.

Just as the Stern Review brought the economics of climate change into the political arena and helped politicians see the consequences of their policy choices, many in the conservation community believe the Teeb review will lay open the economic consequences of halting or not halting the slide in biodiversity.

"The numbers in the Stern Review enabled politicians to wake up to reality," said Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme, an organisation concerned with directing financial resources into forest preservation.

"Teeb will do the same for the value of nature, and show the risks we run by not valuing it adequately."

A number of nations, businesses and global organisations are beginning to direct funds into forest conservation, and there are signs of a trade in natural ecosystems developing, analogous to the carbon trade, although it is clearly very early days.

Some have ethical concerns over the valuing of nature purely in terms of the services it provides humanity; but the counter-argument is that decades of trying to halt biodiversity decline by arguing for the intrinsic worth of nature have not worked, so something different must be tried.

Whether Mr Sukhdev's arguments will find political traction in an era of financial constraint is an open question, even though many of the governments that would presumably be called on to fund forest protection are the ones directly or indirectly paying for the review.

But, he said, governments and businesses are getting the point.

"Times have changed. Almost three years ago, even two years ago, their eyes would glaze over.

"Today, when I say this, they listen. In fact I get questions asked - so how do you calculate this, how can we monetize it, what can we do about it, why don't you speak with so and so politician or such and such business."

The aim is to complete the Teeb review by the middle of 2010, the date by which governments are committed under the Convention of Biological Diversity to have begun slowing the rate of biodiversity loss.]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001105.htm 2008-10-10T06:21:33Z 2008-10-10T06:21:33Z

First I want to thank Tyler, founder of ojaipost.com, for posting the opportunity and Gina Gutierrez, the Marketing Director of the Ojai Music Festival, for allowing me to attend last night’s concert at Libbey Bowl. For me, particularly, it was a peak moment to listen to the music and meet th...

Eight Lines(1983) is a good example of this. Like listening intently to the many patterns and registers of a mountain stream, our beautiful Matilija Canyon river, for instance, this piece explores subtle shadings of tone and rhythm. There is a pulse throughout that mesmerizes the listener and entrains ones mind. It is filled with the beauty and wonder of nature. In many ways, Reich is in the league of the New England Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson in the way in which he honors simplicity, subtlety, and the wildness and pastoral qualities of nature. Signal brought this piece to life with a dynamic interpretation that was enthralling. The sound mix was great all evening and was transparent, adding volume yet no color of its' own.

Reich's newer composition from 2006, Daniel Variations was a highlight of the evening for me. His treatment of the vocal lines with long tones and exquisite modulations from dissonance to consonance was intriguing and had an emotional quality to it that was very moving for me. Scored for four vocalists, two sopranos and two tenors, the singers from Signal were spot on. Though their voices were all quite different in timbre, they manged to blend their unique bell tones and navigate through the challenging soundscape with ease. Along with strings, woodwinds, two pianos, four vibraphones and percussion I was once again wholeheartedly impressed with Steve Reich's genius, the ensembles powerful and poetic brilliance and Brad Lubman's energetic, dedicated leadership.

Nagoya Marimbas(1994) was the shortest piece on the program. Written for two marimbas it took virtuoso technique to weave through the repeating patterns that were consistently one or two beats out of phase with each other. The melodies would expand and develop only to tumble into new sequences. This was an intriguing puzzle that harkened back to Reich's earlier days hyet more difficult to execute.

Four Organs (plus maracas) written in 1970 requires profound acceptance on the part of the audience. A study of time and harmony the dominant eleventh chord (D-E-F#-G#-A-B with an E in the bass) is dissected by playing its' parts of sequentially. The pulse remains solid as the maracas, like a locomotive, establishes the tempo. The four organs, vibrato free, sound the purity of the chord, relentlessly I might add, and gradually, over 15 minutes +or-, the notes stretch and lengthen into an ambient bed. It's a bit like watching grass grow. It takes discipline and patience.

Steve Reich is a pioneer. A modern composer who changed the face of contemporary music. He not only has inspired other "classical" artists such as Philip Glass and John Adams but you can also hear his influence in other genres through the work of progressive rock band King Crimson, Brian Eno and guitarist Pat Metheny.

I encourage you all to come out for the rest of the festival, Sat. & Sun. There is plenty of seating and you can see the program HERE. I'll be there on Sunday to hear more of Steve Reich's work in two separate programs at 11am and 5:30pm.
]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001099.htm 2008-06-07T07:48:12Z 2008-06-07T07:48:12Z

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Simple Brilliance. From a dialogue on relationships How do you explain the unexplainable, the mysteries of the heart taking us by surprise? I have a very scientific mind and sometimes all I can do is throw my hands up in the air and acquiesce ...

These inquiries into your nature, your human nature, can take you, at times, into the shadow regions of your psyche. However, these regions are not negative, or wrong or bad. They are a part of you. How can you be anything but a positive reflection of Source, of Creation. Yes, your behavior may be hurtful at times, cause distress in yourself and others, but behavior is not your essence, behavior can be changed with support, practice accountability and imagination. The shadow remains in the dark until it is illuminated by your awareness. Once it is named, given a name, it moves from the unknown to the known, from an unconscious force to an ally.

I have walked on the edge. Gazed into the precipice. Plunged into the depths of my shadow to excavate the jewels of my Soul. This willingness to accept the dualities of the human experience, while maintaining the awareness that I am whole and complete has allowed me to navigate through the amazing experiences of my life; from mansions to shacks from riches to homelessness and in some ways I feel I didn't have much to say about the circumstances, that I was Divinely guided, brought to my knees and lifted to heights of ecstasy in a truthful phenomenal life that has enabled me to know… Love.
Love that is devoid of myth. Love that is devoid of a story that is based on my past. Love that is not informed by my history but rather my history has shown me what love is not. I say, let the fires of love that have been stoked in your hearts cleanse you and polish the sharpness of your form, becoming smooth and rounded, reflective, light filled, multifaceted in your countenance.


How Can I Not Be Overjoyed?

How can I not be overjoyed?
Blue stars from the ethers that only I can see,
They look so much like your eyes,
The face of Love,
The moon behind the clouds,
A shadow puppet,
Two lovers embrace,
They dance in the firmament,
I dance in the cool canyon breeze,
The fire in my heart is fed by thoughts of you,
I am drunk, but not drunk,
I am wide awake,
Lucid as the fig whose roots drink from the stream,
Or the double winged dragonfly that lights on my hand,
There is more that I do not know than what I know,
The more pomegranate seeds I eat the more are revealed,
The juice stains my lips,
Runs down my chin,
The sweetest nectar reminding me of you.


Love and loving is both a personal and transcendental experience. We move from one to the other finding the balance, the marriage between the two. For me, I enjoy having the face of love in my life, a person to count on, who has mutual attraction and can soar both the heights and depths with me, with gracefulness.

This awareness of my preference has transformed from a need to a want. When it was a need I was living a life of fear, of expectation, of projections onto another. When the need transformed into a want, I found freedom, I found autonomy and I discovered that the primary person I am having a relationship with is myself, the Other is a mirror of this.
With wanting we can set an intention and move into choice that can always choose loving, ourselves and others.

I don't have a singular concept of Soul mate, knowing that Oneness includes many Soul mates, or individuals in my Soul group. There is a resonance with someone specific that may be more fluid, more peaceful, more “at home”. Similar to overtones, the vibrational waveforms of music, there are those we have consonance with and those we have some dissonance with in varying degrees. The closer someone is as an overtone to our fundamental note, the more we are at ease with them. When these people come together you have great potential, and we have the choice to realize that potential or not, to explore the vast possibilities of vision and unity. We also have the opportunity to heal and complete energies that may be lifetimes old.

Most restlessness in life doesn't have much to do with anything outside of us. Yes, I think sometimes the relationship “container” isn't able to flex enough and adapt to the changes/transformations an individual may be experiencing, however many times people just don't know what shifts/ adjustments need to be made to the relationship container (and everything that contributes to it) to have it accommodate the consciousness shifts of the individuals. This is when relationships become rote, automatic, we think we know the person yet we really only know them from the past. This occurs because we ourselves have ceased to be awake to ourselves, we have become redundant within, ignorant of our Souls whispers and thus the world outside of us has lost it’s sparkle, its’ vibrancy. There is a symptom of serial monogamy in the West which is caused by a deadening within an individual so that this individual seeks novelty, vibrancy once again by seeking something, someone outside, with another. When, in fact, often, if we enliven ourselves once again, the other, which seemed so dull and distant, miraculously becomes once again the reflection of Love and all the attributes that accompany it.

The aspiration is to live peace as much as possible through your hearts, with mindful actions; cultivating your connection with Life, others and nature. By healing oneself from past wounds, coming to understand the story that has been informing your life and fully accepting who you are and who you are not you will find yourself deep in the experience that all there is, is Love. All else is illusion, myth, story born from a fear-filled past.

It takes courage and faith to cease living our non-truths. We all have our fears. I believe they are our allies. Our fears, at times, have kept us from fully showing up in Life and sharing our gifts, living our passions to their fullest expression. And even given that, we accomplish quite a bit. Imagine what your life would look like if you truly learned to listen to your heart, to use your inner guidance and cultivated the daily practice of interpreting the symbols, synchronicities and manifestations of your inner life. To listen from the silence to your Souls inner calling.

Our fears are present, but like a two year old, probably shouldn't be behind the steering wheel. For me, fear is based in my passed and has little to do with my present. In the present there really isn't much to fear. So maybe the journey is coming to peace with our past and discovering all the meaning we put on the present, that may or may not be accurate. It is important to thank ourselves and each other for acknowledging our fears and to let this inspire our courage to heal them, relinquish them and utilize them to create a foundation of spiritual strength.

I have suffered many losses, many heartbreaks, at times feeling as if God had forsaken me, that I had become un-tethered from the Universe, from the multi-verse, and yet, here I am, more capable of compassion and loving than I ever thought imaginable. Why is this? How did I escape from living the life of a victim? The answer is this: I realized that I was a co-creator in all of my experiences. I was making choices. This gave me the freedom to choose differently. The relationships that were hurtful were not something that was being done to me. Like a magnet, my thought forms attracted certain individuals into my life. Because my personal resonant field was in a holding pattern based on my past wounds and fears, and stuck in the energy matrix of my body, my belief system, worldview, and the experiences I attracted were informed by my past.

There is a cost and payoff to our psyches’ lens to the world. We can live a life amassing the payoffs (benefits, gains), and you may want to make a list of the payoffs to the relationships you have had. In a healthy relationship the payoffs outweigh the costs. However, many times, because our wounds are unconscious, we create relationships where the costs have equaled, if not surpassed, the payoffs. …and yet we continue debilitating ourselves when these relationships are costing us our lives.

By handling your psychology, stilling your mind and coming into “right” relationship with your body you can create a life that is a miraculous reflection of a future abundant with possibilities you could have never imagined. To live as a Soul in consort with the Divine nurtures the ability to witness your “feelings” about the past and your story regarding it, yet not allow these stories to be the informants and creators of your reality.

When we love our “story” about someone, our “idea” of them, we risk putting them on a pedestal, or creating expectations that can never be met. We never truly come to know who they are. We project onto them the archetypes that inhabit our collective unconscious, often based on our past, lineage or media projections, and become blind to who they are as Souls, as human beings. We become trapped in loving the concept of a person, who we would like them to be. Over time the relationship becomes a series of disenchantments and disappointments and eventually degrades into a field of illusion.

If you have created an image of a person that diminishes your own sense of Self worth, an image that keeps you afraid of being your fully expressed self, you may find that you are “walking on egg shells”, not wanting to meet them in their natural fullness because you think you can't. You may find yourself feeling invisible because you think you are “less than”, unworthy, undeserving. Do not believe these thoughts. They are lies, untruths. You were born deserving, worthy, capable of love and being loved.

What you also want to be conscious of is becoming a representation yourself in the eyes of another. You must remember that you are a flesh and blood Being not just a symbol. Even if it “feels” good to inflate yourself and embody the archetype someone else is projecting onto you. Believe me, eventually you will fall from grace. I understand that some will say that Life is not personal and… it is important not to become too indifferent. Life is based on connections, weavings, overtones of each other. The model of impersonal is to give us some power in the area of response-ability, and discovering the power of intent and our own creative majesty.

Archetypes, to me, after years of experience projecting them onto others and becoming conscious of the behavior, are best to remain as energies/ images in the psyche. Their function is to allow us to personally draw upon them for strength, inspiration and understanding of our human dilemmas. They live in the realm of myth and are containers for the universal characteristics of humanity. The reality is and where we can draw great empowerment from, is to remember and come to know that we are making it up, we are the creators, writing or reliving the stories that are a collective agreement. The world IS a stage for make believe, though it hardly feels that way sometimes, and we can re-write the myth as soon as we can name it, identify it, as a myth. Once we can name and reveal the aspects of our psyche that are influencing the disheartening qualities of our life, we have the opportunity to heal and change our relationship to the world and with others. We can begin to attract experiences that are more in tune with the nature of our Soul.

When an archetype becomes too embedded in our social fabric, too embodied in our cultural conditioning, we run the risk of projecting cliché’s and stereotypes onto others, or even constituting ourselves as such images. When these become solidified and inflexible we collectively begin believing in them, as if they are “the truth”, rather than “a truth” a possibility of creation among many. Some of the symptoms caused by such dis-ease in our social/communal interaction are racism, classism, dogmatism, in fact every “ism” that feeds the fire of man’s inhumanity to man; even in the context of personal dyadic relationships.

How do we heal these schisms?, This separation from self and others? What can spark the awakening that will end the inner turmoil and separation of self from others? How can you cultivate and live as “peace” within and without?

By giving yourself the gift of being still, forgiving yourself and others, listening to the voice of wisdom inherent inside your heart, and first acknowledging that your unresolved wounds have been the source of your separation, understanding that the past has caused a schism within yourself, a disassociation, and knowing, re-membering that there is an eternal experience of Soul that you are, that has never been fragmented and resides entirely in the Oneness, the wholeness of and completeness of the Supreme, Source, Creation, call it what you will.

At any time you can step to the altar of the sacred marriage within yourself; where you ARE the experience of unity, peace, and love. You are the bride and groom, the alpha/omega, creator/destroyer, lover and beloved. The polarities dissolve and you realize you are whole, complete just as you are. The world of duality ceases.

Then what? We live into authentic relationship effortlessly. We relate from a presence of freedom, of love, of giving, rather than our lives being motivated by wants and needs. We meet and are met in our greatness, our creative genius, both residing on our thrones, side by side, the hierarchy has vanished, patriarchy vanquished.

In a song lyric I wrote I speak of this:
Sometimes we go too far,
there is no turning back now,
walking the razors edge,
giving more than we take,
taking just what we need,
and needing to be close to you.

It is important to define what devotion means for you. When I am devoted, my actions completely honor my own integrity and truth and thus honor the other. When I am devoted the other knows that they can count on me, count on my word and the trust we have created. Devotion to me is not a set of rules given to me by my culture, family, friends, laws etc. These do have some influence, however I keep a watchful eye if my devotion has its’ genesis in my core, my heart or from my beliefs/”shoulds”/conditioning. This is something I encourage you to look at. Our conditioning can, at times, be so powerfully “running” in the background that we have no access to our freedom of choice.

Mind shaking, belief altering, indeed, when we discover we have been dis-membered most of our lives, along with most everyone else, and collectively, as the human organism, have been sleep walking, unconscious, all the while operating heavy machinery and formulating global policies and national identities. Our birth certificates should have a warning on them soon after we enter our bodies, "Don't drive under the influence." Influence of what? Influence of anything that is not a natural expression of ourselves, an authentic, choice made from your heart. The wondrous, inspiring, miraculous story of ourselves as human Beings is, that in spite of all of our neurosis, patterns, conditioned beliefs, habits and fears, our beauty shines, Love has its' way with us, the illusions break, we re-member, and we can live lives of freedom. Freedom to enjoy the birthrights of Soul in human form.

When we are loving another, void of the romantic stories about being “in love” (and I qualify this with the awareness that I am a “romantic” and often behave as such), there is a resonance, a chemistry that becomes an alchemy into something ecstatic, pure, holy and finds its’ expression through our sacred sexuality. Our bodies ARE amazing vehicles of perception and ecstasy; the potential is limitless. Our orgasmic nature is an infinite bloom on the tree of life. This may or may not “look like” making love in the way we have been conditioned to. When alchemy is present the two becomes One, a simple gaze, or touch can ignite us, expand our experience of our bodies, of sublime Love and bring us to the feasting table of the Divine.

Love, like water, seeps into every crevice, to fill, smooth the edges of rough hewed stone, quench our longing thirst for home. Love follows the path of least resistance, descends into flesh seeking lower ground, wanting to embody and nourish our roots and fruitful harvest. When the waters of our hearts ignite they evaporate, creating a canopy that rains down upon other’s hearts. You are the water bearer, the fire tender; welcome the rains of Love.
]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001091.htm 2007-11-28T03:21:15Z 2007-11-28T03:21:15Z

This terrific online five-part video series by Peter Jennings explores how the food industry spends billions of dollars to sabotage your health. Jennings also takes a critical look at our government's agricultural subsidy programs, and their unintended consequences on your nutritional choices ...

online five-part video series by Peter Jennings explores how the food industry spends billions of dollars to sabotage your health.

Jennings also takes a critical look at our government's agricultural subsidy programs, and their unintended consequences on your nutritional choices and health. For example, sugar and fat receive 20 times more government farming subsidies than fruits and vegetables. Does this oversupply of fats and sugars, compared to fruits and vegetables, affect your food choices?

Some statistics, implicating both the food industry and the government as co-creating factors in the obesity epidemic, include:

* In 2002, consumers spent $174 billion on processed foods.
* 90 percent of foods marketed each year are processed foods.
* Last year, 2,800 new candies, desserts, ice-cream, and snacks were introduced to the marketplace, compared to 230 new fruits or vegetable products.
* The food industry spends $34 billion per year marketing their products.
* $12 billion is spent marketing to children.

The food industry is quick to point out that the choice is always yours -- they're not making you buy something you don't want. They also want to blame the obesity problem on people's unwillingness to exercise.]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001090.htm 2007-09-12T19:01:46Z 2007-09-12T19:01:46Z

Building straw houses; From flax to hemp, researchers tout merits of bio-construction By Jennifer Pritchett The Whig-Standard - Kingston, ON, Canada August 17, 2007 Local News - Fuelled by a growing demand for environmentally friendly buildings, hemp, wheat, flax and other grains are now...

So far, he said, the results show that straw-bale walls are durable and strong if constructed properly. "The performance seems to be pretty good," he said.

The group's tests look into what type of fibre bale, including flax, hemp or wheat, works best. They're also looking at what types of plaster, including clay or cement, applied over top of the bale, are more durable. They're even looking at the placement of the bales - flat or on edge - to find out which design is more stable.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation are funding the Queen's research on straw-bale homes.

MacDougall told the symposium that even though there are only about 100 straw-bale buildings across Ontario, the material is an excellent, low-cost and an environmentally friendly design choice.

The only problem is, in Ontario, there are no building codes pertaining to straw-bale homes. Anyone interested in building one has to obtain an expensive engineer's stamp to show the design is safe before they are able to obtain a building permit.

MacDougall said the more research done on straw-bale construction, the more likely it will become a more conventional building method. "We're really just scratching the surface," he said.

United Kingdom-based Mike Duckett spoke about his company's work with hemcrete, an environmentally friendly building material that combines hemp and lime. It's already used in various parts of Europe.

His presentation revealed the environmental and practical benefits of using the material, including the fact that it's sustainable, lightweight, a good insulator, airtight, easy to use, and fire and pest resistant. The material also absorbs carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases.

Duckett said that each house constructed with hemcrete walls, roof and floors could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 tonnes.

Hemcrete, which costs roughly the same as conventional building material, has been used to construct homes, office space, a warehouse and a theatre in Europe.

A building in England that has been touted as the most environmentally friendly warehouse in Europe doesn't require an air-conditioning system because the hemcrete material makes it possible to regulate the temperature inside at 14 C.

Hemcrete can be used to construct walls, floors and roofs in buildings that are made from steel, timber or concrete frames.

Duckett said that though it's not considered mainstream yet, he believes hemcrete has enormous potential to be used widely in the construction industry globally.

"What we know about this product to date is that it would work very well here in Canada," he said. "In the summer, it would eliminate the need for air conditioning."]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001089.htm 2007-08-17T22:17:58Z 2007-08-17T22:17:58Z

From The Sunday London Times July 15, 2007 Ultimate green machine: a car made of hemp Jonathan Leake Environment Editor CAR buyers who suspect they have parted with money for old rope may soon be right. Ministers are to spend more than £500,000 in an attempt to develop the world’s...

Hemp use dates back to the Stone Age, with fibres found in human settlements over 10,000 years old, where they were used for clothes, shoes, ropes and an early form of paper.

More recently, Thomas Jeffer-son drafted the United States declaration of independence on hemp paper. Britain used hemp extensively in the second world war, making uniforms, canvas and rope.

Even Ford’s involvement in building a “cannabis car” has strong precedents. Henry Ford, the company’s founder, grew marijuana as part of his experiments with biofuels in the 1930s, but also used the fibres in body panels and other components as an alternative to metal.

The best known car to be based on recycled materials was the Trabant, the car that was a mainstay of East German motoring for more than 30 years and was later celebrated by the rock band U2 in their Zoo TV tour.

The Trabant was widely condemned for its two-stroke engine, which produced a foul-smelling cocktail of exhaust fumes, equal to nine times the carbon dioxide emissions of a Volkswagen Golf.

But few critics realised the “Duroplast” plastic used in its roof, boot lid, bonnet and doors was made of recycled material strengthened with waste cotton. Some experts now view the Trabant factory as the world’s first green car production line.

The Labour government has a poor record on sustainable transport. It is now overseeing a £13 billion road expansion programme that includes the widening of the M25, which will turn most of London’s orbital motor-way into an eight-lane highway.

Overall, road transport currently generates 142m tonnes of CO2 a year – about 25% of Britain’s total – and emissions are still growing.

Tony Juniper, the director of Friends of the Earth, said schemes such as the hemp trial could make a small contribution to sustainability but failed to address the real issue.

“This is the same old problem that so many politicians have of thinking climate change can be solved simply by new technologies,” he said. “The real problem is that there are too many cars on the road burning too much fuel. It doesn’t make much difference just making a few components more sustainable. The only real benefit is that if it crashes you might breathe in the smoke to help you relax.”]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001087.htm 2007-07-15T15:07:57Z 2007-07-15T15:07:57Z

S.D. Farmer Struggles To Grow Hemp By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer Press & Dakotan - Yankton, SD July 2, 2007 MANDERSON -- Alex White Plume hoped his extended family could make a good living growing hemp when he first planted seeds on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in sout...

White Plume never was charged with a crime, but the DEA sued him and got a court order to bar him from growing hemp. He argued that the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 gave the Sioux the right to grow hemp.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against White Plume, saying the treaty did not give tribal members the right to grow the plant. Hemp is also subject to federal drug laws, which require a DEA permit to grow the plant in both its marijuana and hemp forms, the appeals judges said.

"We are not unmindful of the challenges faced by members of the Tribe to engage in sustainable farming on federal trust lands. It may be that the growing of hemp for industrial uses is the most viable agricultural commodity for that region," the appeals judges wrote.


But even though White Plume lost a court case last year, he is ready to resume the cultivation of hemp if the federal government ever allows it. The plant could help boost the economy of the Oglala Sioux Tribe's poverty-stricken reservation, where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 85 percent, he said.

"I could never climb back up to where I was, but I still believe in hemp, so we're going to continue to struggle," White Plume said.

The family's attempt to grow hemp, which is used to make rope, oils, skin lotion, cloth and a variety of other products, is featured in a "Point of View" documentary that will be broadcast Tuesday on Public Broadcasting Service stations nationwide. The film started as a look at hemp growing, but it grew to include a look at Indian treaties and the Lakota culture and tradition, according to filmmakers Suree Towfighnia and Courtney Hermann.

An important part of the story, filmed periodically over a five-year period, deals with the emphasis on extended family among the Lakota, Towfighnia said during a recent visit to White Plume's home. "People can learn from the Lakota way of life because it's a beautiful way of life."

White Plume said he used to run a successful trail ride business, but that faltered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because fewer European tourists visited the United States.

He said he became interested in growing hemp in 1998 after seeing country star Willie Nelson promote it. The Oglala Sioux Tribe also passed a measure legalizing the growing of hemp on the reservation.

The tribal law should have been enough to allow hemp farming because of the sovereignty granted to the Lakota by treaties, White Plume said.

White Plume planted hemp on his land in 2000, planning to make money by selling the seed to others, but U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents cut down his plants a few days before he intended to harvest them. The DEA also seized similar plantings by his brother and sister in the next two years.

"All that left us in debt and demoralized, trying to figure out what to do because our sovereignty was directly attacked," White Plume said.

But he laughs when he talks about the hemp plants that still grow on his land, even right outside the back door of his house. The plants spread from seeds knocked off during the DEA raid, he said.

"When the DEA used their weed whackers to cut my plants down, they reseeded it something awful," said White Plume, a former vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The appeals court also noted that hemp is used to make many useful products, and the DEA registration process imposes a burden on anyone seeking to grow hemp legally.

"But these are policy arguments better suited for the congressional hearing room than the courtroom," the appeals judges wrote.

White Plume's lawyer, Bruce Ellison of Rapid City, said courts have consistently declined to give much consideration to Indian treaties. And the hemp law should be struck down because it is not rational, he said.

White Plume now intends to spend time working on environmental protection and treaty issues, such as an effort to regain the Black Hills that were taken from the Lakota more than 125 years ago.

And if farmers ever are allowed to grow hemp, he's ready to plant another crop.

"We didn't give up our struggle. We still want to grow hemp and we still got all our plans in shape," White Plume said.

"It's not a drug plant," he said.


Coipyright (c) 2007 Press & Dakotan]]> http://soundingcircle.com/newslog2.php/__show_article/_a000195-001086.htm 2007-07-02T19:45:00Z 2007-07-02T19:50:34Z