plowing and sowing

The plight of succession.

2011-03-25T07:59:00.001-07:00

Regrettably our hope has not been fulfilled, after 5 month's trial Ben decided to return to the US and to college, to pursue a masters degree in economics.

It is never an easy task to enter in to a leading management position in a mature company structure. This is especially true for a young person full of life power, where a pioneering situation is much more adequate, although a much harder task fraught with high risks.

Ben's legacy has been our reentering the coffee trade, as well as a lot of chainsaw work on our mango orchards, which needed re-grafting, a job which I usually have to do myself as our workers are more comfortable handling machetes.

In pursuing our search we will have to look for a mature personality over 40 who is comfortable administrating, supervising and delegating tasks.

“Girasol” Colegio Waldorf , busca maestro

2011-03-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

Buscamos un maestro / maestra pionero experimentado para el desarollo de nuestro colegio.

Tenemos al presente 2 grupos de 25 ninos en Kindergarten y un primer grado con 12 ninos.

El colegio es parte de nuestra Finca Biodinamica, principalmente con niños de familias de escasos recursos.

Contacto: Christoph Meier; C.Meier@HorizontesOrganicos.com

Mas informaciones:

Facebook : "Girasol" Colegio Waldorf y www.HorizontesOrganicos.com

En los ultimos anos hemos crecido continualmente, hoy en dia tenemos 2 grupos de 25 ninos en Kindergarten y 12 ninos en el primer grado lo que hemos adicionado para facilitar la transicion a otras escuelas u colegios.

Nuestra y la esperanza de los padres es que se desarolla un colegio completo con 8 grados. Esto solamente se puede realizar con un maestro pionero experimentado en la enseñanza Waldorf, con capacidad de liderazgo.

Hemos iniciado la busqueda internacionalmente, pero debemos ser realistas, estas personas son muy codiciados y escasos, hasta que el destino nos atrae esa personalidad vamos ha mantener el colegio hasta el primer grado.

My potential successor arrived !

2010-11-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

It needed an earthquake in Haiti (and karma) to bring this about!

During his visit after the earthquake (See my “Haiti Earthquake” Blog) Ben Dobson became acquainted with our operation and liked what he saw, especially his wife Naline felt right at home in a similar landscape like her south western Haiti origin. Ben had developed a large and successful organic lettuce business in Maine and is presently in the process of extricating himself of it, being to much of a industrial operation for his taste.

He arrived in the first week of November to work with us and to find out if this will be his and our future!

He is young with lots of energy and many ideas of expanding our operation and I am confident that he will pick up quite some slack which came along with my declining strength and allow me to speed up my gradual retirement process!

Ben' bio: Ben Dobson was born on an organic farm in Hillsdale, NY and has never left the industry. Ben started his first organic farm at the age of 16 in Hillsdale, New York in 2000. The farm was called Earthborn Organic Vegetables focused on growing a diverse array of vegetables for local restaurants and a CSA. While operating Earthborn Ben attended Simon's Rock College of Bard, a college for High School age students.

After graduating from Simon's Rock with a focus in Environmental Science, Ben went on to manage the fields at his father's Equinox Farm, located in Sheffield, MA. Equinox is a pioneering small farm specializing in salad greens, herbs, heirloom tomatoes and micro salads.

In 2006 after four years at Equinox Ben was offered an opportunity to take over an operation in Bowdoinham, Maine that was set up as the largest organic salad operation in New England. In 2007 Ben, along with David Goldstein started Atlantic Organics. After a first season, and finding they received insufficient recognition through wholesaling, Ben and David joined with Shimon Horowitz to launch their own brand called Locally Known.

Ben was responsible for sales, marketing, the overall farming operation, coordinating upstream supply from new growers, public relations, as well as overseeing the direction and vision of the company.

one man one cow one planet

2010-04-06T05:34:00.000-07:00

Haiti reconstruction

2010-02-09T12:20:00.000-08:00

Since a long time Haiti was, and after the earthquake even more so, an in-functional state. The great tragedy of this quake is that it affected mainly the more “affluent” people, those who where able to afford concrete houses, meaning that a large number of educated and skilled people who kept the little bit of economic activity going have been lost.

After the initial shock now begins the squabble of rebuilding, with many diverging interests and opinions.

One can discern two diverging attitudes:

The politically correct one, that one should respect the sovereignty of the haitian government to make the decisions, and on the other hand those who feel that Haiti should be placed under international governance for the next two decades until they can stand again on their own feet (I certainly favor the second opinion, which is also shared by many Haitians!)

The present state of utter destruction of the national infrastructure could be a golden opportunity to attempt to create a viable society, without reverting to decadent capitalist or socialist models.

Had I a say, the following would be my favored steps:

Rebuild the basic infrastructure.
Initiate a universal Identification system.
Provide a universal unconditional minimum income of USD700.00 / year per person, including educational and healthcare vouchers, redeemable by independent schools and caregivers.

(With todays electronic credit card systems this should be feasible). The needed USD8,000 millions would initially be funded by the international community, later replaced by the national economy financed through a Value Added Tax and land lease fee income. This could be the most effective way to get the economy going, benefiting the population in its entirety.
Encourage and protect small and medium size sustainable agriculture. Farmers need a fair price for their produce, this will discourage migrations to the cities and give an incentive for many to return to the land.
Introduce a major land reform, and making the vast presently un-utilized fertile plains available to farmers. Land should not be treated as commodity but be made available on a lease hold basis.
Initiate a serious reforestation program.

Well, I will keep dreaming and add many more points!

Haiti Earthquake

2010-02-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

Jan. 22, 2010

On January 12^th at 5.00PM, while in our office sitting at my desk, at once there was the feeling of being on a large ship, looking out of the window the impression was of a wide swaying. Some people thought they where having a nauseous spell, until somebody called “earthquake” (that nauseous feeling indeed lingered on for quite a few hours) and we got out of the building.

This was our experience of the earthquake that hit nearby Haiti with such devastating force, the epicenter only 200km west of us.

The terrible news coming in of the enormous devastation destroying a major city with over 200,000 dead and thousands maimed cast a heavy spell over everybody for several days. The inability to call friends and family (we have many Haitian coworkers on the finca) and the uncertainty of them being alive was depressing. Several workers who had family in port au Prince took off to find and help their relatives.

As we are located on the main artery to Haiti, all the relief traffic passes in front of our door day and night, or by helicopters over our heads, so that Haiti is continuously on our mind. I also had to think of the destroyed Hotel Montana and the State University where so many perished, the places I have stayed many times during conferences on organic agriculture.

The son of farmer friends in New York state, Ben Dobson (an organic farmer himself) arrived the day after the quake to search for his Haitian spouse and child who where visiting their family, he was very lucky and resourceful, he found a fast ride with a dominican ambulance, entering the city through back-roads and already next evening we where able to pick him up near the border with wife and child unscathed. Their experiences of that drive where harrowing, witnessing countless dead bodies lining the sidewalks. He made a trip back next day to the border delivering a pickup truck full of food and water supplies for the relatives.

Subsequently we received the visit of the french emergency rescue team (the father of our daughter in law a physician was part of the team) on their return from Jacmel (4,000 corpses where buried there in a mass-grave) their first moment of relaxation after two weeks of grueling work.

To get there they where flown by the Dominican military to the port of Pedrenales where they boarded a ship of the marine who brought them directly to Jaquemel. They made the international news by rescuing alive a 23 day's old baby who was buried for 8 days!

Next we will receive a team of waldorf teachers with a physician and a nurse, focusing on trauma recovery of orphaned children, they had previous experiences in Gaza, China and Indonesia. We are facilitating the local logistics and food supplies for their work in Haiti: www.freunde-waldorf.de

We got many requests from friends and acquaintances abroad for advise how to assist the victims, and our recommendation is to financially support known organizations who have a good and long record of working in Haiti. Our favored are a large orphanage run by “Father Marc” with over 600 orphans in Les Cayes: www.Freethekids.org, and a very successful health-care initiative founded by Dr. Paul Farmer: www.pih.org

The compassionate and warmhearted reaction of the Dominican people was astounding, considering their own poverty and the historically somewhat antagonistic relationship between those two nations. Following the lead of President Leonel Fernandez who immediately visited his homologue in the devastated city there was a enormous outpouring of help, people donating food, water and clothing. They where the first to arrive with emergency aid and bringing heavy equipment for rescue operations, and making all their hospitals available.

Hopefully this experience will have a lasting effect in improving the relationship between the two countries. This earthquake will have a profound social and economic impact on the whole island, for the better or the worse. The migration pressure of undocumented haitians will certainly increase, even assuming that international reconstruction efforts will succeed.

Travels in Europe; Summer 2009

2009-10-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

In mid June I attended the yearly Demeter International members meeting in Luxembourg, on which all the 24 international Demeter certification agencies are represented.

After my wife Annelien joined me on June 21st coming from Harlemville (she had been in the US since May 1st ) we spent a few weeks in Interlaken, enjoying the wonderful landscape, the swiss perfection as well as flying and hiking.
After our yearly visit mid July to Holland (Annelien's home-country) and with the (mistaken) hope that the english weather would be bearable we took the ferry to New Castle, the North of England and proceeded to the scottish border. First we visited the tidal “Holy Island” and Lindisfarne Castle, the site of introduction of Christianity in Northern England, and also the first to be totally devastated by the Vikings which sent shock-waves throughout England.

Crossing southern Scotland we where impressed by the loving care of the land and the proprietary attitude, the famous “my home is my castle” seems to apply here, along rural roads there was seldom a spot free for any parking nor any publicly accessible hiking path, we assume that this is due that the property rights have never been infringed on by a revolution like in France! Interestingly enough; there are sometimes signs of a public right of way visible, although overgrown with weeds, apparently there is a law that the public right of way has to be respected as long as there is a once a year use of it.

After crossing the Scottish border highlands to the west-coast, we stayed with friends at Loch Arthur Farm, a Camphill Village close to Dumfries, where we heard about a Megalithic site nearby; “Cairn Holy” and most likely would meet an american there with a camera! And indeed arriving there we met Joseph Proskauer (a former Waldorf teacher), and to our surprise we discovered that we had common friends in the US.At first view the cairns did no look like much, a group of standing stones lost in the landscape. However, after spending a day with Joseph our eyes where opened to the sophistication of how the site was set in relation to the various cosmic events. The placement and total harmony in the landscape was impressive, to the west the seashore with the special light-quality of the water, and just visible in the distance the south end of the Island of Man. Although viewed from a distance the place situated in a dip of the landscape looked insignificant, when standing there one had the impression of standing in the center / navel of the world.

On July 27^th our visit fell just a few days after the summer-solstice so we could witness at sunrise the perfect centering of the sun in the headstone of the cairn. One could imagine the deep impression this must have made to a person lying in the (so called “ grave-”) chamber which in olden times must have been completely covered and enclosed except for a small opening to the eastern sunrise. The entrance to the cairn through the center-stones was interesting to experience; although the opening had a hight over 3 m. increasingly narrowing in height, one could only enter crouching sidewards (the shoulders would not fit) , in a similar manner as the passage of the child sidewards through the birth channel, one entered / exited the womb of the earth! One can imagine that these where religious sites where there a three day death-like initiation was practiced.

At certain times of the day, there was a near perfect alignment of the sun's shade, not a single stone seemed to be set without a specific significance, either in its alignment, shape or quality of the stone. One wonders in how far such sites served as (astonishingly exact) cosmic observation tools or that they had the task of tuning and connecting these sites in harmony with the cosmos.

Thanks' to Joseph's quality as a former Waldorf high-school teacher our eyes where gradually opened, not by him revealing to us his discoveries, but by asking us to observe certain aspects and make our own discoveries and conclusions. Joseph lives since over a year close to this site and has made the site the focus of his meditations ( and obsession?), he never misses a day, makes daily observations and pictures of the site with the different weather conditions and sun positions. In any case this was the beginning of unplanned focus on megalithic sites for the next weeks !

On July 28^th we turned north to Wigtown and visited the Torhouse stone-circle, comprised of 19 stones (the year's it takes for the moon to return to the same alignment. Although we had in mind to see more of Scotland, the weather turned real nasty with a forecast for long spell of cold and rain, which made us run in one stretch down to the south of England.

July 29^th : “Stonehenge”! Although having seen pictures of it, the real sight was overwhelming in its scope, an enormous cultural center of humanity!

Already the physical aspects are astounding, with stones of 50 Tons transported over long distances over unpaved terrain would even with todays equipment be a difficult task.

The exact placement of the about 100 stones and calculation of the many different cosmic alignment's are so astonishing that conventional science in its arrogance still refuses to accept these feats of Neolithic people!

Usually we camped right at these megalithic sites and could witness sunrises and dawns in tranquility avoiding the bulk of visiting crowds.

On July 30^th we took the ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff, France. On August 1^st ; Morlay, visit of Cairn Pluezoc'h an enormously sized cairn completely built of small stones with large slabs covering the various caves in it.

August 2d; Penisula of Crozon, found another unexpected stone alignment at our campingsite in Camaret above a beautifull rocky coastline.

The end of our Megalith Tour; on Aug. 4^th was Carnac, the in expanse largest megalithic site known, with miles of of stone alignment's. The megalith culture (not to be confounded with the later Druid stones) dates from 4'000 BC to 1'500 BC, and its sites can be found especially concentrated along the atlantic coast's from Norway to Spain but as well on the east coast of North-America.

We then proceeded over the Pyrenees in to Spain, experiencing quite an extreme and immediate change in landscape and atmosphere, coming from cool and humid Bretagne. As soon as we crossed the pass we got immersed in to a dry and hot landscape exactly as one imagines it from having read Don Quixote de la Mancha, and also very similar to our home in the Dominican Republic! The arid country is predominately cultivated with almonds, olives and barley to be fed to the thousands of pigs stinking up the countryside, to produce the spanish jamon specialties!

We did not venture further in to Spain and ventured east along the pyrenees, myself enjoying a few very nice flights from the famous paragliding sites while Annelien had to suffer the heat wave.

By October 18th we turned back, spent some time in the Haute Provence alps and returning in time to Switzerland to celebrate Sebastian's 35th birthday.

On Sep. 10 I returned back to work in the DR while Annelien went to our US home in Harlemville until the temperatures in the DR are bearable for her.

Biodynamic Seed-propagation

2009-09-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

On July 11th we where invited-to the open Seed- day at “Fintan” the 140 Ha Farm in Rheinau, the largest Biodynamic Farm in Switzerland.

Since over 25 Years farmers and researchers have been involved in developing seeds appropriate to Biodynamic and organic farming methods. Quite a number of vegetable seeds and cereals have by now been registered and made available since.
It takes thousands of seed trials and about 15 years until an acceptable variety of cereal is produced, an effort which can only be carried by subsidies and donations.
With the rapid disappearance of a large diversity of seed-stocks (and animal breeds as well) and the concentration of seed-propagation in the hands of a few powerful multinationals and lately the development of GMO seeds this work has become crucial for the future of humanity. Conventionally available seeds are not appropriate for sustainable farming methods, the only give results with high fertilizer inputs, herbicides and pesticides, and in general can not be propagated by the farmer, so that he has to buy new seed every year.
As a Banana grower I regret not to be able to work on seed propagation, the development of new Banana varieties is extremely difficult and costly, the Banana industry relies on the only one marketable Cavendish variety, which is propagated since over 30 years vegetabily and becomes increasingly susceptible to diseases. In Biodynamics we know that plants are cosmically rejuvenated by going through a flowering and seed-process.
We are glad to be able to contribute to this effort at least financially, apparently this seems to be typical for older people to be concerned about the future, it is the old farmer planting apple trees even if he does know that he will not be the beneficiary of the fruits, in that category also fits seed-propagation and the caring for the future of children. It could also be said that believing in re-incarnation this may not be all that altruistic as it seems!
http://08.avenirsem.ch http://gz.peter-kunz.ch http://www.sativa-rheinau.ch http://www.turtletreeseed.com

Our home on wheels in Europe.

2009-09-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

Since several years we are fortunate to spend a few month in Europe in order to escape the peak caribbean heat.
Our home there is a “camping car”, the kind of ugly white plastic box cluttering the most scenic tourist sites that we in the past we used to look at with disdain!
However, after initially having rented one we learned to appreciate its convenience, and eventually bought one ourselves, and when not in use it is parked in Switzerland, with our son Sebastian (who has abandoned farming and is now making a living giving tourists paragliding flights) in Interlaken.
On a relatively small space it has all the conveniences, sleeps 4, can be heated, has a mini-bathroom with toilet, sink and douche, a 4 pit gas-range and refrigerator. There is enough space to store paraglider, inflatable canoe and our bicycles which are great for sightseeing and entering towns for shopping!
Traveling longer distances is now a pleasure, after a few hours driving we pull of the road take a coffee brake, often cook lunch (Annelien!) and take a nap. Overnight we often park between farm fields, the edge of the woods or along a stream, and if we get caught in an urban area we look for a quite parking spot often found next to a church, or a sport field, and in France and Italy most towns have a designated parking area for camping cars. Often when parked for the night close to roads, other campers park alongside feeling more secure in company.
Whenever we decide to stay longer or when it is time to do laundry we check in to a campground.
Visiting relatives and friends is easy, nobody has to be inconvenienced, we are simply temporary neighbors, can be grandparents and retire to our own quarters if the kids get to rowdy!
Business visits are uncomplicated, if Annelien has her fill of seeing one more cold-storage with Bananas she can simply stay at “home” in the parking lot, knit socks, read and sometimes join again for a business lunch.
Escaping unpleasant weather, especially in Switzerland is often (to) easy, it takes about three hours to cross the alps to the italian sunny side, a temptation which tends to bring some undesirable restlessness if not checked.
The planning of our itinerary has the following pattern: Family and friends, Banana customers, Paragliding sites (usually in mountainous areas) and Biodynamic Farms, where sometimes also our help is welcomed!
After a few months however we are getting our fill of restlessness and look forward to our quiet home and a regular working schedule.

A permanent home for our Kindergarten.

2009-03-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

After 4 years of housing our Kindergarten in various temporary rooms on our Finca, we now succeeded to give it its own 390 m2 home, consisting of two classrooms for 25 children each on the first floor and a 3 room teacher apartment on the second floor.
We where very fortunate to have found 2 trained Waldorf kindergarten teachers, from Colombia and Peru with 2 local assistants in training. We hope that with this step we can give Waldorf education a significant boost in our country, creating a space for internships and conferences.
On March 10 we where able to accept the second group of 26 children aged 3 ½ to 4 years old and move them in to new building, and on the first day of spring, March 21 we celebrated the inauguration with parents, coworkers and many friends.
The construction costs for the building of US$80,000 was mainly raised through a “Fair Trade” initiative of our client “Weiling” a organic food distributor in Germany, where banana customers where willing to pay a additional premium of US$0.01 per banana, as well as by the contribution of our Export company.
We separated a 7'000 m2 lot from our Finca and conveyed it to our Fundacion Nuestro Porvenir, the legal carrier of our Educational initiative, enough space to develop a full school.
After much deliberation we found that the Kindergarten needed a protected and sheltered area (this is already implicit in its naming, garden has its root in “guard” a guarded and protected area where valuable crops and flowers are tended with special care). Placing the Kindergarten close the center of our commercial operations appeared to be the best solution, it gives it the necessary protection from noise (nearly unbearable in the villages with unmuffled motorcycles and perpetual disco music) and burglars. It creates efficiencies in sharing some infrastructure and the availability of a helping hand of company staff is often of great help to the Kindergarten teachers. This nearness and presence of small children who need our help as well as the not for profit activity radiates a very positive social influence on our work.
It is very satisfying for me personally to be able to develop a educational initiative supported by our commercial activity, a reversal of the past where I have been farming inside the economic shelter of tax exempt educational foundations. As we have reached conventional “retirement” age I am happy do devote myself increasingly to cultural / educational activities, a privilege which is rare in our modern society, and I enjoy being called abuelito (little grandfather) in an environment where I am respectfully adressed “Don or Señor”. And my wife Annelien has renewed her mothering instincts creating a variety of dolls and animals. Small children and old people have a special affinity to each other, both are close to the spiritual world, the former fresh arrivals, the later mature departures.

Kindergarten inauguration

2009-03-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

On our latest global financial crisis

2008-09-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

The present crisis (as many before) has its main root in the Mortgage system and the reckless extension of credit based on property values, independently of the ability of the borrower to service that mortgage.

And obviously, with increasing world population and the impossibility of increasing the available land area this would seem to be a reasonable risk, except that these values periodically experience speculative overvaluation and one then speaks of a “burst bubble”.

This points to one of the capitalistic systems fundamental shortcomings, namely the treatment of land as if it were a commodity. It is the root of one of the gravest injustices, namely that owners of land can extract tribute of those who have no ownership, therefore enriching themselves without any economic counter-prestation.

This tribute is most visible in the real estate sector, but also paid by society as a whole, the cost is invisibly included in all our products, beginning in the cost of agricultural land, of land to build factories and businesses etc. etc. These “costs” or tributes always have to be calculated in to the price of goods and eventually land in the hands of the few who have title to the land.

In my work as a farmer I am confronted with this problem, especially in the Dominican Republic where land prices have increased the last 15 years about tenfold, caused by peoples lack of confidence in the banking system but also for tor a major part by the laundering of money of corrupt government officials and the drug trade. It is also here not possible anymore to purchase land and to pay for it by agricultural production (that is to say that those costs can not be included in the price of Bananas anymore).

All material goods for our use are produced by labour, even be it minimal such as the harvesting and bringing to market of wild berries. However land and mineral deposits (such as oil) have not been created by man and should therefore be considered a fundamental right of all mankind.

The land ownership issue is at the cause of many wars and rebellions especially in poor countries. Many socio-economic thinkers have pointed to that fact that land is a right and not a commodity to be sold and bought.
Rudolf Steiner in his socio-economic lectures called the treatment of land as a commodity a cancer in our economic system; excess money is diverted and held back in land instead of productively invested in culture, research and education. (One should imagine what it would have meant mean if all the billions which are being lost by the present crisis would have been invested in Education!).
Steiner pointed out that every person incarnated on this earth should have the fundamental right to an area of land, to be determined by the available land area divided by the number of people.

In today's society obviously not everybody wants to work his “own” land and so makes his land available to those who make productive use of it. Any user of land, be it a farmer, industrial or house owner has to have the right to use the land exclusively with full control over it, however this has to be a temporary right , which when he does discontinue its use will be passed on to others for productive use.

Presently there is a interesting initiative going on in Germany, launched by Goetz Rehn, owner of the largest pharmacy chain in Europe.
He advocates a guaranteed minimum income for every citizen, and there are initiatives who would like to see this scheme financed by the taxation of real estate property values. www.unternimm-die-zukunft.de www.basicincome.org

Finding a Successor

2008-05-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

The passing on of a business, especially a farming operation to the next generation is always a delicate and critical endeavour.
The transition to a new leader has to made considering his/her qualifications and not on purchasing power. Although I own a majority of shares in our farming and export company, I do not consider a business as an a asset to be sold like a commodity, but rather as a social organism with in which a very large number of people are involved.

Some calculations will give a picture of the magnitude of that involvement:
There are around 100 persons working in the company, and some 200 farmers supply us with their produce. We can safely assume that each of these 300 persons have an average of 8 dependants, so that we are talking of at least 2,400 persons covering their daily material needs directly through our activity.
In addition to that we should not forget our local merchants, suppliers of services and industrial goods. Extending the chain we are linked with shippers, traders, wholesale distributors and retail stores ending with the main persons for which we in the end all work: the Consumer !
We produce besides various other products, an average of 105,000 Kg Bananas per week all year round. Assuming that the average buyer consumes 0.4kg bananas per week we are talking about serving 262,500 consumers! I see this whole process as an economically interwoven and interdependent fabric, a positive part inside the global economy.

When asked if there is some successor in sight I like to joke that he/she is still being formed in our Kindergarten. Obviously I do not have another 20 years before retiring and realize that it is time to search more actively for someone to take over, finding the right person however is not an easy task.
Our daily business operation is completely managed by our long established local administrating staff, all of them also shareholders of the company.
Although they certainly could continue operating without me, in the long term this could be questionable without a leadership having some of the specific elements I have been able to contribute.

The person we are looking for should have the following qualities:
A philosophical grounding in Anthroposophy, specifically in Biodynamic agriculture and socio-economic “Threefold” concepts.
Other important factors are:
* Leadership and social abilities, farming and technical skills, a sense for business management and understanding of international (organic) markets.
* A affinity for latin culture, self-sufficiency and much tolerance and ability to live in a rather culturally undeveloped “third world country”, (for some time that may have its romantic charm).

I am confident and hopeful that eventually the right person will be found and that our endeavour is destined to continue, and maybe this blog may be the vehicle to that end !

The end of cheap food.

2008-05-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Already 80 years ago Rudolf Steiner and Albert Howard, the pioneers of Biodynamic / Organic Agriculture foresaw the disastrous effects Industrial manufacturing approaches to agriculture would have.
11 years ago the World Food Summit issued the “Declaration of Rome” with urgent warnings and recommendations regarding the future food supply.
The powers in charge turned a blind eye at such warnings, because they called for uncomfortable attitude changes.

Since the times of Adam Smith a fundamentally flawed “Capitalistic” ideology has emerged, namely that “monetary profit” should be the primary goal of economic activity instead of providing the material necessities of man.
The socialists where aware of this and developed a equally flawed “communistic” ideology.
The underlying cause of such ideologies is the result of the limitations of materialistic thinking.
This approach resulted in a tremendous boost in industrially produced goods, however, when applied to non industrial goods such as agriculture, education and healthcare they had the disastrous results under which we suffer nowadays.
The industrial approach to farming with external inputs increased volume production, with a serious decline life-quality of foods produced, as well as the destruction of natural soil fertility.
On the social level; especially after the opening of the american West and the global trade with cheaply produced grains caused the decline of farm-prices in Europe forcing impoverished farmers of the land into the slavery of factory work and this phenomena is unabatedly continuing today.

The availability of cheap food for the urban centres has been a priority of all governments, and we can see today a global panic fearing food shortages and mass rioting.

I have no doubt that Biodynamic Agriculture can feed a much larger world population than we have now.
The obstacles however are enormous, we would have to change many of our habits, decrease our excess protein consumption (meat), desist of driving our cars with bio-fuels and most difficult of all, is to create incentives for people to stay or even return to farming.

In any case the times of cheap food are gone, it should never have been cheap to begin with, which would have avoided the suffering we are going to face now.

Cultural-Spiritual aspects of Narcotics.

2008-02-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

It is obvious that the root of the decay of our society is a cultural / spiritual one, namely the inability to deal with the grim reality of our materialistic existence.
It is evident in our drive to escape that reality through our “entertainment” industry (movies, TV, video games.....), Mind altering Drugs (legal and illegal), spectator sports, extreme sports etc.
The devilishness of the situation is that those seduced in to this escapes are not the dull conformists, but the rebellious and potentially promising individuals who are led astray, (unconsciously) searching for a more spiritual world view. Our society’s cultural poverty, specifically our educational institutions offer them stones instead of bread.

According to Rudolf Steiner humanity in its evolutionary path had once atavistic clairvoyant capabilities which where lost in order to develop intellectual thinking, individuality and freedom, eventually as a result getting mired in extreme materialism. In our time we are challenged to overcome materialism by developing a modern path of conscious clairvoyance through meditation. Obviously this requires a lot of willpower and discipline, qualities which in our time are very difficult to achieve.
At this point of evolution where humanity has in its hands the freedom and power to destroy our planet it is a matter of survival to again build a bridge between religion and science, changing our approach to nature and the spiritual reality behind it.

Living in the Drug-War zone.

2008-02-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

Every week our facilities are inspected by a Drug enforcement officer, to verify that there are no Drugs included in our banana shipping containers. Obviously a joke, should we be in the Drug-trade then a little “improvement” to the miserly monthly salary of +- US$200.00 would close his eyes.
While there is a growing amount of drug-consumption on the island, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are mostly regarded as stopovers for drugs en route to North America and Europe. Corruption and weak legal system have converted the island of Hispaniola into a drug trafficking paradise.
Even in our rural area drugs are traded and consumed, and the violence that goes along with it has taken civil war aspects. Amid all the poverty there we see the latest models of luxury cars with price tags over US$ 70,000 driven by young men who do not look like they could read a newspaper.
There is a civil war going on, in a small country like ours with the size and population density of Switzerland we read about 10 deadly shootings every day, most of them drug related!

The Global illegal Drug trade is one of the largest, the amount of money that has to be criminally laundered is enormous, in our country it distorts the economy by inflating land prices (making it impossible to buy farmland and paying for it out of production), Businesses one can not compete with and large construction projects (high rise towers and shopping-malls) which stand empty for years.

Many objective arguments for legalisation have been raised by leading thinkers, however for politicians who have dared propose it , it meant he end of their careers, a notable exception is Gustavo de Greiff former Attorney General of Colombia. (It did also cost him his job!)

Exetracts from a Conversation with Gustavo de Greiff former Attorney General of Colombia.

Toward Drug Legalisation:
The only path to ending narco-trafficking is drug legalisation: that is to say, the regulation of its production and sale. That is the thesis maintained for almost ten years by Gustavo de Greiff, who says that legalisation doesn't have to produce a rise in the consumption of drugs and, in fact, will end the violence, corruption and the progressive breakdown of society caused by narco-trafficking.
According to de Greiff, it is precisely drug prohibition what provokes this violence, as well as the commerce, is its illegal nature, producing enormous profits for drug traffickers and corrupt authorities, a business that will be difficult to stop as long as there are consumers.
"The police arrested the drug traffickers, dismembered cartels, confiscated property, destroyed laboratories, intercepted drug shipments and, in spite of all that, nothing happened in the general panorama of the drug fight, because it kept coming to the consumer markets, among those, the most important, in the United States. The business is so profitable that if you disintegrate one cartel, other narco-traffickers take its place in the market."

The Harms of Prohibition
Beyond the street violence and the disintegration of the social fabric, narco-trafficking causes an unmeasured enrichment of the traffickers and also the corrupt officials, he stressed. "A prohibited business can not have success without the collaboration by authorities who close their eyes to the transport or sale of the drug in exchange for money or favors, the same in producer countries and consumer countries. The corruption reaches individuals at all levels of authority, from the police, to the Customs officers, intelligence agents, airports, maritime port managers and, of course, the politicians," he commented.
De Greiff stressed the importance of legalisation of the business, transport and sale of drugs so that the business stops being so monstrously obscene, and to convert it into an ordinary business that additionally will produce taxes that can be invested in the good of society.
At the same time, he underlined the billions of dollars that are spent annually to repress drug trafficking that will then be able to be dedicated to other goals.

Fear of Legalisation
One of the great difficulties in bringing about legalisation is the fear by the population that drugs will be easier to obtain and raise the number of users. However, the fact is that although drugs are prohibited, they are reachable by any individual in any city of this continent who desires them, he remarked. "Drugs are already everywhere, except that because they are prohibited, small consumers that should be treated as patients go to jail - the bad joke is that nobody is rehabilitated in jail.
In this sense, de Greiff used the example of the legalisation of alcohol in the United States, which ended the business of the large mafias involved in it, and did not produce a rise in consumption.

The Farse of the Drug War
Another of the obstacles to legalizing drugs are all the individuals involved in the corruption, said de Greiff. "As has been said, all the agencies involved in repression and monitoring, as well as the politicians: Some because their jobs would be eliminated, and others because they would stop receiving the benefits of narco-trafficking through bribes. Their business would end."
He cited examples that have been publicly exposed of police who seize drugs but only declare half the volume and sell the rest.

De Greiff mentioned, at the same time, the political game that is played with the numbers of arrests and seizures, that the governments use to publicize their own success in the drug war and to continue justifying the repressive policy, "when, in reality, there is no such success although they imprison more and more drug dealers, since the drugs continue flowing in the same quantities to the consumer markets."

The government most interested and invested in the policy of the drug war and at the same time is its grand promoter, he said, is the United States government, which has used the policy to subjugate the countries of Latin America. On one end they use the "de-certification" process. On the other end they use political and military intervention, more and more, to try and maintain domination and protect the warehouse of cheap natural resources for the United States.

Decriminalization and the Benefits of Legalisation
However, he stressed that decriminalization is not enough: It would only avoid that the consumers go to jail or that the dealers have a more peaceful consumer, but it will not end narco-trafficking nor the current corruption by authorities who enrich themselves at alarming levels while those who suffer are the consumers and the general population.

The solution of the problem of drug trafficking is legalisation of drugs, he repeated, and he specified that legalisation doesn't have to mean sale in open markets but, rather, the regulation of the business, the production, the transport and sale, with permits for each activity, control over the quality of the product so it is not adulterated, and legal limits such as not selling drug near educational institutions, not advertising their sale in the media, etc., and always accompanied by prevention campaigns against abusive consumption and offering medical treatment to addicts.

The full report appears on the internet at http://www.narconews.com/Issue25/article537.html

“Flying like a Hawk”

2008-02-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

A dream I had since childhood, flying the clouds, free like the birds in the sky!
From Ikarus over Leonardo da Vinci’s model man has had that dream, but only modern technology in fabric design has made this possible.

Since several years I am now Paragliding, flying a sort of oversize parachute which is foot-launched from a hillside with wind updraft.

If the conditions are favourable one catches thermals (warm vortex drafts which eventually form the clouds when reaching cooler air) which can carry you up to cloud base, I have flown over 2,500 m over ground, a exhilarating experience, absolute silence besides of a gentle wind humming in the strings of the glider. Often one circles together with birds in the same thermal!
As we are living close to a favourable mountain range, I can be in the air 40 minutes after leaving home, flying for an average of one hour.
With favourable conditions and skill one can make longer cross country flights, my son Sebastian for example made the Dominican record of 75 Km. (he is also the champion of the height record he accidentally let himself be sucked in to a cloud and was propelled to a height of 3,700 m. returning to ground wet and shivering from the cold, but happy to be alive!).
It definitely is an addictive sport, maybe also a substitute for meditation (like taking drugs) ?
My maximum flight duration has been 4.5 hours and 55 km X country distance.
After 5 years of flying, averaging 100 one hour flights per year, it is still every time an adventure to launch, just that step in to the void and the air, leaving the “illusionary” safety of the firm ground behind you! I imagine that this is good preparation for dying, learning to let go of this world!

Is it safe ? No, there are serious accidents, some deathly, but that is all relative, I take more chances driving on the road in the Dominican Republic, one must trust destiny (or ones guardian angel)!

Paragliding pilots (male and female) are a special breed of people, from all segments of society, all strong individualas with very good observation skills (something one has to develop interpreting the many (also invisible) conditions needed to successfully fly the thermals, like cloud-formations, wind conditions, land geology and soaring bird activity).

The flying activity has also some nice social aspects, in our area (which is rural and poor with few opportunities to meet people sharing ones cultural background) we meet many visiting pilots escaping winter conditions in the North.
The paragliding community is relatively small and one starts to know and meet each other on the flying sites all over the world.

Tropical storm “Olga”

2007-12-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Six weeks after Tropical Storm “Noel” the country got hit again by Storm “Olga” with 145 mm precipitation in 24 hrs! Our huricane season ends in November and nobody expected such a late storm, barely have the main highways, bridges and canal systems provisionally been repaired which now need to be tackled again.

On can try to be objective about such natural desasters, especially when one hears at the same time about the tremendous floods in Mexico and Bangladesh with much greater devastations. However seeing such reports on television and experiencing yourself in your neighbourhood is a different reality!
Thousands of mainly poor people are homeless, many havel lost family members, lost all their meager possesions with little expectations of economic recovery. For such people there are no insurances, and governement or NGO support is minimal.
One of the major problems for the population is the widespread destruction of the already in normal times precarious water supply systems, and in many towns water is only sporadically supplied by tanker trucks.

Although the quantities of rainfall of “Olga” do not seem as high as “Noel” the damge especially in the North of the Island is tremendous, suposedly caused by mismanagement of the dam systems, where overflow gates have been opened causing a never experienced flood in Santiago where whole neighbourhoods have been washed away and causing widespread damage in the main agricultural zones of the country. The expectation is that there will be at least a reduction of 60% in Export (mainly Organic) Bananas for the next 6 to 10 Months, a loss of over US$20 million of income for the country. This obviously has deep repercussions as producers from central america will fill the void, a lost marketposition is allways hard to recuperate.
Our own export of Bananas has presently been reduced by 50% , so we are facing difficult times ahead in order to keep our heads over water until we recuperate volumes by April 2008.

Fotos Storm Noel

2007-11-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Tropical Storm "Noel"

2007-11-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

October 28 to 31, 2007
This storm caught everybody by surprise, the storm developed close to the south coast and dumped 580 mm of rain in 48 hours, more than our whole yearly average of 550 mm!
Although the winds where not that devastating as with past huricanes the the tremendous amounts of water did as much or more damage. 50 persons are reported dead, many unaccounted for, 58'000 persons are displaced, many houses washed away, power lines are down and two major bridges destroyed so that the whole south will be inaccessible for a while.
The damage to agriculture is especially bad, much arable land has been washed away, Organic Bananas the major export crop of hundreds of co-operative small farmers in the Azua area have been blown down and it will take at least three month’s until production is back to normal.
It will be hard for farmers to survive without external help, as recuperation of fields and maintenance costs remain, without the weekly income from banana sales (there is no crop -insurance or government assistance available). Fields which have been underwater for more than 3 days will have to be completely replanted, taking a year until first harvest.

Our Waldorf Kindergarten, class of 2007.

2007-10-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

In fall 2004 we initiated our kindergarten in our banana packing plant with 14 children from our farm workers families and neighbours. In the second year the Kindergarten grew to 24 children and moved temporarily in to a larger new co-worker apartment on the finca.
The initial Kindergarten teacher, Mayelin Guerrero a native Dominican had studied Eurhythmie in Europe and with it aquired some knowledge in Waldorf education. She decided to leave us at the end of the school year and we are grateful that she pioneered our project.

We were very fortunate to find Susana Rubio from Columbia to take over the Kindergarten this fall! She is a experienced Waldorf Kindergarten teacher who established a Kindergarten in Peru and Columbia and trained many young teachers.
Under her leadership we are entering a exiting new phase; we intend to open a second class in January, making space for another 24 children! With her we hope eventually to be able to establish a Waldorf education training centre for young teachers.
At the same time we intend to build a two class kindergarten building on its own 2 ha parcel neighbouring our biodynamic finca.
Initially I got all enthused to build a organic structure having discovered the artistic potentials of,, but after much reflections as we have no experienced contractors in our country I chickened out and decided to build conventionally in concrete. I did my best in designing a somewhat organic structure with rounded corners and cathedral ceilings where children could feel at home.
We hope to have the buildings ready for the next school year beginning in September 2008!
For more on the childrens project check our website: www.horizontesorganicos.com