• Good news report from Canada, 24 - 25 June 2009
• US court cuts off appeals in Monsanto alfalfa case
• US reverses Afghan drug policy

• Rising coherence leads to a greener world: Trends in gardening and sustainable agriculture
• Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture at the centre of France
• Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture draws high interest at organic products fair in Europe

• Drug trade grows in Bolivia, Peru: UN
• Amazon deforestation brings economy boom, then bust
• BASF says GMO potato deemed safe by EU agency

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Good news report from Canada, 24 - 25 June 2009
28 June 2009 - Canadian farmer's opposition to genetically modified (GMO) wheat made headlines. Many positive economic reports from various parts of the country were in the news. There was huge interest in the IPO (initial public offering) of Canadian geothermal energy company Magma Energy. And a survey showed most Canadians generally seem to be happy, with young adults ages 12 to 19 reporting the highest rate of life satisfaction at 94 per cent. For details on these and other Canada news: (more)

US court cuts off appeals in Monsanto alfalfa case
28 June 2009 - A US appeals court on Wednesday left in place an injunction barring Monsanto Co from selling its Roundup Ready alfalfa seed until the government completes an environmental impact study on how the genetically modified product could affect neighbouring crops. George Kimbrell, staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, called the ruling 'a major victory for consumers, for farmers, and for the public as far as protecting their rights to ...to sow the crop of their choice and...eat the food of their choice.' (more)

US reverses Afghan drug policy
27 June 2009 - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan said on Saturday. It will instead support alternative crops. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Holbrooke told delegates the US planned to cut back funding for eradication while allocating several hundred million dollars to support legal crop cultivation. (more)

Canadian farmers opposed to genetically modified wheat: survey
25 June 2009 - In the Canadian Wheat Board's annual survey of 1,300 Western Canadian farmers, only 9 per cent said GMO wheat should be grown as soon as it's available, with the majority saying it shouldn't be grown until conditions are met such as proving benefits to farmers and demonstrating market demand. Nineteen per cent said it should not be grown in Canada. Monsanto is no longer pursuing Roundup-Ready or any GMO wheat, and Syngenta AG, the world's largest agrochemical group, said in February it's not actively pursuing genetically modified wheat because of consumer resistance. (more)

US: Students join First Lady Michelle Obama in harvesting garden
19 June 2009 - First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed fifth-graders back to the White House garden Tuesday to pick some of the vegetables they helped plant in the spring. The harvest was the culmination of an ongoing project with an elementary school. Mrs Obama said she hopes the garden project educated parents and children across the country about the importance of fruits and vegetables. She said adding more fresh produce to her family's diet made them all feel more energetic. (more)

Organic dairy farmer bets on customer investment
15 June 2009 - An organic dairy farmer near Ghent, New York has decided to bottle and sell his own milk with the financing for the business coming from a serious attempt to raise $850,000 -- in as little as $1,000 increments -- directly from the thirsty consumers who buy his milk by the quart. He intends to use the bulk of the money to build an onsite processing plant that will help him ramp up production and diversify into making other 'value-added' milk-based products like yogurt, butter, and ice cream, where the gross margins are 20-30 per cent higher. Sales of organic milk have been growing at an annual average rate of more than 20 per cent over the past decade, though last year it dipped. (more)

Good news from Canada, 13 - 14 June 2009
14 June 2009 - In a joint effort with the United States, Canada is helping to protect the Great Lakes. The announcement came during a ceremony Saturday on the Rainbow Bridge linking Canada and the United States to mark the 100th anniversary of the Boundary Waters Treaty -- largely considered to be the first piece of modern environmental legislation. In other news, Nova Scotia has the best full-time job growth numbers in Canada; Canadians are embracing home-grown vegetables and demanding pesticide-free parks; the Correctional Service of Canada seeks Buddhist adviser for inmates spiritual guidance and counselling; Manitoba's Peguis First Nation accepts historic land claim settlement; and language rights approved. (more)

India: Planning panel says no to genetically modified food crops
14 June 2009 - After a proposal was opposed by the Environment Ministry to introduce genetically modified (GM) food in India, the Planning Commission has brought the proposal to a full stop. Abhijit Sen, a Planning Commission member, said that India's crop exports could be severely hit if the country allowed GM food crops. (more)

Japan: Tokyo residents fight burglars with flower power
14 June 2009 - A Tokyo district plagued with burglaries has turned to planting flowers to beautify its streets and help stamp out crime. 'Operation Flower' began about three years ago. When a neighbourhood watch group found that there were fewer burglaries in buildings on flower-lined streets, Suginami decided to kick off Operation Flower and asked volunteers to plant seeds on side streets and in front of their homes. Suginami says its efforts have paid off, with the number of burglaries falling to 390 in 2008, down almost 80 per cent from 2002. (more)

Kremlin urges grain exporters to tackle world hunger
7 June 2009 - Russia, seeking a greater say in global food issues, pledged on Saturday to double grain exports and urged suppliers to unite in eliminating food price surges. Russia, propelled into the top three global wheat exporters by a record crop last year, has almost one-tenth of the world's arable land and plans to increase grain production by about 50 per cent in the next 15 years. President Medvedev told an international audience of more than a thousand officials and executives that Russia would only support the development of environmentally friendly biofuels that used non-food resources. 'The growth of biofuels should not become a reason for a growing deficit of food grain,' he said. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Rising coherence leads to a greener world: Trends in gardening and sustainable agriculture
17 June 2009 - The trend toward the greening of urban areas, sustainable agriculture, and organic gardening reflects the rising coherence in world consciousness due to coherence-creating groups of Yogic Flyers around the globe. An interest in healthy eating, self-sufficiency, and a desire to reduce carbon emissions is motivating a 'green revolution'. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture at the centre of France
7 May 2009 - The Transcendental Meditation organization in France owns nine hectares of land at the Brahma-Sthan (geograhical centre) of France where three years ago, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi asked Dr Dominique Lemoine, the National Director of France for the Global Country of World Peace, and a team of Transcendental Meditation Teachers to begin a project to create a Maharishi Peace Colony. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture draws high interest at organic products fair in Europe
2 May 2009 - Maharishi Honey, VedAroma essential oils, and Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture food products were featured recently at the 'Natural and Organic Products Europe 2009' fair at Olympia in London, UK. Among many items and topics of special interest to visitors to the exhibit were Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's poverty removal programme to raise the quality of life for farming communities in developing countries. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture offers purity from field to table
3 April 2009 - Purity plays a role at every stage of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture. From the way the food is grown to the way it is prepared and eaten, Vedic Agriculture offers purity, which is essential for good health. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Agriculture: Creating a healthy physiology through high quality food
2 April 2009 - Prevention of disease before it arises--through the creation of good health--is the approach of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture. High quality vital food is the single most important factor for both mental and physical health, a new introductory presentation about Vedic Agriculture explains. (more)

Offering health, happiness, and abundance through Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture
23 March 2009 - Five key areas significant to Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture include the understanding of how Nature functions, and how to align man's intelligence with Nature's intelligence to support health, happiness, and abundance. These areas are highlighted in a new presentation designed as an introduction to Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture that will help expand the knowledge and practical application of Vedic Agriculture around the world. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture: New presentation gives comprehensive introduction
22 March 2009 - Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture is blossoming in countries around the world, offering the highest quality pure, organic, nourishing food for the health, happiness, harmony, and prosperity of the individuals and the nation. A new introductory presentation about Vedic Agriculture will make this knowledge more readily available to people everywhere, and support expansion of agricultural initiatives. (more)

Pure, healthy food - key for enlightenment of individuals and global elimination of poverty: Dr Bevan Morris
19 March 2009 - The initiatives of the Global Country of World Peace for worldwide food purity and safety are critical for the health and progress of the human race, said Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister, recently. Dr Morris commended Raja John Fagan's leadership in this area in the last 15 years, saying that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi emphasized pure, healthy food as key for both enlightenment of individuals and elimination of poverty globally. (more)

Rising interest in Consciousness-Based programmes for agricultural schools, communities: Latin America
16 March 2009 - Interest is rising in several Latin American countries -- including Guatamala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay -- for implementing Consciousness-Based Education in agricultural schools and communities. (more)

Protecting the future though practical, dynamic leadership to ensure food purity and safety worldwide
15 March 2009 - Leaders of the Global Country of World Peace commented recently on the contribution of Raja John Fagan's* activities over the last 15 years, to the rising demand for food purity and safety worldwide -- which Raja Fagan described as an expression of rising coherence in collective consciousness, resulting from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Drug trade grows in Bolivia, Peru: UN
20 June 2009 - Cocaine production is growing fastest in Bolivia while Peru is on its way to matching output from Colombia, the top global producer of the drug, UN officials said on Friday. Coca plant cultivation in Bolivia grew 6 per cent in 2008, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's annual study of Andean nations. Estimated cocaine production rose 9 per cent to 113 metric tonnes in the impoverished South American nation. Peruvian coca cultivation grew 4.5 per cent and estimated cocaine production rose 4.1 per cent to 302 metric tonnes in 2008, according to the study. (more)

Amazon deforestation brings economy boom, then bust
12 June 2009 - Chopping down forests in the Brazilian Amazon produces a boom-and-bust economy that draws poor people to newly-cleared land but ultimately leaves them no better off, researchers reported on Thursday. Environmental activists have long contended that this was the case but a new study in the journal Science quantified the phenomenon by tracking different stages of deforestation that have been occurring for decades. 'Although it's generally assumed that deforestation is the price to pay for development, we found that development is actually transitory, it's not a sustained improvement in peoples' well-being,' said lead author Ana Rodrigues. (more)

BASF says GMO potato deemed safe by EU agency
11 June 2009 - German chemical maker BASF said on Thursday its genetically modified potato, Amflora, designed to yield industrial starch, has again been described as safe for humans in a recommendation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). BASF has been awaiting European Commission clearance of Amflora since July 2007, and hopes the fresh EFSA recommendation will result in the Commission giving its approval. Thursday's recommendation by the EFSA follows its initial assessment in 2006 that Amflora was safe for humans and the environment. (more)

Yemen staring at famine next year
7 June 2009 - Yemen, stricken by a toxic cocktail of drought, economic crisis, and political unrest, could suffer famine next year, an adviser to President Ali Abdullah Saleh said. 'We are facing one of the worst years in agricultural production, a very severe drought,' Abdul-Karim al-Iryani, a former Yemeni prime minister, told Reuters in Beirut. 'Poverty is a twin brother of terrorism in Yemen, where being a member of al Qaeda is an attractive paying job,' he declared, adding that unemployment now exceeded 30 per cent. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) classifies Yemen, an impoverished land on the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula, as the most food-insecure country in the Middle East. Somali piracy off Yemeni shores is a new addition to Yemen's economic troubles. (more)

Mexico to start experimental planting of GMO corn
5 June 2009 - Mexico, considered the birthplace of corn, is reviewing more than two dozen requests to begin experimental planting of genetically modified crops, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday. Since publishing regulations in March last year to allow select plantings, the government has received 25 requests from farmers and companies interested in the GMO seeds. US biotech food producer Monsanto is one of the companies who have applied for a permit to begin planting. Farmers in Mexico's rural south, where corn has been grown for thousands of years, worry GMO corn will cross-pollinate with native species and alter their genetic content. (more)

Brazil regulator approves cultivation of Monsanto GMO cotton seed
23 May 2009 - Brazil's biosafety regulator CTNBio has approved the use of Monsanto's Bollgard 2 genetically modified cotton seed, the company said. US-based Monsanto has a total of six genetically modified varieties of cotton, soybeans, and corn already approved for commercial planting in Brazil. Other genetically modified cotton seeds developed by Bayer and Dow Chemical already have been approved for use in the South American country, a top producer of sugar, soy, coffee, and oranges. (more)

Germany gives green light to genetically modified potato trials
29 April 2009 - Germany's Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said on Monday she will permit test cultivation of a potato containing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Open air trails of the GMO potato Amflora, developed by German chemicals group BASF presented no threat to public health or the environment, she said. Ms Aigner had this month said she would carry out a new review of an application for open-air trial cultivation of Amflora, which was test-cultivated on 150 hectares in 2008. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had said on Friday that many millions of euros had been invested in developing the Amflora potato in the hope that field trials could be made. Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, has also started legal action against the German ban, stressing the EU has approved it as safe for commercial cultivation and sale. (more)

Death knell sounds for Europe's beekeepers, farming endangered
28 April 2009 - Europe's beekeeping industry could be wiped out in less than a decade as bees fall victim to disease, insecticides, and intensive farming, international beekeeping body Apimondia said on Monday. Last year, about 30 per cent of Europe's 13.6 million hives died. Losses reached 50 per cent in Slovenia and as high as 80 per cent in southwest Germany. With 35 per cent of European food crops relying on bees to pollinate them, it poses a big threat for farmers. (more)

Monsanto sues Germany over GMO maize ban
21 April 2009 - Monsanto Co, the world's biggest seed company, has filed suit against the German government's decision to ban genetically modified (GMO) maize, the company said on Tuesday. The German government banned the cultivation and sale of GMO maize despite European Union rulings that the biotech grain is safe. The ban affects Monsanto's MON 810 maize, which may no longer be sown for this summer's harvest. Monsanto claims that Germany's decision is in conflict with EU rules. (more)

US: Ethanol raises cost of nutrition programmes
10 April 2009 - Food stamps and child nutrition me are expected to cost up to $900 million more this year because of increased ethanol use. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That could mean the government will have to spend more on food me for the needy during the current budget year, which ends on 30th September. It estimated the additional cost at up to $900 million. The report also looked at ethanol's effects on greenhouse gas emissions, concluding that over time ethanol's benefits over gasoline could diminish. The report says the use of ethanol reduced gasoline consumption by about 4 per cent last year and reduced the gases blamed for global warming from the burning of gasoline by less than 1 per cent. But the clearing of cropland and forests to produce more ethanol could more than offset those reductions. (more)