24
March
2008
VATICAN CITY - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware
genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins.
So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of “new”
sins such as causing environmental blight.
The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the
Vatican’s number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and
penance, spoke of modern evils.
Asked what he believed were today’s “new sins,” he told the Vatican
newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the
modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.
“(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce
some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through
experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to
predict and control,” he said.
The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of
embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning. Girotti,
in an interview headlined “New Forms of Social Sin,” also listed
“ecological” offences as modern evils.
In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the
protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had
become gravely important for the entire human race.
Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become
progressively “green”.
It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity
and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of
global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil
fuels.
Also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Old
Sloth
Envy
Gluttony
Greed
Lust
Wrath
Pride
New
Genetic modification
Carrying out experiments on humans
Polluting the environment
Causing social injustice
Causing poverty
Becoming obscenely wealthy
Taking drugs
- By Philip Pullella
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22
February
2008
There was no passion in pizza for Jake Matilsky. So he left Portland, Ore., in 2002 to pursue his longtime love: photography. Scrounging together the money he had saved while delivering tomato pies, Matilsky, then 19, backpacked around Ireland.
He met an art teacher there who had a darkroom. The two made an arrangement: In exchange for four hours of work on the teacher’s organic farm, Matilsky could live and eat with the family for free, and use the darkroom to develop his photos.
“I was traveling as cheaply as I could, and it sounded like a great setup,” said Matilsky, now a 24-year-old undergraduate at Columbia University.
Matilsky was quickly transformed from a landscape photographer into a soil-tilling, manure-transporting farmhand, and he spent a week helping to reforest County Claire. But after five days of planting trees, Matilsky’s hosts abruptly asked him to leave. He had eaten a loaf of their organic bread without first asking permission, he says. The bread came all the way from Galway. Read more…
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11
January
2008
The Evolution of WWOOF in India
Harish Tewari WWOOF India Director
sewak1@rediffmail.com www.wwoofindia.org Organic agriculture concept is not new to India , Mahatma Gandhi pioneered organic agriculture through constructive programs in several locations in India. A protagonist of self-reliance, he taught his fellow workers about composting and farming based on local inputs. In hilly regions, tribal areas and other marginal regions, many small farmers are de facto organic producers. Out of necessity they have turned degraded lands into productive organic systems that meet local needs. Growing environmental consciousness and fears of health hazards of conventional food has spawned domestic consumption of organic food. Expansion of domestic markets is leading to the surge of organic producers attracted by premium prices. In India to ensure rural development Society for Employment Welfare and Agricultural Knowledge ( SEWAK) in Uttrakhand ( formerly part of U.P) state was established in 1992. Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states then dominated in agriculture production figures through adopting chemical farming methods. Conventional technology development being expensive, farmers of Uttrakhand working in an agricultural context of extreme marginality could not afford or buy. Agricultural approaches emphasizing technology packages which generally require resources which most of them had no access. Thus SEWAK focused on such farmers and convinced them to preserve their rich heritage of agricultural traditions. They were found suitable for designing model organic production systems for whole India because their traditional crop rotation in or mixed cropping patterns could easily facilitate the management of pests, diseases and nutrient recycling. Could its strong high quality production base of vegetables, tea, some spices, rice & ayurvedic herbs be exploited for exports as organic products ?. To find answers to such questions ,SEWAK in Nainital is involved in training programmes and documentation of indigenous agricultural practices . This year (2007) SEWAK ngo envisaged to set up WWOOF India. Mr Andrews of WWOOF New Zealand (www.wwoofinternational.org) provided the start up pack and help in developing Indian website www.wwoofindia.org. Mr Carl of WWOOF Independents (www.wwoof.org) provided the host list. Last but not the least Mr Regmi www.wwoofnepal.org gifted the Indian website to SEWAK. The website was officially launched on 19th August 2007 by Shri B.D.Bhagat , Minister of Environment, Forest & Transport Uttrakhand State , India. With in a period of 4 months there were more than 8000 hits on our site. It shows the tremendous demand from WWOOFers as well as organic farmers. Regarding wwoofing sadly people world over have a strange opinion about wwoofers as one who just beats the buffalo at host farm .The so called volunteers do not know anything about organic farming and they come as back pack tourist looking for cheap stay / food as an alternate. To take up this as a challenge and break the bad image of buffalo beating. WWOOF India started working on a system that would provide a platform giving opportunities regarding organic agriculture knowledge, attract volunteers to work at organic farms and cultural exchange through WWOOFing in India . Earlier the volunteers were just handed over the host list pack upon receipt of the membership fee. There was a risk since there was no identity of the volunteer. WWOOF India made it mandatory to fill up membership form and attach a copy of passport , so that in case of emergency or some untoward incident the identity of the volunteer could easily be traced. To find out the real interest of volunteers questions were framed in the membership form and a brief study about the profile of such volunteers was made. The statistical details of the WWOOF India memberships is given below :1 ) Volunteers registered with wwoof India
| 15 - 31 August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
| 8 |
18 |
21 |
25 |
30 |
2) Gender
| Females |
Male |
Couples |
| 36 |
28 |
13 |
3) Country Representation
| European countries EU |
USA and Canada |
New Zealand and Australia |
Asian Countries (Japan , Korea etc) |
India |
| 63% |
24 % |
6 % |
5% |
2% |
4) Volunteers profile
| University Students |
To learn and start organic farming back home |
Researchers and Writers |
Farm workers / labourers |
Others |
| 51 %, |
19% |
13 % |
7% |
9% |
5) Total number of hosts 39 and 2 farms under process of registration 6) Number of hosts added after formation of WWOOF India - 9 The above results of the study shows that the highest number of volunteers come from EU. Many young Indian volunteers wanted to learn organic agriculture through WWOOF India. The number of female volunteers was more then the male volunteers and very few couples. Females are more serious about environmental issues and they want to learn from Indian farmers. The volunteers just do not come for fun they come for training , research and writing books and articles. Our future plans are to engage volunteers in promoting organic products from host farms and also give feed back about the host. This would lead to check the authenticity of organic products and shall prevent fraud in organic industry. This study could be an eye opener for those who take WWOOF in a lighter sense and also guide those potential volunteers who are interested or thinking of WWOOF ing in future.
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27
December
2007
Listen to podcast 
Podcast En Español
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food on individual farms in developing countries, as low-intensive methods on the same land—according to new findings which refute the long-standing claim that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.
Researchers from the University of Michigan found that in developed countries, yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. In developing countries, food production could double or triple using organic methods, said Ivette Perfecto, professor at U-M’s School of Natural Resources and Environment …read more
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12
November
2007
by Matt Uchimaru
The word appeared no less than 3 times in the emails I received from the host prior to my arrival:
Inconvenient
Inconvenient, you say? That sounds perfect! After almost three months of a volunteer placement in Niseko that was so cushy at times that it had me feeling like I’d won an all expenses-paid snowboard vacation I was more than up for something a little more rustic. Something a little more in line with the reasons I became interested in the WWOOF program in the first place. Ecology. Organic agriculture. Acceptable lapses in personal hygiene. Read more… 
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4
September
2007
by Tim Marshall
Tim Marshall recently returned to the North, visiting organic and biodynamic growers in Australia’s north Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Not surprisingly, most successful commercial organic farmers in the north grow that magnificent tropical fruit, the mango, or bananas, or row crop vegetables and melons. The range of vegetables grown is quite broad and includes the familiar carrot, beans, squash, cucumber, tomatoes etc. Melons are very popular, mainly rockmelon and watermelon with some new asian melons also appearing. Some other tropical fruits are also grown and interest is developing in an organic sugar industry. Other organic crops, on a small scale, are tea, coffee, tea-tree and neem. There is a small stirring of interest in cocoa too, but I could locate no farms producing commercial quantities of organic cocoa. Read more…
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28
August
2007
by Anne Hardie
On one hand you have travellers keen to immerse themselves in our Kiwi culture and learn about organics. On the other hand are landowners in need of more hands to manage their properties organically. Anne Hardie finds out about `WWOOFers’.
HELPING HANDS: WWOOFers Signe Lorentsen, left, and Bo Frosig, right, from Denmark, prepare to spread peavine straw with their host, Karen Matthews.
If it wasn’t for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, Karen Matthews would have given up on her country lifestyle a long time ago and headed back to a more manageable section in town.
Instead, she has guests from all over the planet helping to manage her garden and lifestyle block organically in return for a place to stay on their overseas sojourn and meals that are bolstered by vegetables from the organic garden they help manage. Read more…
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