All things vanilla

A VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN VANILLA COMPANY

2009-02-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

You're planning a trip to Hawaii's Big Island and want to experience more than just the beaches, sun and surf. How about a visit to a working vanilla plantation where you can learn firsthand all that goes into growing this beloved fruit of the orchid family? Further, you can enjoy a delicious gourmet meal with vanilla as the key ingredient in each of the dishes made fresh in the Vanilla Mill Café at the Hawaiian Vanilla Company.

Located in Paauilo in the beautiful Hamakua region, for many years this area was known for sugar cane. The tsunami of 1946 wiped out the area's railroad lines and the sugar cane industry faded away. Hamakua is once again enjoying a renaissance with a new generation of farmers producing coffee, tea, vanilla, cacao, organic produce, sustainably raised meats and artisan cheeses.

The Hawaiian Vanilla Company (HVC) sits on the gently rising slope of Mauna Kea at about 1800 feet altitude. Looking past rolling green hills and pastures, you can see the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Driving time is a little more than two hours from Kona, and about an hour and a half from Hilo. It's well worth the time to explore this gorgeous rural area set away from the big resorts and tourist activities. It's here that you can experience the true soul of this working island.

DETAILS ON YOUR VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN VANILLA COMPANY

Vanilla Tasting: Tuesdays and Saturdays, 10am to 11am. Includes a sampling of foods from the Vanilla Kitchen as well as a vanilla presentation.

Vanilla Experience Luncheon: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
12:30 pm to 2:30 pm. Includes lunch, vanilla presentation and guided tour of the vanillary.

Up-Country Vanilla Tea: Monday and Friday, 3:00 pm. Signature Hawaiian Vanilla Company Vanilla Teas and a Tower of sweet and savory delights are served.

The Vanilla Cafe serves panini made with freshly baked focaccia, organic salads with vanilla dressing, vanilla desserts and vanilla ice cream with their signature homemade chocolate and caramel dessert toppings when scheduled culinary events are not underway.

The Hawaiian Vanilla Company offers additional weekly events. Check their site at www.Hawaiianvanilla.com for what's happening the week you plan your visit as well as for directions. They also have a gift shop featuring their own products, including vanilla extracts and beans, jams, butters, dessert toppings and bodycare items.

Owners and hosts Jim and Tracy Reddekopp are often at the Vanilla Mill and you can usually expect some of their five charming home-schooled children as your wait staff at the larger culinary events. Call for directions, current prices and any special events planned during the time of your visit or go to www.hawaiianvanilla.com.

HOURS: Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
PHONE: 808. 776.1771 (local) or 877.771.1771 (toll free).

Turkey Talk

2008-11-25T10:15:00.000-08:00

In the 1980s we lived beside a creek in rural Northern California. The property had been part of a Spanish land grant but was now small farms and open rolling hills. For my daughter's 13th birthday we planned an overnight with her friends. It was June and the weather was warm and sunny, so a delicious meal and a bonfire on the beach by the creek would be perfect. My mother bought us a turkey at the local supermarket in her town, about 35 miles from where we lived. We picked up the turkey and other supplies and started for home.

Almost immediately we smelled something awful wafting from the back of the car. The turkey was rotten! We went to the store and bought another turkey right away. But what to do with the ripe turkey?

My then-husband decided the turkey would make a great science experiment. He took it to a fallen log that crossed over the creek and hung it naked on a protruding branch. He was curious how long it would take for a raccoon, skunk, fox or bobcat to carry it off. With luck, a mountain lion might come by.

Instead, early the next morning our landlord and a surveyor passed the log with the turkey dangling from it. We chuckled, wondering what they made of it. However, they just waved as they passed our cabin and went on by.

About three days later our landlord's wife and I stopped to chat. At one point she said, "Oh, and I explained to Roger all about the turkey." Fascinated, I asked, "What exactly did you tell him?"

"Well, he came home and mentioned that he had seen a turkey down by the creek. I said, "Oh, the neighbors have all kinds of birds. It probably just got loose. He said, 'No, Jo, this turkey is dead, plucked and hanging from a log over the creek.'

"So I told him, ' Oh, Roger, you know Patricia's a gourmet cook. It must be a unique method for marinating the turkey. I'm sure it will be delicious!'"

Hmmmm, maybe, but not for us.

Back to the science experiment, we heard numerous loud fights down at the creek as the animals fought fiercely over the turkey, but they couldn't dislodge it from the log. It took a week for some critter to drag the now very strong smelling turkey from its perch and into the woods. Although we don't know which family had a true thanks giving meal for their hard work, it wasn't ours.

As for the birthday party? A great success.

SUNNY CALIFORNIA, THE GOLDEN STATE

2008-11-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

This week the weather in Santa Cruz has been too beautiful. Sunny and 85 degrees – unusually warm for our Coastal community. Forget the valleys; thanks to the offshore winds, it has been warmer here along the Coast. Visitors have swarmed to the beaches and everyone is turned out in shorts and tank tops to enjoy the balmy weather. So what's so wrong with this idyllic picture? It's mid November!

I grew up in Northern California. While it's not unheard of for us to have soft, warm days in November, we're talking 70 degrees warm, maybe even 75, followed by chilly nights and mornings. And this would be unusual as more typically the storms are rolling in at this time of year, at least that was true when I was a kid.

As a child I listened to my grandparents from Cleveland talk about winters in Pasadena. My grandfather was an estate manager for a very wealthy family who summered in Ohio and wintered in Pasadena. My grandfather sent home postcards from Pasadena to my father, postcards featuring beautiful groves of oranges and gorgeous winter scenery in sunny California, adorned with Poinsettias, a symbol of near-tropical California holidays. In fact, the Poinsettias were grown at the Paul Ecke ranch in Encinitas, south of Los Angeles and shipped all over the country. Gorgeous tropical flowers arriving in the frozen Midwest December made California even more exotic. Oh, and then there were the gift trays of dried fruits with celluloid picks to lift each piece from the basket. And boxes of dates from the desert. California was a veritable Eden.

In the 1920s my father and grandmother took the train across the country during the winter to visit my grandfather and revel in the crystalline clear days where Mount Baldy looked like a short walk away from the streets of Pasadena. My father said that Pasadena in those days was paradise.

It was a common perception at the time that it rarely rained and that California winters were in the 70s and 80s. While this was almost true in Southern California, it was true enough for winter-weary folks living in East Cleveland. After all, 65 degrees in February is very balmy if you're dealing with –10 degrees and Lake effect snow.

Sadly, in the last twenty years, the weather has changed dramatically. Rains rarely come to Southern California now, and when they do, they arrive as torrential downpours causing flooding and massive erosion. The Santa Ana winds still blast the Los Angeles basin in the autumn, with hot, dry, desert air under pressure that roars down canyons and triggers huge firestorms exacerbated by the drought. The pines are now riddled with boring beetles a side effect of the dry weather, making them weak and vulnerable. Fueled by fire igniting the equally dry chaparral, they explode like Roman candles.

And what about Northern California? It's warmer here too and the rains come later and end much earlier. Late November or early December isn't unusual for the first real rain and some years it's over as early as March. We have far less fog as well. Heavy and moisture-laden, it nurtured the redwoods through the long dry summer months. Now we have warm and fairly fogless summers. In June this year over 2000 fires burned after a dry lightning storm ignited our forests and meadows from far Northern through most of Central California. Since 1999 the average number of acres burned in California annually has been over 7,000,000! Some years more than 9,000,000 acres have burned.

I want to bask in the summery weather, to celebrate the sweet heat of the late Indian Summer, but I can't fully enjoy it as it makes me so deeply uneasy. No snow falling in the Sierra, our reservoirs running low. The trees are now stressed here in the northern part of the state, just as they have been for the last fifteen years throughout the entire Southwest. When commenting about the weather to friends, their responses are much like mine. Sure it's beautiful, but how can we fully enjoy it as old daily heat records are broken constantly, not just in November but in nearly every month? Whether manmade or natural, the weather is changing alarmingly fast.

Sunny California. When I was a child people in the Midwest were envious, assuming that Northern California was as warm and inviting all winter as the more famous Southern clime. Now they rarely comment about our sunny winters. Instead, it's about our fires and how could we live in a state that burns from June to December. A sad commentary for our once golden state.

Better Than A Lava Lamp

2008-11-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm old enough to remember when lava lamps first came out. I never owned one but I definitely found them a source of great entertainment, especially after a drink or two.

Now I can tell you that as cool as they are, they don't stand up to the real deal!

On the evening of October 24th I went to the village of Kalapana on the Big Island to the Kiluea lava flow. I wasn't sure I could actually watch the pyrotechnics as I'm extremely sensitive to sulphur dioxide. Didn't want an asthma attack to ruin an otherwise thrilling adventure.

"Not to worry," I was told. "The steam, sulphur, ash and other gases drift north to the Kona Coast." I certainly can attest to that as most of my stay in Kona was clouded by vog. Bouyed by this news, I was ready!

We arrived not long after dark. As the show runs 24/7, you can go at any time, but it's far more dramatic from sunset on. The park requires all visitors to have individual flashlights; headlamps are even better. After parking the car, we followed a path that leads over the lava to the prime viewing area. This means walking over pahoehoe lava, the smoothish kind, along with razor-sharp a'a' lava, jagged shards of broken lava. There is a designated path with yellow errors leading visitors to the prime display area. The walk requires a certain level of concentration as there are treacherous sinkholes and crevices everywhere, none of which would be fun to encounter head-over-heels.

After fifteen minues of thoughtful navigation, we arrived. My hosts threw down blankets and set up a tripod and camera. The photos in this blog are the work of my host, Conrad Mertel. You can also go online to http://www.letsgo-hawaii.com/volcano/lavaflow.html to see the most current map of the lava flow. As of this writing, the map is for October 24th, the night we were there.

Activity varies night-to-night. We drew a lucky card. People who went two days later saw hardly anything. In our case, we could see a thin flow of red magma moving down Kilauea from the Royal Gardens subdivision, which has been completely overtaken by the lava. The lava disappears into vents, reappears further down, then drops into a long vent before surfacing to pour over the cliffs into the sea.

My hosts took a boat trip recently that goes out before dawn and gets relatively close to the cliffs. This provides an unparalleled view of the display. However, it also means breathing a lot of gas and ash. According to them, the water reaches temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit. This night, the waves were breaking on the cliffs with a large spray upward, creating massive clouds of steam, ash and gas, which fortunately really does blow Northwest.

Periodically we could see rocks and boulders burst into the air at the edge of where the magma surfaces from the vent. I can't come up with a better word than spectacular to describe the beauty of the lava flow, the waves, and the billowing clouds.

There was a secondary show, one I hadn't considered until I looked up. Because there are no lights and because there's no point in having flashlights on once you're settled, there is no ambient light to interfere with the planetary exhibition, showing simultaneously in "Ampitheatre B." The sky was enormous that night, clear and bright, the kind of perfect you see at the planetarium except that this was the real deal. Shooting stars arced across the sky and the Milky Way stretched forever.

We sat quietly for nearly two hours, joined by a crowd of equally awed viewers. Better than television, and with no movie houses outside of Hilo, this is a prime source of entertainment for both tourists and locals.

Walking back over the desolate lava fields, a few ferns poked up through the cracks, the first plants to emerge post-eruption. Then I noticed something scurrying across the lava -- cockroaches! Of course! Cockroaches can survive just about anywhere, even at the ends of the earth.

Tropical Fruits -- You Betcha!

2008-10-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

This visit on beautiful Hawaii, I’ve been treated to some fruits I’ve never tried as well as others I’ve enjoyed once again. I love fruit, not only because of the sweetness, but also the explosion of juice, the mouth-feel, the textures, the sheer lusciousness they offer.

Some of the fruits I’ve eaten this trip I first had in China, but didn’t have recognizable names for them. Fruits such as longdon, a small round fruit in an unassuming thin khaki shell. Similar to the lychee, it is a delicate, translucent fruit with a single brown seed in the center. Just a taste, but sweet and refreshing.

Dragon fruit with its exotic fuchsia skin with scales and beet-red flesh was served to me the first time in China. It is currently in season in Hawaii. I wasn’t really taken by it in China so I haven’t had it here, but I was curious about its origins. It’s from a cactus, which makes perfect sense as I realize now that it tastes similar to tunas, the little fruits that grow on the flat paddles of Mexican and Central American cactus. Now that I understand it, I like it better.

Another is Lilikoi, a variety of passion fruit that is more citrusy than its sensual purple cousin. Lilikoi chiffon pie is an Island favorite, as well as lilikoi salad dressing, lilikoi curd to spread on toast or poundcake, or lilikoi cream pie. Too tart for my palate by itself, but delicious as an ingredient.

Cape Gooseberry is a little round fruit that looks almost like a cherry tomato. It comes encased in a parchment-like covering that is shaped like a small paper lantern. Sweet and flavorful.

Jaboticaba, an astonishing purple, grape-like fruit that comes originally from the Minas Gerais region of Brazil. It grows directly on the trunk and branches of the tree and is made into jellies, wine and juice.

I spent an afternoon in Kona with a 90 year old farmer, Sunao Kadooka, who grows exotic flowers and fruits. He had trees laden with what Island people call “butter avocadoes” growing so large and fat that one he gave me weighed at least three pounds! And how do the locals eat them? Sprinkled with sugar and scooped out with a spoon!

Miracle Fruit is a small berry that isn’t particularly interesting on its own, but is a show stopper in its ability to make sour taste sweet. For instance, if you suck a lime briefly and follow it with the Miracle Fruit, you get an immediate sensation of sweetness in your mouth.

I have to admit that I still don’t “get” star fruit (carambola). I’ve had them several times and the only way I think it works is in salads and even then my reaction is, “Why bother?”

But serve me all the many varieties of pineapples, bananas, mangoes and papayas, each with its own unique flavor and texture as I love them all! However, today as a judge for a culinary contest, I learned that mangoes don’t work in pies or upside down cakes. The texture is all wrong. What is pure passion as a raw fruit becomes mushy and slimy when baked in a crust or on top of a cake.

I didn’t know that apples could grow in the tropics, but they do in Hawaii, at 5000 feet, with their roots entrenched in the rich volcanic soil. They’re small but have a snap. I remember how much I missed apples when I lived in Guatemala many years ago despite the bounty of new fruits around me. Having been raised on apples, they were strongly imprinted in my mind. Now I’ve learned to enjoy whatever grows right where I am.

For instance, cherimoya, most divine and creamy smooth. If you’ve never had one, seek it out. In Latin America they’re made into ice cream.

And guanabana, not a fruit I’ve had here in Hawaii, but one I discovered in Southern Mexico. They’re too delicate to travel. I just looked it up and learned that it is also called soursop, which is ironic, as a woman in Papua New Guinea recently recommended soursop as the plant has very strong anti-cancer properties.

It’s a member of the anona family, closely related to cherimoya, with white flesh and brown seeds. I first fell in love with this fruit on a steamy-hot afternoon. The fruit had been mashed in the bottom of a large, wide glass with a bit of sugar, then water and ice filled the glass and the drink was served with both a straw and a spoon. It was incredibly refreshing. They’re also made into “paletas,” molded and frozen on a flat stick like a popsicle and so, so good!

Star fruit, originally from the Americas, was served to me in Tahiti. It’s a round purple fruit that, when cut in half, has a star shape on the deep red flesh.

One last treat here are the late melons. Cantaloupes and Honey-dews. Sugar-sweet watermelons, stretching the last days of summer into late October. And after we finished eating our fill and spilling juice down our shirts, the chickens fought for the rinds, wildly pecking the pieces until the last flecks of green skin disappeared.

Breast Cancer Month - Less Pink More Research

2008-10-12T14:26:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how many retailers are drawing attention to Breast Cancer this month? How terrific, we say. Look how much they're promoting awareness and helping to find a cure. And how nice that we should have a month dedicated just to breast cancer! After all, more than 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

But behind the banners and promotions, the pink ribbons, t-shirts, jewelry, bags, M&Ms and everything else pink, pink, pink, there is the insidious little issue of how much of the pink promotion actually goes to research. As it turns out, not a whole lot. So before rushing out and wildly buying precious pink items, find out exactly how much money will actually go to research and how much goes back into the pockets of the producer.

What we really need to be asking is why, after more than ten years of pink promotion, we still don't have solid answers about what causes most breast cancers and how to prevent them. And why, with all the research being done, are women still dying of this disease? Is research actually addressing these issues? If not, where is our money going?

When I was first diagnosed five years ago, I admit that I actually believed that very few women died of breast cancer. When I was told to put my affairs in order, I was stunned, not just from the diagnosis, but from the reality that actually a lot of women do die from breast cancer. Between 40,000 and 60,000 women will die this year!

While yes, many of us live with metastatic (advanced) breast cancer as a chronic illness, what this really means is invasive, toxic, painful and exhausting treatment will keep us alive. Most of my friends who have had metastatic cancer didn't die from the cancer itself but from the side effects of the drugs. Frequently our hearts finally give out or pneumonia overtakes us.

In an election year, it's crucially important that we look at what the candidates are saying about health care and medical research for all forms of cancer. When asked what their thoughts are on health care and research, Barack Obama said,

"I think it should be a right for every American. … for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that."

McCain said:

"I think it’s a responsibility, in this respect, in that we should have available and affordable health care to every American citizen, to every family member. … But government mandates I — I’m always a little nervous about. But it is certainly my responsibility."

This is what the Breast Cancer Coalition says:

Health care is a basic human right.

Health care is fundamental to maintaining a productive society.

Health care coverage must be guaranteed for everyone.

The health care system must provide the same comprehensive benefits to everyone and must meet the public’s expectations.

The health care system must be redesigned so that treatment and coverage decisions are based on evidence and best practices.

All individuals must financially contribute to the system, based on ability to pay.
The new health care system must be easy to use for patients and providers, and easy to administer.

Any system of coverage must include these core values:

Access. Individuals must be able to get all the care they need when they need it. This must include meaningful access to evidence-based interventions.

Information. Individuals must receive information that is evidence-based, objective, complete and correct.

Choice. Individuals must have some choice of doctors and care.

Respect. Our health care system must treat the whole person, not just a person’s disease.

Accountability. Standards regarding care must be clear, uniform, and enforceable. Patients must have a right to sue if their basic human right to health care is violated.

Improvement. The health care system must have methods for measuring what is and is not working so that the quality of care can continuously be improved. Individuals must have access to well designed and efficiently run clinical trials, and must have coverage of all routine care costs associated with participation in such trials.

When I was in eighth grade our teacher told us that one in four people would get cancer at some time in their lives. Current statistics show that one in two men will be diagnosed cancer at some point in their lives; for women, it is one in three. In many developing countries nearly everyone will develop some form of cancer within their lifetime.

Given these statistics it's important to do some research. We are all exposed to chemicals and other environmental pollutants. Many of us have been exposed to too much radiation and other cancer-causing factors. Given this is the world we now live in, learn what you can do to prevent getting cancer. Being informed and aware is powerful.

Speak up! Demand that our leaders provide effective health care for everyone. strong>Seven out of ten families whose homes went into foreclosure were not living irresponsibly -- they were sick! Trust me, this can happen to any of us!

Get involved! For more information from an intelligent, activist site, I highly recommend www.breastcancercaucus.org, not just for breast cancer, but for all cancers.

Pink is lovely but we need less pink and more results! Keep our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends and wives healthy!

A SENSATIONAL FUNDRAISING SOIREE

2008-10-04T15:54:00.001-07:00

Attending a fundraiser thrown for you is kind of like having a milestone birthday celebration -- like your 21st, 40th, 50th or 90th -- and your wake rolled into one. Except you get to be alive to enjoy the party! You're not only the guest of honor but also the center of a lot of attention, Everyone lies and says you look absolutely fabulous until you actually believe it, and they're so nice to you that you don't dare let them down and get sick again or drop dead. I'm still marvelling at how blessed and fortunate I am to have so many dear friends worldwide who care about me!

Lucky for the guests I wore one of my "Queen's Suits" so I couldn't whip up my handmade Totonac dress to show off my somewhat scary, very impressive scar to anyone who hadn't yet seen it. I admit it -- I'm really proud of my scar. I'm disappointed to say that even though it's been only 4-1/2 months, it's already starting to fade. How could it? It's better than a tattoo; it's my badge of courage!

Okay, so for all of you who weren't able to attend, here's what it was like. First, it was held at the Seymour Center at Long's Marine Lab, part of the University of California, Santa Cruz marine biology facility, on a bluff overlooking the Monterey Bay. There's a patio off the room, which draws visitors outside easily, and walking trails along the bluffs. There is also a huge whale skeleton and a large sculpture of an elephant seal in front of the building that are perfect for climbing if you're my nearly five-year-old grandson. (Otherwise, you're just impressed by how big whale skeletons are.)

The room was decorated in tropical motifs with wall hangings and tables draped with colorful cloths and flowers. There were 19 student volunteers from the Professional Culinary Institute in Chef's Whites serving and assisting guests. And, there were 16food stations. Eat your heart out! This is what was served:

Gabriella Café: Green Zebra Bacon Gazpacho with Watermelon Radish Cucumber Shooters; Grilled Laughing Shrimp With Vanilla Chili Oil.

Café Sparrow: Diver Scallops with orange Vanilla sauce over Spinach Salad; Profiteroles with Vanilla Cream and Chocolate Sauce.

Ristorante Avanti: Vanilla Panna Cotta.

Theo's: Homemade Spatzele with Lobster pieces and Vanilla aioli.

Vida: Fresh Dungenous Crab Salad With Vanilla Aioli on Crostini.

PCI: Vanilla-Scented Lentil Soup; Crostini with Onion Jam.

Cowboy Diner: Asian Noodle Salad.

Lifestyle Culinary Arts and Cafe: Pistachio Vanilla Cheese Spread with Baguette; Pears with Gorgonzola Cheese and Vanilla Balsamic Reduction.

Carried Away: Vanilla Marinated Pork Loin Crostini with Onion Jam; Fennel salad.

India Joze: Seared Tuna in an Asian Vanilla Sauce, with Greens, Served over Fried Wonton skins. (Joe had a barbecue on the patio so everything was freshly prepared.

Flipper Fanny Cookies: Signature Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and brownie cookies.

Dolce Bella: Artisan chocolates filled with Bourbon, Mexican and Tahitian Vanilla Ganache.

Chocolate Visions: Vanilla Dream Medallions: Dark chocolate enrobed vanilla marshmallow, toasted coconut, and crushed toasted pecans. My picture and "Patricia Rain, Vanilla Queen" design on top in edible gold leaf.

Café La Vie: Raw Chocolate Cream Pie.

Homestyle Baking Table: Beautiful cakes, tartes, tortes and bars baked by members of the Baker's Dozen.

The wine and beverage table was outside on the patio. A silent auction with 67 very cool items was set up in one area of the room.

A movie screen showed pictures of vanilla, growers and much more in a continuous loop.

The Hula School of Santa Cruz performed for us. And a jazz combo played the rest of the time.

Can you even imagine it? It was like being at one of those high-end hotel resort receptions you read about, except that it was right in Santa Cruz and it was in my honor!

Some of the guests said it was the best party they'd ever been to. The students asked Chef Stephany that if she ever threw another event like this, could they volunteer again. It was truly a gala celebration.

Special thanks to Stephany Buswell, pastry instructor at Professional Culinary Institute, Kathy Long, my web designer, Anna Marie, fundraiser specialist, Andrea Waters of Lifestyle Culinary Arts and Cafe and fundraiser specialist, and Leolani Lawrey and Garrick Gondo for making it possible to have the Hula School of Santa Cruz. And for Noel and other members of the jazz combo (whose name I unfortunately don't remember other than that they were great)! And to Prince and Barbara LaShaw for flowers.

Also thank you to all of the restaurants, bakers and chocolatiers who went all out to make this event a success, to Knipprath Cellars, Pelican Ranch Winery, Storrs Winery, and Bargetto Winery for wines. If I've left anyone out, I apologize. It was such a whirlwind that I barely tasted the food, much less know where all the wines came from.

The fundraiser has definitely helped me with bills incurred during my cancer dance. More than that, it has made me feel so loved, supported and connected with all of you who have written notes, sent donations, or helped me along this quite remarkable journey. I thank you so sincerely for your support.

TALKING ABOUT FOOD

2008-08-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't think about food at least three times a day? I admit it -- I not only think about it nearly constantly, I even dream about it. I think it's in my DNA as food was always on my family's mind and we talked about it constantly. What should we make for dinner? Who's bringing potato salad to the picnic? Can we eat at the Fish Shack soon? Let's make cookies. You get the drift.

As soon as I could stand on a stool and stir something I begged to cook and bake. So it's no surprise that for me, writing about food is like riding a bicycle; even my adolescent journals are filled with anecdotes about food.

As much as I love planning and preparing great meals, these days my concerns are more about what we eat and how our food is produced. As a child growing up in the
40s and 50s, we learned all about "modern" food production and how we could grow bigger, better and larger crops. Better for farmers, better for us! And wow! The convenience of canned foods and frozen TV dinners!

As kids, our biggest worry was being served too much especially of something we hated. Ever wonder why Popeye loved canned spinach? Madison Avenue advertising companies knew they'd need a cartoon character to force us to scarf down a wretched tasting, grey-green mess.

And how about,"Starving children in India (or Africa or China)would be grateful for this food, so eat your vegetables!" After one such lecture, a friend's brother actually packed up his vegetables and gave it to his mother to mail to India. Bet the kids in India would have loved a package of moldy canned peas and 'Tater Tots!

Well folks, here we are in the Twenty-First century and boy have things changed! Processed food tastes better, we've got fast food on nearly every corner and there's a never-ending abundance of food in all the stores. Of course, this come with a price. Obesity, increased health issues, food so processed that there is no nutrition in it. How could something so good go so bad in such a short time?

Food has always been enormously political and unfortunately that isn't going to change anytime soon. What's important is that we be as aware as possible about the politics of what we eat and make informed and ethical choices, whether it's about today's dinner or speaking up when we see inequities, be it poor farming practices or the manipulation of the food supply by mega-corporations.

Agri-business has a death grip on how our food is produced. While humans have been genetically modifying food since the agricultural revolution, until now we've done it in a way that improved the product without causing potential harm to those who eat it or plant it. Not now. Monsanto, giant of the agri-corps created grains for export to countries like India. In traditional farming, a percentage of the crop is saved for seed production the following year. But this wouldn't be good for Monsanto's bottom line so they engineered the plants so the seeds would be sterile. Imagine the surprise of the Indian farmers when the seeds didn't germinate the following year! And imagine how that affected the children.

Monsanto also introduced the genetically engineered, recumbant Bovine Growth Hormone rBGH, used to induce more milk from cows. Unfortunately, rBGH is a dangerous drug that poses unacceptable dangers to humans from increased antibiotic residues and elevated levels of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1. Organic Consumer Association's (OCA)"Millions Against Monsanto" campaign generated over a quarter million emails and petition signatures on the topic of rBGH, making rBGH one of the most controversial food products in the world.

After 14 years of controversy, August 6th Monsanto announced that they will sell off or "divest" rBGH and take it off the market. The OCA is now working to break Monsanto's stranglehold over seeds and take away their mandate to force-feed genetically engineered food to an unwilling or unaware public. You can help to push through federal legislation to require mandatory labeling and safety-testing of GMOs (genetically modified organisms.) Learn more about the Millions Against Monsanto campaign:
I admit that I'm obsessively curious, which translates to way too much research. And, hey, it's so easy with the Internet! When I find something I find interesting, I invariably print it out and force it on my kids and friends. Sometimes they're taken in and sometimes I either get a "why?" or that ever-familiar rolled-eyes look for doing something too dumb for words. Since you can't roll your eyes, but only make comments to my blog, I'm going to give you some more links to some --and short entries on other -- articles about food that I think are worth reading. We'll start with Michael Pollan.

Michael Pollan is an award winning writer and author whose articles can be found in the New York Times and The New Yorker. This particular article, "Why Bother?" is from a New York Times issue devoted to green issues. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

MSNBC has an article, "Eating Only What Grows Around You: Extreme Locavorism." While I will freely admit that I'm not an extreme locavore,
I love farmers markets and buying fresh local produce. It's as much a social event as it is a way to shop. I also happen to be blessed by living in a food paradise as we have farmers markets all year around, live on the Monterey Bay where fish is abundant, and cheese is made locally as well. However, that isn't a year-around option for lots of people. Practicality and good nutrition are valid considerations; we do the best we can.

We also have to take into consideration the tropical growers who produce coffee, chocolate and vanilla, bananas, sugar and other important commodities. If we completely stop buying these products, how will they survive? In this case, wise purchasing is what matters. No matter what your position, this article is thought provoking. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24994028/

What many of us don't know is how far our food travels before we get it. This quote from the From the Union of Concerned Scientists: is telling:

"Grocery chains are increasingly buying foods from around the world in an effort to cater to consumer tastes and to take advantage of cheap labor in other countries. But shipping Norway cod to China for processing and back to Norway for sale has a hefty cost, not just in fuel but in the global warming pollution generated by these long trips. The European Union is at the forefront of a movement that aims to make shippers and shoppers pay for this pollution through taxes or new emissions trading rules. Measuring total emissions is a complex business because miles traveled, form of transport, and time in storage all contribute to food's carbon footprint."

Concerned about Childhood Obesity? Whether or not we have children, it's important to be concerned about the issues of obesity related diabetes and heart problems in children. Poor health at any age puts a huge burden on our medical system. These children are also our potential future leaders, the very same children who will be affected by, and responsible for, the choices we make for our planet. What drives children to want junk food? Well, in part it's advertising that they see every day on TV. Read on:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25289

Finally, I found this quote by Dr. Shiva very to-the-point regarding today's blog topic. Dr. Vandana Shiva is a scientist, world-renowned author, and grassroots leader in India.

"Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production. It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient."

In closing, I want to say that it's not necessary to be obsessed or fanatical about every bite we take, but it is important to be conscious and aware. Small changes on a regular basis become big changes over time. Enjoy your food but be conscious about its health and its footprint on the planet. And to add a light-hearted but thought-provoking end, I introduce to you my daughter's funny and enlivening blog. One entry that speaks about our enormous abundance of food and the waste that occurs daily is as follows: http://zipntizzy.blogspot.com/2008/07/dumpster-days.html Dumpster Days

MY SO-CALLED DREAM GARDEN

2008-08-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

Twelve years ago I bought a home. This was monumental; I'd dreamed of owning a home since I was a child. Even better than the house, there was a large yard that was effectively a blank slate waiting for an artist's muse. A large rectangle of lawn covered most of the yard with shrubs and a few rose bushes around the perimeter.

Lawn wasn't on my agenda. It's not only a water hog that needs feeding, mowing and edging, I'm deathly allergic to it. Sitting on grass gives me red welts; mowing it triggers asthma. The lawn had to go.

Over the next two years I created a haven for birds and butterflies. The lawn was replaced with a variety of groundcovers such as wooly and creeping thyme, Scottish moss and miniature succulents. Mounds of dirt bordered with decorative rock were filled with flowers and dwarf lemon and lime trees. Raised beds held strawberries and kitchen herbs. The final touches included a semi-dwarf Blenheim apricot, Arctic Rose nectarine and Santa Rosa plum in the backyard and Red Gravenstein and Sierra Beauty apple trees in the front. The classic suburban look was gone, replaced by a county garden.

A few years later, out of room in my own garden, I added a yellow nectarine on the vacant county land nearby. If I lived a little farther inland from the Coast, I would have added a couple of cherry trees. I was living my childhood dream of a home of my own with beds of flowers and fruit trees galore. I only wished for another acre to add more trees and a large vegetable garden. It was paradise right here in Santa Cruz – my dream garden.

Well, sort of. My garden, in technical parlance, is a "studied wild garden." This means that it looks kind of like a woodland park with flowers interspersed, beautiful flagstone walking paths meandering throughout. Or, maybe I should say, it kind of looks this way. (I'll explain in a moment.) Visitors exclaim about its beauty, especially as just beyond my back fence is a 100-acre urban wildlife park owned by the State, creating a pastoral backdrop. It's peaceful here most of the time. Quiet except for the squawking of jays and crows, the flutter of doves in flight, Hairy woodpeckers drilling the pine snags and Red Shouldered hawks calling for a mate. Birds and butterflies fill the garden year-round as we're on a flyway. All part of the fantasy I had envisioned.

The ideal scenario would be no fence at all. However, Southern Pacific has a railroad spur between my fence and the park. The train comes through four mornings a week, bringing coal and sand to the Davenport Cement Plant. It returns four afternoons a week with cement and sometimes wood from Big Creek Lumber. This is a romantic vision, one I enjoy very much as I grew up with trains in my hometown and it adds to the country garden atmosphere.

As always, however, there are problems, even in paradise. In this case, seven days and nights a week, people walk along the railway. Grafitti artists see endless opportunities for marking their territories. It's a straight shot for homeless encampments and a convenient place to sell drugs. Yes, there are folks walking dogs or just meandering, but there are also occasional angry drunks and shouting middle school boys throwing rocks, testing out their lawless fantasies. So the fence has remained, along with a barrier of blackberry brambles instead of barbed wire.

The first couple of years I had a sprinkling of delicious fruit, which I begrudgingly shared with the raccoons. I proudly talked to the trees, encouraging them to mature and produce enough fruit for eating and jam and pie making. Yes, I spent time pruning and weeding, but it was a labor of love. I put in a drip system and felt pleased with my environmentally correct fantasy-come-true.

Then I launched The Vanilla.COMpany and was soon working 60 to 80 hours a week. Days, nights and weekends. I wanted time off to walk and relax which didn't necessarily equate to pruning, weeding and watering.

I had naively assumed that perfect lawns with flowers bordering the edges and boxy hedges required more time than mine to remain perfectly manicured. Neither the look nor the effort suited me. Studied wild was my dream: just let it do its own thing. How wrong was that! I have since learned why people put in dry rock stream beds, wood chips and gravel paths.

My lovely dwarf fruit trees continued to grow and soon were the size of standard trees, their branches intertangling and breaking. The beautiful ground covers aggressively battled each other in a Darwinian tango. The weaker ones succumbed; the others crept over the decorative rocks and flagstones, obliterating the walkways. Beautiful clumps of scabiosa, with bright pink flowers in the Spring, which had blended with the blue flowers on the isotoma, grew together in the front yard, overwhelming the isotoma and flowing over the curb and into the street. Neighbors were fascinated and suggested we leave it to see if would cross the street completely. Easy for them to say; they weren't paying the water bill. And you can imagine how attractive the ground cover would look covered with tire treads and skid marks. Even the roses, the salvias, the coreopsis and the penstomon grew to mammoth proportions. I'm not sure why this happened. There was little time to cut back the dead flowers, they rarely were fed on schedule and yet, the entire garden rapidly outgrew my carefully installed drip system.

And then the gophers arrived. They ate the vegetables I'd interspersed with flowers and some of the best lily bulbs. They turned the entire garden into a miniature golf course. I even caught them walking along the raised beds above ground – right in front of my eyes! But this didn't slow down the growth of the rest of the garden and my attempts to fill their holes with mothballs and flooding did little to deter their own ideas of landscaping. And it didn't stop the trees from producing evermore abundant crops. Even the raccoons couldn't keep up with the fruit!

I looked forward to winters when I could stop dragging hoses with sprinkler heads around the garden and hacking away at the blackberries' relentless march over, under and around the fence and into the yard. Have you ever noticed how non-kink hoses do anyway? Or how those cute little twirling sprinklers break apart after four months? And how about the plant food getting wet and clumping in wads and then the boxes fall apart? Martha Stewart rarely talks about the downside of bountiful gardens. And why should she? With an army of assistants I wouldn't complain either!

In the winter we're told that serious gardeners pore through catalogs, looking for new hybrids, heirloom raspberries, sweeter squash and corn. Not me After three years of my garden any winter aspirations had vanished. I enjoy every minute of doing nothing for the garden. I can visit friends, go to movies, read a good novel. Then Spring arrives and amnesia hits. I've forgotten again how I had no life beyond my business and the garden from May until September. I'm thrilled with each beautiful bud, the aroma of lemon blossoms, the iris blooms. Oh, and the fruit trees' promise! Then reality hits and I wonder yet again why I hang onto studied wild when a desert cactus garden would save water, energy and…my sanity! Some Saguaros, Bishop's Hats and aloe, an expanse of white gravel and a few ceramic statues for effect.

But on warm summer afternoons I watch the hummingbirds drinking from the salvias, the Monarch, Painted Lady and Swallowtail butterflies dipping and fluttering, the hawks swooping down and calling, and I remember why I have worked so hard and diligently. It's one small spot that helps to erase some of my carbon footprint and provides a source of comfort for the creatures who come to visit. And after all, it's so hardy now, I only water once a week.

UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

2007-10-15T09:53:00.001-07:00

Each time I receive FEED, I'm astonished by how much of our food supply is manipulated and how little we know of this. As a result, I'm now posting the newsletter from the Union of Concerned Scientists so that those of you who are also concerned can be more informed about what actually is going on. PR

FEED – Food & Environment Electronic Digest - October 2007

Contents

USDA fails to solve mystery of contaminated rice
Certified organic farmland in U.S. is growing
Genetically engineered crop pesticide hurts aquatic insects
Aurora Organic Dairy flouted organic rules
A new, drug-resistant strain of E. coli in Britain

1. USDA fails to solve mystery of contaminated rice
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) still doesn't know how rice destined for human consumption was contaminated by an unapproved genetically engineered variety in 2006. (See FEED stories from last September and last December.) The USDA blamed missing records for its failure to find answers after an investigation that consumed 14 months and 8,500 staff hours and included 45 site visits in six states. The agency has also said it will take no enforcement action against Bayer CropScience, the company that developed the experimental rice. The contamination has taken a tremendous economic toll on U.S. rice growers and exporters. Because the USDA does no routine testing and does not require companies to keep records, more such incidents are expected. Read an article in The Washington Post, or read the USDA’s press release.

2. Certified organic farmland in U.S. is growing
The United States now has more than four million acres of organic farmland, including some in every state, according to USDA data. Read more . . .

3. Genetically engineered crop pesticide hurts aquatic insects
Genetically engineered crops that produce Bt pesticide may significantly impact ecologically important aquatic insects. Scientists discovered that the insects, caddisfly larvae, were feeding on Bt corn pollen that washed into streams from nearby fields. The team then fed Bt corn pollen and leaves to two species of caddisfly larvae in the lab, and found that it reduced the growth rate of one species by more than half and killed another species. The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates Bt crops, has never required testing for harm to aquatic insects. Because caddisfly larvae are an important food source for fish and other organisms, this previously unknown impact of Bt corn may be a serious problem. Read the abstract in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

4. Aurora Organic Dairy flouted organic rules
A USDA investigation found that the country's largest organic dairy, Aurora Organic Dairy, was violating the federal rules of organic production. Read more . . .

5. A new, drug-resistant strain of E. coli in Britain
In England and Wales, around 30,000 people a year are infected with a new strain of E. coli bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics. The new strain, an extended-spectrum B-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strain that causes urinary tract infections and can also lead to blood poisoning, is also starting to show up in U.S. hospitals. According to one expert, it is more dangerous than methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Doctors have few drugs available to treat such infections. The problem of antibiotic resistance is growing worldwide, in part due to agricultural practices that feed antibiotics to animals that are not sick. Read more from The Daily Telegraph.

FARM SUBSIDY BILL DECONSTRUCTED

2007-07-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

The concept of farm subsidies has been a source of discussion for years. Designed originally to assist farmers to survive weather-related losses and the very real challenge of continuing to work in an agrarian commutity as the country increasingly became urban and suburban, as big corporations came in and turned small farms into large agri-business, farm subsidies came under fire. Among other things, farmers have been paid not to produce crops. Additionally, with the Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, subsidized corn has been sold to Mexico, undercutting small Mexican farmers and causing them to go bankrupt.

On the other side of the equation, food stamps and donated commodities for those in need are largely funded through the subsidized farm programs. These programs have helped individuals and families in need to feed their families.

So why do we need a new farm subsidy program, and do farmers continue to need subsidies? Here is an article from McClatchy that talks a bit about the new bill.

Fruits and vegetables reap rewards in House-approved farm bill
By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON | The House on Friday approved a farm bill that devotes record funds to fruits and vegetables while imposing subsidy changes denounced by critics as inadequate.

The House approved the bill by a 231-191 margin. Many Republicans actually support the underlying legislation but voted “no” because they opposed the last-minute addition of a tax provision. All of the Missouri and Kansas representatives voted for it.

The politics, prospects and policies of the measure are complex. Questions may outnumber answers.

Q. Should I care about this if I’m not a farmer?

A. Absolutely. For instance, the bill increases benefits for the Food Stamp program that serves 25 million U.S. residents, and it expands to all 50 states an after-school snack program.

Other impacts of federal policy on food price and availability grow are complicated. For instance, the bill pleases sugar producers by guaranteeing minimum prices. Consumers, though, pay more at the grocery because of this sugar policy, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has concluded.

Q. Who are the big winners?

A. Specialty crops, certainly. This means fruits, vegetables, wine — everything not covered by traditional crop subsidies. The bill counts $1.7 billion over five years for specialty crops. This is about quadruple the amount authorized in 2002. It would pay for research, school lunch purchases, promotion campaigns and more. It is also a long-term victory for industry groups like the Western Growers Association because this gets specialty crops into future farm bills as well.

Q. How about commodities such as cotton, rice and wheat?

A. Winners, all. The House bill largely retains the crop subsidy program written in 2002. Farmers will be able to collect several kinds of subsidies, which in 2005 totaled about $19 billion nationwide.

Q. Is Congress done?

A. Hardly. The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee must now write its own version of the bill. In theory, the Senate must finish in September so the House and Senate can reconcile their competing bills before the current farm bill expires on Sept. 30.

Q. Is President Bush happy with the bill?

A. Not yet. While saying that the White House “appreciates the progress” made so far, the Office of Management and budget warns that the current version would be vetoed. For instance, the Bush administration wants to ban subsidies to farmers with gross annual incomes greater than $200,000. The House bill sets the income limit for subsidy recipients at $1 million.

FARMERS MARKETS AND HEALTHIER FOODS IN SCHOOLS

2007-07-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

The unprecedented rise in childhood obesity and Diabetes 2 due to poor food choices and a more sedentary life from that of our predecessors, a scary proposition for all of us. Despite the convenience of fast food venues and quick meals from the local supermarket, the cost is ultimately higher than that of healthier choices due to downtime from illness and the cost of doctor's visits and medicine.

Fortunately, we have so many healthy choices easily available in the marketplace. As "Granola Eating" has gone mainstream, we can even get fresh and frozen healthy entrees in the market and we can go to the farmers market for the best possible produce and more.

Not only do local farmers markets save non-renewable resources, we have an automatic opportunity to be outside and socialize with farmers and customers alike at the markets. And it's a great way for kids to learn about good food options in a friendly environment. And, guess what? At the farmers markets there is no canned music!

UC researcher: farmers markets benefit local economies

Steve Smit of Mt. Moriah Farms in Lodi sells his organic fruit at the Davis Farmers Market.
Farmers, communities and individual residents are the three beneficiaries of local farmers markets, according to a University of California food systems analyst who reviewed studies of the markets and their growth.

"There was a huge rise in farmers markets in the last 40 years and I wanted to find out why," said Gail Feenstra, with the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP). In 1970 there were only 340 farmers markets in the United States; by 2006, there were more than 4,385 farmers markets, an increase of approximately 1,190 percent. California makes up more than 11 percent or almost 500 markets, half of which are open year-round, she said.

"Farmers benefit from the ability to sell smaller and variable quantities, and learn the skills they need to increase their business," she said. Her article "The Roles of Farmers Markets in Fueling Local Economies" in the newly released Food for Thought issue of the journal Gastronomic Sciences, reported that direct marketing venues such as farmers markets helped farmers sell their products in local communities for higher prices than they could get from wholesalers. Annie and Jeff Main, two of the founding farmers of the Davis Farmers Market, who Feenstra interviewed, noted how essential the market was to them.

"When they started their organic farm in 1975, they found that wholesale markets were virtually inaccessible to small farmers," said Feenstra. "The Davis Farmers Market offered them a consistent marketplace where they could sell their organic produce at retail prices. Unlike other marketing outlets, the farmers market tolerated fluctuations in quantity and varieties throughout the season, and became a place where they could learn the skills they needed."

Feenstra said the total gross receipts farmers receive at farmers markets, although modest by comparison to supermarkets, are still significant. Her 1999 study of California farmers markets estimated total annual sales at approximately $140 million. She noted that the Davis Farmers Market averaged $2 million in annual sales in 2006 for its year-round weekly market (eight hours of sales per week).

Communities that support local agricultural production systems and food marketing as part of a diversified economic development plan have greater control over their destinies, Feenstra said. An important way that communities support and benefit from farmers markets is through social interaction.

"The social benefit that farmers markets bring to communities can't be overestimated," she said. In her interviews with market patrons, she found farmers markets to be a major source of interaction, both between farmers and their customers, and among the market visitors. Feenstra cited research that shows farmers markets not only encourage economic transactions on their premises, but also bring customers into town where they make purchases at other businesses.

Individuals said they benefit from patronizing farmers markets by their ability to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat, and value-added items including baked goods, olive oil, jam and salad dressing. Customers Feenstra interviewed expressed positive feelings about buying food they believe to be clean and safe from farmers they know.

Low-income and elderly community residents receive particular benefits from farmers markets, Feenstra said, where they are more likely to find healthful, affordable, nutritious food or ethnically appropriate foods than at retail food outlets. Many markets accept food stamps or vouchers from the Farmers Market Nutrition Program or the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program. Feenstra noted that farmers markets have become the foundation of local food systems for low-income clientele and some ethnic groups in many regions of California.

"At this point in history when we see cracks in the health of our environment, economic and social systems and declining natural resources, concerns about the future of long-term energy, and rising obesity rates, creating and sustaining local food economies with farmers markets as an important component, may be both an admirable goal and a necessity," Feenstra said. "The markets are important exchange networks that offer farmers, consumers and communities opportunities to participate in and strengthen the local food economies in unique places."

The journal article is available in Italian and English at http://www.unisgjournal.it/.

Feenstra has written extensively on farm-to-school programs and farmers markets throughout the United States. Her article on farmers markets in Gastronomic Sciences is available online at http://www.unisgjournal.it/index_eng.htm.

Her research on farm-to-school salad bars is available as a free download at http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cdpp/farmtoschool/index.htm. Her work on regional marketing is also available at http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/cdpp/foodsystems/MarketingReportFinal_5_10.pdf. SAREP is affiliated with the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute.

FDA COMMISSIONER TESTIMONY ON TAINTED FOOD

2007-07-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service Food and Drug Administration Rockville MD 20857

STATEMENT OF

ANDREW C. von ESCHENBACH, M.D.
COMMISSONER OF FOOD AND DRUGS

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 17, 2007

FOR RELEASE ONLY UPON DELIVERY

INTRODUCTION
Good morning, Chairman Stupak and Members of the Subcommittee. I am Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). I am pleased to be joined here today by my Agency colleagues Dr. Robert Brackett, Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Ms. Margaret Glavin, Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, and Mr. Stephen Mason, Acting Assistant Commissioner for Legislation. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss FDA’s food safety activities and the transformation initiative underway in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), which will enhance FDA’s ability to prevent and respond to food safety problems.

In my testimony today, I will describe FDA’s role in food safety and some of the efforts we have underway to help prevent future outbreaks. I will also describe how ORA’s proposed transformation will support and enhance our food safety programs.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the relevant food safety agencies are collaborating on ways to most effectively address issues raised in the General Accountability Office’s (GAO) designation of Federal Oversight of Food Safety as a high-risk item in February 2007.

FDA is committed to ensuring that America’s food supply continues to be among the safest in the world. In recent years, we have done a great deal to protect the food supply from both unintentional and deliberate contamination. We have made significant progress, but the 2006 and 2007 outbreaks of foodborne illness in humans due to contaminated fresh produce and peanut butter and the illnesses in pets due to contaminated animal food, as well as the problem of potentially harmful drug residues in farm-raised Chinese seafood, underscore the need to develop new multidisciplinary and integrated food safety strategies at FDA. These new strategies are necessary to meet the challenges created by changes in the global food supply; changes in farming, manufacturing, and processing practices; and changes in consumer demographics and needs.

Because I am committed to ensuring that the U.S. food supply remains safe and secure, I recently created the new position of Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection. I have appointed Dr. David Acheson to that position. Dr. Acheson’s first priority is to develop a new strategy for food safety and food defense that will address changes in the global food safety and defense system, identify our most critical needs, and serve as a framework to help us address the challenges we face. Our goal is to augment our current comprehensive and robust food protection program in a way that is tailored to meet the risks posed by the types of foods we regulate. I expect the plan to focus on efforts by industry to prevent food problems, and FDA interventions that provide the tools and science necessary not only to head off outbreaks of foodborne illness but address intentional contamination as well, and also to ensure compliance with preventive controls that are designed to stop problems before they arise. The result should be a stronger preventive national food protection infrastructure capable of rapid response when contaminated food or feed is detected, or when there is harm to human or animal health.
Although the outbreaks since last summer presented challenges to FDA, they also demonstrated FDA’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to protect consumers.

Upon becoming aware of a foodborne illness outbreak associated with FDA-regulated products, FDA’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) coordinates the Agency response, providing a central point in the Agency for managing the early phases of an emergency so that crucial information can be shared and acted upon immediately by appropriate FDA offices. This enables FDA to initiate investigations quickly; often the same day as developing information is obtained. The EOC coordination also enables FDA to base public health messages on real-time up-to-date information. It provides technical experts within FDA with access to both investigational and analytical data to facilitate their ongoing evaluations with the goal of making appropriate recommendations to prevent further illness and adverse impact to human and animal health. EOC staff are available on an around-the-clock basis. As appropriate, FDA works closely with our sister public health agency in HHS—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the states, and other agencies, in any emergency response.

During last fall’s foodborne illness outbreak of Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 associated with fresh spinach, FDA investigators were in spinach processing facilities in California the day after CDC notified us of the outbreak. Similarly, when CDC informed FDA of a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella tennessee apparently associated with Peter Pan peanut butter, FDA sent investigators into the ConAgra peanut butter plant the next day. The Agency warned consumers the day after CDC notified us of these outbreaks. When Menu Foods, a pet food manufacturer, notified FDA that it was conducting a recall of certain pet food due to illnesses and deaths of cats and dogs, FDA initiated an inspection of the Menu Foods manufacturing facility the next day and notified consumers within 48 hours.

Although FDA has demonstrated its ability to respond quickly to protect public health, the outbreaks have shown that a great deal more needs to be done to enhance prevention of problems at the source.

FDA’S ROLE IN FOOD SAFETY
FDA’s mission is to promote and protect the public health. Ensuring that FDA-regulated products are safe and secure is a vital part of that mission. FDA is the Federal agency that regulates everything we eat except for meat, poultry, and processed egg products, which are regulated by our partners at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Although FDA has the lead responsibility within HHS for ensuring the safety of food products, CDC has an important complementary and non-regulatory public health role. CDC is the lead Federal agency for conducting disease surveillance and outbreak investigations and routinely monitors the occurrence of specific illnesses in the U.S. attributable to contaminated foods within the food supply. The disease surveillance systems coordinated by CDC, in collaboration with states, provide an essential early-information network to detect and minimize the impact of foodborne illness outbreaks.
In addition to working closely with CDC, FDA has many other food safety partners – Federal, state, and local agencies; international food safety partners; consumers, academia; and industry.

FOOD SAFETY FROM FARM TO FORK
To reduce the risk of foodborne illness at all points in the food chain, FDA has adopted a “farm-to-fork” approach to food safety. This approach systematically applies risk management principles at each step as food moves from growers and producers to consumers.
FDA has focused its food safety efforts in three key areas:

• strengthening the scientific basis for FDA’s food safety program with a focus on prevention;

• enhancing effective partnerships, both domestic and international; and

• improving risk-based targeting of inspection resources.

I will elaborate on these below.
Strengthening the Scientific Base for FDA’s Program to Improve Food Safety
Improving the effectiveness of FDA’s food safety program requires strengthening the science base that supports FDA’s food protection work. FDA’s food safety science program involves a number of intramural and extramural efforts, which can play a major role in reducing levels of foodborne illness. For example, FDA has conducted research focused on: (1) identifying mechanisms of contamination of fresh produce with pathogens and preventing contamination; (2) identifying effective interventions to address contamination that has occurred; and (3) developing fast and sensitive analytical methods for the detection of pathogens on fresh produce. The results of FDA’s research help the Agency develop, implement, and evaluate policies designed to improve food safety. They also help maintain FDA’s awareness of emerging issues and enable the Agency to respond rapidly to emergencies.

Extramural collaborations allow FDA to make its resources go further and use those resources more efficiently to address food-related safety concerns, and to prepare for new and emerging issues. For example, for the past decade, FDA has worked closely with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) to coordinate and mutually support our respective science efforts related to produce safety. This relationship allows FDA to augment its resources and scientific laboratory expertise. During the outbreak of illness associated with spinach last fall, we were able to capitalize on that ongoing relationship by collaborating with ARS and CSREES to analyze water samples from the Salinas watershed for E. coli O157:H7 and to relate the location of bacteria to geographical, seasonal, or rainfall variation. An extension of this research will look for sources of E. coli O157:H7 in California’s Salinas Valley. As part of our plan to be more proactive about food safety, we will use information obtained from this study to inform produce growers about strategies to prevent pre-harvest microbial contamination.

We strengthen the scientific base for our program through collaborations and also by participating in many scientific and technical meetings on food safety. In February, for example, we participated in a forum sponsored by the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security to share information on assessing industry approaches to address the safety of lettuce and leafy greens on the farm and at packing, cooling, and processing facilities. Also in February, the FDA-affiliated Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the University of Florida sponsored a workshop to improve understanding of how tomatoes become contaminated with Salmonella and other pathogens. And on May 30 and 31, FDA, the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, and the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety co-sponsored a workshop on microbial testing to reach a consensus on the role of microbial testing to ensure the safety of produce.

In response to the recent outbreaks associated with fresh produce, FDA held two public hearings on March 20 and April 13 of this year. The purpose of these hearings was for FDA to share information about the recent outbreaks of foodborne illness related to fresh produce and to solicit comments, data, and additional scientific information on this issue. We are soliciting input from all our stakeholders on ways to improve the safety of fresh produce and the Agency is currently evaluating the comments we received in response to these hearings.

Enhancing Effective Partnerships
To succeed in our science-based efforts to promote food safety, we need to enhance our collaborations with stakeholders interested in food safety. For example, fresh produce is produced on tens of thousands of farms, and contamination at one step in the growing and processing chain can be amplified at the next step. One of the key elements of FDA’s 2004 Produce Safety Action Plan calls for efforts to improve communication and collaboration with all our food safety stakeholders. FDA has worked with the public and private sector to encourage industry to follow the recommendations and standards contained in FDA guidance documents. After enlisting the help of the scientific community and the industry, FDA published the “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.” This guide, published in 1998, recommends good agricultural practices and good manufacturing practices which growers, packers, and shippers can take to address common risk factors in their operations. FDA and USDA issued the guidance in several languages and have conducted significant outreach, both domestically and internationally, to encourage its implementation. In addition, FDA has assisted industry in developing a number of commodity-specific food safety guidelines for the commodities most often associated with foodborne illness outbreaks. These include guidelines for lettuce and leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes. Industry is currently working on similar guidance for herbs and green onions, for which FDA is providing technical input.

The following example of fresh alfalfa sprouts illustrates how successful these efforts can be. In 1999, there were 390 reported illnesses associated with eating contaminated fresh sprouts. FDA published two guidance documents for sprouts that year. In 2004, only 33 illnesses were reported associated with fresh sprouts and, in 2005 and 2006, there were none. We believe that the subsequent decline in sprout-associated illnesses was in large part due to the industry’s adherence to the recommendations FDA provided in those guidance documents through our outreach, inspection, and sampling efforts. In addition, maintaining this low incidence requires FDA’s continued outreach and industry vigilance. Although no set of actions can be expected to prevent all outbreaks, we believe that adherence to this guidance will likewise reduce the risk of future outbreaks.

FDA’s efforts in this area are ongoing. In March, FDA issued a draft final version of its “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Fruits and Vegetables” (the Fresh-cut Guide). This guidance is intended for all fresh-cut produce firms, including, among others, those that process fresh-cut spinach and lettuce/leafy greens, to enhance the safety of fresh-cut produce by minimizing the microbial food safety hazards. In addition, because food safety is truly an international public health issue, the FDA-led Delegation of the United States to the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene spear-headed the request from the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the international food safety standards body) to the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) for an expert consultation on the microbiological safety of fresh produce to support the development of commodity-specific annexes to the hygienic code. FAO/WHO just announced that this consultation will occur during 2007 and early 2008.

In August 2006, FDA launched its “Lettuce and Leafy Greens Initiative,” which assesses practices and conditions at select farms and facilities in California, in collaboration with California’s Department of Health Services and its Department of Food and Agriculture. FDA launched a similar Tomato Safety Initiative in Virginia and Florida on June 12 of this year. We will continue to work with Federal, state, local and international food safety partners and with industry to develop guidance, conduct research, develop educational outreach materials, and initiate other commodity- or region-specific programs to enhance the safety of fresh produce.

In response to the contamination of pet food and animal feed, FDA has worked closely with a broad partnership that includes scientists in government, industry, and academia and with 50 state departments of agriculture, health authorities, veterinarians, and the Association of American Feed Control Officials. We are utilizing data from Banfield Pet Hospital (a nationwide network of veterinary hospitals), the Veterinary Information Network, Poison Control Centers, universities, and other organizations to assess the extent of the outbreak of cat and dog illnesses and deaths.

FDA scientists recently worked with the Food Safety and Inspection Service of USDA, CDC, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a risk assessment to evaluate the risk to human health from consuming pork, chicken, fish, and eggs from animals inadvertently fed animal feed containing pet food that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds. The assessment found that this consumption is very unlikely to pose a human health risk.

The risk assessment is an important new science-based component of the continuing federal joint investigation into imported wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate from China that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds. On June 14 the Science Board, which is an FDA Advisory Committee, met to review and discuss the risk assessment and its subsequent peer-review. The Board concurred with the findings in the report, including the low probability of risk to humans, analysis of risk to the food supply and methods used in the assessments. The Science Board also made recommendations for additional research for future assessments.

In addition, the FDA/USDA Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) has continued to grow and enhance the nation’s food testing capacity. FERN is a network of Federal, state, and local laboratories capable of testing food samples for microbiological, chemical, and radiological threat agents. This partnership provides essential analytical expertise and surge capacity during emergencies. The FERN network proved to be a critical asset in the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with fresh spinach. FERN analysts worked closely with CDC’s Laboratory Response Network personnel to harmonize and approve a modified FERN method for detecting E. coli O157:H7 in spinach. This method allowed for substantially improved testing of spinach samples as it allowed for the detection of E. coli O157:H7 at lower levels.

FDA is also a significant participant in international food safety standards organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius, assisting in the development of international standards that reflect the level of food safety protection equivalent to domestic standards. These international standards are vital to the safety of foods imported into the U.S. FDA also provides foreign countries with training in all aspects of food production, technology, transportation and consumer advice.

Recently, concerns have been elevated about the quality and safety of products imported from China. HHS and FDA are currently planning negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with relevant regulators in China to address food and feed safety as well as a separate MoU on medical product safety.

Office of Regulatory Affairs’s (ORA’s) Transformation: Improving Risk-Based Targeting of Inspection Resources
ORA is the lead organization within FDA responsible for enforcing FDA’s public health laws and regulations. ORA supports FDA’s public health mission by maximizing compliance of FDA-regulated products and minimizing risks associated with those products. ORA’s activities include conducting inspections, collecting and analyzing samples, initiating investigations, overseeing recalls, taking enforcement actions, and monitoring the entry of regulated products at our nation’s borders.
Today ORA faces significant challenges in carrying out its public health mission. In the 21st Century, we are confronted with increasingly complex products manufactured through highly technical processes and requiring stringent controls. These products are no longer produced exclusively in America; there is an increasing volume of products from overseas, often from countries with emerging regulatory systems. New food pathogens and counterterrorism responsibilities place an additional burden on our traditional regulatory process. And the challenges arising from these changes promise to become even more complex and difficult to address.

ORA’s field organizational structure and the methods and tools it employs date back 40 years – to a time that pre-dates the tissue transplant industry, pre-dates computerized implantable medical devices such as defibrillators, and pre-dates the year-round availability of fresh produce and other products from all over the world. ORA is at an historic crossroads – with unprecedented challenges and opportunities before it. The volume and complexity of our work has never been greater. In order to continue to meet today’s challenges successfully and to respond swiftly and effectively to new threats and public health emergencies, we must adapt and become a more dynamic, flexible, and responsive organization. This means transforming ORA, adapting and improving its tools, methods and technologies to meet the expanding and ever-changing aspects of its mission to protect the health of the American people.

Enhancing risk-based approaches, as a systematic means of prioritizing our work to maximize public health impact, is a key element to meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow. ORA, together with CFSAN, have made great strides in focusing our food safety work where it has the greatest impact on protecting the public. But there continue to be significant opportunities to enhance our risk-based approaches. We must develop more flexible, mobile and adaptable approaches to getting the job done, including approaches that improve our efforts to target high risk products to protect the American public, and approaches that leverage our resources through enhanced collaboration with domestic and foreign regulatory counterparts. New tools must include the use of risk management analyses to refine and focus inspection strategies; increasing data mining for more effective monitoring of imports; increasing the number of foreign establishment inspections; updating the capabilities and efficiency of our regulatory laboratories; and expanding partnerships with states and other regulatory bodies to augment existing inspection capabilities.

Our transformation proposal calls for streamlining management in the field. Doing this will reduce management and overhead costs, while allowing us to support the same, or even greater, number of inspections and to invest in assuring that our employees have the skills, tools and training they need to do their jobs. Our proposal will significantly enhance our capability to assess and rank risks in order to improve the targeting of our inspection, enforcement, and analytical resources. The need to increase the use of risk-based approaches is especially acute for imports. And because responding to public health emergencies will continue to be a priority for ORA, our plan will enhance our capacity to work with state and Federal partners to better manage and coordinate FDA’s emergency response activities. Our plan will multiply the impact of all of our resources by enhancing partnerships with our regulatory counterparts and stakeholders, both domestically and abroad. In 2003, FDA worked with state counterparts to create the California Food Emergency Response Team (CALFERT), which includes inspectors and analysts from ORA’s San Francisco and Los Angles District Offices and the California Department of Health Services’ Food and Drug Branch. Because this model was so successful during the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with fresh spinach, we are pursuing ways to expand this concept.

ORA’s transformation proposal, if implemented, will improve our analytical capacity and capability by creating from our existing thirteen field laboratories a strengthened, enhanced network of six centrally managed state-of-the-art regulatory laboratories. Because the Committee has expressed particular interest in the laboratory consolidation, I would like to provide some additional information about this component of our transformation.

As I have already stated, ORA must have well-equipped and well-maintained state-of-the-art regulatory laboratories that can quickly and effectively analyze a high volume of regulatory samples and that can adapt swiftly to emerging threats and challenges. With rapid package delivery services widely available, these laboratories do not need to be near every sample collection site. Indeed, given that we collect samples in literally thousands of locations, it is not possible to have a laboratory in close proximity to every collection site. FDA’s mobile labs have been an extremely valuable resource to this Agency, and have proven their effectiveness in responding to emergencies. They complement FDA’s traditional laboratories and provide flexibility for emergency response.

The six enhanced laboratories are dispersed geographically throughout the country. They have sufficient space to accommodate all of our analysts and equipment, including those from the seven labs from which people, work, and equipment will be transferred. Currently, FDA pays costs associated with approximately forty percent more laboratory space than is needed to conduct all of the laboratory work performed in support of all of FDA’s field programs and activities. In some cases, the existing laboratories are housed in older buildings that require higher-than-average maintenance and repair costs. Reducing the number of laboratories for which FDA pays utilities, maintenance, and security costs will enable us to invest in up-to-date equipment and the maintenance of that equipment; high efficiency sample throughput technologies to increase analytical speed and capacity; development of new methods to detect emerging threats; better training for our laboratory analysts; and the development of rapid screening methodologies for use at ports of entry and elsewhere. Consolidating our work into six laboratories whose capacity will meet and even exceed the capacity of FDA’s 13 existing field laboratories will strengthen and increase ORA’s analytical capabilities to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

FDA values its dedicated workforce, and every analyst from a closing laboratory will be offered a job in the laboratory to which his or her work is transferred. Although we realize that some employees will choose not to relocate, there may be opportunities for them to compete for positions in the same or nearby locations, in other high priority and currently under-resourced program areas such as inspections and import review work. The laboratory consolidation will be implemented over a two-year period, and we are now developing detailed implementation plans designed to limit any adverse impact on our analytical work. These plans will allow us to adjust for changes in workflow and laboratory efficiency as the process moves forward so that we will be able to meet our obligations and continue laboratory operations in a seamless manner.

CONCLUSION
FDA is working hard to ensure the safety and security of food, in collaboration with our Federal, state, local, and international food safety partners, and with consumers, industry, and academia. As a result of this effective collaboration, the American food supply continues to be among the safest in the world. Although we have made progress, much remains to be done. The recent incidents of contaminated food and animal feed demonstrate the challenges we face and the need to move toward a food safety and security system that is even more proactive and strategic, with a field force that is trained and equipped to focus on the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Mr. Chairman, as a firm believer in continuous improvement, I can assure you that FDA will be up to the challenge. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss FDA’s food safety activities and the ORA Transformation Initiative today. My colleagues and I would be happy to answer any questions.

Plantation workers look for justice in the North

2007-05-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Just out today, I've posted this article, although I have not yet gotten legal permission to print it. I feel these stories are critical in their graphic telling of what happens to the farmers who grow products for industrialized countries. While this is about bananas, it happens with many different products all through the tropics. We have fruits and vegetables in abundance while the growers use chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides, which may or may not have been banned in the US or Europe. Many farm workers are illiterate and are poisoned or have long-term effects of using products without proper ventilation or protection.

Is it any wonder that people migrate to industrialized countries with the hope of finding better paying work that may also be safer?

A TIMES INVESTIGATION

After years of toil in Central American fields where they say pesticide use made them sterile, they're suing Dow, Dole and other firms in L.A.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By T. Christian Miller
Times Staff Writer

May 27, 2007
Chinandega, Nicaragua

THE people crammed into the stifling basketball gym. They filled the court, lined the walls and tumbled beyond the doors onto the sun-blistered streets. They had gathered to hear a promise of justice.

Many had spent their lives toiling on banana plantations that U.S.
companies operated in this region some 30 years ago. By day, the workers
had harvested bunches of fruit to ship to North American tables. At
night, some had sprayed pesticide into the warm, humid air to protect
the trees from insects and rot.

As the decades passed, the workers came to believe that the pesticide,
called DBCP, had cost them their health. Prodded by U.S. lawyers,
thousands joined lawsuits in the U.S. and Nicaragua alleging that the
pesticide made them sterile.

The U.S. firms that sold and used the pesticide have never faced a U.S.
jury trial over its use abroad. Last month, a Los Angeles attorney named
Juan J. Dominguez stood before a sea of nearly 800 dark, hard faces and
predicted that the day of reckoning was at hand.

"We are fighting multinational corporations. They are giants. And they
are going to fall!" Dominguez thundered. The crowd exploded. They leapt to their feet, waved their hats, shook fists in the air. "Viva! Viva!" they chanted.

The scene last month foreshadowed a legal drama set to play out in a Los
Angeles courtroom this summer, when a lawsuit filed by Dominguez and his
partners could end a struggle that has sprawled across three decades and
courtrooms on four continents.

For the first time, a U.S. jury will have the chance to weigh the
accusation that Dole Food Co. knowingly used a pesticide manufactured by
Dow Chemical Co. that sterilized workers in Latin America three decades ago.

The complexity, history and geographic spread of the case demonstrate
how legal systems have failed to keep pace with the rapid movement of
goods across international borders. Jurisdictional and procedural issues
have repeatedly impeded attempts to sue U.S. companies in the United
States for alleged wrongdoing in other countries.

"The question is where do we litigate these issues," said Alejandro
Garro, a Columbia University law professor and expert in international
law. "The answer is that we don't have a global law. We are building it
on a case-by-case basis."

Dole, the Westlake Village-based food giant, and Dow, of Midland, Mich.,
deny the allegations. Both companies acknowledge that the pesticide DBCP
has been linked to sterility in men exposed to it while manufacturing it
in factories. And both companies acknowledge that the product was used
in Nicaragua's banana fields.

But the companies contend that there is no proof that DBCP
(dibromochloropropane) sterilized any field worker. The quantities of
DBCP used were too small, and the open-air conditions too diffuse, to
cause harm, the companies say.

"Dow views most of today's claims relative to the product as without
merit," said Dow spokesman William Ghant. Dow acknowledged that the
possibility of harm existed but said the product was safe as long as
instructions were followed.

Dole said it applied DBCP in Nicaragua 13 times in the 1970s, with each
spraying lasting about two weeks. The pesticide was an effective killer
of tiny worms that caused the roots of banana plants to rot.

"There is no reliable scientific evidence at all that points to this
pesticide causing any injury to field workers in the open air
environment," said Michael Carter, Dole's general counsel. "There is no
science to support that. None."

Earlier this month, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria
Chaney made a ruling that broadened the potential reach of the case.
Chaney linked Dominguez's case with four other pending lawsuits in Los
Angeles involving sterility claims on behalf of more than 3,000 former
banana workers from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama. In
addition to Dow and Dole, Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc., Chiquita Brands
Inc. and Shell Oil Co. are named as defendants in those cases.

Cincinnati-based Chiquita declined comment on the lawsuit but said it
used the chemical briefly in the 1970s in Panama and Costa Rica. Shell
said it sold no DBCP in Central America after 1974 and that "few, if
any" banana workers were harmed by its product. Del Monte said it used
the pesticide briefly in Costa Rica and Guatemala and declined further comment.
In the middle of the dispute are this region's people. The case has
spread its own kind of toxin, infecting every facet of life in this
fertile bottomland wedged between volcanoes and the ocean on Nicaragua's
Pacific Coast.

After 30 years of being told they have been poisoned, locals tend to
blame the region's many health and environmental woes on DBCP.
They call themselves the afectados � the affected ones.

13 men, 1 lawsuit

Jose Adolfo Tellez never wanted to be a legal pioneer. With dark hair and a broad, round face, Tellez lives in a two-room cinder-block house in Chichigalpa, a town in the heart of Nicaragua's banana zone.

Early each morning he rides his battered black mountain bike seven
blocks along rutted streets to the central market, a chaotic warren of
shops where beef hangs in strips and baskets of papaya are lighted by
shafts of sunlight.

Tellez haggles over prices before the day's damp heat descends. Heading
home, he spends a cordoba � about 5 cents � for a brick-sized block of
ice to chill his meat and vegetables.

His main job is tending to his mother, 80, who shuffles across the
home's concrete floors with a donated walker. There is no one else to do
the job. Tellez, 58, has no children, no wife, to help him. He blames DBCP.

Tellez is the lead plaintiff in Tellez vs. Dole, scheduled for trial
July 2. He joins a dozen other named plaintiffs, all of whom have had
tests administered by their lawyers showing that their semen does not
contain sperm.

Tellez believes that he became sterile after going to work outside the
small town of Posoltega, 15 miles southeast of here, where Dole began
operations in Nicaragua in the late 1960s.

On the plantation, where long, green alleys of banana trees stretched
across more than 1,400 acres, he harvested bananas, cut weeds from the
plants, trimmed leaves and hauled irrigation tubes.

Tellez said he was never given protective gear while working in the
fields. Nor, he said, did anyone tell him that DBCP could cause sterility. "They told us to go to work, and we would go to work," Tellez said.

Tellez married, but he and his wife were unable to have children. She
eventually left him to live with another man, Tellez said, and soon had
a child.

Tellez had thought his wife had the problem. But tests showed he was sterile.
In the macho culture of rural Nicaragua, children are a measure of
wealth and power. Tellez had neither. He was labeled a buey, slang for
a castrated bull. "It demoralized me," he said. "I felt like a useless man."

Sterility and pesticide

Epidemiological studies have confirmed that DBCP causes sterility in
human males, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry.

Evidence of other human health effects is less clear. However, lab
animals exposed to DBCP have developed stomach and lung cancers and
kidney and brain damage, according to the agency.

DBCP's toxicity first made news in 1977, when about three dozen factory
workers at an Occidental Petroleum Corp. subsidiary in Lathrop, Calif.,
where pesticides were mixed, reported problems having children. Tests
showed the factory workers had zero or below-normal sperm counts.

Within months, the EPA had suspended most uses of DBCP. Government
hearings revealed that Dow and Shell Chemical Co., then a subsidiary of
Shell Oil Co., the primary makers of DBCP, had long known about its
dangers. Tests dating to the 1950s showed the chemical atrophied lab
animals' testes.

Workers began filing lawsuits. In 1983, Duane Miller, a young Sacramento
attorney, won a $4.9-million judgment against Dow on behalf of six
Occidental workers. Two years later, the EPA permanently banned the use
of DBCP in the United States.

It was the first skirmish in a legal war that soon spanned the globe.
U.S. law firms began suing in U.S. courts on behalf of workers in other
countries � more than 50,000 plantation workers over 30 years in
countries including the Philippines, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ivory
Coast. The defendants have been the manufacturers of DBCP � Dow and
Shell � and the fruit companies that used it: Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita.
Nearly every case ran into the legal doctrine forum non conveniens,
which says lawsuits should be heard in the countries where the damage
occurred. Lawyers for the companies convinced judges to transfer the
cases to the countries of origin.

In practice, that stalled the lawsuits for years. Complex trials bogged
down in ill-equipped Third World courts. Plaintiffs' law firms lacked
money to pursue cases in foreign countries.

The companies settled some cases without admitting culpability. In 1992,
several firms reached a settlement in which $20 million was paid to
1,000 Costa Ricans. In 1997, Dow and other companies paid $41.5 million
to 26,000 workers worldwide. The money was divided among thousands of plaintiffs. After attorneys'fees, some workers received no more than a few hundred dollars.

By the late 1990s, banana workers and attorneys were frustrated by their
inability to get a case before a U.S. jury, with the potential for
higher awards and, more important for some, a finding of wrongdoing by
the companies.

New rules in court

Then Nicaragua changed the rules. In 2000, its legislators passed a
special law to facilitate DBCP lawsuits.The law stacked the deck in favor of the workers: DBCP was automatically considered the cause of sterility in any banana worker. Companies had to deposit $100,000 with Nicaraguan courts simply for the opportunity to defend themselves.

In December 2002, a Nicaraguan judge awarded nearly $490 million to
about 450 workers. Other big judgments followed. Dow and Dole have so
far blocked attempts to enforce the Nicaraguan judgments in U.S. courts.
The new law made Nicaragua hostile territory for Dow, Dole and other
defendants. That created an opportunity for new lawsuits in the United
States, which Dole and Dow no longer opposed.

Dominguez, perhaps best known for his ubiquitous personal-injury ads on
Los Angeles buses, seized the opportunity. He partnered with Sacramento
attorney Miller, who had filed the first DBCP lawsuits in the U.S.
nearly 30 years earlier, and they filed suit in Los Angeles in 2004.

To build the case, Dominguez opened an office here, in the center of
Nicaragua's banana belt. He connected with local union bosses, ran
advertisements on the radio, even sponsored a local baseball team.

Thousands came forward to provide sperm samples in a back room set up in
Dominguez's office, a yellow and brown one-story building near the main
square here. The samples were analyzed by a laboratory paid for by the
attorneys.

Dominguez and Miller filed legal briefs citing old corporate documents
which, they said, showed that Dole officials were aware of the dangers.
In a 1978 memo, a top Dole official warned that implementing all the
procedures in a guide for safe use of DBCP was "well nigh impossible."

"Did they warn you about this? No," Dominguez told another crowd at a
recent rally. "Did they put you in danger? Yes."

Although only 13 plaintiffs have been named in the U.S. suit, a victory
could result in settlements for the thousands of other former banana
workers who can show sterility problems. An original defendant in the
Tellez case, Amvac Chemical Corp. of Newport Beach, settled for $300,000
last month.

Dominguez has registered about 12,000 clients in Nicaragua alone.
Worldwide, the number of possible clients is estimated to be hundreds of thousands.
Dole and Dow have long experience with such lawsuits. In some instances,
the companies have been able to show that supposedly infertile men
fathered children. The companies have also discovered plaintiffs who did
not work on farms that used DBCP.

Dole has settled some cases directly with workers. It recently announced
a program in Honduras to pay up to $5,800 to banana workers who agreed
to drop their claims against the company. The company is seeking a
similar accord in Nicaragua. Such settlements, Dole said, were not
admissions of wrongdoing.

"We don't want to spend our lives forever dealing with this, so the
company has adopted an approach to find a reasonable resolution to these
pending claims," said Carter, Dole's general counsel.

History of contamination

It is not easy to show that DBCP caused a worker's sterility or health
problems, especially in a poor country like Nicaragua.

The region around Chinandega has long been dominated by agriculture,
producing cotton, sugar cane and other crops. For decades, growers �
from both the United States and Nicaragua � sprayed DDT, DBCP and other
highly toxic pesticides, many linked to developmental or health problems.

Seven studies conducted from 1995 to 2002 found contamination in
community wells. Locals routinely drink water tainted with pesticides,
said Valeria Delgado, an investigator at Nicaragua's Center for the
Investigation of Water. None of the studies tested specifically for DBCP.

Studies have also found that water supplies are laced with fecal matter
and other pollutants. Medical care is scarce. Diet is subsistence level.
Many of the men drink heavily.

Medical officials acknowledge that they have no proof, just strong
suspicions, that the town's ills are linked to pesticides.

"If you work in this environment and you wind up sick, I can presume
it's an effect of chemical intoxication," said Yolanda Garcia, a
toxicologist at the local clinic. "I can presume, but I can't prove."

Death of a mother

All across Nicaragua's banana region, in churches and classrooms, at
funerals and bars, DBCP is blamed for every illness.

One hot day last August, Leticia Vidabre, 63, lay dying on a mattress on
the concrete patio behind her house. A neighbor waved a folded piece of paper to keep off the flies. Acrid smoke wafted from a nearby cooking fire. Next door, salsa music blared.

Slipping in and out of consciousness, Vidabre struggled to tell her
story. She worked in the packing section at one of Dole's plantations,
she said, putting bananas into boxes for shipping to the United States.
She said she believed that washing the bananas and drinking water on the
plantations had exposed her to DBCP. After 16 years of working on a
plantation called San Pablo, Vidabre began to feel sick. Her back hurt.
Headaches were constant. She quit and became a housewife.

"When I started work at San Pablo, I was healthy. When I left, I was in
a bad way," she said.

Last year, a doctor told her that her kidneys were not functioning well. A large woman with heavy lips and eyes, Vidabre began spending her days in bed. "Those bananas weren't for us," she said. "But so many of us have died."

A month later, on Sept. 6, Vidabre died. She was buried in the town
cemetery, just down the road from the old banana plantation.
Her relatives blamed the pesticide. But nobody really knew.

The Struggle of Tropical Commodities Producers

2007-05-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend Linda Alepin, co-founder of the Global Women's Leadership Network, asked me to answer several questions with regard to the work I do. She is putting together a proposal for a PBS Special on Breaking the Chains of Poverty. Her intention is to feature Lydia Bakaki, a Ugandan attorney who raised the money for 30 destitute women with children to have their own acre of land. She is now working toward getting housing on the land for the women; Alma Cota de Yanez, who runs an NGO in Nogales and has made it possible for small business owners and NGOs in Northern Mexico to get the supplies and support they need; and me. Although I wrote way more than she needed, I did it as an exercise to get in touch again with what my intentions are in the work I do and where I am with this. As people often ask me what I do, I decided to post what I have written in my blog.

THE STRUGGLE OF TROPICAL COMMODITIES PRODUCERS

What is My Passion?
Most of my childhood and into my late teens I had chronic respiratory problems and was often quite ill with bronchial infections. As a result, one of my great passions was reading. I especially enjoyed biographies and was deeply moved by the stories and work of Albert Schweitzer, Pearl Buck, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt and other people who dedicated their lives to assisting others in need. I knew this was my life path from an early age, but didn't know how it would manifest.

In college I took a class in culture and personality and was hooked. I both majored and minored in anthropology. This training allowed for me to approach all aspects of my life with the curiosity of how our cultures affect our choices and how we live. I am intrigued by the potential we humans have for creating good. I am struck by how most people are inherently good and saddened by how circumstances can corrupt that goodness.

Through the circuitous path that most of us travel through life, I finally found my unique path as the voice for tropical commodities producers. The majority of men, women and children who live in developing countries and struggle to survive as farmers have been marginalized because of their race, tribal heritage, religious beliefs and lack of education. They have been subjugated through colonialism. They have lived under the tyranny of dictatorships. They have been uprooted through war and political unrest. The women and their children have faced gender inequality leading to physical and emotional abuse and extreme poverty.

Although I am not a farmer, I am passionate about working in the soil and I'm passionate about farming. I am passionate about the nourishing, nurturing and healing properties of food and the culture of food. I am passionately involved as a deep ecologist in the Third Revolution, also known as The Great Turning. The life as the planet as we know it depends on the success of this revolution. It is up to us for it to succeed.

I am passionate about writing, about using the written and spoken work to communicate, to educate, to motivate and to inspire people to move into possibility, to engage people to be passionate about affecting positive change. As a mother, a grandmother, a humanist and as a leader, I feel passionately about the need for everyone to be engaged in whatever capacity they are capable of to work toward the survival of Mother Earth and its inhabitants. The time is now.

The Status Quo of Tropical Farmers
Food and water are fundamental to our survival. Unfortunately, the cultivation, sale and distribution of food is more often than not politicized. This impacts everyone from farmer to consumer. While farmers everywhere are faced with issues outside of their control, and farming is not an easy way to make a living, the struggles of the tropical commodity producers are unprecedented. They have historically been the most exploited, the least represented and the most vulnerable of all farmers worldwide. Working in isolation, often uneducated, frequently speaking only their tribal languages and not the primary language of their country, they are caught in the crossfire of the industrialized countries who covet their crops and the corruption and political instability of their own countries.

In the United States, farmers have access to a number of resources to assist in their survival. Congress has established rules and regulations that mandate food boards, such as the Egg Board, Artichoke Board, Turkey Board, etc. or associations such as the Cattleman's Association. These boards and associations promote American grown or raised foods. Farmers pay a percentage of money based on the volume their farms produce in exchange for the promotion of their products. While not perfect, the boards and associations assist the farmers by educating the public on their crop or product's nutritional value, providing preparation tips and recipes and encouraging purchases. They also provide lobbies to fight for better legislation for farmers.

Additionally, the government often subsidizes subsistence crops such as wheat, corn and soy. Farmers (usually family corporations or corporate farms run by families) are paid to produce an overabundance of crops that are earmarked for foreign aid or to be sold in other countries; conversely, farmers may be paid not to produce a crop in order to drive up the price. This is true as well for non-food agricultural commodities such as cotton and flax. While food boards and subsidies are created for the well being of the farmers, in reality, they usually benefit the large corporate farms far more than the small family farms. Fortunately, in the last ten years, we have seen a resurgence of the small family farm though their survival can be tenuous at best.

Foods that we cannot grow in the United States but that we depend upon – coffee, vanilla, chocolate, bananas, coconuts, palm oil etc. – are imported from developing countries closer to the Equator where the weather supports these crops and labor is cheap. Although these "luxury" foods are in great demand, the farmers who grow them rarely have assistance from their governments and are in no way supported by our government. Instead, their products are purchased either by large corporations who control a specific commodity (bananas, pineapple, etc.) or by commodities traders. Until recently, most commodities traders were multi-generation families who acquired wealth and power in the 1800s and early 1900s and have wielded enormous control over the foods they imported.

Although coffee and chocolate are traded on the market and have futures, this is not true for all tropical commodities. Prices are controlled by supply and demand, but the prices are usually established by the traders who have historically set the price or had influence in setting the prices. Until recently farmers rarely had any idea of what their product was worth. While there have been some changes the market is volatile and prices are fluid.

Tropical commodities are additionally vulnerable to devastating tropical storms, volcanoes and earthquakes in the "ring of fire" regions, and to political unrest. Most farmers have small plots of land and cannot afford chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While this is theoretically a selling point for them – fair trade and organic products command more money – a farmer with two hectares of land cannot afford the $5000 or more for an annual inspection and certified organic status.

During "good times" when prices are high and their product is in demand farmers often make enough money to purchase shoes for their children and send them to school. When prices collapse, many farmers tear up their crops and leave the countryside for cities or for industrialized countries, desperate for work.

The introduction of NAFTA and CAFTA in Mexico and Central America has further added to the struggles of tropical farmers. Subsidized corn grown in the US was exported to Mexico. Mexican farmers could not compete price-wise with the subsidized corn and their small businesses failed. Worse, they purchased the cheaper corn to use as seed stock. The US corn was genetically modified and cross-pollinated with the traditional native corn, destroying the centuries-old corn that is best adapted to the region.

There are now ghost towns throughout Mexico where only the elderly and the small children have remained. Parents risk coming to the United States uneducated, unskilled and sometimes not even speaking the primary language of their own countries, hopeful for work and desperate to support their families.

There are additional issues that undermine the lives of tropical producers. The American and European food industries are wealthy, conservative and, increasingly are consolidating into mega-corporations with enormous influence and lobbying power. Examples of how they manipulate two of our tropical favorites are as follows:

Chocolate, a hugely desirable product, has been regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as to what may or may not be labeled "chocolate." Currently, candy coatings used in confections such as malted balls, coated fruits and nuts and candy bars must contain chocolate liquor in order to be called chocolate. The American Candy Association is petitioning the FDA to allow them to substitute vegetable oil for chocolate liquor but still call it "chocolate."

In the case of vanilla, only 2% of foods, fragrances and pharmaceuticals use pure vanilla. Cheap synthetic substitutes are readily available, displacing this once valuable product. Even premium ice creams regularly contain imitation vanilla substituted by greedy corporations despite stringent FDA regulations. Using pure vanilla would not significantly impact the price of the ice cream; indeed, the prices remain high despite the synthetic "natural flavors." Corporations have begun lobbying efforts to change the laws controlling the use of pure vanilla. Not only are these practices fraudulent and misleading to consumers, they further undercut small farmers.

Because of the sheer volume of coffee and cacao beans needed to satisfy our cravings for a morning cup of java or an afternoon candy bar lift, there are a number of associations who represent these two industries. Nevertheless, there is little protection for the small farmers. A classic example in the coffee industry was played out over the last several years.

Coffee is the sixth largest exported food commodity in the world. There are two primary varieties of commercial coffee beans, arabica, originally from Ethiopia, and robusta, which probably originated in Uganda. Arabica is the finer quality bean; robusta is grown where the more delicate arabica can't survive and is far less valuable. Arabica coffee is grown in Hawaii, Africa, Central and South America and the Caribbean. While coffee growers don't make a lot of money, those who grow arabica coffee could expect to keep their children in school and food on the table.

However, USAID started a large project in Vietnam to assist local farmers. They planted an enormous amount of robusta coffee and sold it for a very low price. It benefited the Vietnamese whose cost of living was low. The large coffee companies in the US purchased this coffee and substituted it for the higher-priced arabica coffee. Suddenly thousands of coffee farmers, most especially in Central America, were looking at 40 cents a kilo for their premium-grade coffee, and were forced out of business. In the meantime, a cup of coffee, now made from cheap Vietnamese robusta coffee, was sold for as high as $3.40 a cup in restaurants.

While it's unlikely that USAID had any idea of the havoc they would create by starting the coffee project in Vietnam, this tragedy underlines the complicated and volatile world of tropical commodities. And, when tragedies of this magnitude occur we see fewer children in school, greater poverty and subsequent domestic violence, increased damage to the delicate tropical eco-system, increased poaching of endangered birds and animals and greater influxes of migration to industrialized countries. Even more horrifying, most of us have no idea of the dramas being played out over the foods we indulge in daily.

One of the goals when I launched my Web-based, socially conscious business, The Vanilla.COMpany, was to educate people in industrialized countries about the politics of the food products we use and the importance of knowing about - and respecting the needs of - the producers, most especially the tropical farmers. Another was to find a way to be of assistance to tropical farmers. As vanilla is the least represented of the three primary luxury crops (coffee, chocolate and vanilla) I have assumed the role as their international representative.

What Am I Actively Doing Now to Affect Change?
In the autumn of 2005 I created a Google Group with a core group of members who speak English and have access to the Internet. The core group began with about 40 members; we are now more than 90. We are known as the International Tropical Farmers Network (ITFN). The group largely consists of educated vanilla growers, agronomists, biologists and other scientists, social scientists, a web designer, a grant writer and others concerned about the welfare of tropical farmers. Many of the core members represent anywhere from a few to thousands of farmers. Most of the farmers in the group produce more than just vanilla.

Due to being in active treatment for a life-threatening illness, I was unable to do much more than to act as a moderator and focus leader of the Google Group until late 2006. We did, however, manage to put together and execute the first conference for the ITFN in Mexico in May of 2006. Over 2500 people attended the conference, which was held at the base of the Mesoamerican ruins where the first indigenous farmers domesticated vanilla.

We are currently planning a general meeting in Mexico in August of 2007. It is our hope that we can find the funding to pay airfare and lodging for representatives from each vanilla growing region to come to the conference. This includes Mariam Mukalazi, who would represent Uganda, and Abuna Andibo, a Kenyan living in the US who is a grant writer. Both women will hopefully be in attendance at the Women Leaders for the World Cohort in Santa Clara in late July of 2007.

The goals for the general meeting are several-fold. First, we need to identify and clarify what we, as a group, wish to do with the ITFN. One option is to become a non-profit organization so that we can apply for large grants in order to launch an international campaign for pure vanilla. By launching a campaign for pure vanilla, we can reach a large audience, which will hopefully drive the use of more pure vanilla. If we increase the world use of pure vanilla by 2%, we will have doubled the vanilla industry.

Another goal is to empower vanilla farmers through education and solidarity so that they have greater control over the buying and selling as well as setting the prices of pure vanilla. We would like to see poor farmers receive training in sustainable agriculture and to learn how to correctly cure and dry their vanilla rather than depending on middlemen to do this. This would make their vanilla more valuable. Many of these farmers continue to practice slash and burn farming. In a traditional culture with unlimited land availability, this was sustainable. However, it no longer serves the land when farmers are confined to working small plots of land.

We would like to launch a web site dedicated to all producers of vanilla, with education, pricing information and options for secondary crops to sustain them in times when vanilla prices are low. My personal vision is to shepherd the ITFN into a position of being a model for tropical farmers' programs worldwide.

Finally, we will plan the agenda for our second ITFN conference to be held in Java, Indonesia in 2008.

What Are the Obstacles and Roadblocks That We Face?
Certainly having a life-threatening illness has been a major obstacle for me. I have not had the stamina to maintain my own business effectively until very recently. My business supports my staff but does not provide me with a salary. My personal medical expenses have been overwhelming. My personal financial survival has been severely taxed. This has slowed my ability to move the ITFN forward as well. The ITFN needs funds to become a non-profit organization. We need volunteer assistance for fundraising and putting together a web site. We need funds for our general meeting in August and for the 2008 conference.

The ITFN members are enthusiastic about our program and have assisted one another substantially with information on vanilla growing as well as on other cash crops. As most of us have never met in person, we are very excited about having a general meeting and working together face-to-face. This will stimulate further cooperation among members and the desire to move our program forward.

The other major obstacle is that we are up against is the traditional, old-guard way of trading tropical commodities. Old ways don't change easily. The food industry is powerful. However, if we remain in possibility I do believe that we can affect positive change. As our planet moves closer to disaster old ways must give way to a more cooperative manner of doing things if we are to survive. Our world is on the brink of destruction; it is also on the brink of a greener, healthier world. Vanilla farmers are part of the solution. To effectively grow vanilla trees are needed to protect the vanilla vines. The goal of vanilla growers is to keep the tropics healthy.

How Does Activism Affect My Life?
Activism is my life. I am a single woman and grandmother and no longer have the responsibilities of a wife and mother. Now the world is my family and I am an elder, a crone. It is my time as a deep ecologist, an anthropologist, a writer and an activist, to speak my truth as clearly and as fully as possible. I have dedicated the rest of my life in service with the goal of bringing greater health to our planet.

I am only one person. But as one person I can hopefully inspire and encourage others to also dedicate a portion of their lives to the service of our planet. I believe that I can be the change that I wish to see. And so can the rest of us be the change we wish to see.

What Does the Future Hold? What Will My Current Work Allow For?
This is difficult to predict as I am firmly rooted in the present. It is my fervent hope that we can bring positive change to the tropical regions of our planet. The tropics produce much of the water and oxygen that sustains our Mother Earth. If the tropics go, we go too. This is, in part, why I am so focused on bringing greater health in the tropic regions worldwide.

I am currently peripherally involved with a project to bring jatropha plantations to Mexico and Central America. Jatropha is a tree indigenous to Mexico and the Caribbean that produces seeds that are the cleanest-burning biofuel in the world. Managed properly, large plantations of jatropha will provide more oxygen and pull carbon dioxide from the air, will provide work for hundreds, if not thousands, of people in need of gainful employment, and it will provide a healthy alternative fuel.

Whether or not I become more involved in the jatropha project I would like to start a parallel project of vermiculture (worm cultivation) for rural Mexican women. The goals of the vermiculture project would be to create healthy compost and to sell it to agricultural projects and to the government to use in the reforestation of land that has been over-grazed.

Concurrently, I am seeking viable ways for rural women to have their own independent revenue streams. In many developing countries, if we want to see something get done, we call on the women. Women are emotionally strong and are determined to see that their children survive and have greater opportunities. We can count on them to follow through. If tropical families have greater employment opportunities in sound environmental projects we will begin to heal the tropics and the people who live there. This will, in turn, help to heal our planet.

There are times when I feel discouraged and I don't know if what I am doing will actually make a difference in either the short- or long- term. That said, I feel I must not simply speak out; I must act on what I believe. It is my fervent hope that I will be able to inspire others in joining me, whether with funds, with physical assistance, with whatever each individual has to offer. My hope is that each and every one of us will find something we truly believe in that is more than just our own material comfort. That each of us will find a way to make a difference, however, small. As the great Taoist scholar Lao Tsu said so eloquently approximately 2500 years ago, The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With the First Step.

SUPPORT CHOCOLATE (CACAO) GROWERS

2007-04-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I learned that large corporations including the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA http://www.fda.gov/) to change laws for the benefit of the manufacturers. Specifically, the CMA is backing a petition that will allow candies with no real chocolate in them to be called "chocolate."

The current FDA standard for chocolate says it must contain cocoa butter, and this proposal would make it possible to call something chocolate even if it has vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter. Many candy bars do not or will not have cocoa butter in them if this law is passed.

This pushed all of my buttons. Why? For the same reason that during the vanilla crisis the big manufacturers stopped using pure vanilla in their premium ice creams and said they contained "other natural flavors." This was blatantly against the FDA laws for vanilla in dairy, but the FDA did nothing. Not only are products being misrepresented to the public, they are also undercutting the farmers.

Guittard Chocolate, a family business that produces high quality chocolate used by many confectioners including Sees Candies, has created a web site for people to voice their opinions on this potential law. We have until June 25th to express our opinions. Go to: http//DontMessWithOurChocolate.com. There is a link that will take you directly to the FDA site where we can type in our comments. This is what I posted. Please note that I was careful not to name company names this time as I have gotten myself into trouble in the past for doing that.

As the owner of The Vanilla.COMpany and voice for vanilla farmers worldwide, I have been very concerned by the disinterest on the part of the FDA with regard to standards established by the FDA for vanilla, especially during the vanilla crisis of 1999 - 2005. In this case, manufacturers -- especially large frozen dessert corporations -- blatantly ignored FDA rules and used 'other natural flavors' instead of pure vanilla in premium ice creams. The FDA looked the other way and didn't enforce their own laws.

Now, the FDA is considering changing the standards for chocolate so that a candy product can be called 'chocolate' even though it doesn't contain cocoa butter. Not only is this a misrepresentation of the product and confusing to the consumer, it also lowers the bar on what is and isn't truly chocolate.

Vanilla and chocolate have a lot in common. They grow in the same tropical regions and are luxury crops that we all love and would dearly miss if they weren't available.
What few take into account, however, is that as we manufacture chocolate and vanilla products without pure chocolate and pure vanilla in them, we are undercutting the livelihoods of very poor farmers. By substituting imitation or diluting quality, demand for the pure, natural product drops and farmers become destitute. Where do the farmers go? To industrialized countries as migrant labor, usually without marketable skills and often without the language.

We in the industrialized countries then complain about the migrants coming into our countries and using up our social service resources. Is it worth the money saved by manufacturers to use synthetics or to slide around the truth by claiming their products contain something they don't, when we consider that in the countries where these commodities are grown there are children going without education, medical attention and often even food because their families can't earn enough to support them? Is this the legacy we wish to inflict upon the world, that to satisfy the wealthy corporations we will sacrifice the most basic standards of living of others?

I strongly suggest that the standards for chocolate NOT be lowered. And I strongly suggest that the FDA revisits their earlier standards for vanilla and enforce those rules again.

Please take a moment and go to http//DontMessWithOurChocolate.com and register your thoughts on this underhanded move by big business to lower the standards of chocolate. By doing this you will be indirectly supporting those who grow our chocolate.

REMAINING HOPEFUL IN DIFFICULT TIMES

2007-04-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

When I returned from my journey to Cuba and Mexico I was again reminded of how very disturbing the daily news is and how easy it is to slide into a sense of hopelessness. How can anything we do really make a difference or even matter? Are we destined to obliterate thousands of years of years of a rich, multi-cultural world heritage and millions of years of remarkably the diverse evolution of animal and plant species because of our inability to live in tolerance and peace with one another? Or because of power and greed? Does the end indeed justify the means?

I remember talking about this with my father when I was a teenager, and even later, as an adult. He said that warfare and suffering were part of the human condition, and that while it might appear that the world, as we know it would end, it wouldn't. After all, he posited, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse must have felt the world was coming to an end. Or the people in Java must have believed that the world was ending when Krakatoa blew up. He assured me that the world is a big place, and that I shouldn't be so concerned.

Despite his attempted sage advice, I was never completely convinced that we would survive as a species if we continued on the path of destruction to the planet and to one another. And, in some respects this concern is even greater now that our world has become an incredibly small place and the web of our interactions are so inextricably intertwined. With the changing of the world's climate and the increased shortage of potable water in many regions, we are facing the very real potential of ending life as we have known it on the planet. A truly paralyzing thought. And yet, we continue to go about our lives, using denial as a survival tactic to get through the day, some of us turning our backs entirely, some of us complaining but not knowing what to do to stop issues like global warming or the specter of war.

Perhaps what I'm putting forth here this is another form of denial; I hope not. I believe that we can make a difference and enjoy the specialness of each day if we refocus the lens of our reality to the shift that is occurring in the world. Most heartfelt actions, whether on the part of an individual or an organized group, don't normally make news, at least not the front pages of daily newspapers or the lead story on TV. But they do happen, and they are happening everywhere.

Don't get me wrong about news. I feel it's extremely important to be informed as well as to read between the lines to find out what really is happening in the world. It's critical that we be conscious of the issues in developing countries as well as our own; that's why I read the daily paper and listen to news reports. But I want to know more. To know about the hopeful news, the baby steps so many of us take each day to affect positive change.

On December 24, 2006, Don Aucoin wrote in the Boston Globe, "Don't look now, but an epidemic of niceness is sweeping the land…a countervailing phenomenon has arisen in the form of movements, Web sites and organizations devoted to accentuating the positive, to look for the silver lining, to seeing the glass as perpetually half-full."

He goes on to say that former CNN anchor Daryn Kagan has launched a good-news Web site whose organizing principle is "One radical idea: the world is a good place." www.DarynKagan.com. Another news site dedicated only to upbeat stories it considers underplayed by the media is www.happynews.com.

Perhaps you've heard of Juan Mann, an Australian who founded a "Free Hugs" campaign in Boston. Go to U-tube to find a video of Juan's campaign; it's heart-warming. There's also a San Francisco based Web site, Iskip.com that encourages people to skip. If you haven't skipped for a while you'll see that it makes you feel a little silly but then very happy. I'm a big proponent of skipping, having personally taught a number of small children how to do it. How can you be sad while skipping? Kim Corbin, a book publicist, founded Iskip.com because, she said, "It's so easy to be overwhelmed. We've got war. We've got terrorism. It's a really intense time…A lot of people think I'm crazy for wanting to skip…I think it's crazy to be inhibited and not be joyful and feel like you can't do something because other people are judging you."

There's a lot of power in being upbeat and happy. Try smiling at people on the street. You'll be interested at the reactions. Most people "get it," and smile back. I always smile at people and, I occasionally get some cold stares, but it's rare. The Dalai Lama says that smiling at people very day is a great act of kindness as it eases suffering.

Consider www.HappyNews.com, started by Byron Reese. CEO of PageWise Inc. publishes positive stories from wire services and freelance writers. Reese says that the site now gets more than a million hits a month! "There's just a hunger for it." He says that he believes that 90% of what happens in the world is upbeat, yet the traditional media focus primarily on the 10% that is not. A case in point: When General Motors closed an auto plant and laid off thousands of workers, HappyNews.com wrote about the opening of a Toyota factory in North Carolina. Both events were equally newsworthy, but the GM story was the media's first choice. Is this about misery loving company?

Is it fear that drives us to find the positive side to life? Certainly fear can be a driving factor in our feeling paralyzed or helpless. I wonder, however, if fear is the mitigating factor or if it's anger at the negativity or determination to look for that which acts as a counter-response to fear. I think that's true for me. Fear is an emotion that cripples us in so many ways. It certainly drives denial, that pulling-the-covers-over-our-heads response to the huge challenges that affect us all individually as well as the world at large.

The worse things get, the more determined I am to find the antidote. Which reminds me of something I read many years ago. I once read that in the natural world wherever there is a poisonous plant or animal, an antidote also exists nearby. I was struck by this possibility. If this holds true in the natural world, couldn't it also be true in the human-created world of suffering and pain?

When I was very young I spent a good deal of my winters in bed with bronchial infections. While in some ways it was a drag to be stuck in bed, it also allowed me the luxury of reading everything I could get my hands on as well as time to ponder what I read. My childhood games incorporated what I had read about in books by or about people like Pearl Buck, Albert Schweitzer, Helen Keller and others. I was so impressed by these people that I wanted my life to be somehow like theirs. I spent hours rescuing my dolls from disasters in faraway exotic locations, feeding them and nursing them back to health. While I didn't have a specific "career path" in mind at that age, working with people in a variety of contexts has certainly been my life path, one that has grown increasingly strong over the years.

Today I spent a couple of hours visiting roughly one hundred Web sites that have been created by social entrepreneurs actively working toward change. There has been a week-long a contest at www.NetSquared.org to choose 20 great projects. Then, on May 2007, 350 members of the NetSquared community are invited to the Cisco campus to participate in accelerating these great projects that utilize the technologies, tools and communities of the social web to create societal impact in a sustainable fashion. They will accelerate these projects by providing cash awards from the newly created Technology Innovation Fund and by connecting them with funders, developers and other people and organizations that can help the projects attain the next level. The Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN) that, with the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, sponsor the Women Leaders for the World, is one of the projects nominated.

I was really impressed by the diverse selection of programs as well as the creativity, the innovation and the relevance of these projects. While each project "speaks from the heart" I chose only some of the sites to include in this particular blog as you'd be reading for days if I included them all. It was not easy to choose which groups to vote for, well, with the exception of the GWLN. Here they are:

NABUUR, www.nabuur.com is an internet platform where villages in developing countries get direct assistance. Online volunteers help create whatever is needed in 150 villages now, and help in 10,000 villages soon. You can sign up to provide the expertise that a village needs without ever leaving the comfort of your home. Isn't that a cool use of the Internet?

Pulsewire is a new offshoot of World Pulse Magazine, www.worldpulsemagazine.com, an online publication about women and children transforming the world. Pulsewire is a new project that allows women and children to write their stories in their own words to share with the world.

The Emancipation Network addresses the issue of human trafficking, a serious worldwide problem that happens to be active in the United States, something we'd rather not know about. www.madebysurvivors.com sells products to support The Emancipation Network.

Another site that addresses human trafficking, Prevent Human Trafficking, www.phi-ngo.org, uses digital media to educate and empower by making human-to-human connections and showcasing amazing, sustainable solutions that anyone can be part of as a new micro-philanthropist or activist.

The Anti-Genocide Community empowers anti-genocide activists with the tools for community-based education, user-generated content and strong shared connections. The
anti-genocide community will pool the collective knowledge of a growing movement for change. http://www.genocideintervention.net/

Dream Fish, www.dreamfish.org, offers "fertile waters for change makers worldwide." It's an international site with a collective blog where individuals can post information about their work for change. There's also a site, www.worldsbiggestproblems.com, where people can work together through online "chat groups" to look for solutions to critical issues.

100 Innovators, www.innovatorz.org, trains volunteers to produce and distribute online media for award winning social entrepreneurs. They say, "This decade, the impacts of leading social entrepreneurs will explode. It's the world's most important story, and Innovatorz.org will tell it." We'll be waiting to hear!

Freecycle.org's vision is to create a global gift economy in an entirely nonprofit online community at Freecycle.org. They make it easier to give something away than to throw it away on a globally local scale. Freecycle is a sort of free eBay or cyber curbside. This site has been a boon for teachers who struggle to get the supplies they need for their classrooms.

International Networks of Victims of Terrorism and War, www.peacefultommorow.org,
seeks to unite victims of political violence, war and terrorism to amplify the voices of victims speaking out for nonviolence and to create grassroots structures which support them.

Help International Telemedicine Humanitarian Emergency Mobile Medical Clinic Network, www.disasterlogistics.org, is a telemedicine-based online community of physicians, financial donors and emergency personnel bringing advanced medical assistance to disaster zones.

FamilyFarmed.org, www.familyfarmed.org, is a revolutionary system connecting consumers and trade buyers with a network of organic farmers and artisanal food producers. Consumers meet their farmers and re-establish connections with their food, community, and the land.

The Hub, www.witness.org. WITNESS is a human rights organization rooted in the principle that “a picture is worth a 1,000 words.” By partnering with local organizations around the globe, WITNESS empowers human rights defenders to use video as a tool to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations. Since its founding in 1992 by musician and advocate Peter Gabriel, WITNESS has partnered with more than 200 human rights groups in 50 countries, bringing often untold stories and unheard voices to the attention of key decision makers, the media, and general public to create lasting change.

This last is a very powerful site! I watched some footage on the devastation an ethnic minority group in Myanmar (Burma) has suffered. These are things that we don't hear about often in the news. I highly recommend everyone visit this site.

So there you have it. Some of the sites I've listed appear to be "downers" as they deal with the harsh underbelly of the world. What makes these sites so critically important, however, is that they are actually addressing these issues. Human trafficking. Survivors of war and torture. Where could people go even ten years ago to provide help or find a network of support? There is hope.

In closing, I want to tell you about Victor Villasenor, the author of "Burro Genius." Villasenor came to an agricultural city in my county that is filled with children of immigrants, many of whom have worked in the fields with their families. The son of immigrants, Villasenor was forced to sit in the back of the classroom with other Mexicans and with blacks and was loudly and frequently admonished, "English only." Between that and struggling with dyslexia, he regarded himself as a "stupid Mexican." He came to terms with his anger and wrote a book about his experiences. Ten years and 265 rejections later, he sold his first book, "Macho," a coming of age story about a Mexican immigrant and the United Farm Worker struggle. He has since published several more books about the lives of his family in Mexico and the United States. He said that, "If these books had existed when I was young, my life would have been different.

Villasenor told a spell-bound audience of mostly Latino immigrant teens that our problem isn't human nature but the way we have related history. "Fighting wars is less than 2 percent of human experience. It's just that we've kept track of it." He urged the students to "Go out and make the world a better place."

We have choices in our lives. We can feel paralyzed by fear, we can hide in denial or we can get active and affect change. If we choose to live in possibility, to find something that speaks to us as a way to make a difference, we can make that difference. I encourage all of us to find something that moves us enough to heal ourselves and our planet. If we get active, our children and grandchildren just might have a chance to live in a better world.

BIOFUEL: ARE FOOD CROPS OUR BEST OPTIONS?

2007-04-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

For a long time I've been concerned the issue of corn in our lives. As Michael Pollan notes in "An Omnivore's Dilemma," we in the United States have become the true "corn people," outdistancing by a mile the Mexicans and Central Americans whose diet is based around native corn.

Why? Because corn is so pervasive in our diets as well as much of what we use in our homes, that nearly everything we come into contact with has a connection to corn. Whether it is the high-fructose corn syrup in beverages, corn thickeners in processed food and sauces, or corn fed to cattle and chickens, you'll find it there as well as in glues, fixatives, household products, medicines and on and on. Look at the ingredients in most packaged food, and you're likely to see something that contains corn -- even if it's just the lecithin that keeps your candy fresh.

Corn has, in fact, become so inclusive in our diets that a doctor recently commented on NPR that he sees serious malnutrition in young children in Oakland who are, at the same time, obese. What is causing the malnutrition? The children are essentially living on a mono-ingredient diet, corn being the principal nutrient they receive in their fast food diets.

This harkens back to the days when corn first came to Europe and Asia. As the Europeans didn't know how to access the protein value in corn, which requires a process the ancient Olmec culture unlocked, Italian peasants, who lived largely on polenta, developed pellagra. It appears that we are moving backward rather than forward nutritionally speaking. Scary, isn't it?

But wait, there's more. NAFTA and now CAFTA, the free trade agreements forged between the United States and Mexico, have created additional draconian situations. In the US we pay subsidies to large corn and soy farmers to produce an overabundance of crops; conversely, sometimes our government pays them not to grow crops. The over-stock of corn has been exported to Mexico where it costs less than the native corn produced by small family farms. Farmers unable to compete with the cheap North American corn had two choices: Leave the family farms to come north to work as unskilled labor or, purchase American corn, use part of it and plant part of it for next year's crop.

Corn has the ability to cross-pollinate quickly and easily. The corn we sent to Mexico has been genetically modified, whereas the beautiful Mexican corn comes from the early corn native to the Americas that is full of nutrition and well adapted to growing in Mexico's climate. The genetically modified corn has now crossed with the native corn supply and threatens to wipe it out. What's wrong with this?

Well, the Irish white potato, also originally native to the Americas, was the only potato varietal they used. As it was able to adapt to the moist climate of Ireland it was used by everyone. I've included a couple of paragraphs on the Potato Famine as it is relevant to this disucssion.

"By the 1800s, Irish peasants were eating a daily average of 10 potatoes per person. Potatoes supplied about 80 percent of the calories in their diet. The peasants used potato fodder to feed their animals, animals which provided milk, meat and eggs to supplement the peasants' diet. This dependence on one food crop was dangerous, but no other crop had ever proved to be as reliable.

"In the 1840s, disaster struck. Three successive years of late blight, the microscopic fungus Phytophthora infestans, and heavy rains rotted the potato crops in the ground. Without potatoes, both the peasants and animals went hungry. And when the animals died for lack of food, milk, meat and eggs were no longer available. More than one million of Ireland's 8 million inhabitants died of starvation; almost 2 million emigrated. The population of Ireland was reduced by almost one-fourth and has never regained its former numbers to this day."

Interesting, isn't it, how we don't seem to learn from history.

So, with the corn export debacle as one of the many problems plaguing Mexico, farmers have increasingly left their farms for work in the cities or in "El norte." Not only does this cause problems for the US as more and more people arrive desperate for work, it means that farmers are leaving the land and not producing crops for people in the cities.

However, when corn-as-fuel became the craze a shift occurred: there wasn't enough corn to meet global needs. Farmers such as Rogelio Zacaula with a farm near Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico, feels as if he has won the jackpot. Farmers are returning to their land to grow corn to feed the massive demand for the burgeoning US biofuel market.

Corn prices, which had been around $2.00 a bushel for decades, suddenly soared to over $4.00 a bushel. Further, the shortage meant that it would continue to reach new highs over the next five years, according to Keith Collins, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Collins predicts that American farmers will need to plant 90 million acres of corn by 2010 -- nearly 10 million more than now -- to meet demand of the rapidly growing US ethanol industry. That means that developing countries in Latin America have a great opportunity to make money growing corn.

Wow! Sounds like a solution, doesn't it? In Mexico's state of Sinaloa, industrial-scale growers recently doubled their corn acreage, phasing out soy and other crops. They now have corn planted on 1.1 million acres, and are also buying more land. Growers hope the ethanol boom will ease what they feared would be a devastating blow with the full opening of borders to US exports of corn and beans in 2008 under NAFTA. Since 1993, when NAFTA was introduced, Mexico's rural sector has lost an estimated 11.6 million jobs, prompting many farmers to seek work in the US.

Unfortunately, there is usually a dark underside to everything that sounds too good to be true and this is true with corn. First, about 60 percent of Mexico's corn growers are subsistence farmers and produce only enough for their own consumption. These farmers typically scratch out a living on steep mountainsides or land that has been depleted by overuse as there isn't the space for crop rotations.

The tortilla is the primary source of nutrition for the poor farmers and families who live in rural Mexico, as well as for the majority of the poor who have moved to the cities in search of work. It's not uncommon for families to subsist on tortillas, salt, lime juice and a watered down slurry of beans. Chickens are needed for eggs and, because chickens are fed corn, a valuable resource, they are only eaten when they are too old to lay eggs. Children are protein-deficient, which not only affects their health but also their ability to learn effectively.

Now that the prices of corn have skyrocketed and most corn is being sidelined for ethanol, prices for tortillas have skyrocketed. In Mexico, tortilla prices rose 14% over the last year, an unjustifiable price according to Guillermo Ortiz, Mexico's Bank Gov., especially as inflation is at 4%. Ortiz blamed companies who monopolize the market and block competition. "This is direct evidence of the way globalization is affecting all walks of life in Mexico and all over the world," said David Barkin, an economics professor at the Xochimilco campus of the Autonmous Metropolitan University in Mexico City.

The political and academic pundits offer lofty explanations of what has occurred; the poor speak more eloquently: "When there isn't enough money to buy meat, you do without," said Bonifacia Ysidro as she wrapped a towel around a stack of tortillas she barely could afford. "Tortillas you can't do without."

Globalization drives so much of what occurs in the world. Brazil has planted millions of acres of sugar cane for ethanol. Malaysia has cleared thousands of acres of land to plant soy. The developing countries, rich in natural resources and cheap labor are the logical places to plant crops to fuel our addiction to modern technology, most especially the automobile, especially now as fossil fuels are being rapidly depleted. But is it wise to clear acreage of carbon-dioxide absorbing hardwoods to create fuel from annual crops?

There is an interesting alternative in a little-known tree native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean -- jatropha. Jatropha curcus is an unassuming tree that literally grows like a weed in the Americas as well as in the many tropical countries where it has been taken over the years. It reaches maturity in 18 - 24 months, is drought resistant, has few, if any, insect enemies, produces an abundance of fleshy fruit that contains seeds and continues to produce for up to 50 years.

The fleshy fruit can easily be used for ethanol, but it's best known for the four seeds inside the fruit. As the fruit dries, the seeds become increasingly oil-rich. The seeds, which contain a minimum of 37% oil, produce the cleanest burning biodiesel available. All that is needed to produce this seed oil is a warm, frost-free environment, natural fertilizer and/or compost, occasional pruning and someone to harvest the fruits and take them to a crushing facility. While they can be grown in the desert, the moister, more humid climate is far better for oil volume.

Currently there are jatropha plantations in Ghana, India and some Central American and African countries. Unfortunately, though farmers have planted jatropha on the advice of professors and agronomists looking for solutions for the poor, there is a dearth of crushing facilities or processing plants at this time. However, a major project is underway to establish additiona jatropha plantations in Mexico and Central America as well as to set up crushing facilities. While it doesn't make sense to have the farmers plant the jatropha on their small plantations as transportation to a central crushing facility is an issue, farmers can work as day laborers on the plantations while still maintaining their own farms where many grow the "luxury" crops such as coffee, cacao and vanilla.

Is jatropha the ultimate solution to the fuel crisis? That remains to be seen. But it appears to be a far better solution than corn, soy or sugar. And, it may provide a a partial solution to the mass migration north. As Raul Esparza, economist in Veracruz Mexico says, "We must find work for the rural families. Now we have ghost towns throughout Mexico where only the very young and the elderly remain as the parents have moved north in search of a way to support their families."

I will keep you posted on jatropoha. If it works as hoped, it will soon be a household word worldwide.

A JOURNEY TO CUBA AND SOUTHERN MEXICO

2007-03-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

As so many friends have asked for a report on my recent trip to Cuba and Southern Mexico, I have posted a journal for you to enjoy. I hope that you will find it interesting. pr

A JOURNEY TO CUBA
My purpose in choosing Cuba was several-fold. First, in 1964 I sailed past Cuba on a United Fruit Company banana freighter on my way back to New York. When we were in range of Cuba there was a classical music station broadcasting from the Island that was quite good. The Island itself looked beautiful. Reports in Guatemala from people in the diplomatic corps that Fidel was a marijuana smoking degenerate who was bound to fail within a year or two, made it seem even more interesting to investigate. Were these messages true? If so, how would it affect the Island? After all, there had already been the missile crisis in 1962 and our country was vehemently opposed to the government, so the mystery that shrouded it was intriguing.

More recently I was interested to visit the Island that produced such incredible music, both old and new. Cuba was said to exist in a time-warp with cars from the 1960s and well-educated people who had chosen not to leave the Island despite the many restrictions and hardships. Why did those who fled on flimsy rafts make the dangerous 90-mile trip to Florida? And what about the wealthy Miami Cubans who support the embargo and want Fidel ousted? Much to consider.

Finally, as I am now writing a book, "How We Heal: Faith and Healing in the New Millennium," Cuba was an interesting place to explore. Purported to have very advanced conventional medicine, it also has a large population of people who follow the Santeria religion as well as is known for Blue scorpion venom, a folk medicine that allegedly has a protein in the venom that can cure cancer and other ills. I was provided the opportunity of exploring three very different approaches to healing in a contained area.

Preparing for the trip required more time and energy than I had anticipated. For instance, we need tickets on Mexicana to go to and from Cuba and for me to continue to Veracruz once back in Mexico. I had found flights that would work but an agent at Mexicana in San Diego told me I couldn't get tickets in the US, only in Mexico. I sat on this information for several days before deciding that I really didn't want to risk getting tickets at the last minute when we got to Mexico. So I called again and found that yes, I could get tickets, but I needed to call Mexico for them and I was given a phone number, which didn't work. On the third call learned that the number was only useful within Mexico, and was given another number. Bingo! I got the tickets.

Fortunately, just before getting the tickets I learned that Havana was an hour earlier than Mexico. If I had booked us on to Cuba the day we left, we would have arrived at 10:45 at night. After customs, etc. we would have needed a cab and then a hotel. A midnight exploration didn't seem like a wise beginning to a trip in a Socialist country where nothing appeared certain from our vantage point. So, my next tasks were finding a hotel at peak season in Cancun, a major resort destination, a hotel in Veracruz, and a hotel near the airport as my flight out of Mexico City was at 6:40 a.m. Thanks to the Internet, this was easier than I expected, and in each case, I found excellent hotels at affordable prices.

Finally, arranging a guide and a place to stay in Cuba was on the agenda. Thanks to a friend, I was connected with Thelma Esnard. Thelma's grandparents were Americans living in Cuba; her mother has dual citizenship. She was trained as an attorney and later worked at the University assisting with travel arrangements for professors and scientists. She arranged the American travel for the members of Buena Vista Social Club until post- 9-11, when Cubans could no longer easily travel to the States. She now assists Americans who are visiting Cuba to do research, etc. She was our angel.

I left for Cuba at 7:30 a.m. February 24th, traveling with Karen Lynch, my dear friend and also my primary care doctor. Karen incorporates complementary medicine into her family care practice and was interested in learning more about how Cuban doctors practice medicine given their lack of supplies. She also was fascinated with Cuba. She was an ideal travel companion.While I gathered together tickets and other travel needs, Karen read Cuban guide-books. From what she learned, the trip sounded as if it would be quite an adventure, possibly a difficult one. We learned that Cubans live on black beans, rice and pork, and that fruits and vegetables are a largely unavailable luxury.

We were to stay in a casa particular, a family home that may or may not have hot water or even regularly running water, as well as common electricity blackouts. People needed even the most elemental things such as toilet paper and soap. So we packed our own towels, toilet paper, soap and pillows, along with nuts, chocolate and energy bars to break the monotony of rice, beans and pork. We each had one small bag with our clothes and carried a second bag filled with things like powdered milk, pens, lollipops, children's toys, skincare samples, whatever we could gather and stuff into our bags. We also learned that we should bring no electronic devices such as cell phones, as they would be confiscated and held in customs until we left. Given that we were to leave at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 4th, I decided not to risk bringing my digital camera. Unfortunately, I bought the disposable cameras, which didn't work properly, and I have no good pictures in the six rolls I shot.

We arrived in Mexico around 5:00 p.m. and spent the night in a sweet hotel in downtown Cancun. It was a hotel of the 70s, neither fancy nor resort-like, but practical and with beautiful, well-kept grounds and an excellent restaurant. It was a real find at $60 a night. As we both had been very busy until we got to the airport, we were grateful to have a comfortable hotel waiting for us. After breakfast the following morning, we returned to the airport and flew to Cuba early the afternoon of the 25th.

Cuba is visually magnificent. From the air I could tell that it has not been stripped of its natural forest as it is lush and verdant. Having spent so much time in Southern Mexico and Central America, I could tell that the island is healthy overall. Havana does have the same issues as most cities with diesel and other fossil fuel pollution but the countryside is in good shape and it is famous for excellent natural preserves and modern methods of sustainable agriculture, recycling and other planet-saving measures, created partly from necessity.

We had anticipated customs would be difficult but, in fact, we went through both coming and going with no problems whatsoever. We were met at the airport by Thelma, a vibrant woman in our age-group who is enthusiastic and easily prone to laughter and giggles (a plus) despite (or perhaps, because of) the many challenges she has experienced in her life. We rattled off from the airport in her 30 year old Lada that is on its last tires, first to meet her charming husband, Emilio, an architect and sculptor, and then to our casa particular.

Karen and I had expected that we would share a small room in a family home with one bathroom for everyone and minimal comforts. It came as a major shock, then, when we arrived at Raquel's ground floor home in an Art-Deco mansion. Karen and I each had bedrooms the size of large living rooms, with polished marble floors, antique furniture, air conditioning and our own baths. It was like a well-appointed bed and breakfast. At one point I turned to Karen and said, "Pinch me!" Each morning we were served plates of fruit, fresh juice, an omelet with fresh vegetables, toast and tea in a dining room also decorated in period furnishings. Karen's room had a door to a veranda overlooking the street that was filled with tropical plants as well as chairs and a table. For this we each paid $45 a night including our breakfast. Hotels run roughly $120 a night with meals separate.

Thelma was an expert guide and made certain that we saw everything possible given that we had only six full days. In addition to our interest in the Cuban medical system, we wanted to see the sites in Havana and also to hear Cuba's incredible music. We both hoped to do some bird watching and I wanted to visit some farms to see how they implement sustainable agriculture. I was also interested to see how vermiculture thrives in the tropical heat. As we were traveling with minimal funds, we knew some of this might not be possible. Karen had low expectations for the trip after her foray into the guidebooks. I try to have few expectations when I travel; instead, I remain open to possibility. All possible expectations we may have had were surpassed in the blink of an eye.

Havana in its heyday had unbelievable riches in every respect. The base from which the Conquest of the Americas took place, its European roots go back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus declared Cuba for Spain. The Bay of Havana has its requisite forts and seawalls. At one time the old city was walled, but the walls were removed hundreds of years ago to allow for expansion. As the playground of the rich and famous in the early decades of the 20th century, it is filled with beautiful hotels and Art Deco buildings, enormous mansions once owned by wealthy sugar and tobacco growers, European royalty, American businessmen and stars, and more. Cuba was the Monte Carlo of the Caribbean with all the beauty, excess, decadence and illicit activities that one could imagine. Add to it the humid, earthy heat and the sensual aroma of tropical plants mixed with salt air and acrid, sharp smell of diesel, the beautiful people of many colors and origins, and the throb of the Afro-Cuban music and rhythms, and you can begin to imagine Cuba. It is more than a concept; the Island is very visceral and vibrant. While yes, only some of the buildings have been restored, most are in various stages of decline because of the harsh tropical weather and the lack of funds, the images of what Cuba was before the revolution are palpable everywhere.

Throughout the week we toured the city of three million people, visiting plazas, the cathedral, Old Havana, the Fine Arts museum (beautiful and very modern when it was built in the 1950s and filled with the exceptional art of Cuban painters), the University overlooking the city (and with a tank and slogans on walls in commemoration of where students died in the revolution to overthrow Batista), the Fine Arts Institute (set on exquisite and extensive grounds on the site of an old country club), the metropolitan park which cuts a huge swath through town, the nearly 2000 acre botanical gardens on the City's outskirts, the malecon (waterfront), neighborhoods such as the one where we stayed in the Vedado and the Miramar that were filled with enormous homes and manicured gardens, the markets and the dollar stores where goods are alternately available – or not, a convent that provides support and care for the elderly, single mothers and children and collects medical supplies for children with special needs, the synagogue that provides a resource for getting medicine and supplies not only for the Island's remaining Jews but for others in need, and much more.

We discovered that you can eat extremely well in paladors, small restaurants run by families for those who have the financial resources to enjoy them. We also ate in some regular restaurants and the food was consistently good. Cuba also has its own versions of MacDonalds and KFC. (We didn't try them so no comparative reports available.) Havana is not an inexpensive city – restaurant prices were nearly comparable to the US and the exchange rate on American dollars is not good; 20% is taken off to change into CUCs the Cuban money. We had a big breakfast, a main meal in the early afternoon while out with Thelma, and then ate very lightly in the evening. While it was true that during the "special period," after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the withdrawal of the USSR, most food and other goods were unavailable much of the time, produce is now grown in and around the city and farmers come in from the countryside with fresh produce as well. However, some foods can be difficult to get. Milk is in short supply and families in Havana mainly depend on powdered milk when it is available. We were glad that we had brought 12 quarts of powdered milk to give to the Cubans.

We stopped at a roadside produce stand on the edge of Havana. Next to the stand was a roughly two-acre vegetable garden with marigolds and other flowers every few feet that discourage pests or provide foils to the problem insects. On the edge of the garden was a statue of Jose Marti, poet laureate and Cuban hero. Pro-Castro propaganda was posted around the garden and on the wall of the stand along with information promoting the garden's organic status. Apparently most people don't understand or appreciate that their crops are grown organically. They're just happy to have produce. We also visited the local produce markets in town. There was a good variety of vegetables and fruits but they were expensive for an agricultural country.

Nearly everything on the Island is illegal. Further, laws change constantly so keeping up with what's legal and what isn't is a constant challenge. While I don't believe that it's nearly as repressive as China or the Eastern Bloc countries when they existed, there are 27 dissident poets in prison at this time and, if you are doing something the government deems is subversive in any way, you too could go to prison.A few years ago American money, especially dollar bills, were a hot item in Cuba. Everyone wanted to be paid in American money, which they squirreled away for when the system changed or they had the chance to travel or emigrate to the US. In 2004 American currency became illegal, so it's not so appealing now. There are four television stations, all censored. Satellite dishes are illegal. The press is heavily censored. While people have access to e-mail, the Internet is illegal except for some people in the University and for some doctors and scientists. Even then, it is only available a few hours a day. If this sounds shocking, consider that Rupert Murdoch has heavily censored Fox Channel and that most of our major news sources are also censored.

Fidel likes the Embargo. It makes him look like the "good guy," keeping up the State despite the greedy, inconsiderate U.S. The State underwrites the thriving Cuban black market as the State is the only one capable of getting the goods. People pay up to three times what the going price would be in the US. Who makes the profit? The State. In fact, Fidel is purported to be worth $900 million dollars, a fact he vehemently denies. The Embargo, of course, is absolutely crazy and impacts us all. As Americans we are denied our right to travel or to support Cuba, and the Cubans are denied basic medicines and other goods they desperately need. It is also technically illegal for Cubans to receive assistance from their families though it isn't strictly enforced. However, the Embargo will soon fail to benefit US interests as Cuba and China are developing strong trade relations. We saw many cheap goods in the Havana market kiosks set up in Central Havana near the waterfront, much of it from China.

Billboards with propaganda in support of the Revolution or denigrating Bush were everywhere. Buildings were also covered with propaganda and a thick cluster of black flags block the front of the American Embassy on the Island so that the building is all but obscured from sight. Most Cubans have no real information from the outside unless they have families living in the US. Most people know little other than what the State wants them to know.

In addition to the beautiful Art Deco buildings and homes, there are many poor neighborhoods throughout Havana, often existing side-by-side with the upscale sections. The definition of a "poor" neighborhood is somewhat complicated. The State provides each person with a monthly dole of black beans, rice and pork, barely enough to live on. After the Revolution many people lost their living as small stores were closed by the State and some agricultural crops such as sugar were discontinued when the prices dropped dramatically but were not replaced with other crops. People migrated from the countryside to the cities in search of employment. The State provides free housing for everyone though much of the housing is substandard. Families squatted in abandoned homes and flats when the original owners left the Island. Those who left Cuba were forced to leave behind title to their homes and/or goods. Farms were taken over by the State and families were moved onto them, maybe continuing to run the farms and maybe not. The result of the cross-migration is a city filled with people who have had little education and who are living in crowded conditions in deteriorating buildings. Further, it's not uncommon to see a beautiful plaza in Havana with crumbling buildings next to renovated hotels or business offices, clothing hanging from balconies on string clotheslines. The contrasts are surprising.

Cuba currently has two monetary systems, the peso and the CUC. The State pays workers in pesos, but pesos can only be used in a few stores and restaurants. As no one can own anything there is little incentive to maintain living quarters, especially by the poor and under-educated people. (Yes, the State provides free education to all, but many people from the countryside don't understand the value of education. Also, if a doctor only makes $35 a month, there isn't a lot of incentive to get an education unless it is a family legacy to be educated.) As a result, there is a very high rate of unemployment. And, there is a disproportionate number of under-educated people as so many educated people have left the Island. Driving a taxi or working in any area of the tourist industry pays more than most of the so-called white-collar jobs. Begging is illegal but it's also not real common. The most striking beggars were young men in clean clothing asking for handouts, sometimes in the guise of needing medicine for an ailing parent, sometimes just asking for spare change in the same way as our panhandlers. There are increasing problems with robbery and other crimes and prostitution is thriving despite the government's attempts to suppress it.

The overall feeling of the educated Cubans who have remained in Cuba is that the Revolution has only benefited the very poor. Several of the people we met were active participants in the student revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista, a ruthless dictator. The first ten years of the Fidel regime were difficult but hopeful for the Cubans who remained on the Island. People were willing to live with shortages as accepted sacrifices in support of the new regime. By the eleventh year they realized that much of what had been promised in the Revolution would never come about. Fidel was not a businessman and didn't have the infrastructure to effectively support the Cubans. The Russians were never accepted, in part because they didn't accept the Cubans. They were a gloomy, pessimistic presence on the Island, didn't associate much with the locals, and were not missed when they left, despite the ensuing hardships and shortages.

The Island is a fascinating study of contrasts and really understanding the intricacies of Cuba is something that even the Cubans themselves will say is difficult. We certainly observed that the people are extremely resourceful, whether it is repairing ancient cars, finding medicine and other goods they need, or assisting one another in a very open, cheerful manner. People walking by on the street would immediately jump in to assist us women as we attempted to jam our suitcases into the tiny trunk of the Lada, or carry something heavy. It didn't matter that we were white or perhaps perceived as "wealthy" or "upper class;" people simply help each other no matter what. It also appeared, at least from our perspective that although there are shortages of many items we take for granted the Cubans are not seriously badly off except that they live under a regime that represses freedom of speech and expression. Given our very broken medical system, high cost of housing, and prohibitively expensive higher education, the Cubans are better off than we are in these respects. With a 97% literacy rate and a low infant mortality rate, our countries are on a parity in some areas. What Cubans lack are material goods from clothing to bedding to good transportation, medical supplies to school supplies to information resources, quality protein sources to potable water. These necessities are based, in my mind, on how the US was pre- the 1960s encouragement of mass-purchase of material goods: they have basic needs rather than a desire for excess.

Our medical exploration was quite interesting. We first spent several hours with a very knowledgeable oncological surgeon, which affirmed what we had heard, that Cuban medicine is as advanced as in the US. The greatest obstacles facing Cuban doctors are the lack of the newest medicines and their incredibly low wages. A doctor cannot live on his salary in Cuba, which is roughly $35 a month. Gilberto, the oncologist we visited, was quite interested to know more about my experience in cancer treatment. While he was educated about the chemotherapy and monoclonal drugs used in my treatment, some of the drugs were not yet available in Cuba. He was also concerned about how many people don't seek treatment in his country – even educated people – because of the fear of cancer. To that effect, he showed us photos of a breast cancer patient, an art historian, who had horrific looking surface tumors on her breast. He said that despite how they looked, they were greatly improved as she had been through radiation already, and was about to have a mastectomy. His point was that it wasn't just the poor who wait to be treated, and it wasn't because of the costs involved with treatment. He wondered if this were true in the U.S. as well.

I've considered his question a lot even before I began collecting research for my book. I believe that many people choose to remain in denial for as long as possible before seeing mainstream doctors. Fear of something serious is certainly a factor, but I believe there are a variety of other reasons as well. In my case, my insurance was about to be cancelled and I was afraid to go to the doctor with a serious complaint for fear of not getting new insurance coverage. I've watched several women I know choose to use alternative treatment before they were willing to concede to surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, hopeful that they could avoid what is, by anyone's standards, invasive, painful and often exhausting treatment. In a few cases they waited too long and have not survived.

Our hospital/clinic environment is certainly not warm and inviting, medical tests are intimidating, medical professionals can be condescending or talk in a language that patients don't understand, costs are an understandable factor and, for many, the medical system is an entirely different universe from that which the patient has drawn comfort in healing. And it is for these reasons and other reasons that so many people seek to be healed by someone who approaches healing in a very different way from mainstream medicine or delay treatment as long as possible. More than anything, denial is a strong and very common factor in our accepting help in the healing process.

Tilberto is the best surgeon on the Island, but tye pay for doctors is so low, he would be able to afford to stay except that his wife has a good job as a producer with a French film company, so they can pay their bills. He is about to start trials of DCA, a simple, cheap compound that has shown great promise in petri-dish tests with human cells and with animal testing. Canada is also testing DCA; as far as I know, the US is not as the pharmaceutical companies cannot patent this cheap, natural compound.

Gilberto wants desperately to find cures for his patients. A communist and atheist, his faith is in finding medical intervention that will work. On the wall of his office is the well-known photo of Deena Metzger, arms flung skyward and naked to the waist, her missing breast sporting a tattoo of the branch of a tree that continues up her arm. He was very impressed that I had met her and that I too carry the same passion for life in the face of adversity.

We visited an oncology clinic/hospital as Emilio is currently in treatment for prostate cancer. The building was being renovated and was old and dusty. Last summer it was difficult for Emilio to walk as the cancer had metastasized to his spine and the dreary condition of the clinic did little to boost his spirits. So his chemo nurse, Rolando, offered to come to their home if Thelma could provide him with a ride to and from the hospital. We picked up Roly at the hospital, brought him home for Emilio's treatment, and afterward, we all shared a meal prepared by Thelma. We were told that there were better facilities in Havana. However, based on the hospital I visited, I'm glad I received treatment in the U.S. though I would have enjoyed having my own nurse treating me in my garden.

We went downtown one morning to observe Dr. Lino Tomasen, who is known for healing illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, sclerosis, paralysis, etc. that are considered incurable or can't be operated on to bring about a cure. He allegedly transmits energy through his mind and hands to patients. Born in Santiago de Cuba on December 4th in 1961, Dr. Lino, as he is known, was considered a child prodigy, capable of doing things such as concentrating on a flower in his hands and making it open, or turning a glass of water hot or vice versa. He began healing the sick when he was seven, was trained as a medical doctor, and worked for many years within the medical system. He now operates a hands-on healing service Monday through Friday from 9:00 until 1:30 or until he has seen everyone, out of a small room in the Concordia section of downtown Havana.

Dr. Lino is an enormous black man, tall, heavy and very strong, which he happily demonstrated for us by pounding his hand on a wall so hard that we wondered if he'd punch a hole in it. He claims to never run out of energy – sweats a lot, yes, but never runs out of energy. He often wears a red shirt as he was born on the Feast of Santa Barbara, the saint that is syncretized to Shango, God of Fire in the Cuban Santeria religion. He glittered from sweat and an impressive amount of gold jewelry around his neck, his wrists and fingers and sported a large cigar in his mouth. There were lines out the door and down the block of people either interested in visiting, waiting for people inside, or just there to observe. The walls are covered with testimonials carefully written by people who have experienced miraculous healings from the hands of Dr. Lino.

Dr. Lino's father was a guerilla in Fidel's revolutionary army and there are pictures of Fidel and Che on the walls as well as revolutionary propaganda and a large painting of Jesus Christ. Dr. Lino makes money hand-over-fist offering free services to all takers. It also provides him a platform as showman, a role he clearly enjoys. And, while his services are free, people make donations. Factoring that he spends roughly one minute with each person as well as the donations each person gives him, he is making a far better living as a healer than as a doctor.While he treated the day's visitors, he chatted with us, primarily me as I was placed close to the front and because I spoke Spanish. He periodically would emphasize a point by lifting a recipient of his healing into the air and drop the person down hard onto the floor. His hands-on work combined chiropractic techniques and meridian points, some lifting and dropping, and occasional seated work. The stretching of his patients clearly hurt some of them, but they endured it with no more than an "ow" or "ooomph."

When it was my turn the room, which hummed with the subdued conversation of patients, caregivers and observers suddenly turned silent. I imagine that everyone wanted to see how he would treat a foreigner and if I would experience a miraculous healing in front of them. In fact, he spent an extra minute or so with me and was extremely gentle. I felt tiny next to his enormous frame and larger-than-life personality.It didn't occur to me to ask for anything in particular to be cured, but Karen, who saw him next, mentioned a painful knee. Curiously, her knee stopped hurting right after she saw him. She was sorry she hadn't asked for a cure for her plantar fasciitis, a far more painful and chronic complaint. Was I cured forever? Who knows?

One afternoon we met with Natalia Boliviar, a descendent of Simon Bolivar's brother and the Island's expert on Santeria, an ancient earth religion brought to the Americas by the slaves. Natalia is in her 70s, an accomplished artist and writer, who gives lectures worldwide on Santeria. We exchanged books and I asked her and her daughter questions about the Santeria in Cuba. Karen entertained herself while we spoke in Spanish by playing with the parrots. Karen knows quite a bit about bird behavior and had the family parrot laughing and laughing (I'm serious about this) as she played games with it. Peekaboo is a favorite of parrots.

Known variously as Santeria, Lakumi, Umbanda, Candomble, Macumba Voodoo, Hoodoo and more, depending on the country where it is practiced and the lineage from which it draws, Santeria is used for healing mental and physical ailments, casting and breaking spells, reading the future and much more. Many priests and priestesses provide herbs and other traditional remedies for treating physical and emotional complaints. While Santeria was suppressed in Cuba for many years and was considered a primitive and backward religion practiced by ignorant country people, it exploded in the 1990s and it is now estimated that 70% of Cubans practice Santeria or have at least have taken part in a ritual or asked for help.

Late the following afternoon we were taken to a poor neighborhood outside of town to visit a babalao, a brujo mayor, or high priest of the casa tormenta devoradora remolino batalla, in the Palo Monte lineage of Santeria. This lineage comes originally from the Congo/Angola tradition. Juan Rivas Molina is a slender little man of 90 who was waiting for us in a chair outside his very humble home, neatly dressed in a shirt and slacks and with a hat on his head. His great-grandfather was a slave of Bantu heritage, his grandfather was a brujo mayor, and it was passed to on to Juan. He told me, "God gave me the gift to do good. I cannot buy it, I cannot sell it, I cannot give it away. I can only use it to do good for others."

The man who took us to visit the babalao (also known as babalu in some countries) is educated and works in the government managing sports facilities. His wife was diagnosed with fairly progressed colon cancer and received radiation treatment to reduce the tumors pre-surgery. They went to see Juan Rivas Molina, then returned to the doctor for a scan before surgery. The tumors were gone. They have since visited this babalao and believe he is a true healer.

Juan led us through to the back of his home to a little room dedicated to his work. One wall was painted with a scene from the countryside; another had the painting of a man, perhaps his grandfather, and the third wall had a painting of Santa Barbara, the saint tied with Shango, God of Fire.There was an altar covered with a cloth and with a candle burning on the floor in front of the altar. I soon learned that the distinctly strong odor in the room came from the altar. Juan lifted the cloth to display a dead goat and pigeon, sacrificed that afternoon. Animal sacrifices are not done regularly, but rather, for momentous occasions to please the Orishas (deities) and to garner assistance in healings. I was not under the impression that this had been done specifically for me but for the benefit of several people who would be coming for help.

I was dressed in a white Totonac dress I had brought to Cuba with the hope of attending a Santeria ritual, and with a simple necklace of red seeds called Corolina that are worn by Santeras. My feet were jammed into a pair of borrowed white sandals that were both too small and too narrow. It was difficult not to think about my sore feet as I shuffled into the room. Thelma and Karen wore white blouses. White is the color of the Santeros and Santeras, and the streets of Cuba are filled with people in white, devout followers of Santeria.

I sat down in a chair next to Juan. There was a problem with the electricity, which arrived via a tenuous looking cord that ran from the house to a fluorescent light on the ceiling. This required the concentrated efforts of several family members and took about ten minutes of fiddling with until we had light. I wasn't sure whether it was better in the candlelight or with the harsh overhead light; neither brought a respite from the humid heat or the aroma of the room.

Once we were settled in, I asked Juan a few questions about how he became a high priest. Thelma started to tell him a bit about me but he raised his hand and said, "Tell me nothing." He picked up some unusual looking stones that he had on a table next to him and dropped them like jacks onto the table. He then arranged them in a pattern and began to speak. "You had a serious sickness," he said, "and you cried and cried because you did not want to leave everyone. There were many others too who cried as they didn't want you to leave. God decided that you should live as there are so many that want or need you here. Also, because you are so kind to people. And also because you are to write an important book that will be read around the world. So you are not to worry. You are to live for many, many years."I was then told to go to the altar and to place my hands on two large cow horns that protruded from the sides of the altar. I had to bend down slightly and reach wide to hold the horns. I was to repeat after the priest in my language of origin a series of sentences. Quite honestly, I don't remember what they were, only that I did it. When the ritual was completed I was to sit down again.

I was told that I was now the daughter of Obatala, an Orisha of creation who represents wisdom and justice. S/he is represented by (syncretized with) the saint Las Mercedes. In the Palo Monte lineage s/he is known as Tierra Tiembla, or shaking earth. My colors are white or light colored clothing, the best foods for me are white, such as rice, custard, milk, etc. White represents pureness, which is what Obatala stands for as all things that are pure and white belong to her.

Juan then raised his voice, finger pointing to the sky, " The Palo Monte religion is powerful! We are over 2000 in the Casa Tormenta in Cuba, in Colombia, in Venezuela, in Spain, in Miami, and in California!! You are part of Palo Monte, daughter of Tierra Tiembla, known as Obatala! Go forth with your work."The ritual, now complete, we sat and looked at a dilapidated photo album containing pictures of a young Colombian girl he had cured of leukemia, of people in Spain and other parts of the world who had come to him, and of various family members. I gave him some money, which he was quick to refuse, saying he only did this for free. I told him that he could then perhaps use the money for his grandchildren. I later learned he had 75 grand and great-grand children, so I doubt the $20 went far. I also presented him with a bar of Belgian chocolate and, after finishing my notes, a good ballpoint pen. He seemed most pleased with the pen. We returned through the house to our car after paying our respects to his elderly wife. As we walked out to the dark street Juan was passing pieces of the chocolate to the crowd of youngsters who had hung around the outside of the house.

Our lead on Blue Scorpion venom turned cold when the phone number Thelma had was found to be disconnected and we were told that the man who had created this venom as a treatment had died. However, while waiting for the plane from Cancun to Veracruz I was approached by a woman who asked if I had just returned from Cuba. I said I had and she said, "I saw you Saturday in Habana Vieja. Why did you go to Cuba?" After I responded I asked about why she had gone.

It turns out that she had melanoma, had surgery and radiation and was currently in remission. However, she had been taking Blue Scorpion venom to prevent its return and had gone to the Island herself for the first time on the same plane as us. She gave me the information she had and Thelma will follow up for me. With this last piece of research coming, I was able to find out even more than I had anticipated about how Cubans approach healing.

* * *

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to travel the three hours from Havana to a wildlife preserve, the best on the Island for bird watching. If we return this is high on our list of things we'd like to do. However, when we were at the botanical gardens we went to a beautiful section that was landscaped as a Japanese garden. It had a pavilion over a lagoon, and the lagoon was filled with a variety of birds. We saw some beautiful herons, water hens, finches, egrets and more.

We were also unable to visit farms in Pinar del Rio, a beautiful state to the West of Havana. Again, this is on my list for the future as Pinar del Rio is famous for its natural beauty. And, I would love to go to Santiago de Cuba, the city where the slaves were first brought to the Island. It is the birthplace of the extraordinary Cuban musical legacy and is home to a folkloric dance troop that I would love to see perform. Much to look forward to if and when the opportunity presents itself.

There are many "snapshots" of our trip in my mind. Every day in a park downtown, a large clutch of men gather to discuss baseball. Baseball is a major passion of the Cubans and it is followed closely and intensely. These men shout out their thoughts and opinions to anyone willing to listen. That this is a daily obsession is notable considering that baseball is a seasonal sport.

We took a break in Habana Vieja one afternoon and drank lemonade in the rooftop garden of a hotel. The view of the city was spectacular. We also drank daiquiris at the Florida, one of Hemmingway's regular haunts, where there is a statue of him next to the bar stool where he always sat.

We visited the Church of Las Mercedes in a poor neighborhood downtown. The saints in the church are syncretized to the Orishas. Yemanya, Orisha of fertility and of the sea was festooned with artificial flowers. El Santo Nino de Atocha, Lazarus, Las Mercedes and other saints were honored with flowers and candles as well.

The memorials to those fallen in the attempted overthrow of Batista were very moving. There are statues of Jose Marti everywhere. He was very instrumental in the Spanish American war in the late 1800s and was also a fine poet. The term "guajira" used to describe the Cuban country women comes from a poem written by Jose Marti about the village, Guajiras. It was also quite interesting to see so much propaganda in the form of billboards.

Rubber trees decorate the streets, their arial roots hanging down like opaque beaded curtains that undulate in the breeze. Balconies are covered with ironwork reminiscent of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Sanseveria plants, known as "Women's Tongue" sit in pots on balconies or grace front yards to protect the homes from malicious gossip.

Odd reticulated buses pulled by a truck tractors and known as camellos (camels) lumber along the highways jammed with up to 600 travelers. Long lines of people wait for the camellos or for the 1950s and 60s cars, restored and supported by fares from people traveling from point A to B.

In the metropolitan park we watched dancers practicing for their weekend hotel spectacular. Their instructor sat on a table with a boom box next to him, making comments on their moves. We attempted to get him to dance with them; he politely declined. However, a small girl also watched the dancers, entranced by their moves. Soon she danced along with them, pirouetting and prancing to the music. After we left the group we passed an area where more music was coming over a sound system. Completely absorbed by the music I began to dance, paying no attention whatsoever to anything but the music. When the piece ended I heard hearty applause and looked over to see a long bench filled with senior citizens. I burst out laughing and we waved to one another.

And this is something I love about the Cubans. They are spontaneous and filled with fun. They are also flirtatious, and possess a great sense of playfulness.

I haven't told you about the music; I saved this for last. I wish it could have been more but we discovered that live music is not inexpensive. Most venues charge $20 to get in and another $10 for a two-drink minimum. Even more daunting than the money is the fact that music doesn't start until 11:30 in the evening. If we were twenty years old we might have been up for it, but we were up and out to see everything we could from morning till night and staying out until 2:00 or 3:00 and still showing up each morning didn't seem possible. I pushed aside my disappointment as so much else was filling us with joy.

But wait…there was music at the end of our trip and a teaser all along.

For those of you who adored the Ry Kooder documentary, Buena Vista Social Club, I am delighted to say that in a bit of serendipity, we met three of the four surviving members of that memorable group. The first day we toured downtown, we visited the lobbies of some of the more remarkable hotels. In the finest hotel lobby we encountered Pancho Amat, tres player in the BVSC. As Thelma knows all the musicians who have traveled to the States, she introduced us to him; he was very gracious. The following morning, while stopped for a red light, Thelma leaned over Karen to shout out the window, "Eliades." And there was my "hero" Eliades Ochoa in his jeep, cowboy hat on his head, grinning over at us. I yelled out my window that I had seen him in Santa Cruz and that we loved him. He laughed heartily and waved to us. And the final afternoon, while sitting in a café in Habana Vieja and listening to an excellent Cuban group, in walked Juan de Marco, sporting a red shirt and black beret over his abundant braids. He hugged all three of us, bought us artificial roses a young woman was selling, and introduced us to two American men from New Jersey. All three men were smoking puros, the cigars Cuba is famous for. I cannot tell you anything about the cigars as we did not visit the cigar factories nor bring back cigars as we know no one who smokes these days. However, we did learn that a box of the finest cigars can cost upwards of $5000!

Listening to the music at Café Express was a great treat. We had a late lunch and allowed the music to encompass us as did the locals who were lined up all around the café. A small boy played maracas in time with the band, and a nearly toothless woman dressed in a simple shift jumped up and down to the music and cackled her delight. Thelma knew the band members, of course, and introduced us, and they played some of the wonderful old-time tunes especially for us while couples danced in the streets.

After we packed and left Raquel's beautiful home, we visited a family of musicians and were invited to join them at their table at the Havana Hilton at 11:00 pm. They are an unusually handsome family, all talented musicians and composers, so we were excited to know that we would have a taste of Havana nightlife before we left We went to Thelma's house and rested before dressing and having a light meal.

Emilio joined us as we drove downtown along darkened streets to the Havana Hilton where we met up with the entire family and went to the top floor to the Club Cuba Libre.We were seated behind the stage and a bottle of rum, glasses with ice and cans of Coca-Cola were set out for us. Yes, Coca-Cola has made it past the Embargo, perhaps funded by the State as a small concession to an international favorite.

While we chatted with the band members we watched a strange fashion show that preceded the music. Both men and women paraded in a variety of outfits that spanned beach wear, skimpy dresses for the Club scene, baggy pants for men cut much like tribal North African Bedouin pants, and more. Just before midnight the band members went to the stage as music straight out of Star Wars blasted from loud speakers heralding the rolling back of the roof. It was a warm, clear, star-lit night with a full moon shining on Havana; when the music began I felt as if I could fly.

At first they played Timba, the fast-moving popular Cuban variety of salsa, but then the music shifted to a fusion of salsa, Samba-reggae from Brazil, and the particular style of the group. I dragged Thelma onto the floor with me but she gave out after half the song. I felt tired but I remembered how, in my dancing days, you need to push through until your muscles are warm and then you can dance forever.

As "forever" would be over in only forty minutes I decided to stay dancing with the young and beautiful locals; I'm sure I was twenty years older than the oldest dancers on the floor. It was wonderful! Nearly everyone was dancing side by side as a group, following the lead of the band and singing along. They are clearly a popular group with a large following. When the music finally came to an end a man standing next to me came over to speak. I said, "Now I can say that I have danced under a full moon in Havana. I am an American!" He grabbed me in his arms and said, "You are a princess." I was so happy for the compliment that I didn't correct him regarding my title. I was soaking wet on the humid dance floor, looking at the beautiful moon over Havana, and thinking of how grateful I am to be alive and able to continue to dance through life.

After three hours of sleep we arose, loaded our bags into the sagging Lada, and headed for the airport. The moon hung low in the sky and mist rose from the ground, giving everything an ethereal appearance, much like the magic realism that I associate with Latin America. It would be another hot day in Havana.

A RETURN TO SOUTHERN MEXICO

Nearly fifteen years ago I first traveled by ADO from Puebla to Tuxpan then to Papantla, center of the Mexican vanilla industry. I had spoken about vanilla at an international conference sponsored by the Autonomous University of Mexico, which focused on the 500 years of the crossover of the Old and New food traditions. Six years earlier The Vanilla Cookbook had come out and I was finally visiting Papantla for the first time, hoping to see the vanilla growers and the plantations I had written about.

This first trip turned into a nearly yearly adventure where I learned much about the legacy of Mexican vanilla, which later became the backbone of my book on the history of vanilla. It had been five years since my last visit, however, and I was both excited to be returning to see my Mexican "family" as well as to teach a seminar on how to launch a successful marketing campaign for the promotion of Mexican vanilla.

Ironically, despite having spent so much time in the region, I had never visited the port city of Veracruz, famous for being close to Boca del Rio where Cortes and his entourage came ashore to claim Mexico for Spain, for being the base of the Mexican Navy, and for being the birthplace of Danzon, a sensual dance with roots in Cuba.

After spending most of the day in the Cancun airport we left for Veracruz. The weather had turned cloudy and windy but I thought little of it. However, I noticed that our plane was bucking heavy headwinds as we circled over the Port and onto the landing strip. In fact, a northerly had come in with gale-force winds and heavy rain to the north. It was probably 55 degrees Fahrenheit, not the hot, sultry port I had anticipated.

My dear friend Norma Vallejo met me and we headed into town to my hotel to sign me in and to leave the car. We drove through the old streets of Veracruz that eventually come into the downtown plaza area, with old colonial buildings and a cathedral surrounding the heart center of town. My hotel was two short blocks away from the plaza, nestled inside the walls of an old church with beautifully landscaped gardens and a pool in the center. Unfortunately, it was impossible to imagine enjoying the beautiful gardens in a gale.

We leaned into the wind and walked the plaza and on to dinner in the Emporio, a famous old hotel on the square. The windows rattled as the wind gusted against them. I had not brought warm clothing and was bundled in a sweater and light jacket. All I could think of was a bowl of hot soup. Back at the plaza a folkloric performance of the jorochas was being performed. Young men and women in white danced to the music famous to this region. La Bamba is perhaps the most well-known of the jorochas, lyrical music played on the guitar, jarana and harp. The dancers were the best of a competition that had taken place and they were a delight to watch.

The Olmec women who normally hawk their wares around the plaza were bundled in wool blankets, packing up and leaving early as no one was there to haggle over their offerings. No danzon in the park, only musicians lined up, hopeful that someone would have a party or gathering and need their services. Few people sat at the many tables of open-air cafes, and people laughed as they bent into the wind, struggling to walk. We parted early for a good night's sleep and touring the following morning.

Monday was still grey and windy though not quite as wild as the night before. We had an excellent breakfast at a café and then Norma took me along the malecon and down the Coast to Boca del Rio. No longer a sleepy hamlet or vestiges of the Conquest, Boca del Rio is a resort town filled with million dollar homes and fancy spa hotels. We came back along the malecon where the ships were lined up in their berths and sailors walked along the streets. I attempted to take some photos but mainly got sand in my freshly washed hair, my ears, my eyes and my mouth. Inland seemed like a better option.

We returned to the plaza area and went down a street famous for its delectable fruit ices and ice creams. Normally shills call out a rapid, "huerra, huerra, huerra," to draw in buyers; few people were interested in cold desserts in the blustery weather. However, we weren't about to pass up a tropical specialty unavailable in the United States: guanabana ice! If you ever have the opportunity to try guanabana, do it! It is a delicate white fruit with black seeds the size of raisins and often left in the ice cream or beverages made from this fragile treasure. Despite the cold it was so refreshing and brought back wonderful memories of enjoying this fruit, available usually in the winter and spring.

After visiting some of the shops we headed north to Totonocapan, the land of the Totonacs. I enjoyed the lush countryside and rocky outcroppings I had never before seen, all unfamiliar until we came to Los Moros, a great seafood restaurant near Nautla, about an hour south of Papantla. This was the furthest south I had traveled in the past. We had freshly caught fish and fried bananas before returning to the road to Normas beautiful cottage in the country.

Norma left her career in Mexico City to come back to Papantla to run her parents' ranches. They have Swiss dairy cows, a mozzarella cheese business and a vanilla plantation, with additional crops such as bananas and chile. The two ranches are near each other; Norma lives near the small village of Poyutla.

Norma's father Victor helped to design and oversaw the building of her perfect two-bedroom country home. It sports the beautiful and practical thatched roof of traditional Totonac homes, thick stucco walls and ceilings to keep out the intense tropical heat, and a beautiful covered patio that looks out into the jungle. A small river runs below the house and the air is filled with the sound of water and tropical birds. There was no tropical heat when we arrived, however. We warmed up with cups of hot tea and then went to sleep under mosquito netting to protect against mosquitoes carrying dengue, which was currently in the area.

I asked Norma if she had ever read "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen. She looked at me in surprise; although she hadn't read the book, the movie was her inspiration for coming back to run the family ranches and to leave city comforts for the rich solitude of the countryside. I promised to get her a copy of the book, a favorite of mine, in English as this is the language Karen Blixen used for her many stories despite her Danish origins.

I could have happily spent my entire visit at Norma's ranch, listening to the birds and walking in the shade-cloth houses with the vanilla. Sadly, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to curl up on the couch on her beautiful patio and read books or talk with her about the dreams and challenges she experiences in her new life. The following morning we traveled the crushed rock roads in the farm truck to Papantla to prepare for the seminar, to be held the following day. It was very emotional for me to be back in noisy, dirty, but always fascinating Papantla, or Kachikin as it is known by the Totonacs on the ranches outside of town. I feel a deep connection with the people of Papantla; it is my second home.

While I had written the seminar before I left the States, I had been concerned from the beginning about my ability to lead the seminar as it would be in Spanish. My Spanish has grown rusty from lack of constant use. I can converse without a problem, but leading a seminar is quite different from conversing with a friend or shopkeeper. My concerns were real and I soon turned over the seminar to Norma's skillful leadership. I provided her with the exercises and discussion points and she did a masterful job of breathing life into the program. It was a daylong program with a two-hour break in the afternoon for lunch at a restaurant near the ruins of El Tajin and for visiting.

It was so exciting to see friends again, to be in familiar territory and eating the delicious food typical of the region. I was also struck by the huge differences between Cuba and Southern Mexico and wished that Karen had been able to travel with me to see how different the two countries are. Although we were in a metropolitan city in Cuba and Papantla is a rural, agricultural city, the contrast still held true. Southern Mexico has a strong indigenous heritage, with two parallel but very different cultures existing side-by-side. There is an invisible but very distinct wall between these two cultures. While each group depends on the other and constantly crosses back and forth between the two worlds, each retreats into their familiar space when the day is done. To the Totonacs, the land is communal and to be used by whomever needs it; for the Mestizos who have ranches and run businesses, having chickens and pigs rooting up their crops or women digging mud from the river for their kitchen floors, the concept of communal land creates problems that need to be addressed carefully in an attempt to avoid the unavoidable friction of cultural perceptions.

While Veracruz state is arguably one of the richest in Mexico with its petroleum fields, livestock, abundant tropical commodities such as coffee, vanilla and cacao, it can't possibly compare with the culture and wealth of Cuba. The Veracruz rain forest was 98% intact at the beginning of the twentieth century; within fifty years most of the forest had been cut down by the petroleum workers who laid oil lines to Mexico City and put up derricks where once there had been tropical hardwoods.

Cuba's forests are largely intact and the countryside has been maintained by the community out of necessity, using the most modern sustainable agriculture. While this is somewhat more common now in the Mestizo community, the Totonacs have retained their ancient practices of slash and burn and planting that served them well when there was abundant land available to them, but has long since changed and become more problematic.

More than anything else, I was struck by the difference in the rhythm of the two countries, whether it was in daily life or in celebration. Cuba is more sophisticated and more uninhibited in dance and daily interchange. Southern Mexico is more conservative and subdued. This doesn't mean they don't love to dance or celebrate, but they are more circumspect in showing their emotions.

In Cuba there appears to be a sense of unity that doesn't exist in Mexico in my experience. This is extrapolation on my part and there may be arguments that would shoot down my observations, but having lived in Guatemala and having spent a lot of time in Mexico, this is what I believe to be true. Most of Latin America has a strong caste or class system established during the Colonial years and that has remained strongly in place. This system affects most of the way things are done, including the way that vanilla is bought and sold. There are old families who have controlled the curing and drying of vanilla and who make the lion's share of the profits. Despite a real desire by the majority of growers to change this balance, it is difficult to create new paradigms. Looking at the vanilla industry I'm dismayed that there are three separate vanilla associations in one small region. This doesn't include the growers to the south in San Rafael or the growers in Oaxaca or Chiapas. Each association wants to manage the vanilla their way. The result, of course, is that nothing changes. My hope was that the seminar would get the attendees to think outside the box, to make a paradigm shift so that they could work in unity to support everyone. From my perception, this is the only way that the industry can thrive. But my perception may not be the best one as I am seeing their problems through my cultural lens, one that may not address their needs in a way that will serve them. Certainly Norma and some of the other members of the younger generation understand that things must change in order to move forward, but for those still holding on to the way things were, or those who believe they cannot change the existing structure, this is not a option. I want the Mexican industry to thrive; only time will tell if this is possible.

Much has changed in Papantla since my first visit fifteen years ago. There has been an exodus from other areas of Mexico to the Gulf Coast and therefore many newcomers. This has caused a shift in the "small town" character of the city. The newest generation of Totonac youth has been strongly impacted by the media. They no longer wear their traditional clothing, instead attempting to be as modern and "Westernized" as possible.

There are some new restaurants in town, Internet cafes, and Papantla's first "Big Box" grocery and dry-goods store, small and limited by big city standards, but nevertheless a place where products can be bought in bulk. It is so apparent after a long absence how life has moved on. Children that I knew as babies and toddlers are now in high-school or college. Long-time friends are much older, some having retired, some now infirm or dead.

My friend Heriberto Larios has all but abandoned his traditional vanilla plantation overlooking the ancient cities of El Tajin, and now has property near Cazuelas, a small hamlet outside of town, with a beautiful, established orchard filled with mangoes, papayas, bananas, citrus and coconut palms and an old house that needs to be torn down and replaced. Vanilla vines hang from orange trees and wooden trellises and an arroyo separates the land, providing the water that the traditional plantation lacked. Berto's daughter Luci is taking over the management of his plantation and business for him and has dreams of building a small home in Cazuelos though the problem of poisonous definitely gives her moment for pause.

In the countryside people still use burros and horses for transportation, homes are still simple and children still walk to school after gathering the day's water from the local well or tending to livestock and other farm chores. Fortunately, the traditional nixtamal where corn is ground fresh each day for tortillas, still exists and the tortillas continue to be flavorful and delicious fresh off the comal. I couldn't get enough of them as well as bocales and tamales wrapped in banana leaves. My opportunities were fleeting however – just a few servings in the homes of friends. I had only one full day to visit everyone, an impossible task.

I stayed with Norma's parents, Victor and Gloria, in town Friday night and visited her sister Alma Saturday morning. I saw my Totonac "brother," Joaquin Morales on the ride to Poza Rica to catch my bus to Mexico City. I hadn’t seen Joaquin since 1998 as he worked for several years in the Lacandon rain forest, overseeing a vanilla plantation. I had seen his family, who had remained in town, but it has been five years and his eldest child is at the university in Xalapa and the youngest is ten years old. I drank in everything as deeply as possible before arriving at the bus station.

Even the bus ride was fascinating. It takes five and a half hours to climb slowly from the Gulf Coast to the high plains of the Valley of Mexico. It is an education to watch the changes in plants from the deep tropics to the high desert plateau. The buses are newer and more comfortable but they still show terrible movies and the volume is still deafening. The price is still excellent, however, about fifteen dollars to travel 170 miles! The weather had warmed a bit for a day or so but another northerly was blowing in from the States as I left, and it began to rain as we reached the summit of the Sierra Madre Oriental, roughly 8000 feet above sea level.

Except for the fact that they couldn't find my reservation for fifteen minutes, a real concern as I hadn't brought a credit card with me, my Mexico City hotel was perfect. It was not far from the bus station and was only five minutes from the airport with a shuttle running every fifteen minutes around the clock. It was modern, clean, very comfortable, quite affordable and had a casual restaurant with surprisingly good food. I had two bowls of delicious soup, a hot shower, and fell into bed as wakeup time was 4:00 a.m. in order to catch an early plane back to the States.

My feet were firmly planted between two worlds, the one that was ready to return home to my own bed and to my beloved grandsons, the other yearning to remain in Mexico or to return to Cuba, where time was malleable and the responsibilities of daily life were far away. However, if the jatropha project we are in the process of launching takes off as we plan, I will again be traveling south to the other world where part of my heart remains.

The Story of Zakarya Abdulrihaman

2007-01-25T16:35:00.000-08:00

The Story of Zakarya Abdulrihaman

Today I'm sharing with you the story of my son whom I have never met in person. I'm sharing this story for a couple of compelling reasons. First, that a young man in Somalia and a mature woman in the United States would forge such a deep bond despite never having met is truly remarkable. It represents the extraordinary power of the World Wide Web. The second is that it is my hope that by sharing this story with as many people as possible, a door will open that will allow Zakarya to come to the United States for an education and work, our shared wildest, greatest dream.

In early April, 2003, I received a note from Zak saying, "I am a Somali boy of 21 years. I now have decided to farm vanilla but I don't know where to sell my harvest, which will be due in a couple of months… I would be very gratified to attain your precious guidance. Yours faithfully…. " I wrote back and said that I needed more information – was the vanilla green or cured? How much vanilla was he selling? This was during the crisis when vanilla was in great demand and I received letters from farmers nearly daily. What was unique about his story was that he was in Somalia, and that he and his father were the only vanilla farmers in Somalia since colonial times.

The next letter from Zak informed me that a local insurgency had broken out, that he would contact me again when he could. I responded saying that I would be here and to contact me when he could. I added, "Please take care of yourself. I care."

The next note was wrenching. He said, "Thank you for your gold hearted comment. It brought tears to my eyes. I never ever felt happy this much. Since the death of my mother my days have been dark and dull. Now it's better than any present to know that someone really cares. I'm very much grateful for every help you have given me. With lots of luv, Zakarya A." And thus our incredible story began.

Within the next three weeks I learned that his entire extended family had been massacred during the horrifying civil war that has raged in Somalia since Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 and the country fell into anarchy. He was orphaned as a teenager and survived by his wits. He came from a wealthy family who lived about 80 km from Mogadishu, in the narrow band of arable land in Somalia. His father was a banana producer and Zak had been home-schooled. He learned about vanilla from the Internet and told his father about it. His father had seen wild vines left over from colonial times growing by the Shebele River and so they gathered the vines and began to grow the vanilla. Then the family was murdered and their home destroyed. He continued to live in the shell of the home and grew the vanilla, but he wasn't sure how to cure and dry it and then find a market, which is when he contacted me.

In one of his letters he wrote about his beans and how grateful he was that I would take the time for him. "Auntie, my beans are not yet goldish yellow at the tips. Is it okay to send you green beans for sampling in case of emergency? Currently you are the only one who cares about me. I do not know how to pay back your kindness. May God bless your kind soul. Your Somalian nephew."

I responded with long letters, giving him advice about vanilla, but more, giving him as much love and hope as I could send via the Internet. His situation was dire and I felt helpless to ease it, so I did what I could to help him feel cared about and connected, reaching out across the thousands of miles separating us as if he were my own child.

One morning I received a message mid-morning saying, "Auntie, I'm sorry this reply is so short. At this moment there is heavy gunfire, but I will reply. God will decide my fate. The roads are really dangerous…Things are bad right now. I have to go. Pray for my safety. If God lets me live another 24 hours I will be in a safe place. Bye dear auntie." My assistant Gina and I both burst into tears when I read this note out loud. Holding each other, we prayed for this brave young man, that he should remain alive despite the odds.

We heard nothing for several weeks. In the meantime I sent messages of hope and asked my friends to write to him as well. His Yahoo account became jammed and I had to contact Yahoo to ask them to clear out the spam or give him a larger box. When I explained why it mattered, they did it immediately. Finally one day we received a letter. He had been struck by shrapnel but was starting to heal. He said, "This morning when I read your letters and the ones from many well wishers my heart gave away. I cried so hard that the people around me thought I had lost a loved one. Many of them saying quickly murmured apologies. I am very moved by your actions. I thank you with all my heart for your prayers and care."

It was at this point that I told him that as his elder and as his aunt, he must leave Somalia and go to Uganda where I knew vanilla farmers who would take him in. He struggled over leaving his family land and the vanilla he worked so hard to raise. Once gone, he would lose the land forever. At the same time he knew that if he stayed he would die. So one night Zakarya left Somalia on a trek through Kenya to Uganda. All he had were the clothes on his back, a small amount of cash and my e-mail address. I still don't know the exact night he left; I didn't hear from him for three months and I feared that he had died.

Then one day I received a note telling me that he was in the home of a woman Somali refugee and her children in the slums of Kampala. His body was worn out from the journey and he was wracked with malaria. I attempted to send him money but it was stolen by the woman's uncle who claimed he had been robbed after picking it up. And then the nightmares began to overtake his mind and body.

Now that Zak was in a safe place the horrors that had been suppressed for the previous three years hit him full-force. He had a breakdown from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I had suggested he contact someone who was ready to take him in but he never returned to meet the man. It was eight months before I learned that he had been hospitalized with PTSD and malaria. It was also during this time that I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and told to put my affairs in order. It was a dark time for us both.

It was Mariam who located Zak for me and finally got in touch with him. Mariam is my niece, the same Mariam of "Mariam's Cows" who will be coming to the Women Leaders for the World cohort at Santa Clara University this year. She went into the slum, found Zak and brought him money from me. He was very ill with pneumonia; Mariam said he looked like the starving children in Ethiopia we see on posters. He was amazed that I had remembered me after so many months. How could I possibly forget?

The next two years were very difficult for Zak. While he speaks fluent English (very unusual in Somalia) and KiSwahili, he doesn't speak Luganda, the language of Uganda. He also didn't have working papers; even if he had, getting work is very difficult in Kampala, which has tens of thousands of refugees who have fled wars in Northern Uganda, the Congo, Somalia and Darfur. By the time that he was well, the vanilla prices had collapsed and the farmers couldn't afford to take him in and give him work.

Zak and I remained in touch via the Internet and occasional phone calls, and I sent him what cash I could to keep him alive. He was resourceful but he often lived on the streets and frequently caught pneumonia. I was in cancer treatment and faced with huge medical bills so I couldn't give him the financial support he needed to survive or even to bribe low-level UN officials for a place in the filthy refugee camps. Although he knew I had cancer he didn't know that it was serious. He had enough to manage without worrying about me.

In early 2006 Zak heard that the UN was going back into Somalia to help rebuild the northern part of the country (much safer than the South). He wanted to return home to help in the rebuilding of his country so we needed to find a way to get him there. Then, through my network with the Global Women's Leadership Network, an extremely generous woman gave him the funds to travel by bus to Kenya and then by plane to Puntland, or Northern Somalia.

When Zak arrived he found that these were all ghost projects (see below in his description of the war). Daily life was very, very bad for everyone. Anarchy reigned and gangs of young men were unemployed, desperate and easily signed into the Islamic extremist militias or with clan warlords. Wanting to find work for these young men, Zak learned all that he could about solar power and I connected him with "Solar Mike" a solar specialist here in Santa Cruz. They worked out a plan but the costs were phenomenal to launch the project and Mike couldn't find anyone to donate materials. A project that could have helped the locals died before it could be started.

With options exhausted and no paying work, Zak and I were at a loss for what to do next. Then the war escalated in Mogadishu and the bombings began. While the worst violence is in Southern Somalia, the entire country has been affected. We decided that the best strategy would be to get him out of the country as soon as possible. I wrote twice to the Office of Tropical Immigration in Nairobi but they didn't respond. I met another generous woman who said she'd pay for his trip to Nairobi. Then the borders closed. Planes are leaving from Northern Somalia but security is tight and bribes are crucial for getting out. For the moment, it's a waiting game. Even if we get him out of Somalia, the question is, where should he go? And how can we get him to the US?

In the meantime, we communicate when we can. There is no way to send money directly to Somalia as Western Union doesn't serve the country. I cannot call in. Phone cards are very expensive so Zak can't call out or e-mail me except when he has gotten extra schillings from a short-term job. I recently sent him $100 through someone in Nairobi. By the time the money was transferred to a service from Nairobi to Somalia and the middlemen took their cuts, he got $40.00.

Zak is surviving by teaching village children English. The families are grateful for his help. They believe that the way to survive in the future is to "speak the white man's language." A college professor with no English is considered less valuable than a man on the street who speaks English. Zak's English is impeccable so he has value. In exchange for teaching the children, local people have given him a place to sleep and food.

Occasionally someone helps pay for his calling card so he can be in touch with me. We always begin with "I love you," and then the most important questions and answers about his survival and my health as the money quickly runs out on the phone cards. If we are blessed with extra time he asks about my grandsons and how I'm doing. He told me a couple of months ago that when things are bleak (and believe me, the war and desperate poverty has covered this once magnificent country with vast bleakness), he goes into his fantasy life where he imagines being in daily family life with me, my daughter and son-in-law and my grandsons Theo and Zane. I named a little cat that moved in with me after him, something that deeply touched him. I share the everyday stories that help to keep him connected with a reality more happy than the one he is living. And when we have the luxury to talk for more than a few minutes, we have the easy relationship of the adult child and parent. I know his deepest secrets and he worries about me as much as I worry about him. It was a great gift to him to know that at this time I'm doing very well.

This is why Zak is my son and I'm his mother. A petit white woman and a very tall black man from different cultures, religions and lives. Together we continue to look for the right door that will open and allow him to come to the US. Ideally he should go to college as he is extremely intelligent. In addition to his language skills he has sales and computer skills. He has learned to survive under unimaginable conditions. He is dedicated to peace and harmony and would be a hard-working, devoted employee. If you have any substantial ideas on how we can get Zak to the US, please let us know!

Finally, I asked Zak recently to give me his insider's view on the war in Somalia. It's difficult to learn much from the media and even more difficult to know how accurate it is. The following is a condensed version of what he has written to me:

"Why Somalia has been in war for the past sixteen years is not understandable even by we who have participated in it. For me it was a matter of life and death. For others it was war booty and territorial control. For some it has been revenge and vengeance. But one factor is very clear: tribalism has been a major fuel in this crisis. Somalians (actually most Africans) rely a lot on tribal identification for jobs, food, marriage, physical support and then manpower during war."Every nation has its susceptibilities and wicked people use people's susceptibilities for self gain. In Somalia, if I want to be a warlord, all I have to do is call together the elders of my clan, have enough capital for guns artillery and bombs and at least a few hundred hungry youth who will give allegiance to the cause just because in some vague way they are related to me. The elders will support me as I will have money for the elders'
salaries and khat (a mildly euphoric drug).

We will then make road tolls and begin collecting dues from passing cars. We will also take money from major business people to assure safe passage of their goods. All UN and other organisations under my area of jurisdiction will have to get the go-ahead from me to operate, and thus, the promotion of ghost projects and my clan members. A few years in this way and we are a force to reckon with. With more power comes the hunger for more territory and thus more bloodshed. The main cause of this endless bloodshed is the Somalian tribal philosophy, which is used by cunning warlords to achieve their own needs.The streets of Mogadishu are safe for the Hawiye clan.but not for Ethiopians and the peace-keeping forces. The Hawiye see this as another invasion of the Majerteen (a clan that is originally from Puntland, Northern Somalia) into their territory despite the fact that the prime minister of the interim government is Hawiye. They have been swearing not to let another Majerteen to rule them after Siad Barre (a ruthless dictator thrown over in 1991, which threw the country into anarchy) who was Majerteen. Siad Barre's clan has been ruined though there are a few clusters active in Kismaayo where they have forged allegiance with the interim government under Gen.Bari Hiiraale. But these clusters have been largely wiped out by the Islamic courts before the recent campaign. Siad Barre too sowed the seed of hatred that has brought unimaginable harvests of blood.
Somalians, especially Hawiye, will have to be killed in large numbers to achieve peace, because most Hawiye believe the moment the Majerteen take over the government it will be disastrous for them and that we, the Majerteen, will seek revenge for the atrocities they committed against our families and properties in the past. But, amazingly enough, Somalia has never been closer to achieving peace than now.

WHAT SHOULD A BILLIONAIRE GIVE -- AND WHAT SHOULD YOU?

2006-12-29T19:48:00.001-08:00

This rather long piece from the New York Times, December 17th, is an important article that looks at modern philanthropy, what motivates people like Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's generosity, our feelings about their generosity, and what the American government provides to the world in foreign aid. I found this article thought-provoking and well worth ready. Hopefully you will too.

By PETER SINGER
What is a human life worth? You may not want to put a price tag on a it. But if we really had to, most of us would agree that the value of a human life would be in the millions. Consistent with the foundations of our democracy and our frequently professed belief in the inherent dignity of human beings, we would also agree that all humans are created equal, at least to the extent of denying that differences of sex, ethnicity, nationality and place of residence change the value of a human life.

With Christmas approaching, and Americans writing checks to their favorite charities, it�s a good time to ask how these two beliefs � that a human life, if it can be priced at all, is worth millions, and that the factors I have mentioned do not alter the value of a human life � square with our actions. Perhaps this year such questions lurk beneath the surface of more family discussions than usual, for it has been an extraordinary year for philanthropy, especially philanthropy to fight global poverty.

For Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, the ideal of valuing all human life equally began to jar against reality some years ago, when he read an article about diseases in the developing world and came across the statistic that half a million children die every year from rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea in children. He had never heard of rotavirus. �How could I never have heard of something that kills half a million children every year?� he asked himself. He then learned that in developing countries, millions of children die from diseases that have been eliminated, or virtually eliminated, in the United States. That shocked him because he assumed that, if there are vaccines and treatments that could save lives, governments would be doing everything possible to get them to the people who need them. As Gates told a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year, he and his wife, Melinda, �couldn�t escape the brutal conclusion that � in our world today � some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not.� They said to themselves, �This can�t be true.� But they knew it was.

Gates�s speech to the World Health Assembly concluded on an optimistic note, looking forward to the next decade when �people will finally accept that the death of a child in the developing world is just as tragic as the death of a child in the developed world.� That belief in the equal value of all human life is also prominent on the Web site of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where under Our Values we read: �All lives � no matter where they are being led � have equal value.�

We are very far from acting in accordance with that belief. In the same world in which more than a billion people live at a level of affluence never previously known, roughly a billion other people struggle to survive on the purchasing power equivalent of less than one U.S. dollar per day. Most of the world�s poorest people are undernourished, lack access to safe drinking water or even the most basic health services and cannot send their children to school. According to Unicef, more than 10 million children die every year � about 30,000 per day � from avoidable, poverty-related causes.

Last June the investor Warren Buffett took a significant step toward reducing those deaths when he pledged $31 billion to the Gates Foundation, and another $6 billion to other charitable foundations. Buffett�s pledge, set alongside the nearly $30 billion given by Bill and Melinda Gates to their foundation, has made it clear that the first decade of the 21st century is a new �golden age of philanthropy.� On an inflation-adjusted basis, Buffett has pledged to give more than double the lifetime total given away by two of the philanthropic giants of the past, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, put together. Bill and Melinda Gates�s gifts are not far behind.

Gates�s and Buffett�s donations will now be put to work primarily to reduce poverty, disease and premature death in the developing world. According to the Global Forum for Health Research, less than 10 percent of the world�s health research budget is spent on combating conditions that account for 90 percent of the global burden of disease. In the past, diseases that affect only the poor have been of no commercial interest to pharmaceutical manufacturers, because the poor cannot afford to buy their products. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), heavily supported by the Gates Foundation, seeks to change this by guaranteeing to purchase millions of doses of vaccines, when they are developed, that can prevent diseases like malaria. GAVI has also assisted developing countries to immunize more people with existing vaccines: 99 million additional children have been reached to date. By doing this, GAVI claims to have already averted nearly 1.7 million future deaths.

Philanthropy on this scale raises many ethical questions: Why are the people who are giving doing so? Does it do any good? Should we praise them for giving so much or criticize them for not giving still more? Is it troubling that such momentous decisions are made by a few extremely wealthy individuals? And how do our judgments about them reflect on our own way of living?

Let�s start with the question of motives. The rich must � or so some of us with less money like to assume � suffer sleepless nights because of their ruthlessness in squeezing out competitors, firing workers, shutting down plants or whatever else they have to do to acquire their wealth. When wealthy people give away money, we can always say that they are doing it to ease their consciences or generate favorable publicity. It has been suggested � by, for example, David Kirkpatrick, a senior editor at Fortune magazine � that Bill Gates�s turn to philanthropy was linked to the antitrust problems Microsoft had in the U.S. and the European Union. Was Gates, consciously or subconsciously, trying to improve his own image and that of his company?

This kind of sniping tells us more about the attackers than the attacked. Giving away large sums, rather than spending the money on corporate advertising or developing new products, is not a sensible strategy for increasing personal wealth. When we read that someone has given away a lot of their money, or time, to help others, it challenges us to think about our own behavior. Should we be following their example, in our own modest way? But if the rich just give their money away to improve their image, or to make up for past misdeeds � misdeeds quite unlike any we have committed, of course � then, conveniently, what they are doing has no relevance to what we ought to do.

A famous story is told about Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century English philosopher, who argued that we all act in our own interests. On seeing him give alms to a beggar, a cleric asked Hobbes if he would have done this if Christ had not commanded us to do so. Yes, Hobbes replied, he was in pain to see the miserable condition of the old man, and his gift, by providing the man with some relief from that misery, also eased Hobbes�s pain. That reply reconciles Hobbes�s charity with his egoistic theory of human motivation, but at the cost of emptying egoism of much of its bite. If egoists suffer when they see a stranger in distress, they are capable of being as charitable as any altruist.

Followers of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant would disagree. They think an act has moral worth only if it is done out of a sense of duty. Doing something merely because you enjoy doing it, or enjoy seeing its consequences, they say, has no moral worth, because if you happened not to enjoy doing it, then you wouldn�t do it, and you are not responsible for your likes and dislikes, whereas you are responsible for your obedience to the demands of duty.

Perhaps some philanthropists are motivated by their sense of duty. Apart from the equal value of all human life, the other �simple value� that lies at the core of the work of the Gates Foundation, according to its Web site, is �To whom much has been given, much is expected.� That suggests the view that those who have great wealth have a duty to use it for a larger purpose than their own interests. But while such questions of motive may be relevant to our assessment of Gates�s or Buffett�s character, they pale into insignificance when we consider the effect of what Gates and Buffett are doing. The parents whose children could die from rotavirus care more about getting the help that will save their children�s lives than about the motivations of those who make that possible.

Interestingly, neither Gates nor Buffett seems motivated by the possibility of being rewarded in heaven for his good deeds on earth. Gates told a Time interviewer, �There�s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning� than going to church. Put them together with Andrew Carnegie, famous for his freethinking, and three of the four greatest American philanthropists have been atheists or agnostics. (The exception is John D. Rockefeller.) In a country in which 96 percent of the population say they believe in a supreme being, that�s a striking fact. It means that in one sense, Gates and Buffett are probably less self-interested in their charity than someone like Mother Teresa, who as a pious Roman Catholic believed in reward and punishment in the afterlife.

More important than questions about motives are questions about whether there is an obligation for the rich to give, and if so, how much they should give. A few years ago, an African-American cabdriver taking me to the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington asked me if I worked at the bank. I told him I did not but was speaking at a conference on development and aid. He then assumed that I was an economist, but when I said no, my training was in philosophy, he asked me if I thought the U.S. should give foreign aid. When I answered affirmatively, he replied that the government shouldn�t tax people in order to give their money to others. That, he thought, was robbery. When I asked if he believed that the rich should voluntarily donate some of what they earn to the poor, he said that if someone had worked for his money, he wasn�t going to tell him what to do with it.

At that point we reached our destination. Had the journey continued, I might have tried to persuade him that people can earn large amounts only when they live under favorable social circumstances, and that they don�t create those circumstances by themselves. I could have quoted Warren Buffett�s acknowledgment that society is responsible for much of his wealth. �If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru,� he said, �you�ll find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil.� The Nobel Prize-winning economist and social scientist Herbert Simon estimated that �social capital� is responsible for at least 90 percent of what people earn in wealthy societies like those of the United States or northwestern Europe. By social capital Simon meant not only natural resources but, more important, the technology and organizational skills in the community, and the presence of good government. These are the foundation on which the rich can begin their work. �On moral grounds,� Simon added, �we could argue for a flat income tax of 90 percent.� Simon was not, of course, advocating so steep a rate of tax, for he was well aware of disincentive effects. But his estimate does undermine the argument that the rich are entitled to keep their wealth because it is all a result of their hard work. If Simon is right, that is true of at most 10 percent of it.

In any case, even if we were to grant that people deserve every dollar they earn, that doesn�t answer the question of what they should do with it. We might say that they have a right to spend it on lavish parties, private jets and luxury yachts, or, for that matter, to flush it down the toilet. But we could still think that for them to do these things while others die from easily preventable diseases is wrong. In an article I wrote more than three decades ago, at the time of a humanitarian emergency in what is now Bangladesh, I used the example of walking by a shallow pond and seeing a small child who has fallen in and appears to be in danger of drowning. Even though we did nothing to cause the child to fall into the pond, almost everyone agrees that if we can save the child at minimal inconvenience or trouble to ourselves, we ought to do so. Anything else would be callous, indecent and, in a word, wrong. The fact that in rescuing the child we may, for example, ruin a new pair of shoes is not a good reason for allowing the child to drown. Similarly if for the cost of a pair of shoes we can contribute to a health program in a developing country that stands a good chance of saving the life of a child, we ought to do so.

Perhaps, though, our obligation to help the poor is even stronger than this example implies, for we are less innocent than the passer-by who did nothing to cause the child to fall into the pond. Thomas Pogge, a philosopher at Columbia University, has argued that at least some of our affluence comes at the expense of the poor. He bases this claim not simply on the usual critique of the barriers that Europe and the United States maintain against agricultural imports from developing countries but also on less familiar aspects of our trade with developing countries. For example, he points out that international corporations are willing to make deals to buy natural resources from any government, no matter how it has come to power. This provides a huge financial incentive for groups to try to overthrow the existing government. Successful rebels are rewarded by being able to sell off the nation�s oil, minerals or timber.

In their dealings with corrupt dictators in developing countries, Pogge asserts, international corporations are morally no better than someone who knowingly buys stolen goods � with the difference that the international legal and political order recognizes the corporations, not as criminals in possession of stolen goods but as the legal owners of the goods they have bought. This situation is, of course, beneficial for the industrial nations, because it enables us to obtain the raw materials we need to maintain our prosperity, but it is a disaster for resource-rich developing countries, turning the wealth that should benefit them into a curse that leads to a cycle of coups, civil wars and corruption and is of little benefit to the people as a whole.

In this light, our obligation to the poor is not just one of providing assistance to strangers but one of compensation for harms that we have caused and are still causing them. It might be argued that we do not owe the poor compensation, because our affluence actually benefits them. Living luxuriously, it is said, provides employment, and so wealth trickles down, helping the poor more effectively than aid does. But the rich in industrialized nations buy virtually nothing that is made by the very poor. During the past 20 years of economic globalization, although expanding trade has helped lift many of the world�s poor out of poverty, it has failed to benefit the poorest 10 percent of the world�s population. Some of the extremely poor, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, have nothing to sell that rich people want, while others lack the infrastructure to get their goods to market. If they can get their crops to a port, European and U.S. subsidies often mean that they cannot sell them, despite � as for example in the case of West African cotton growers who compete with vastly larger and richer U.S. cotton producers � having a lower production cost than the subsidized producers in the rich nations.

The remedy to these problems, it might reasonably be suggested, should come from the state, not from private philanthropy. When aid comes through the government, everyone who earns above the tax-free threshold contributes something, with more collected from those with greater ability to pay. Much as we may applaud what Gates and Buffett are doing, we can also be troubled by a system that leaves the fate of hundreds of millions of people hanging on the decisions of two or three private citizens. But the amount of foreign development aid given by the U.S. government is, at 22 cents for every $100 the nation earns, about the same, as a percentage of gross national income, as Portugal gives and about half that of the U.K. Worse still, much of it is directed where it best suits U.S. strategic interests � Iraq is now by far the largest recipient of U.S. development aid, and Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Afghanistan all rank in the Top 10. Less than a quarter of official U.S. development aid � barely a nickel in every $100 of our G.N.I. � goes to the world�s poorest nations.

Adding private philanthropy to U.S. government aid improves this picture, because Americans privately give more per capita to international philanthropic causes than the citizens of almost any other nation. Even when private donations are included, however, countries like Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands give three or four times as much foreign aid, in proportion to the size of their economies, as the U.S. gives � with a much larger percentage going to the poorest nations. At least as things now stand, the case for philanthropic efforts to relieve global poverty is not susceptible to the argument that the government has taken care of the problem. And even if official U.S. aid were better-directed and comparable, relative to our gross domestic product, with that of the most generous nations, there would still be a role for private philanthropy. Unconstrained by diplomatic considerations or the desire to swing votes at the United Nations, private donors can more easily avoid dealing with corrupt or wasteful governments. They can go directly into the field, working with local villages and grass-roots organizations.

Nor are philanthropists beholden to lobbyists. As The New York Times reported recently, billions of dollars of U.S. aid is tied to domestic goods. Wheat for Africa must be grown in America, although aid experts say this often depresses local African markets, reducing the incentive for farmers there to produce more. In a decision that surely costs lives, hundreds of millions of condoms intended to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa and around the world must be manufactured in the U.S., although they cost twice as much as similar products made in Asia.

In other ways, too, private philanthropists are free to venture where governments fear to tread. Through a foundation named for his wife, Susan Thompson Buffett, Warren Buffett has supported reproductive rights, including family planning and pro-choice organizations. In another unusual initiative, he has pledged $50 million for the International Atomic Energy Agency�s plan to establish a �fuel bank� to supply nuclear-reactor fuel to countries that meet their nuclear-nonproliferation commitments. The idea, which has been talked about for many years, is widely agreed to be a useful step toward discouraging countries from building their own facilities for producing nuclear fuel, which could then be diverted to weapons production. It is, Buffett said, �an investment in a safer world.� Though it is something that governments could and should be doing, no government had taken the first step.

Aid has always had its critics. Carefully planned and intelligently directed private philanthropy may be the best answer to the claim that aid doesn�t work. Of course, as in any large-scale human enterprise, some aid can be ineffective. But provided that aid isn�t actually counterproductive, even relatively inefficient assistance is likely to do more to advance human wellbeing than luxury spending by the wealthy.

The rich, then, should give. But how much should they give? Gates may have given away nearly $30 billion, but that still leaves him sitting at the top of the Forbes list of the richest Americans, with $53 billion. His 66,000-square-foot high-tech lakeside estate near Seattle is reportedly worth more than $100 million. Property taxes are about $1 million. Among his possessions is the Leicester Codex, the only handwritten book by Leonardo da Vinci still in private hands, for which he paid $30.8 million in 1994. Has Bill Gates done enough? More pointedly, you might ask: if he really believes that all lives have equal value, what is he doing living in such an expensive house and owning a Leonardo Codex? Are there no more lives that could be saved by living more modestly and adding the money thus saved to the amount he has already given?

Yet we should recognize that, if judged by the proportion of his wealth that he has given away, Gates compares very well with most of the other people on the Forbes 400 list, including his former colleague and Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. Allen, who left the company in 1983, has given, over his lifetime, more than $800 million to philanthropic causes. That is far more than nearly any of us will ever be able to give. But Forbes lists Allen as the fifth-richest American, with a net worth of $16 billion. He owns the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trailblazers, a 413-foot oceangoing yacht that carries two helicopters and a 60-foot submarine. He has given only about 5 percent of his total wealth.

Is there a line of moral adequacy that falls between the 5 percent that Allen has given away and the roughly 35 percent that Gates has donated? Few people have set a personal example that would allow them to tell Gates that he has not given enough, but one who could is Zell Kravinsky. A few years ago, when he was in his mid-40s, Kravinsky gave almost all of his $45 million real estate fortune to health-related charities, retaining only his modest family home in Jenkintown, near Philadelphia, and enough to meet his family�s ordinary expenses. After learning that thousands of people with failing kidneys die each year while waiting for a transplant, he contacted a Philadelphia hospital and donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger.

After reading about Kravinsky in The New Yorker, I invited him to speak to my classes at Princeton. He comes across as anguished by the failure of others to see the simple logic that lies behind his altruism. Kravinsky has a mathematical mind � a talent that obviously helped him in deciding what investments would prove profitable � and he says that the chances of dying as a result of donating a kidney are about 1 in 4,000. For him this implies that to withhold a kidney from someone who would otherwise die means valuing one�s own life at 4,000 times that of a stranger, a ratio Kravinsky considers �obscene.�

What marks Kravinsky from the rest of us is that he takes the equal value of all human life as a guide to life, not just as a nice piece of rhetoric. He acknowledges that some people think he is crazy, and even his wife says she believes that he goes too far. One of her arguments against the kidney donation was that one of their children may one day need a kidney, and Zell could be the only compatible donor. Kravinsky�s love for his children is, as far as I can tell, as strong as that of any normal parent. Such attachments are part of our nature, no doubt the product of our evolution as mammals who give birth to children, who for an unusually long time require our assistance in order to survive. But that does not, in Kravinsky�s view, justify our placing a value on the lives of our children that is thousands of times greater than the value we place on the lives of the children of strangers. Asked if he would allow his child to die if it would enable a thousand children to live, Kravinsky said yes. Indeed, he has said he would permit his child to die even if this enabled only two other children to live. Nevertheless, to appease his wife, he recently went back into real estate, made some money and bought the family a larger home. But he still remains committed to giving away as much as possible, subject only to keeping his domestic life reasonably tranquil.

Buffett says he believes in giving his children �enough so they feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.� That means, in his judgment, �a few hundred thousand� each. In absolute terms, that is far more than most Americans are able to leave their children and, by Kravinsky�s standard, certainly too much. (Kravinsky says that the hard part is not giving away the first $45 million but the last $10,000, when you have to live so cheaply that you can�t function in the business world.) But even if Buffett left each of his three children a million dollars each, he would still have given away more than 99.99 percent of his wealth. When someone does that much � especially in a society in which the norm is to leave most of your wealth to your children � it is better to praise them than to cavil about the extra few hundred thousand dollars they might have given.

Philosophers like Liam Murphy of New York University and my colleague Kwame Anthony Appiah at Princeton contend that our obligations are limited to carrying our fair share of the burden of relieving global poverty. They would have us calculate how much would be required to ensure that the world�s poorest people have a chance at a decent life, and then divide this sum among the affluent. That would give us each an amount to donate, and having given that, we would have fulfilled our obligations to the poor.

What might that fair amount be? One way of calculating it would be to take as our target, at least for the next nine years, the Millennium Development Goals, set by the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. On that occasion, the largest gathering of world leaders in history jointly pledged to meet, by 2015, a list of goals that include:

Reducing by half the proportion of the world�s people in extreme poverty (defined as living on less than the purchasing-power equivalent of one U.S. dollar per day).

Reducing by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Ensuring that children everywhere are able to take a full course of primary schooling.

Ending sex disparity in education.

Reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under 5.

Reducing by three-quarters the rate of maternal mortality.

Halting and beginning to reverse the spread of H.I.V./AIDS and halting and beginning to reduce the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

Reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Last year a United Nations task force, led by the Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, estimated the annual cost of meeting these goals to be $121 billion in 2006, rising to $189 billion by 2015. When we take account of existing official development aid promises, the additional amount needed each year to meet the goals is only $48 billion for 2006 and $74 billion for 2015.

Now let�s look at the incomes of America�s rich and superrich, and ask how much they could reasonably give. The task is made easier by statistics recently provided by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, economists at the Acole Normale Suparieure, Paris-Jourdan, and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively, based on U.S. tax data for 2004. Their figures are for pretax income, excluding income from capital gains, which for the very rich are nearly always substantial. For simplicity I have rounded the figures, generally downward. Note too that the numbers refer to �tax units,� that is, in many cases, families rather than individuals.

Piketty and Saez�s top bracket comprises 0.01 percent of U.S. taxpayers. There are 14,400 of them, earning an average of $12,775,000, with total earnings of $184 billion. The minimum annual income in this group is more than $5 million, so it seems reasonable to suppose that they could, without much hardship, give away a third of their annual income, an average of $4.3 million each, for a total of around $61 billion. That would still leave each of them with an annual income of at least $3.3 million.

Next comes the rest of the top 0.1 percent (excluding the category just described, as I shall do henceforth). There are 129,600 in this group, with an average income of just over $2 million and a minimum income of $1.1 million. If they were each to give a quarter of their income, that would yield about $65 billion, and leave each of them with at least $846,000 annually.

The top 0.5 percent consists of 575,900 taxpayers, with an average income of $623,000 and a minimum of $407,000. If they were to give one-fifth of their income, they would still have at least $325,000 each, and they would be giving a total of $72 billion.

Coming down to the level of those in the top 1 percent, we find 719,900 taxpayers with an average income of $327,000 and a minimum of $276,000. They could comfortably afford to give 15 percent of their income. That would yield $35 billion and leave them with at least $234,000.

Finally, the remainder of the nation�s top 10 percent earn at least $92,000 annually, with an average of $132,000. There are nearly 13 million in this group. If they gave the traditional tithe � 10 percent of their income, or an average of $13,200 each � this would yield about $171 billion and leave them a minimum of $83,000.

You could spend a long time debating whether the fractions of income I have suggested for donation constitute the fairest possible scheme. Perhaps the sliding scale should be steeper, so that the superrich give more and the merely comfortable give less. And it could be extended beyond the Top 10 percent of American families, so that everyone able to afford more than the basic necessities of life gives something, even if it is as little as 1 percent. Be that as it may, the remarkable thing about these calculations is that a scale of donations that is unlikely to impose significant hardship on anyone yields a total of $404 billion � from just 10 percent of American families.

Obviously, the rich in other nations should share the burden of relieving global poverty. The U.S. is responsible for 36 percent of the gross domestic product of all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations. Arguably, because the U.S. is richer than all other major nations, and its wealth is more unevenly distributed than wealth in almost any other industrialized country, the rich in the U.S. should contribute more than 36 percent of total global donations. So somewhat more than 36 percent of all aid to relieve global poverty should come from the U.S. For simplicity, let�s take half as a fair share for the U.S. On that basis, extending the scheme I have suggested worldwide would provide $808 billion annually for development aid. That�s more than six times what the task force chaired by Sachs estimated would be required for 2006 in order to be on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and more than 16 times the shortfall between that sum and existing official development aid commitments.

If we are obliged to do no more than our fair share of eliminating global poverty, the burden will not be great. But is that really all we ought to do? Since we all agree that fairness is a good thing, and none of us like doing more because others don�t pull their weight, the fair-share view is attractive. In the end, however, I think we should reject it. Let�s return to the drowning child in the shallow pond. Imagine it is not 1 small child who has fallen in, but 50 children. We are among 50 adults, unrelated to the children, picnicking on the lawn around the pond. We can easily wade into the pond and rescue the children, and the fact that we would find it cold and unpleasant sloshing around in the knee-deep muddy water is no justification for failing to do so. The �fair share� theorists would say that if we each rescue one child, all the children will be saved, and so none of us have an obligation to save more than one. But what if half the picnickers prefer staying clean and dry to rescuing any children at all? Is it acceptable if the rest of us stop after we have rescued just one child, knowing that we have done our fair share, but that half the children will drown? We might justifiably be furious with those who are not doing their fair share, but our anger with them is not a reason for letting the children die. In terms of praise and blame, we are clearly right to condemn, in the strongest terms, those who do nothing. In contrast, we may withhold such condemnation from those who stop when they have done their fair share. Even so, they have let children drown when they could easily have saved them, and that is wrong.

Similarly, in the real world, it should be seen as a serious moral failure when those with ample income do not do their fair share toward relieving global poverty. It isn�t so easy, however, to decide on the proper approach to take to those who limit their contribution to their fair share when they could easily do more and when, because others are not playing their part, a further donation would assist many in desperate need. In the privacy of our own judgment, we should believe that it is wrong not to do more. But whether we should actually criticize people who are doing their fair share, but no more than that, depends on the psychological impact that such criticism will have on them, and on others. This in turn may depend on social practices. If the majority are doing little or nothing, setting a standard higher than the fair-share level may seem so demanding that it discourages people who are willing to make an equitable contribution from doing even that. So it may be best to refrain from criticizing those who achieve the fair-share level. In moving our society�s standards forward, we may have to progress one step at a time.

For more than 30 years, I�ve been reading, writing and teaching about the ethical issue posed by the juxtaposition, on our planet, of great abundance and life-threatening poverty. Yet it was not until, in preparing this article, I calculated how much America�s Top 10 percent of income earners actually make that I fully understood how easy it would be for the world�s rich to eliminate, or virtually eliminate, global poverty. (It has actually become much easier over the last 30 years, as the rich have grown significantly richer.) I found the result astonishing. I double-checked the figures and asked a research assistant to check them as well. But they were right. Measured against our capacity, the Millennium Development Goals are indecently, shockingly modest. If we fail to achieve them � as on present indications we well might � we have no excuses. The target we should be setting for ourselves is not halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, and without enough to eat, but ensuring that no one, or virtually no one, needs to live in such degrading conditions. That is a worthy goal, and it is well within our reach.

Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp professor of bioethics at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He is the author of many books, including most recently �The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.�

An Amazing Article By Camille Smith

2006-12-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Camille Smith is a member of the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN) as well as a personal coach. She recently presented the following speech that is not only inspirational, but also provides some serious food for thought. I hope you will find it as interesting -- and important -- as I did. Unfortunately, the graphs and pictures would not transport to my blog, but text, at least, is intact. I also discovered that I couldn't easily realign some of the columns so the speech is not in perfect condition, but I think you can still get the jist of the importance of the information she offers us.

Summary

· Women are the greatest untapped natural resource on the planet… (Inspire yourself — watch a 30-second video of this resource at www.care.org)

· A world view that limits women’s participation limits the contribution both women and men can and must make to the world as global citizens.

· Women’s leadership is not about women replacing men. De-valuing one-half of the world’s population has been done and it’s failed. It’s time for authentic partnerships between men and women.

· If an organization doesn’t value the contribution of women as leaders, what other talents and contributions are they leaving untapped and unrealized? When women can authentically show up in organizational work cultures, so will men, even those who set the very rules that currently exclude women.

· Companies with a significant number of women in the upper ranks demonstrate excellent financial and organizational success. Why are women still not welcome at the leadership table? Paradigm blindness.

· Merely having a diverse workforce or women leaders isn’t sufficient. People need to learn how to work together and the leader is responsible for making that happen.

Note: This paper was presented at the 2nd Annual Conference of the South Bay Organizational Development Network (www.sbodn.com ) held at Sun Microsystems, 9/2006. Slides are available at Work In Progress Coaching, www.wipcoaching.com/resources and www.sbodn.com

Good afternoon. I have a hunch that you, the Human Resource and Organizational Development professionals, know a good deal about how having women as leaders opens the door to everyone’s talent. Please share what you see by finishing this statement: Women’s leadership opens the door to everyone’s talent because … “…they embrace diversity … look for partnerships … focus on both relationships and results … they collaborate … seek to include …” Keep these in mind as we explore what’s wanted and needed in the realm of leadership in today’s global economy.

In the short time we have together, my three goals are to stimulate new thinking, yours and mine, to share a tool that could support your commitment to effectively develop people, and to encourage you to act boldly on your commitment.

In a global, professional context, women’s leadership is not only about women. It is about what’s needed for humanity to sustain itself at all levels: family, communal, organizational and cultural. In an organizational context, it is about the having the capacity to include, appreciate and learn from different views, ways of thinking and being, value sets, and problem solving and decision making approaches offered by everyone.

Women don’t have leadership all figured out. What they do have is a perspective — a perspective which, if it were present and valued, would benefit the organization in its quest for success and sustainability — a sustainability that now requires leaders with a world view that is in synch with, not at odds with, what’s possible for the world.

The paradigm of command-and-control, force and domination, power over another, might-makes-right may have never really worked. On today’s diverse, global stage, it is clearly bankrupt.

If an organization can’t open the door to women who want leadership roles, it has cut itself off from one-half of the talent and potential in the world. If leaders in organizations turn a blind eye to women’s contribution, what other contributions are they not seeing? Valuing women’s contribution opens our eyes to see the possibility in others who have also been historically unseen and under valued, and that opens the door to everyone’s talents being recognized, developed and rewarded.

If you leave this session remembering only one thing, it is this: A world view that limits women’s participation limits the contribution both women and men can and must make to the world as global citizens.

For some of you, it may seem a big leap from women’s leadership to global citizenship. I assure you, it isn’t. In my work with the Global Women's Leadership Network (Santa Clara University) I’ve met women from around the world who are in action resolving local inequities — they are ending domestic violence, securing land ownership for women, transforming a country’s educational system. When I ask them why they are doing this, they say how it will benefit their neighbors and the children of their communities and that it has the possibility to benefit men, women and children around the world they will never meet. They are inventing themselves as global citizens.

It’s time for organizational leadership to be seen in a larger-than-business context, in a context called organization as a global citizen.

Just how flat is the world today?
Thomas Friedman poetically captured the new world view in the title of his book, The World is Flat. U.S. organizations aren’t in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. They aren’t even in the U.S. anymore. They are of the globe and must now be for the globe, as well.

In the not-too-distant-past, thinking globally occurred to me as a bumper sticker phenomenon — something I could consider until the light changed and the concept drove out of sight. Today, global thinking permeates my day. The information highway circumvents the world, skipping wirelessly over mountains and deserts, magically connecting me with distant people and cultures via blogs, emails, and cell-phone videos.

We are beginning to understand at the individual level that we are profoundly connected to other individuals on the planet and that our social and economic well-being is interdependent and interconnected. It’s time for us at the organizational level to understand our connection and be responsible for how others are touched by our global reach.

We have a local address and we live and work in a global conversation. Workforces are culturally diverse, multi-generational, mobile and virtual. Eastern Indians sit next to Polish immigrants next to California natives of Japanese heritage. We see a health epidemic in Kenya or an outsourcing offer from India and know it will impact communities and economies locally and worldwide. We see philanthropists sharing financial resources, from the millions of dollars donated by Bill and Melinda Gates to eradicate AIDS to the hundreds of pennies raised by children selling lemonade to buy books for a school library in Venezuela. We watch social entrepreneurs, without infrastructure or funding, educate orphans at Indian train stations, return sight to the poor by removing cataracts, bring electricity, clean water and cottage industries— and hope — to their communities. See: New Heroes, DVD, www.skollfoundation.org)

The opportunity knocking on every organization’s door, especially the multinational corporations, is to proactively create opportunities to be connected, to engage with others we have historically not seen and form partnerships that transform us as individuals and our organizations. To create this shift, we need global leaders who think from the whole, who encourage diversity of perspective and who understand that talent and commitment are not gender-based, but are human-based.

Global Leader Organizational Competencies

So what are the organizational competences of a global leader? Marian Stetson-Rodriguez, president of Charis Intercultural Training Corporation (www.chariscorp.com ) shared this list of competences with me. She adapted them from Global Leadership, authored by Marshall Goldsmith, Warren Bennis and others. Marian and her Charis team, train leaders in cultural intelligence, so they are more effective in doing business with other cultures and can leverage the diverse strengths of global workforces.

Global Leader Organizational Competencies

1.Thinks Globally
2.Anticipates Opportunity
3.Creates Shared Vision
4.Develops, Empowers People
5.Appreciates Cultural Diversity
6.Builds Teamwork, Partnerships
7.Embraces, Leads Change
8.Shows Technological Savvy
9.Encourages Constructive Challenge
10.Ensures Customer Satisfaction
11.Achieves Competitive Advantage
12.Demonstrates Personal Mastery
13.Shares Leadership
14.Lives Values, Demonstrates Integrity

If you add this list to the list generated earlier, you’ll begin to see that women tend to bring with them ways of thinking and being that result and express themselves in these competencies.

Just in case some of you may be wondering, I am not advocating that women summarily replace men. As Jim Collins (author, Good to Great) emphasizes, great organizations have the right people in the right role at the right time.

Distinguishing qualities of women leaders

In 2005, Caliper Corporation found four qualities that distinguished women leaders:
1.Women are more persuasive then male counterparts.
2.Learning from adversity, women carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude.
3.Women demonstrate an inclusive, team-building leadership style of problem-solving and decision-making.
4.Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks.

(Any surprises?) Caliper found male leaders started from their own point of view, were not as willing to interact with others, and tended to force their view on others and to convince others through the strength of position. Women took in information from all sides. They were able to bring others into their point of view or alter theirs depending on information uncovered.

Women’s leadership is to a corporation as corner is to … igloo

If I say What’s the world coming to? , it is likely you would hear a poor-me tone in my voice. I want to challenge our thinking by asking a different question: Who am I, coming to the world?

We humans operate as if the world we see is the world everyone sees. This is an unconscious, inherited assumption. As French author Anais Nin eloquently stated: We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.

I think organizations suffer from “leadership blindness” — they literally can’t see women as leaders. Why? Because of the unexamined assumptions the current leaders and followers are looking through.

What unexamined assumptions are shaping your personal view of women as leaders? What views and values does your organization espouse and what views and values are tacit, deeply held and running the show, shaping policies, promotions and opportunities? What will it take for your organization to see that the possibility of “women’s leadership” is missing? Can “corner” show up for someone who only knows igloo?

Consider that each human being is comprised of a set of conversations influenced by our culture, heritage, race, gender, successes, failures, doubts, etc. These conversations tell us what we know, believe, like/don’t like, agree/disagree with, etc. These conversations filter what we experience and how we react and respond to the world.

Like elevator music in the background, we don’t pay attention to these conversations. We should. They tell us the right actions to take and the wrong actions to avoid. Of course, these actions are a perfect match to our world view. (This isn’t bad; it’s the design of human being.) If we want to alter our results, from a few women leaders to an abundance of them, alter the conversation what tells us what action to take that produce the results.

Let’s look at the conversations organizations have historically been listening to in the area of workforce diversity.

What is diversity from a global perspective?

Ten years ago, Thomas and Ely wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review called Making differences matter: A new paradigm for managing diversity. They distinguished the paradigms that have shaped our organizational views of what to do with diversity. Notice how the conversation has shifted over time.

Discrimination & Fairness1970’s Access & Legitimacy1980’sLearning & Effectiveness1990’s

Theme ·Assimilation ·Differentiation ·Integration

What the paradigm would say ·We are all the same·We accept and celebrate differences ·We value and internalize our differences. We are on same team with our differences, not despite them.

Focus ·Equal opportunity ·Compliance with EEO ·Train others to respect cultural differences ·Place people where their different demographic characteristics match customers’ demographics Promotes equal opportunity ·Incorporate diverse perspectives into main work of organization

Success ·Promotes ‘fair’ treatment ·Increases demographic diversity ·Career development for women, people of color ·More managerial opportunities for people of color, women ·Organizational learning, growth

Limitation ·Emphasizes that differences do not count ·Relevant debates misinterpreted· Idealized assimilation, conformism; subvert difference, prefer harmony ·Emphasizes role of cultural differences without seeing how they affect work being done· Pigeon-hole staff ·No learning from differences ·Employees feel exploited ·To be revealed)

Now, ten years later, I would label the emerging paradigm “Learning & Effectiveness as a Global Citizen.” The paradigm would say, “We commit to being responsible global citizens in partnerships with others, for the benefit of all.”

Evidence, tendencies and strengths

As I wrote this talk, I was struck by the large amount of evidence that said women are effective corporate leaders. Sidebar: While I will share some of what I found, I have a disclaimer regarding the evidence. Evidence is gathered to prove or disprove a point. It usually has a right/wrong aspect to it. It is not my intention to make someone or something wrong. My intention is to distinguish something as “missing” and to articulate what would be possible if it were present and to have you see that possibility for your organization.

While gathering evidence should not be discarded, another way to go is to take a stand for women as leaders and act from that commitment, not waiting for any more evidence.

As you see these statistics, notice the conversation that jumps up in you. If it says, “See, I knew women were better!! Those guys really messed up!!”, don’t believe it and stop thinking. Stay open and see what is at play so that your next actions can be in line with your conscious commitments, not a replay of the past.

Professor Michael Kimmel's Harvard Business Review article in the early 90's (What Men Want) reported that 25% of men wanted work/life balance. In 2003, Catalyst asked men and women in corporations to agree or disagree with this statement: “I find it difficult to balance the demands of my work with the demands of my personal life.” In the Financial Services sector, the percent agreeing was 58% women, 56% men. In the participants who were law graduates, 68% women agreed, 66% men agreed. The dissatisfaction is shared. Are you surprised? I was.

Do you suppose this dissatisfaction is not being voiced, or that the people to whom it is being said can’t hear it or won’t deal with it because it doesn’t fit the current paradigm? Catalyst found that the paradox is that men feel reduced work arrangements are not socially acceptable for them, yet women who work part-time believe their career prospects are diminished because men to do not utilize [work hour] flexibility. It’s a catch-22.

An expert in Unmasking the Gender Effect™, Bonita Banducci offers the following chart that distinguishes tendencies of men and women. She emphasizes that while men tend to be individualistic in their views and approach, some men are more relational in the way they operate. Likewise, while women tend to be relational in their views and approach, some women are more individualistic. Each person has some of both. It’s like being right- or left-handed — we have a preference and strength.

INDIVIDUALISTIC Men RELATIONALWomen

Emphasizing Status, Independence RELATIONSHIPS Emphasizing Connection, Interdependence
Giving Information Only As Needed INFORMATION Sharing Information
Doing One Thing At A Time ACTIVITY / TIME Doing Many Things At Once
Step-thinking, Linear, Compartmentalize THINKING PATTERN Web-thinking, Organic, System, Integrate

Bonita wisely cautions us to not use this information to draw conclusions and put people in a box. Rather, to use these interpretations as a place from which to listen to each other and to better understand different perceptions. In this way, we can consciously bring the appropriate view or strength to a situation and create the best solution or response.

Making the business case for gender diversity

Scottsdale National Gender Institute (www.gendertraining.com) compiled statistics from variety of organizations on the results of companies with more women in upper management and leadership roles.

·Better financial results. In a study of 353 Fortune 500 companies, those with the most women in top leadership had the following financial results when compared to companies with men in top leadership roles: 35% higher Return On Equity, 34% higher Total Shareholder Return. (Source: Catalyst, 2004. www.catalyst.org )

·Improved access to growing segment of workforce. The number of women-owned employer firms grew 37% between 1997 and 2002 -- four times the growth of all employer firms. (Source: Center for Women’s business research, 2003. www.cfwbr.org )

·Improved market share. Women are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases. Add purchasing officers who are women and it is an American women’s economy that accounts for over one-half of the Gross Domestic Product.

·Better management. Of 425 high-level executives studied, female managers rated higher than male counterparts in 42 of 52 skills measured. (Hagberg Consulting Group, www.leader-values.com )

What’s being called out here is the difference in results when women are in leadership roles. Consider that the reason these results are showing up is due to the how women work, the way they work with and through others. It is how women see the world —from the whole, connected, interdependent — that gives them particular ways to act — collaborate, listening openly — that opens the door for others to produce great results.

The data seems compelling, doesn’t it? If women leaders produce as good as or better results, why isn’t there a rush from corporations to open the doors to women as corporate leaders? And if the doors are open, why aren’t women rushing in? What’s going on?

Compelling data isn’t enough

What’s going on is this: The prevailing corporate culture and paradigm historically designed by men, with rules of engagement that match men’s view of the world (compartmentalize, linear thinking, compete to beat, etc.) does not allow for women’s way of working (interdependence, connection, integration, web-thinking) to show up as a viable “how” to get work done.

Any paradigm survives by allowing what agrees with it and negating what doesn’t. What fits is rewarded and praised: working 65++ hours per week, no break in employment, guarding information, win-lose deals. What doesn’t is discouraged: flexible work hours, taking breaks from employment, openly sharing information, win-win deals.

The current paradigm which promotes exclusion, entitlement, and power over another is out of synch with what businesses and the world need for sustainability. It’s also out of synch with how women prefer to get work done, with inclusion, egalitarianism, and empowerment. The current paradigm is not wrong, it is bankrupt.

There are thousands of male leaders who recognize that the “kill or be killed” approach to business no longer works (and perhaps never did). Likewise, some women who’ve been successful in the prevailing corporate paradigm have done so without selling their souls. Shifting the paradigm to include women and their style of leadership will empower men, as well.

It is “how” the work gets done that is the competitive advantage in producing the results cited above (and hundreds like them), and it is the “how” that women operate from that can not be seen or appreciated — it doesn’t fit with the rules of the prevailing culture of corporate business, historically designed by men, with rules of engagement that match men’s view of the world (compartmentalize, linear thinking, compete to beat, etc.). Likewise, it can be difficult for women to see, understand and appreciate “how” men get work done. A major aspect of how we get work done, both as individuals and as organizations, can be revealed by exploring values.

As I coach women and men executives, committed to improving their individual and team results and their level of satisfaction while producing results, we dismantle the myths and interferences that reduce performance and create breakthroughs in thinking. This process must occur with the individual before it occurs at the organizational level. The most effective way to create organizational change is to have the leader have her or his own breakthrough in thinking first.

Values and performance

Our values — what is important to us — provide motivation, direction, and the fuel for our performance. While we know we have values, it’s been my experience in working with thousands of people that we don’t have access to them in a way that lets alter our performance. That’s because our personal prevailing paradigm — our habits of thinking and action — blocks access to them. That’s also why trying to change results by forcing ourselves to behave differently doesn’t work well or for long. What is effective is revealing the invisible habits of thinking and action that constrict performance and reawakening conscious choice.

Take a look at the picture. As you move from bottom to top, from values to competence/results (top), notice how the layers get smaller. Our hidden, automatic, unconscious habits restrict results. The habits of thinking form the proverbial box that everyone’s trying to “think outside of”. (I am caught in one of my habits right now. It’s taking me much longer to get this paper written than planned because I have to say it perfectly. Too many re-writes.) To expand performance (top), remove unwanted habits.

How does this relate to women’s leadership?

Organizations have habits of thinking and action with formal and informal structures that keep those habits going: policies, procedures, reporting structures, roles, recruiting practices, deciding who goes to the company retreat or golf outing, and on and on. If the organization has been very successful (GM, ATT, Ford, Guinness), those habits are even more entrenched. “It’s just how we do it around here.” If a VP must rise through the ranks and have no gaps in employment (and a 3 handicap wouldn’t hurt), then a woman who takes a leave of absence to raise a child (and prefers scrabble) is not seen as VP material. I am guessing that you have examples of how these corporate habits restrict the result called: women leaders.

In a collaborative survey conducted by Catalyst, The National Foundation for Women Business Owners, the Committee of 200 and Salomon Smith Barney, women cited the following reasons for their exodus from corporate America:

· Their contributions were not recognized or valued
· They were not taken seriously
· They felt isolated as one of few women or minorities
· They were excluded from informal networks
· They were excluded from training opportunities
· They faced inhospitable corporate cultures

PNA, Inc., (www.pnaincorporated.com ) surveyed 600 women and men at the Director level and above regarding their values. Approximately 60% were from the U.S., 35% from Europe and 5% from Australia and New Zealand. In comparing data, no differences were found between the U.S. and other countries regarding values. Women gave less importance to Power/Authority, more importance to Service/Generosity and the same importance to Achievement/Success. Female executives preferred more collegiate environments and were as motivated by achievement as males.

By revealing what an individual means by “power is less important to me” than other values, often reveals why women exit the corporate workforce, taking their knowledge and expertise home or into their own businesses.

Another way to see the impact of how power traditionally occurs in organizations designed by men shows up as an unwillingness of women to get involved in the power game requiring the use of one’s title as clout or leverage. This is a learned response, not inherent to women, but taught by “the way it is” in most corporations. The culture that rewards a “power over” approach has women opt out of corporations and with them goes their contribution, knowledge, and ways of managing and leading.

A client story may help to illustrate the point.

Situation: I worked with a VP of IT in an A+ rated insurance company to create a more productive environment for herself and her team of eight men, some from non-US cultures. More productive meant reducing misunderstandings, having better coordination of code handoffs (they had adequate procedures, but sometimes execution was poor), and increasing the rate at which projects were completed. To the leader, more productivity also meant individuals would initiate more solutions, rather than wait for her to say “do this.”

Solution: The exploration of values revealed those which were important to each person and the team, as a whole, and those that were not. Immediately our dialogue focused on the value “power/authority” (feeling in control and able to make things happen). The leader rated it not important at all and added her avoidance of using her authority which to her meant pulling rank on others and saying “do it because I said so” and the team’s interpretation (paraphrased) along the lines of “why wouldn’t you use your title? Isn’t that what a leader is supposed to do?”

Once the hidden assumptions (the Krazy® Glue of paradigms) were revealed inside a commitment to be more productive and reduce misunderstandings, the men saw that their view of “power over” (domination and force) was different from the woman leader’s “power with” (collaboration and cooperation). Focus could then be turned from criticizing the “how” to achieving the desired results. (By the way, the leader was selected by CIO magazine as one of the top IT leaders that year.)

The leader of an organization must insist that the people learn how to work together effectively. The insistence comes in the form of modeling the way, putting money in the budget for training and development and being willing to hear when they aren’t working well together. Only when the leader is willing to hear when team work is missing can authentic teamwork be present.

It’s not only about gender; it’s about diversity of thinking

Remember, this conversation is about organizations having environments where everyone’s talents are released, recognized and rewarded. Where people aren’t hired or promoted because they fit a compliance checkbox (female, white, black, Asian), but because their strengths, skills, knowledge, ways of thinking and commitments are the best fit for the role.

Another client story illustrates the importance of finding the best person-to-role match which takes into account how (there’s that word again!) a role is to be executed by the manager and the “how I like to work” preferences of the person in the role.

Situation: A product manager at an international publishing house was not achieving expected results. He worked extra hours, plus weekends and still wasn’t successful. His manager, a woman, committed to both results and retaining a talented employee, asked the question: What’s preventing his success?

Solution: Data from RoleScript™ (a web-based, 360-degree tool) revealed key differences in expectations of how the role was to be performed. The manager expected the role to be accomplished without direct reports and by “getting work done through others” (collaboration built not by title, but by aligned goals). The role holder explicitly agreed with the expectation, however, his habits of thinking and action showed a low preference and a lack of comfort in building relationships. He acknowledged he didn’t have the skills nor the commitment to build relationships at the level required. He was moved to a role that better suited his strengths.

When people value others for their different world views and perspectives, diversity will no longer be about gender or race or culture but about learning how to be effective. Then diversity will no longer be an obligation, but an opportunity and be a true competitive advantage.

Where to start

There’s nothing wrong. There is a new paradigm to create. It begins with your commitment. If you are looking for one, try this one on: Creating the possibility of your organization as a global citizen. Standing there, you’ll see what to do…

•Create the possibility of women as leaders (Now what does your talent pool look like?)
•Examine prevailing paradigm — tell the truth about what it will/won’t allow for, then create a paradigm that excites everyone and ignites their contribution
•Redefine leadership as a possibility, not a membership into an exclusive club
•Redefine diversity as different ways of thinking and acting
•Create a culture of accountability that honors people
•Design metrics that measure possibility and innovation, not compliance
•Embrace failure as the route to learning
•Have compassion for yourself and others as you bring humanity to work

Leadership from the whole and for the whole

As organizational leaders see themselves and invent their organizations as global citizens, I see the possibility that they will naturally be caretakers of the world’s resources — land, water, air and people. I see the possibility of leaders, thinking from the whole, taking actions and producing results that will sustain their one business and our one world.

My colleague, Linda Alepin, reminds me about two games: one that is finite, one that is infinite. The goal of the finite game is to play until a winner and loser are declared and then to stop. The goal of the infinite game is to have the opportunity to continue to play.

I see you, the HR and OD professionals, as the stewards of the people’s well-being who are playing the game called global leadership. How healthy and alive our leaders are will determine whether the game we all get to play is finite or infinite.

When women lead from their authentic, whole selves, I predict that the door to everyone’s talents will fling wide open ushering in a new possibility of understanding, profitability, innovation, freedom and justice for our communities, our organizations and our countries.
Thank you for your commitment to opening that door.

About the author

Camille Smith teaches managers and leaders to increase performance and satisfaction for themselves and their teams. Her expertise with RoleScript™, a methodology that pinpoints the exact demand of any management, staff or professional role, allows organizations to create the best person-to-role match resulting in increased productivity and employee satisfaction. She dedicates herself to designing and delivering conversations that dramatically shift what’s possible, is an adjunct professor in the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, and serves as a founder of the Global Women's Leadership Network, www.gwln.org. Camille lives with her family in Aptos, California, where she writes poetry and learns from the ocean. Please read more of her commitments and approach at www.wipcoaching.com.

One.org

2006-11-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

One: The Campaign To Make Poverty History, www.one.org is an inspiring and important site for those who care about the inhabitants of our Mother Earth. The site was designed to bring awareness about poverty and AIDS in Africa and has been very influential in bringing positive and hopeful change.

Two days ago I received an e-mail telling about an extraordinary feat that is occurring: three runners from three countries are attempting the impossible – running 4,000 miles across the Sahara Desert to raise awareness for the 1.2 billion people around the world who don’t have access to clean water. They will run 50 miles a day - for approximately 90 days - an amazing feat of human will and endurance.
Charlie Engle (USA), Ray Zahab (Canada), and Kevin Lin (Taiwan) - are undertaking a quest that no human being has ever fulfilled. The link to follow these men's progress is at www.one.org.

If this remarkable feat moves or inspires you, you might consider making a donation to One.org.

The Organic Myth

2006-10-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is the cover story from BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE OCTOBER 16, 2006, written by Diane Brady. For any readers concerned about the quality of our meats, food, water and more, this article will shed some light on the issues facing organics today. As the big agrobusiness corporations are stepping into the booming "organics" market, the level of quality is suffering. Equally troubling, the small family farms that are conscientious in producing healthy foods, and who have survived by offering organic foods, are being pushed out by the big corporations. This is a serious political situation, one that troubles me greatly. This is why I'm posting this article.

Pastoral ideals are getting trampled as organic food goes mass market

Next time you're in the supermarket, stop and take a look at Stonyfield Farm yogurt. With its contented cow and green fields, the yellow container evokes a bucolic existence, telegraphing what we've come to expect from organic food: pure, pesticide-free, locally produced ingredients grown on a small family farm.

So it may come as a surprise that Stonyfield's organic farm is long gone. Its main facility is a state-of-the-art industrial plant just off the airport strip in Londonderry, N.H., where it handles milk from other farms. And consider this: Sometime soon a portion of the milk used to make that organic yogurt may be taken from a chemical-free cow in New Zealand, powdered, and then shipped to the U.S. True, Stonyfield still cleaves to its organic heritage. For Chairman and CEO Gary Hirshberg, though, shipping milk powder 9,000 miles across the planet is the price you pay to conquer the supermarket dairy aisle. "It would be great to get all of our food within a 10-mile radius of our house," he says. "But once you're in organic, you have to source globally."

Hirshberg's dilemma is that of the entire organic food business. Just as mainstream consumers are growing hungry for untainted food that also nourishes their social conscience, it is getting harder and harder to find organic ingredients. There simply aren't enough organic cows in the U.S., never mind the organic grain to feed them, to go around. Nor are there sufficient organic strawberries, sugar, or apple pulp -- some of the other ingredients that go into the world's best-selling organic yogurt.

Now companies from Wal-Mart (WMT ) to General Mills (GIS ) to Kellogg (K ) are wading into the organic game, attracted by fat margins that old-fashioned food purveyors can only dream of. What was once a cottage industry of family farms has become Big Business, with all that that implies, including pressure from Wall Street to scale up and boost profits. Hirshberg himself is under the gun because he has sold an 85% stake in Stonyfield to the French food giant Groupe Danone. To retain management control, he has to keep Stonyfield growing at double-digit rates. Yet faced with a supply crunch, he has drastically cut the percentage of organic products in his line. He also has scaled back annual sales growth, from almost 40% to 20%. "They're all mad at me," he says.

As food companies scramble to find enough organically grown ingredients, they are inevitably forsaking the pastoral ethos that has defined the organic lifestyle. For some companies, it means keeping thousands of organic cows on industrial-scale feedlots. For others, the scarcity of organic ingredients means looking as far afield as China, Sierra Leone, and Brazil -- places where standards may be hard to enforce, workers' wages and living conditions are a worry, and, say critics, increased farmland sometimes comes at a cost to the environment.

Everyone agrees on the basic definition of organic: food grown without the assistance of man-made chemicals. Four years ago, under pressure from critics fretting that the term "organic" was being misused, the U.S. Agriculture Dept. issued rules. To be certified as organic, companies must eschew most pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, bioengineering, and radiation. But for purists, the philosophy also requires farmers to treat their people and livestock with respect and, ideally, to sell small batches of what they produce locally so as to avoid burning fossil fuels to transport them. The USDA rules don't fully address these concerns.

Hence the organic paradox: The movement's adherents have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, but success has imperiled their ideals. It simply isn't clear that organic food production can be replicated on a mass scale. For Hirshberg, who set out to "change the way Kraft (KFT ), Monsanto (MON ), and everybody else does business," the movement is shedding its innocence. "Organic is growing up."

Certainly, life has changed since 1983, when Hirshberg teamed up with a back-to-the-land advocate named Samuel Kaymen to sell small batches of full-fat plain organic yogurt. Kaymen had founded Stonyfield Farm to feed his six kids and, as he puts it, "escape the dominant culture." Hirshberg, then 29, had been devoted to the environment for years, stung by memories of technicolor dyes streaming downriver from his father's New Hampshire shoe factories. He wrote a book on how to build water-pumping windmills and, between 1979 and 1983, ran the New Alchemy Institute, an alternative-living research center on Cape Cod. He was a believer.

But producing yogurt amid the rudimentary conditions of the original Stonyfield Farm was a recipe for nightmares, not nirvana. Meg, an organic farmer who married Hirshberg in 1986, remembers the farm as cold and crowded, with a road so perilous that suppliers often refused to come up. "I call it the bad old days," she says. Adds her mother, Doris Cadoux, who propped up the business for years: "Every time Gary would come to me for money, Meg would call to say 'Mama, don't do it."'

Farming without insecticides, fertilizers, and other aids is tough. Laborers often weed the fields by hand. Farmers control pests with everything from sticky flypaper to aphid-munching ladybugs. Manure and soil fertility must be carefully managed. Sick animals may take longer to get well without a quick hit of antibiotics, although they're likely to be healthier in the first place. Moreover, the yield per acre or per animal often goes down, at least initially. Estimates for the decline from switching to organic corn range up to 20%.

Organic farmers say they can ultimately exceed the yields of conventional rivals through smarter soil management. But some believe organic farming, if it is to stay true to its principles, would require vastly more land and resources than is currently being used. Asks Alex Avery, a research director at the Hudson Institute think tank: "How much Bambi habitat do you want to plow down?"

IMPOSSIBLE STANDARD
For a sense of why Big Business and organics often don't mix, it helps to visit Jack and Anne Lazor of Butterworks Farm. The duo have been producing organic yogurt in northeastern Vermont since 1975. Their 45 milking cows are raised from birth and have names like Peaches and Moonlight. All of the food for the cows -- and most of what the Lazors eat, too -- comes from the farm, and Anne keeps their charges healthy with a mix of homeopathic medicines and nutritional supplements. Butterworks produces a tiny 9,000 quarts of yogurt a week, and no one can pressure them to make more. Says Jack: "I'd be happiest to sell everything within 10 miles of here."

But the Lazors also embody an ideal that's almost impossible for other food producers to fulfill. For one thing, they have enough land to let their modest-sized herd graze for food. Many of the country's 9 million-plus dairy cows (of which fewer than 150,000 are organic) are on farms that will never have access to that kind of pasture. After all, a cow can only walk so far when it has to come back to be milked two or three times a day.

STEWARDS OF THE LAND
When consumers shell out premiums of 50% or more to buy organic, they are voting for the Butterworks ethic. They believe humans should be prudent custodians not only of their own health but also of the land and animals that share it. They prefer food produced through fair wages and family farms, not poor workers and agribusiness. They are responding to tales of caged chickens and confined cows that never touch a blade of grass; talk of men losing fertility and girls becoming women at age nine because of extra hormones in food. They read about pesticides seeping into the food supply and genetically modified crops creeping across the landscape.

For Big Food, consumers' love affair with everything organic has seemed like a gift from the gods. Food is generally a commoditized, sluggish business, especially in basic supermarket staples. Sales of organic groceries, on the other hand, have been surging by up to 20% in recent years. Organic milk is so profitable -- with wholesale prices more than double that of conventional milk -- that Lyle "Spud" Edwards of Westfield, Vt., was able to halve his herd, to 25 cows, this summer and still make a living, despite a 15% drop in yields since switching to organic four years ago. "There's a lot more paperwork, but it's worth it," says Edwards, who supplies milk to Stonyfield.

The food industry got a boost four years ago when the USDA issued its organic standards. The "USDA Organic" label now appears on scores of products, from chicken breasts to breakfast cereal. And you know a tipping point is at hand when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. enters the game. The retailer pledged this year to become a center of affordable "organics for everyone" and has started by doubling its organic offerings at 374 stores nationwide. "Everyone wants a piece of the pie," says George L. Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley, the country's largest organic farm co- operative. "Kraft and Wal-Mart are part of the community now, and we have to get used to it."

The corporate giants have turned a fringe food category into a $14 billion business. They have brought wider distribution and marketing dollars. They have imposed better quality controls on a sector once associated with bug-infested, battered produce rotting in crates at hippie co-ops. Organic products now account for 2.5% of all grocery spending (if additive-free "natural" foods are included, the share jumps to about 10%). And demand could soar if prices come down.

But success has brought home the problems of trying to feed the masses in an industry where supplies can be volatile. Everyone from Wal-Mart to Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST ) is feeling the pinch. Earlier this year, Earthbound Farm, a California producer of organic salads, fruit, and vegetables owned by Natural Selection Foods, cut off its sliced-apple product to Costco because supply dried up -- even though Earthbound looked as far afield as New Zealand. "The concept of running out of apples is foreign to these people," says Earthbound co-founder Myra Goodman, whose company recalled bagged spinach in the wake of the recent E. coli outbreak. "When you're sourcing conventional produce, it's a matter of the best product at the best price."

Inconsistency is a hallmark of organic food. Variations in animal diet, local conditions, and preparation make food taste different from batch to batch. But that's anathema to a modern food giant. Heinz, for one, had a lot of trouble locating herbs and spices for its organic ketchup. "We're a global company that has to deliver consistent standards," says Kristen Clark, a group vice-president for marketing. The volatile supply also forced Heinz to put dried or fresh organic herbs in its organic Classico pasta sauce because it wasn't able to find the more convenient quick-frozen variety. Even Wal-Mart, master of the modern food supply chain, is humbled by the realities of going organic. As spokesperson Gail Lavielle says: "You can't negotiate prices in a market like that."

While Americans may love the idea of natural food, they have come to rely on the perks of agribusiness. Since the widespread use of synthetic pesticides began, around the time of World War II, food producers have reaped remarkable gains. Apples stay red and juicy for weeks. The average harvested acre of farmland yields 200% more wheat than it did 70 years ago. Over the past two decades chickens have grown 25% bigger in less time and on less food. At the same time, the average cow produces 60% more milk, thanks to innovations in breeding, nutrition, and synthetic hormones.

It's also worth remembering how inexpensive food is these days. Americans shell out about 10% of their disposable income on food, about half what they spent in the first part of the 20th century. Producing a budget-priced cornucopia of organic food won't be easy.

Gary Hirshberg's quest for organic milk. Dairy producers estimate that demand for organic milk is at least twice the current available supply. To quench this thirst, the U.S. would have to more than double the number of organic cows -- those that eat only organic food -- to 280,000 over the next five years. That's a challenge, since the number of dairy farms has shrunk to 60,000, from 334,000 in 1980, according to the National Milk Producers Federation. And almost half the milk produced in the U.S. comes from farms with more than 500 cows, something organic advocates rarely support.

What to do? If you're Hirshberg, you weigh the pros and cons of importing organic milk powder from New Zealand. Stonyfield already gets strawberries from China, apple puree from Turkey, blueberries from Canada, and bananas from Ecuador. It's the only way to keep the business growing. Besides, Hirshberg argues, supporting a family farmer in Madagascar or reducing chemical use in Costa Rica is just as important as doing the same at home.

Perhaps, but doing so risks a consumer backlash, especially when the organic food is from China. So far there is little evidence that crops from there are tainted or fraudulently labeled. Any food that bears the USDA Organic label has to be accredited by an independent certifier. But tests are few and far between. Moreover, many consumers don't trust food from a country that continues to manufacture DDT and tolerates fakes in other industries. Similar questions are being asked about much of the developing world. Ronnie Cummins, national director of the nonprofit Organic Consumers Assn., claims organic farms may contribute to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, although conventional farming remains the proven culprit.

Imported organics are a constant concern for food companies and supermarkets. It's certainly on Steve Pimentel's mind. "Someone is going to do something wrong," says Costco's assistant general merchandise manager. "We want to make sure it's not us." To avoid nasty surprises, Costco makes sure its own certifiers check that standards are met in China for the organic peanuts and produce it imports. Over at Stonyfield, Hirshberg's sister, Nancy, who is vice-president of natural resources, was so worried about buying strawberries in northeastern China that she ordered a social audit to check worker conditions. "If I didn't have to buy from there," she says, "I wouldn't."

For many companies, the preferred option is staying home and adopting the industrial scale of agribusiness. Naturally, giant factory farms make purists recoil. Is an organic label appropriate for eggs produced in sheds housing more than 100,000 hens that rarely see the light of day? Can a chicken that's debeaked or allowed minimal access to the outdoors be deemed organic? Would consumers be willing to pay twice as much for organic milk if they thought the cows producing it spent most of their outdoor lives in confined dirt lots?

ETHICAL CHALLENGES?
Absolutely not, say critics such as Mark Kastel, director of the Organic Integrity Project at the Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy group promoting small family farms. "Organic consumers think they're supporting a different kind of ethic," says Kastel, who last spring released a high-profile report card labeling 11 producers as ethically challenged.

Kastel's report card included Horizon Organic Dairy, the No. 1 organic milk brand in the U.S., and Aurora Organic Dairy, which makes private-label products for the likes of Costco and Safeway Inc. Both dairies deny they are ethically challenged. But the two do operate massive corporate farms. Horizon has 8,000 cows in the Idaho desert. There, the animals consume such feed as corn, barley, hay, and soybeans, as well as some grass from pastureland. The company is currently reconfiguring its facility to allow more grazing opportunities. And none of this breaks USDA rules. The agency simply says animals must have "access to pasture." How much is not spelled out. "It doesn't say [livestock] have to be out there, happy and feeding, 18 hours a day," says Barbara C. Robinson, who oversees the USDA's National Organic Program.

But what gets people like Kastel fuming is the fact that big dairy farms produce tons of pollution in the form of manure and methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide -- gases blamed for warming the planet. Referring to Horizon's Idaho farm, he adds: "This area is in perpetual drought. You need to pump water constantly to grow pasture. That's not organic."

Aurora and Horizon argue their operations are true to the organic spirit and that big farms help bring organic food to the masses. Joe E. Scalzo, president and CEO of Horizon's owner, WhiteWave, which is owned by Dean Foods Co., says: "You need the 12-cow farms in Vermont -- and the 4,000 milking cows in Idaho." Adds Clark Driftmier, a spokesman for Aurora, which manages 8,400 dairy cows on two farms in Colorado and Texas: "We're in a contentious period with organics right now."

At the USDA, Robinson is grappling with the same imponderables. In her mind the controversy is more about scale than animal treatment. "The real issue is a fear of large corporations," she says. Robinson expects the USDA to tighten pasture rules in the coming months in hopes of moving closer to the spirit of the organic philosophy. "As programs go," she says, "this is just a toddler. New issues keep coming up."

Few people seem more hemmed in by the contradictions than Gary Hirshberg. Perhaps more than anyone, he has acted as the industry's philosopher king, lobbying governments, proselytizing consumers, helping farmers switch to organic, and giving 10% of profits to environmental causes. Yet he sold most of Stonyfield Farm to a $17 billion French corporation.

He did so partly to let his original investors cash out, partly to bring organic food to the masses. But inevitably, as Stonyfield has morphed from local outfit to national brand, some of the original tenets have fallen by the wayside. Once Danone bought a stake, Stonyfield founder Samuel Kaymen moved on. "I never felt comfortable with the scale or dealing with people so far away," he recalls, although he says Hirshberg has so far managed to uphold the company's original principles.

The hard part may be continuing to do so with Danone looking over his shoulder. Hirshberg retains board control but says his "autonomy and independence and employment are contingent on delivering minimum growth and profitability." Danone Chairman and CEO Franck Riboud expresses admiration for the man he considers to be Danone's organic guru, but adds: "Gary respects that I have to answer to shareholders."

The compromises that Hirshberg is willing to make say a lot about where the organic business is headed. "Our kids don't have time for us to sit on our high horses and say we're not going to do this because it's not ecologically perfect," says Hirshberg. "The only way to influence the powerful forces in this industry is to become a powerful force." And he's willing to do that, even if it means playing by a new set of rules.

THE TIME IS NOW

2006-07-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

This article was sent to me recently. I think it is relevant in many respects. Mao Tse Tung said, "Women Hold Up Half the Sky." Women are the greatest untapped resource in the world. We are not screaming out to be "bra burning" feminists. We are asking that men and women work alongside one another as equals for the greater good of everyone. The V.Q.

By Roz Shepherd

I have heard Stephen Lewis speak several times, in person, on the radio and on videos. Each time, he inspires me to feel real rage at the injustices done to women and children. My ancient rage comes again to the surface. The rage I felt each time I worked in Africa with the street children, with the women. The rage I have felt throughout my life as a woman, when I have been disrespected and intimidated and devalued as a woman by men, even by other women. The rage I felt as a little girl when I was spanked again and again by a big strong man, or encouraged to wear cute little dresses and make- up. It all seemed like a huge conspiracy to keep me from being who I really was, and from accomplishing all that I was capable of.

In Africa the injustices were strangling, and I cried again and again. And often the rage spurred me on, to form an NGO, raise funds, build program after program to ‘save’ lives, change lives, etc. etc. But it was never enough, and it did little to affect a global conspiracy against the well-being of women and children.

In ancient times women in some cultures wielded power – spiritual power. It frightened the men to the point where they constantly tried to destroy the women. The witch hunts were only one example. Sometimes men were wise enough to recognize the importance and value of Woman’s spiritual power to heal, to resolve, to elevate, to bring love and harmony.

Now is the time, women of the world. We all know we have enormous spiritual power. We have felt it, seen it, we know it. It is familiar, it is amazing, and it is the only thing that will turn around the destruction happening now – the wars, ecological holocaust, genocides, AIDS, starvation, and most importantly, the torture of children.

I don’t need to explain to you what I mean by spiritual power. It has nothing to do with what religion you believe in, or what church you attend. It has nothing to do with groups, or culture, or race. It has to do with calling on your own inner wisdom. And the deep knowing that comes with being a mother, birthing a child, being in touch with the loving energy of the Universe, and the loving energy of Truth. It has to do with standing firm, speaking clearly with all the wisdom of all the generations of woman-hood. Having the courage to take control of your life, and saying “No” to anything that harms children, or that takes from you the right to live in safety. And it means standing strong to support all our sisters, all the other women who are holding bright lights for us to follow. And equality is not just a nice platitude. It doesn’t mean that women want to be the same as men, or take on the same tasks as men. It means that women have the right to have all the strengths and talents that are inherent in being female – and those are beyond measure! The reason they are beyond measure is because there is a component which is beyond this world – the spiritual component. We can understand the longings of the heart, the connection to the soul, and the depth of loving kindness. We can transform hate into love. We can transform sorrow into joy. We can heal the sick, and comfort the grieving. We do it every day, and we need to call on these gifts to overcome the hatred and destruction now happening.

Stephen Lewis is calling us into action. Enough is enough, and we have suffered too much at the hands of those who worship money and status and sex. Women can transform the world. Let’s get on with the job.

The first step is to get in touch with the deepest wisdom that resides deep in your heart and soul. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, and call on the loving energy with which you were born. Ask for guidance to know your next step in bringing the children into this safe, loving place. Ask what role you can play in creating a world of safety for women and children. Ask that each daily step, each moment-to-moment decision be based from this place . You will be called on to draw on your greatest well of courage, strength, grief, and joy. You will find new sources of energy. You will know that you are where you are meant to be in each moment, and that you have the power to change the world because it is all based on Truth, your own truth. You will find yourself turning away from the rules and impositions of the old ways, and you will find yourself creating new pathways for yourself and those around you. You will find that you have untold strengths and knowledge, based on humility, but with a power beyond measure. You will no longer listen to the small voices of politics, commerce, dogma, or even education and television. You will know that the ways of control used by the systems of government and the systems of the military have no bearing on your path for the well-being of the Earth. It is time for the women to call on this power, this ancient power that can bring forward what we are all dreaming of.

WHY WE IN THE UN ENVY THE WORLD'S CUP

2006-07-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

This is an article written by Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN. I thought it was marvellously candid. He is correct; the UN has every reason to be envious of how the World's Cup brings people everywhere together, aware of each other's countries, and the skills of the players no matter where they come from! P.R.

Published: 2006/06/07
By: KOFI A. ANNAN

You may wonder what a secretary-general of the United Nations is doing
writing about football. But, in fact, the World Cup makes us, at the UN, green with
envy.

As the pinnacle of the only truly global game, played in every country by
every race and religion, it is one of the few phenomena as universal as the
United Nations.

You could even say it's more universal. Fifa has 207 members. We have only
191. But there are far better reasons to be envious.

First, the World Cup is an event in which everybody knows where their team
stands, and what it did to get there. They know who scored and how and at what
minute. They know who missed the open goal and who saved the penalty. I wish
we had more of that sort of competition in the family of nations.

Countries openly vying for the best standing in the table of respect for
human rights, and trying to outdo one another in child survival rates or enrolment
in secondary education.

We would like to see states parading their performance for all the world to
see, governments being held accountable for what actions led them to that
result.

Secondly, the World Cup is an event which everybody on the planet loves
talking about - dissecting what their team did right and what it could have done
differently - not to mention the other side's team.

People sit in cafés anywhere, from Buenos Aires to Beijing, debating the
finer points of games endlessly, revealing an intimate knowledge not only of their
own national teams, but of many of the others, too, and expressing themselves
on the subject with as much clarity as passion.

Normally tongue-tied teenagers suddenly become eloquent, confident and
dazzlingly analytical experts.

I wish we had more of that sort of conversation in the world at large.

Citizens consumed by the topic of how their country could do better on the
Human Development Index or in reducing the number of carbon emissions or new HIV
infections.
Thirdly, the World Cup is an event which takes place on a level-playing
field, where every country has a chance to participate on equal terms. Only two
things matter in this game: talent and team-work.

I wish we had more levellers like that in the global arena - free and fair
exchanges without the interference of subsidies, barriers or tariffs; Every
country getting a real chance to field its strengths on the world stage.

Fourthly, the World Cup is an event which illustrates the benefits of
cross-pollination between peoples and countries. More and more national teams now
welcome coaches from other countries, who bring new ways of thinking and playing.

The same goes for the increasing number of players who, between World Cups,
represent clubs away from home. They inject new qualities into their new team,
grow from the experience and are able to contribute even more to their home
side when they return.

In the process, they often become heroes in their adopted countries - helping
to open hearts and broaden minds. I wish it were equally plain for all to see
that human migration in general can create triple wins - for migrants, for
their countries of origin, and for the societies that receive them.

Migrants not only build better lives for themselves and their families, but
are also agents of development - economic, social and cultural - in the
countries they go to work in and in the homelands they inspire through new ideas and
know-how when they return.

For any country, playing in the World Cup is a matter of profound national
pride. For countries qualifying for the first time, such as my native Ghana,
it is a badge of honour. For those who are doing so after years of adversity,
such as Angola, it provides a sense of national renewal.

And for those who are currently riven by conflict, like Cote d'Ivoire, but
whose World Cup team is a unique and powerful symbol of national unity, it
inspires nothing less than the hope of national rebirth.

Which brings me to what is perhaps most enviable for all of us in the United
Nations: the World Cup is an event in which we actually see goals being
reached.

I'm not talking only about the goals a country scores. I also mean the most
important goal of all - being there, part of the family of nations and peoples,
celebrating our common humanity.

I'll try to remember this when Ghana plays Italy on 12 June. Of course, I
can't promise I'll succeed.

The Politics of Fear and Why We Must Eradicate War

2006-06-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

For some of you who will read this, I am preaching to the choir. For others, this may be shocking news. And finally, there are many who believe that war is absolutely necessary in order to preserve our safety and way of life.

No one is right or wrong; it is the way we perceive the world and our personal perception of reality. My perception of reality is that war only breeds a greater division of people who, in reality, must be working together if we are going to save the planet we live on. The sooner we are able to value each person without creating a bias based on race, color, religion, culture or country-of-origin, the sooner we can begin healthy dialogs toward world change.

Something I have learned through the creation of my vanilla business and the subsequent International Tropical Farmers Network, is that one white woman, in the United States who is not a farmer, who has earned no money from working with the farmers, but who values those who work so hard for our benefit, can make a significant difference, think of what we can do as a group! The fact that I have a life threatening disease and am in active treatment has not stopped me from my work. In fact, the cancer has acted as a catalyst toward bringing the farmers I work with closer together. If I care enough about them and what they do, they now feel a responsibility to continue my legacy and to support one another in creating greater opportunities for personal empowerment in their work. I am seeing major change; I am attempting to do something that no one, to date, has felt important enough to actively jump in and do something about it.

Find your passion and breathe it to life. It is a small gift to give to a world in need and a great gift to your children, grandchildren, and others who deserve a healthier planet!

The V.Q.

Published on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 by CommonDreams.org Their Barbarism, and Ours
by Norman Solomon

The Baghdad bureau chief of the New York Times could not have been any clearer.
"The story really takes us back into the 8th century, a truly barbaric world," John Burns said. He was speaking Tuesday night on the PBS "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," describing what happened to two U.S. soldiers whose bodies had just been found. Evidently they were victims of atrocities, and no one should doubt in the slightest that the words of horror used by Burns to describe the "barbaric murders" were totally appropriate.

The problem is that Burns and his mass-media colleagues don't talk that way when the cruelties are inflicted by the U.S. military -- as if dropping bombs on civilians from thousands of feet in the air is a civilized way to terrorize and kill.
When journalists maintain a flagrant double standard in their language -- allowing themselves appropriate moral outrage when Americans suffer but tiptoeing around what is suffered by victims of the U.S. military -- the media window on the world is tinted a dark red-white-and-blue, and the overall result is more flackery than journalism.

Based on the available evidence from Abu Ghraib to Afghanistan to Guantanamo, anyone who claims that U.S. foreign policy does not include torture is disingenuous or deluded.

Reporters for the New York Times and other big U.S. media outlets would not dream of publicly describing what American firepower does to Iraqi civilians as "barbaric."
An eyewitness account from American author Rahul Mahajan, during the U.S. attack on Fallujah in April 2004, said: "During the course of roughly four hours at a small clinic in Fallujah, I saw perhaps a dozen wounded brought in. Among them was a young woman, 18 years old, shot in the head. She was having a seizure and foaming at the mouth when they brought her in; doctors did not expect her to survive the night. Another likely terminal case was a young boy with massive internal bleeding."
Hundreds of civilians died in that attack on Fallujah, and many more lost their lives when U.S. troops attacked the city again seven months later. Since then, the U.S. air war has escalated in Iraq, often putting urban neighborhoods in the cross hairs.

Days ago, in mid-June, independent U.S. journalist Dahr Jamail tells us, "a hospital source in Fallujah reported that eight Iraqis, some of whom were women and children from the same family, were killed and six wounded when U.S. warplanes bombed a home in the northeastern Ibrahim Bin Ali district of the city."
We hear that of course the U.S. tries to avoid killing civilians -- as if that makes killing them okay. But the slaughter from the air and from other U.S. military actions is a certain result of the occupiers' war. (What would we say if, in our own community, the police force killed shoppers every day by spraying blocks of stores with machine-gun fire -- while explaining that the action was justifiable because no innocents were targeted and their deaths were an unfortunate necessity in the war on crime?)

Meanwhile, routinely absent from the U.S. media's war coverage is the context: an invasion and occupation fundamentally based on deception.
"The Bush strategy for victory is about to begin," author Beau Grosscup said Tuesday. "U.S. and Iraqi forces have surrounded the city of Ramadi. Food and water have been cut off. Next is the 'Shock and Awe' strategic bombing of the city, to be followed by 'mop-up' operations: ground troops, snipers and aerial 'support.'"
Grosscup, a professor of international relations at California State University in Chico, added: "It is the hallowed 'Fallujah' model, intended to bring 'stability' by flattening the city with civilian death and destruction. It is a 'clean' way to victory, one supported by Rep. Jack Murtha, who would withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq but continue to engage the 'enemy' from far away and from 15,000 to 30,000 feet above with air power. By October 2004, this 'clean war' had killed close to 100,000 Iraqi civilians and thousands more since. But, as any enthusiast of strategic bombing would say, it is the price of victory and somebody has to make the ultimate sacrifice. Terror from the skies, anyone?"
Without maintaining a single and consistent moral standard in their work, journalists -- no matter how brave, skilled or hardworking -- end up prostituting their talents in the service of a war machine.

Norman Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and the author of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." E-mail to: mediabeat@igc.org.

HELP US GET MARIAM AND NORMA TO THE WLW!

2006-06-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

We need your help to get Mariam Mukalazi from the countryside of Uganda and Norma Vallejo from a a rural agricultural city in Veracruz, Mexico, to the Women Leaders of the World cohort July 22 - 30, 2006 sponsored by the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN) and the Leavey School of Business in Santa Clara, California. These two women are natural leaders dedicated to assisting indigenous, poor, and abused women in their countries to become independent business women.

The Global Women's Leadership Network (www.gwln.org)is a remarkable group, providing training and a network of resources for women who are already leaders to be able to fulfill their goals in affecting change. The Mission of the GWLN and the Leavy School of Business at Santa Clara University includes: Unleashing the world's greatest untapped source of leadership

"Today's economic, social, political, technological, spiritual, and environmental challenges demand new levels of creativity, talent, and innovation. The Global Women's Leadership Network at Santa Clara University is working to meet this demand by building an international network of women leaders who dare to transform the future of their organizations, communities, and the world.

"The Global Women's Leadership Network provides programs that cultivate powerful international leaders and establish worldwide connections that will support their success. Through these women, we touch the lives of many more."

As an alumni of the inaugural program, I speak from firsthand experience about how the network of resources provided through the GWLN has assisted me in organizing and uniting tens of thousands of tropical farmers, most of whom are vanilla producers, and working with them to create greater opportunities for their lives and to bring change to the ways that tropical commodities are traded.

Part of my vision has been to establish women's collectives in countries where vanilla is grown as a way to employ women who otherwise have few, if any, personal resources, independence, or means of support. The most effective way to do this was to identify women leaders who could implement this vision and to create model programs that can then be replicated in other regions of their country or even otehr countries. By empowering women by creating meaningful work and an income to sustain themselves and their children, their self-esteem will increase. This, in turn, will be passed along to their children who will hopefully have an opportunity for an education. The health of the tropics brings health to us all.

Mariam Mukalazi is a Muganda woman from the Lake Victoria region of Uganda. She has two boys, Faisal, who is six and Sula, who is four. She fled an abusive marriage but the tribal elders forced her to return home. Her husband then harmed the boys and nearly killed her. She now lives in a small home in the countryside and represents the Yeboah Farmers, a group of farmers throughout a large region of Uganda. She earns $60 a month to support herself and two boys.

A couple of years ago Mariam organized over 200 women at her church in Kampala. Some of the women fled the war and violence in Northwestern Uganda. This region is affected by the Darfur war in Sudan, the remnants of the terrible genocide in Rwanda, and the war in the Congo. Others are widows or fled abusive marriages. Many have AIDS and most have children. These women live in a treeless compound of small houses with no electricity or running water. Open sewers surround the property. Mariam started a program where the women could be of emotional support to one another, make crafts, and get counseling.

Mariam and I met over the Internet. I knew immediately that she has strong leadership qualities. I saw her through the forced return to the home of her husband and helped to convince her to flee. Despite poverty and bouts of malaria, Mariam has maintained her goal for a better life, not only for herself and her sons, but for the women of Uganda.

When Mariam was nominated to be part of the WLW, she was asked what she could do to raise money toward her scholarship. She spoke with the women's group and her pastor and they agreed to put on a program of music and dance, and to sell crafts and food. She so much wanted the training that she was also willing to sell her four cows that she had recently inherited from her grandmother.

The GWLN women told her, "Don't Sell the Cows!" Instead, we have created a way that people may buy shares of Mariam's cows to bring her to the conference.

Norma Vallejo grew up in Papantla, Veracruz. Her father was originally from Michoacan and came with his family to California during World War II to work in the fields as all the American field workers were drafted into the war. He chose to stay here to complete high school, learned fluent English, returned to Mexico and went to college, and began life in Mexico City working for RCA. He realized that his true passion was farming, so he and his family moved to Veracruz where they have had a farm with dairy cattle, a cheese business and they also grow vanilla and chili. Norma is a sociologist who has lived in Mexico City for decades. She has a grown daughter in Germany and she speaks fluent German as well. She has worked in the corporate world as a sociologist and has organized many women's groups. Now that her father is in his 70s Norma is moving back to the countryside to run her father's farm.

It has been her dream to work with the Indigenous women, so she readily agreed when I approached her about heading up a women's collective where the women would make vanilla ornaments and other value-added products that could be sold through Fair Trade channels in the US and Europe and also to the tourist market in Mexico.

Our goal is to have both Mariam and Norma at the WLW cohort because the training is so exceptional. It also makes it possible for the three of us to work as a team to design the women's programs in Mexico and Uganda and to get funding in place. The WLW training is very intensive and includes world-class executive training. The cost of the program, which includes food and lodging, is $6500. We depend on donations to make this possible.

This Spring I mentored a high school senior in Walnut Creek who did her senior paper on vanilla. For her community service project she threw a bake sale. Unfortunately, it was supposed to be on the big sports day of the year at her school, and everything was rained out! Nevertheless, she raised over $200 for Norma and Mariam.

We are holding a fundraiser June 19th in Palo Alto, California. If you live in the area and would like to attend the fund raiser, please go to www.gwln.org. You will see the invitation posted there. There will be a raffle (with some of our gift baskets), a silent auction to bid on some great events and services, ( go here to see the auction items; new items posted daily: http://gwln.blogspot.com/) refreshments and presentations by some of the 2005 attendees of the WLW. I will be presenting a slide show of our ITFN group and projects.

If you don't live in the area but would like to contribute to bringing Mariam and Norma to the WLW cohort, follow this link: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=112648.

Any assistance you can provide will be greatly valued, not only by Mariam and Norma, but by hundreds of women in Mexico and Uganda who will benefit from their training and assistance. Together we can make a difference!!

To buy shares in Mariam's cows, cut and paste this link in your browser:

CLICK HERE.

SHARING A PROFOUND MOMENT

2006-04-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

We tend to expect touching or profound interactions to occur regularly between humans, though we are often especially touched when it occurs between a baby or small child and an adult. We also know that our interactions with dogs and cats may produce truly heartwarming responses. But with species in the wild, it's both surprising and awe-inspiring. I think it must be because we don't have the opportunity to have inter-species contacts often, especially with animals in the wild.

I was really touched when I read this note passed on by a friend. As I've chosen to write about things that are positive, that show hope and possibility, I decided to share this with readers of this blog. I hope that you are equally touched by the care of the rescuers and the gratitude of the whale.

Sharing a profound moment...

If you had read the front page story of the SF Chronicle on Thursday, Dec
14, 2005, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become
entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by
hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She
also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body-her tail,
her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the
Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few
hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the
only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her-a very dangerous
proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. They worked for
hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous
circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and
nudged them, pushed them gently around-she thanked them. Some said it was
the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the
rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he
will never ever be the same.

Chef Deane and Dominican Hospital

2006-04-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

If you read newspapers, listen to or watch the daily news, you may feel, as I do, frustration, anger or despair about all of the tragedies and depressing issues going on in the world. In fact, there are many very serious problems and untold tragedies, but that isn’t all the news or all of what is occurring daily. Apparently news of doom and gloom sell papers and draw listeners and readers. About ten yeas ago there was a man somewhere in the Midwest who started a newspaper that focused on all the good news; the paper went out of business!

As my blog isn’t a newspaper and I can write about whatever I wish, I’ve decided to write about issues that are hopeful or have the possibility of positive outcomes. Fortunately, I don’t have to look far a field to find stories about people who are making a difference and bringing about positive change, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Chef Deane Bussiere is one of our Chefs in Residence (http://www.vanilla.com/html/chefs/dbussiere.html). He has been the Executive Chef at several critically acclaimed restaurants and is known for his innovative cuisine. However, after becoming a parent, he realized that he never was home to read his sons bedtime stories, and his hours were very long and demanding. It was time for a change.

One and a half years ago Deane went to work as the Executive Chef at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, as his hours were built around a regular workday. But he also went to work at the hospital to bring about positive change for the patients and the community. As any of you who have experienced standard hospital food, it’s anything but haute cuisine. So one of the first things he did was to teach the kitchen staff how to cook vegetables properly and how to create more palatable food for patients. The staff got permission to build a vegetable garden and he worked on expanding it with them and organizing the planting and harvesting so they could utilize the produce. Once the land was secured, they set up a program for students to work in the garden. The entire garden is grown organically. While the produce has not yet been approved by the health department for patients’ meals, the medical staff and hospital employees may dine on fresh carrots, lettuce and other delectables. The hope is that approval will occur soon so that everyone can benefit from the garden. The garden has since doubled in size and fundraisers have made it possible to expand garden projects as well.

Recently, while visiting a friend at Dominican, I saw Chef Deane and asked what was new. He told me about the recycle project and how they are using worms to compost all of the kitchens produce trimmings (an additional 90,000 pounds of waste is now being diverted from the land-fills from when he first arrived), the classes he’s teaching on nutrition for cancer patients, and that Dominican would underwrite his getting a degree in nutrition. New patient menus using Deane’s recipes and organic whole-wheat pasta and other organic produce should be up and running by June 21st. He has time with his boys who, along with his wife, are involved in the garden project, he’s happier than he’s ever been, and he’s changing the way hospitals deal with food, nutrition and the extraordinary amount of waste that’s generated maintaining a large facility.

The following article by Chef Deane gives a nice overview of the recycle project they’ve set into motion and how the entire community is affected by the shift in consciousness of the local hospital. If you would like more information about Chef Deane’s work at the hospital or how to get a similar program underway, please contact Deane at Deane.Bussiere@chw.edu.

We Shall Recycle the Earth
By Chef Deane Bussiere

My thoughts are on the future and what Dominican Hospital is doing to protect the environment around it, to secure that future for our children. I am so proud of the ecology task force and those who promote and maintain the efforts of recycling, reducing and reusing materials. The kitchen has made huge strides in this area. We are using worms to compost all the produce trim created during our daily production, and this is being put to use in our garden near the BHU, enhancing the soil quality on our grounds, the food we eat and the air we breathe.

Dominican Hospital is now a drop site for ALBA's CSA (community supported agriculture) program. Employees can pick up a weekly box of organic goods right here at work. (See www.albafarmers.org for more information.)

Tin cans are washed and flattened, and lids are recycled, as we’ve switched to the new safety can openers. Used kitchen grease from the deep fryers and the cooking of meats is recycled and we using trans-fat free oil in the fryers. Milk and egg containers are now being accepted by the county and recycled as well. Tetra-pak containers are also rinsed and flattened to conserve space in the blue recycle bins. All glass bottles and jars are washed and recycled. All plastic trays, tubs and jugs are crushed and recycled, and our engineers and other staff are reusing the 5 gallon pickle buckets.

Another program we have is Dominagain. Dominagain is actually the garage of Sister Beth's house, which she makes available for all the unused products, which have been phased out by the hospital, or packaging materials and anything else that can be used for another purpose rather than being recycled or thrown out. Then it is opened to the public once a month on the first Thursday from 1:30 to 4:30 pm, first come, first served. Everything from chairs to paper is available. Local teachers are finding out Dominagain and putting these free materials to good use in our kids’ classrooms, where materials are becoming scarce and art classes are going by the wayside due to lack of funding.

Finally, by supporting the local organic movement through the purchase of produce from ALBA, Dominican is helping to maintain a future generation of family farmers, who in many cases were poor farm workers stuck in low paying, high risk jobs. We have had to increase the number of recycle bins that are dropped here by waste management twice now, and are diverting another 90,000 lbs of materials from the landfill annually!

International Women's Day

2006-03-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Last summer, as many of you are aware, I was in the inaugural Women Leaders for the World Cohort, held at Santa Clara University. The program is a joint venture of the Leavey School of Business, The School of Engineering, and the Global Women's Leadeship Network, all based at SCU. But the real driving force of this program is a most extraordinary woman, Linda Alepin.

Linda set up and ran a Fortune 500 Company and has been a very influential business woman in the Silicon Valley. She is also the mother of I believe four grown children. She is a force to be reckoned with in the finest sense of this phrase.

Linda sent out an open letter about the importance of International Women's Day on March 8th. It was so powerful that I decided to copy it into my blog so that others could read it. Here it is:

An open letter from Linda Alepin
Dear Sisters and Friends,

Today matters. Today is International Women’s Day. It marks women's efforts to attain justice and equality for themselves and their children. The story of the day is the story of ordinary women, like each of us, who are the makers of history. It is a day when we all celebrate being “sisters and friends” as Lydia and Annette from Uganda taught us last year during the Women Leaders for the World program.

It is a day when both women and men can put aside differences - national, ethnic, social, economic and political – and honor those who have come before us for their progress towards equality. It is an opportunity for us to re-dedicate ourselves to the unfinished business of women’s rights.

Why women’s rights? The other evening after giving my dinner speech at the Finance Executive International chapter in Silicon Valley, I opened the floor for questions. One gentleman challenged me about how the world was going to support its growing population and the rising standards of living in both developed and developing economies. My answer was simple. I said, “Educate the women.” This answer was met with a loud round of applause.

In country after country, educated women make their family’s health a priority, thus cutting infant and child mortality. They have fewer children. They make their children’s education a priority (including the girls), thus breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and building economic sustainability. They contribute to increases in GDP.

In her speech at Microsoft last month, Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, made three points about the distinct impact of gender equality –

¨ “First, there is an inextricable link between women’s well-being and the overall health of a society.”

¨ “There is the enormous, yet largely unrecognized and unsupported, contribution of women to the world economy.”

¨ “And, finally, there is an unparalleled benefit to society when women have voice in decisions that affect their own lives.”

I encourage you to read the entire text of her speech to this audience of some of the world’s most powerful women at http://www.thp.org/reports/jh/jhms0106/ .

Her words bring home why the members of GWLN believe that the quality of life on the planet is directly related to the quality of women’s leadership. As global citizens, we are unwilling to have -

A woman die in childbirth somewhere in the world every minute for lack of medical information and attention

Over 10 million children die each year of malnutrition

¨ 2/3 of the world’s illiterate populace be female

¨ Women own less than 1% of the world’s property while working more than 2/3 of the hours of labor on that same land

Most of us reading this email have grown up in a world where women have the right to vote, to be educated, and to own property. We take these rights for granted – for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren. We may think that the fact that these are not universal rights has no impact on us. Such thinking is denying the inexorable march of globalization.

In 2001, I wrote an article called, “What Matters?” In it I asked the question, “What matters in these difficult times?” I ask the same question today – on International Women’s Day. What matters in this world in terms of gender equality?

What matters is what we are committed to. Yes, it is more important than ever that we take bold stands, speak out, and pursue our visions of equality in leadership, worldwide.

What matters is communication with each other and with those around us. It is time to be aware of the gender inequality facts on a global basis. Not to be overwhelmed by them, but rather to have the gap inspire our commitments and our actions.

What matters is our orientation towards the future. What matters is the answer to the question, “Who am I with regard to the gender equality?”

We are fortunate: we are taught from childhood what is possible, reasonable, and predictable. We have formed a view of the world that is useful, and at the same time, limiting. We know that more than what’s predictable is possible. We know that concerted actions by small groups of people can, indeed, change the world. We need to act from our knowing on behalf of those who may not yet know.

The courage of women in the early 1900’s inspired the song "Bread and Roses" which has become associated with International Women's Day. Bread symbolizes economic justice and roses represent the quality of life. Let these symbols be visual reminders of the work we have ahead.

One phrase from Joan Holmes rings in my ears. She said, “Gender discrimination is the greatest moral challenge of our age. And, history will judge us on how we respond.”

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said: “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”

All of us are leaders. By being global innovation leaders, we will make a difference – one that will be celebrated on future International Women’s Days by men and women, boys and girls worldwide. You matter. Today matters. What you do today matters.
* * *

These are powerful words, well spoken. I hope that they resonate with you and hopefully will stimulate either a personal internal monologue or a dialogue with others. Women are the greatest untapped resource in the world. By honoring women's roles in the world we honor and validate ourselves.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The San Francisco Winter Fancy Food Show

2006-02-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

What could be more fun (aside from being there) than to write about the three ring culinary attraction of the year in one of the great food destinations of the world? Fabulous food in San Francisco is an oxymoron as nearly everyone knows that the San Francisco Bay Area has cutting edge international cuisine with restaurateurs and chefs whose names evoke star status. Being part of the buzz was great fun for us despite the work, the exhaustion, and the weeks of following through with calls to interested clients.

Although this was our company’s premier at the Fancy Food Show, I’ve worked at numerous food shows as well as walked the aisles as a visitor for years. In other words, I was well prepared for the inevitable assault to the senses and the swollen feet that come with the territory.

Food shows fall into the category of culinary spectacle, given such a staggering number of specialty foods where even the most sophisticated gourmand is bound to find something new to titillate a jaded palate. After all, there aren’t too many places in the world where you can experience green mole, dark chocolate enrobed caramel with sea salt, Tibetan yak cheese, Golden trout caviar and pomegranate green tea all within a few yards of each other. And that’s just mentioning a few of the 80,000 products that were displayed by 1100 exhibitors.

Although the show was somewhat quieter than in the recent past, there were still 16,500 store buyers cruising the aisles for something unique to please shoppers. Chefs, producers of unique artisan food products, culinary students and the press all prowled the aisles, ready to pounce on the perfect ingredients or prepared treats to taste, discuss, order or write about in their weekly columns.

So what was unique and special besides our Sweet Treats Sugar Sampler and fragrant extracts and beans? A product touted in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Mercury News and that caught our eye is Adora Calcium. It’s the first calcium supplement that isn’t chalky, and the chocolate that contains the bone-building ingredient is smooth with a deep flavor. It comes in milk and dark chocolate and will be available soon at Target. www.adoracalcium.com.

The Republic of Tea, a socially conscious business, continues to produce wonderful beverages filled with ant-oxidants. www.republicoftea.com.

Palapa Azul is a terrific ice cream company that is producing “paletas” those fabulous icy fruit bars available from Mexican push carts, but with unique new flavors. They also have Mexican-style sorbets and ice creams. www.palapazul.com.

Guittard Chocolate Company, a San Francisco tradition since 1868, continues to produce high quality chocolate for home bakers, professional pastry chefs, confectioners and artisan ice creameries. They have recently begun producing chocolate varietals for serious chocolate lovers, including a Single Origin Chocolate Tasting Kit with 16 small bars from four distinct regions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Madagascar. The kit additionally contains information about each chocolate growing region, what makes each variety unique, and descriptions that bring to mind the descriptions of fine wines. You can find out more about where to purchase this fun tasting kit at www.eguittard.com. It’s also available at www.cocoasphere.com.

One of the most interesting products that caught my eye, not only for its taste but because it is a perfect crop for Indonesian vanilla growers to consider as secondary crop, is Island Crisps. Island crisps are made from the seeds of the Melinjo tree. After the fruit is gathered, the seeds are roasted in a hot wok filled with sand. The seed is then removed from the outer shell and pounded into a disk while still warm. It is then dried, sprinkled with Balinese sea salt, and it’s ready to eat. A family tradition for over 1000 years, Island Crisps are now available in the US. This is a great way to have a healthy, crispy, gluten-free treat while also supporting sustainable agriculture in Indonesia. For information contact islandcrisps@bigtreebali.com.

It was fun to see friends at the show, both exhibitors and customers of ours. Choctal, an extraordinary chocolate and ice cream producer, brought us three pints of their amazing frozen bit of heaven. Their chocolate ice cream is creamy smooth and deeply flavored, making your taste buds come wide awake while simultaneously making you swoon. This is not your ordinary chocolate ice cream, but rather, an essential chocolate ice cream experience! Their vanilla ice cream is equally as richly flavored, using our ground beans and extracts blended with fresh cream and cane sugar. You can learn more about Choctal at www.choctal.com.

Looking for the best saffron in the marketplace? Let me introduce you to Juan San Mames, the saffron king! Juan is originally from Spain and for years imported saffron from La Mancha. However, Spain no longer produces enough saffron to export; even if it says it’s from Spain, it has been imported to Spain from Iran and then from Spain to the U.S.

In fact, the autumn-blooming crocus varietal from Iran is a better quality flower and produces deeply rich threads to flavor everything from breads to paella to pilaf. Although more research needs to be done in this regard, it appears that saffron has medicinal value for the liver. True or not, adding a few threads of saffron to water or tea is both flavorful and refreshing. Fresh saffron ice cream and saffron flavored chocolates are exceptional. To learn more or to order, visit www.saffron.com.

While this barely breaks the surface of the show's offerings, it will need to suffice for today. I am attempting to be more consistent in posting blogs and I promise I will write more culinary adventures very soon.

For The Love of Vanilla

2005-12-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is a re-do of a blog I posted last summer that raised the hackles of a particular company as I implicated the company without checking for the veracity of my comments. The issue remains the same. Many large frozen dessert manufacturers are not using pure vanilla despite the price collapse. This has left thousands of farmers with tons of vanilla they can't sell. As the prices drop lower and lower, farmers have fewer incentives for growing vanilla, and it could be lost. Read on for more about the new vanilla crisis.

SAVING PURE VANILLA

The holiday season is here and most of us are stocking up on ingredients to make our celebratory meals. Vanilla is certainly a must have for anyone who bakes, as our cakes and cookies, eggnog and ice creams would taste very different without its delicate yet all-important flavor. We can count on finding it in the grocery, in specialty foods stores, and even in the discount markets, reliable, ready and oh, so delicious!

Now imagine for a moment that you go to the store to buy your baking ingredients and there is no vanilla on the shelf. In fact, the only ingredient available is imitation vanilla. So you go to a second store and a third. No pure vanilla. You look online. No pure vanilla.

This isn’t a fantasy, unfortunately, as it could actually happen to us in the next few years. At this moment, less than one percent of all the vanilla flavored and scented products in the world contain pure vanilla. We are currently balanced on the threshold of losing pure vanilla forever!

Those of you who use vanilla regularly are well aware that the prices of pure vanilla have been unusually pricey during the last several years. Most likely you’ve even grumbled about it. For those of you who didn’t know about why the prices were so high, between 1999 and late 2004 there was a world shortage of vanilla. Initially driven by such low prices that the farmers tore up their vanilla, the shortage was fueled by weather-related disasters and political unrest. The shortage created a crisis and prices escalated to unprecedented levels. Although there is now an abundance of vanilla in the market as farmers throughout the tropics planted vanilla, we are faced with a crisis of even greater proportions. Why? Because the big corporations have switched to a new generation of synthetic vanilla!

Most of us don’t know a whole lot about the flavors and spices we use on a regular basis, and vanilla is no exception. For instance, did you know that vanilla is the most labor-intensive agricultural product in the world? Did you know that vanilla is grown only in developing countries as a commercial venture because there is a ready supply of workers willing to produce vanilla for a fraction of the cost of growing it here? Are you aware that even though there no longer is a shortage of vanilla, many of the ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers, the companies who use the most vanilla in the world, are still using “flavor identical alternatives,” the euphemistic term for synthetic vanilla? Finally, are you aware that you are paying the same price for these desserts as when they contained pure vanilla?

This current crisis could spell the end of pure vanilla. If large corporations that have used pure vanilla in their formulas in the past don’t switch back to pure vanilla, people will grow accustomed to the flavor of imitation vanilla. The prices for vanilla will fall so far below the cost of production that the farmers will have no incentive to grow it. And since the majority of people won’t recognize the difference between the flavor and fragrance of imitation and pure vanilla, vanilla could go the way of so many other valuable rain forest plants, animals and birds.

There are specific regulations for producing ice creams and other frozen desserts that were established by the FDA in the 1960s to regulate an industry that had no specific rules or controls either for product quality or the inclusion of ingredients. Active legislation ensued and now vanilla extract is the only flavoring with both an FDA Standard of Identity of its own and an FDA ice cream standard.

In order to be labeled vanilla ice cream or pure vanilla ice cream, the product must be made with 100 percent pure vanilla. It can be made with vanilla extract or vanilla beans. Usually pure vanilla ice cream is made with top-quality ingredients, as the pure vanilla will not mask any “off” flavor or fragrance notes. “Super-premium” and “premium” ice creams usually have a high butter-fat content, so double-strength pure vanilla extract is most often used. At least, this was true until recently. (Detailed information on the FDA regulations and Standard of Identity can be found in Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance, written by Patricia Rain: www.vanilla.com.)

If you look at the ingredients on a container of many vanilla or “vanilla bean” ice creams in the US, you will notice that it says, “natural flavor” on the package. While this may not sound suspicious, “natural flavor” actually means vanillin made from plant substances such as beets and paper pulp (conifers contain vanillin, which is why Ponderosa pines smell somewhat vanilla-like). In fact, many premium ice creams contain no pure vanilla at all. It is flavored with chemical vanillin and has flecks of flavorless “exhausted” vanilla beans (left over from the extraction process) added for appearance. For this, we’re paying a premium price.

How does this affect us?
Not using pure vanilla in premium products is in defiance of the FDA Standards of Identity. Both the ice cream companies and the companies that produce and sell large quantities of synthetic vanillin would very much like the Standards of Identity to be revised in their favor. There is now a proposal to the FDA to allow vanilla flavor from sources other than pure vanilla to be used and still sold as premium vanilla ice cream.

At this time, tons of vanilla, worldwide, are going unsold. Why? Because there isn’t a market for the beans. Historically, the frozen dessert industry has been the largest buyer of vanilla. Because they are now using synthetics, the pure vanilla is sitting in warehouses around the world.

In 1998, 2300 metric tons of vanilla beans were used worldwide. In 2004, it was 1200 tons and dropping! Farmers who have not been able to sell their vanilla will be forced to change to another agricultural crop, which often means tearing out their vanilla plants. Crises such as this often leads farmers to immigrate to industrialized countries in search of work. This is a crisis of major proportions for the tropical growers of vanilla.

What you can do
The most effective thing we all can do is to create a populist movement to get pure vanilla back into ice cream, frozen yogurt and other vanilla-flavored products we buy regularly. Call or write the company whose products you normally use and ask if they use pure vanilla extract or flavor in their products. If they don’t, let them know that you want products with pure vanilla.

We can bring about change, but we need to act now. Tell everyone you know to support pure vanilla. Call your favorite talk radio station and bring up this topic. If you know people in the media, ask them to write an article about the vanilla crisis. Even if you don’t buy commercial ice creams, yogurts or other dairy products, this is an issue of critical importance to the growers and to all of us who want vanilla to be available in the years to come. Large corporations need to know that they are being watched and that we want them held accountable.

Please purchase vanilla products that have been bought at fair prices whenever possible. Vanilla is not part of the Fair Trade movement as it is a very small industry compared with tropical commodities such as coffee, chocolate, sugar and bananas. As a result, you will need to ask vendors how they buy their vanilla. The Vanilla.COMpany, located at www.vanilla.com buys their vanilla beans and extracts at Fair Trade prices. Wholesale and retail purchases from this company help to fund grass-roots projects for vanilla growers and their families worldwide. For more information about this, contact Patricia Rain at rain@vanilla.com.

We are no longer isolated from one another in the world. We are a global community and we need to think and live as a community. Every choice we make, every action we take, can affect people around the world. This is especially true regarding the choices we make in the foods we purchase and consume every day.

Vanilla is a rain forest orchid whose fruit, the vanilla pod (bean) contains medicinal value that is just now being discovered and researched. It has value in aromatherapy. It is a key component in many perfumes. And it is a luscious substance that flavors the foods we love. Please join in the movement to keep pure vanilla alive and available. Bring vanilla out of your cupboard and put it with the other condiments you use daily. Vanilla is a magical ingredient; in fact, it’s world’s favorite flavor and fragrance. Support the growers who bring us this remarkable product: Help us to save pure vanilla!

Beginning A New Adventure

2005-10-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

November 8, 2005

I was interviewed this last weekend by the African correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. Scott Calvert, the correspondent, had just returned from a trip to Madagascar and learned from the locals in the vanilla industry there, including some farmers, that they feared that vanilla may be drawing to a close as a way to support themselves. As the prices for vanilla have collapsed, growers worldwide wonder what will happen next. How low will the prices go, and is there a possibility that the prices will ever go up again, even if not as high as they were between 2000 and 2004appen next. How low will the prices go, and is there a possibility that the prices will ever go up again, even if not as high as they were between 2000 and 2004.

The farmers have reason for concern, and we should as well. The reality is that the new generation of synthetics made from plant sources (beets, wood pulp, and other sources) offer cheap substitutes for vanilla. Frozen dessert manufacturers changed their formulas during the period where vanilla’s prices were so high, and they haven’t had much incentive to switch back. The rationale, I’m sure, is to save a few pennies on vanilla, especially as the cost of butter and cream has increased, and the sharp rise in gasoline costs has affected the prices of most products.

There are a number of reasons for concern: Will consumers become accustomed to the flavor of the imitation vanilla and not recognize pure vanilla when they taste it? Will farmers give up when the prices go too low, tear up their crops and either plant something else or immigrate to other countries in search of work? And, even though there is a demand in the gourmet-foods, natural foods and food service niche markets, will this provide enough demand for vanilla that farmers can still eke out a living growing vanilla?

From my point of view, the current situation is very troubling. Vanilla is a rain forest plant, though very little vanilla is now actually grown in rain forests. Nevertheless, like many other plants from the forest, it has proven medicinal value. Could we lose a plant that might have great value in cancer treatment or DNA repair? We have already lost many, many rain forest plants that could well have contained useful medicinal components.

The flavor of pure vanilla is unique and no flavor scientist has been able to come close to replicating it. This, after continuous attempts by flavorists and scientists for more than a hundred years.

The livelihoods of thousands of farmers would be endangered with the loss of vanilla, and their families would suffer the consequences of increased poverty, compromised educational opportunities, and the likelihood of having their families split apart as the head (or heads) of household move to another country in search of work. This last is not uncommon as children are placed with relatives while both parents, frequently with limited skills for working in industrialized countries, attempt to cross borders illegally in search of a way to support themselves and their families back home.

It’s so easy for us to forget how each choice we make, each action we take, can have a ripple effect that reaches far beyond our immediate lives. Our planet is so small now; we can have a positive or negative effect on people we have never met who live thousands of miles away. For the love of my family and the desire for a healthier planet for my grandsons and the children of the future, I feel very strongly about keeping vanilla a viable, healthy crop. I would like to see Fair Trade prices for vanilla, not as an exception, but as a rule. It’s the most labor-intensive agricultural product in the world and yet the farmer’s make only a few pennies on each dollar created through the sale of vanilla.

If you want to know more about what you can do to help save pure vanilla, attend one of my lectures. Better yet, create an event where I can come to speak, show my slide show of the faces and places of vanilla, do a special taste testing of vanilla or a meal based around vanilla and educate people about the importance of saving pure vanilla. Together we can make a difference.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico

2005-09-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

September 18, 2005

It has been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to update this blog, which has been frustrating, especially as my intention was to keep readers current with what’s new in our business, issues relating to vanilla and other tropical commodities, and more. We are currently developing new products for the holidays, creating a brochure and a new homepage for the website, among other things. It has been a matter of priorities and which project screamed loudest for my attention. Now I have a few quiet moments before returning home to the busy-ness of daily life.

I am writing this in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I have just completed a program called, “Real Speaking,” facilitated by Gail Larsen, an exceptionally skilled speaker and, for several years, the President of the National Speaker’s Association. One of our coaches at the Women Leaders for the World cohort, Joanne Brem, strongly suggested that I work with Gail as she is brilliant in assisting people in identifying their core message and the best ways for engaging our authentic voices. If you are interested in working with Gail, visit www.realspeaking.com. If you sign up, please mention that I referred you.

This is my first visit to Santa Fe, though I’ve wanted to come here for many years, not only because I knew I would feel a kinship with the people who live here, but because my cousin Thom and his wife, Judith, live in El Rito, in the high desert mesa outside of town. Judith is currently in Atlanta directing a play, so Thom took me on a tour of the region, first to Taos Pueblo following the back roads along the Rio Grande Gorge, and the next day into Georgia O’Keefe’s country in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. We completed our tour by visiting Chimayo, known for the miracles that have occurred in the Chimayo sanctuary. The monsoon season has just ended and the countryside and washes are filled with chamisa, sunflowers, asters, mullen and blooming plants, and the pinon pine cones are filled with their delicious seeds. It feels so familiar because of the years of seeing pictures in magazines and movies made in New Mexico, and it is truly beautiful. The sky is saturated with blues and with a multitude of colors so intensely bright at sunrise and sunset that it appears as if it has been painted with acrylics by the Great Creator.

Right now, the sky near my cousin’s home is filled with thick, choking smoke and the roar of flames devouring the Pinon, the firs, the junipers and cypress. Eight firefighters were in his driveway earlier this evening, eating rations and waiting for bulldozers to cut a fireline. We had planned to connect this afternoon to share a meal after the training ended. Instead, this morning Thom called to say that a fire had broken out and that while it appeared to be under control, he’d get back to me a little later as to whether he’d been down this evening or tomorrow morning.

When I left the Bobcat Inn this afternoon, I saw a huge pall of smoke drifting across the mesa. I wasn’t able to reach Thom until this evening. Apparently the fire exploded this afternoon around 2:30 and raced up the ridge behind him, surrounding the region. His car was ready to roll with the dog and cats inside, and his truck was loaded with their most beloved possessions. I am writing while I wait for his arrival with the animals; the truck has been moved to the home of friends who live a safe distance from the fire...at least for the moment. There are two fires that have merged into 2000 acres of burning or blackened mesa, and the fire is has zero containment. It appears that I am getting the full Santa Fe experience.

A Post Script: The fire was contained and my cousin did not lose their hom.

Women Leaders for the World.

2005-07-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't been absent from blog writing after retracting my statements about Haagen Dazs because of embarrassment. On the contrary, I have invited Haagen Dazs to use me as their spokesperson. They haven't yet responded....

I've been absent because of the extraordinary opportunity to participate in the first ever twelve day residency program at Santa Clara University, Women Leaders For The World (WLW). Women from diverse places have come to participate -- Uganda, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, and the United States. Each participant came with a vision or to create a vision in a supportive environment, with the goal of making the world a better place. While many of the visions are focused on women or women and children, ultimately, each involves everyone, and empowers all to have a better life. Challenges women in developing countries face, and specifically Uzbekistan, are nearly unimaginable to those of us who live in more democratic environments. Their courage and determination is moving.

Initially my intention was to work on the International Tropical Farmers Network, still in its nascent state, but garnering a lot of enthusiasm with our core group. However, I realized that in order to focus time on the network it was first necessary for me to focus on growing our core business. By creating a very profitable business we can implement more of the projects that we hold dear and important to us.

I have set a goal to have our vanilla sugar into Starbucks by October. Rather than feeling daunted, I feel determined. While I certainly see this as doable, if for any reason Starbucks decides it isn't the right product for them (though I can't imagine why they wouldn't want it!), there are many other avenues we can explore.

We are also interested to get our products into more specialty food and natural food stores such as Whole Foods, as well as to provide our premium extracts and beans to more restaurants, ice cream stores and bakeries. If you who read my blog will point us in the direction of your favorite places to eat, small-to-mid-size ice cream producers, or bakeries, we'll be sure to follow your suggestions.

On Friday we visited Google in Mountain View. What an amazing place!! We were all impressed with their vision, their goals, their eco-friendly environment and beautiful facility. It was a community in the truest sense of the world. They even provide their employees with their meals for free! Well, yes, I do that too, but only for four, not for thousands. They have great desserts -- maybe they'll be our next big account.

The women and men who are facilitating the WLW cohort have impressive credentials and a strong presence in the business and academic communities. Our classes are varied, with some segments focused on leadership and vision, and others on ethics, cultural diversity, etc. For instance, Saturday was devoted to understanding cultural differences as a way to better interact within our global community.

Perhaps one of the most powerful tools has been to understand how the lenses through which we view our lives impact ourselves as well as our way of doing business or running organizations, or even relating to our friends and family. I went to the conference knowing that I would learn a lot but I had not known that the experience would be transformational. I look forward putting into motion what I have learned. Watch out world, I have big plans! I will write more about the WLW after we have completed the cohort.

On a sadder note, on July 20th my oncologist, Richard Shapiro, died quite suddenly of a heart attack. He was only 41 years old and had no history of heart disease. It has been a huge shock for his family, friends, patients, and for the community at large. He was funny, irreverent, compassionate and gave us a sense of hope. We all were his favorite patient. I feel blessed to have had him in my life and sad to let go of an extraordinary human being.

RETRACTION OF STATEMENTS POSTED IN SAVING PURE VANILLA

2005-07-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

On June 24th I posted an article in this blog about Saving Pure Vanilla. I expressed concern that many premium ice cream manufacturers (and I specifically mentioned Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream) do not contain pure vanilla extract or flavor in their ice cream. I was also concerned about how ingredients are represented on the packaging. I requested that people write to Nestle Corporation asking that they comply with the FDA Standard of Identity and to put pure vanilla extract in their premium ice creams.

When I wrote these statements in my newsletter and web log, I honestly (but unfortunately) was not considering that this could possibly be harmful to the reputation of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc., to Nestle, or to Haagen-Dazs. It was based on information I received from a meeting at the Flavor and Extract Manufacturer’s Association (FEMA) and from the labeling I read on the Haagen-Dazs ice cream package. It was also based on my interpretation of the FDA Standard of Identity for premium vanilla ice creams. And finally, it included my concern about the vanilla producers worldwide and my interest in seeing increased use of pure vanilla in premium products.

On June 30th I received a letter from Mark LeHockey, Vice President and Counsel of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc. Mr. Le Hockey writes:

“First and foremost your statement that Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream contains synthetic vanillin is completely false. Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean contains only pure vanilla extract, supplied to Dreyer’s by one of the most reputable ingredients suppliers in this country. For the same reason, your statement that “Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream contains ‘no vanilla at all’ is false.

“From there, it unfortunately only gets worse. Based upon your misstatement that Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean contains no vanilla at all, your further assertions that Dreyer’s or Nestle are defying FDA regulations, using ‘fraudulent packaging, which is illegal’, and for the past few years ‘they’ve ignored the law’, are both false and presumptively malicious based upon the actual facts and your failure to ascertain the true facts before making such scurrilous charges.

“In fact, in addition to using only pure vanilla extract in its Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream, Dreyer’s has spent and continues to spend millions upon millions of dollars ensuring the highest quality of Haagen-Dazs ingredients and communicating those benefits to our customers. In this connection, the false statements and accusations contained in the June 24th web site do severe damage to our work and the reputation and goodwill of one of the most valuable brands in this country. Each passing day that these false statements and claims remain posted only exacerbates the problem.”

As a journalist, I attempt to report accurate information to readers. In fact, I did not contact Dreyer’s or Nestle in advance of publishing information on my web log or in the newsletter. I placed a call to Mr. Mark LeHockey on July 1st, but as I have not heard back from him, I can neither confirm nor deny that Haagen-Dazs ice cream contains pure vanilla extract. As a result, I will assume that Mr. LeHockey’s claim is accurate. I respectfully apologize for misinformation I may have provided regarding Haagen-Dazs premium ice cream and for any fraudulent or false statements I have made. I have removed the web log statements and am contacting all newsletter subscribers to apologize for inaccurate or misleading information.

As those of you who read my blog are fans of pure vanilla, I encourage you to enjoy premium ice creams containing pure vanilla and to continue to support vanilla producers by purchasing and using pure vanilla products.

Regards,
Patricia Rain,
Vanilla Queen

Out on the Road

2005-06-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

From May 31st to June 4th I was "on the road," though not far away -- just the East San Francisco Bay Area. Even ninety miles away is fun, however, as so much of my time is spent in front of the computer in Santa Cruz, so I feel as if it's a holiday when I'm doing book events. The best part of this trip was that I stayed with my daughter and son-in-law and my "job" was to entertain (and be entertained by)my grandson, Theo. He and I are so fond of one another that we play from the moment he wakens until he goes to bed, and it's always difficult to leave at the end of the visit.

Theo is just turning 16 months and he's determined to talk. He went to a birthday party while I did my event at Black Oak Books, and was served a cupcake. He doesn't get a lot of sugar, and so he was thrilled with that sweet taste that's a natural pleasure for us humans. His dad reported that he said, "Ummmm. Oh wow! oh, ummmm, wow, oh MAN!" Clearly he takes after his grandmother who has a full set of sweet teeth!

I did a reading and slide show in Berkeley Tuesday evening at Black Oak Books, and after, attendees were treated to an amazing dessert selection by Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse prepared two-bite sized eclairs filled with Chantilly cream and decorated with caramelized spun sugar, cat's tongues (a thin vanilla wafer cookie), and a remarkable tapioca pudding with a tiny scoop of a fantastic ice cream. I was so busy answering questions that I don't remember what the ice cream was flavored with, but it was all extraordinary. Vintage Berkeley Wines poured a delicious Moscato dessert wine.

As you can see, I don't do a standard book event. First I read some of the "wow" details about vanilla from the Introduction, and then begin a slide show that features the cycle of vanilla and the faces and places where it's grown. I always have an interactive table set up with our extracts and beans so that people can see and sniff for themselves the differences between vanilla of various origins. They can also taste our vanilla sugar, smell a bag filled with vanilla beans (a heady aroma, to be sure!) and enjoy a picture book with additional pictures.

The following day I taped a radio show for KCRW Los Angeles (an NPR station)from KQED in San Francisco, then enjoyed lunch right on the Bay with an old friend who is both interesting and extremely creative, a perfect companion to share a meal with. On the 4th I spent the afternoon at The Pasta Shop in Berkeley. The Pasta Shop event was a culinary extravaganza. They had three tasting dishes of Creme Anglaise (a thin pouring custard) flavored with the varieties of vanilla I carry (Madagascar, Tahitian, and Mexican),as well as carry-out containers of the custard, and a sampling of the Smoked Turkey, Cranberry, Cous-Cous Salad with Vanilla Vinaigrette from The Vanilla Chef along with carry-out containers of the salad. They also sell an impressive variety of pre-made foods, including salads, sandwiches, and hot foods, and gorgeous desserts, meats, freshly made pasta, breads, cheeses, and hard to find cooking ingredients. I was in heaven! Even better, there are several streets filled with small shops so it can be an afternoon outing to visit 4th Street in Berkeley. I discovered Tacubaya, a Mexican restaurant next to The Pasta Shop, and found they carry fresh masa. Since returning home, I've been eating fresh tortillas for lunch. Regretably, I don't have the technique down well, but even though they look like lopsided pancakes, they taste like Southern Mexico, and that's what really matters!

I signed books, visited with customers, and had my larger traveling display set up with samples of vanilla from around the world. Store manager, Porsche, a trained chef, answered questions about the many different items I've collected in my travels. More than just vanilla beans, there are woven containers for holding vanilla from Tahiti's Central Market, woven vanilla bean ornaments from Madagascar and Mexico, a clock made from a coconut and decorated with vanilla beans, coffee beans, and banana fiber from Bali, money embossed with vanilla beans from around the world, and even a display of the most commonly purchased synthetics from Mexico and the Caribbean. It's a true hands-on vanilla experience. And the best part is that people purchased not one but THREE bottles of extract, the foods, and the books. This is wonderful to see in the summertime when most people don't think about baking. My dream is to have everyone use vanilla year 'round (ideally, daily), putting it in summertime salads, lemonade and other beverages, in rubs and sauces for grilled meats and seafood, and in delicious ice creams and fruit desserts.

I'm back in Santa Cruz for a while though I may be off to Mexico with Alton Brown of Food Networks "Good Eats," in July or August. This is the hottest time of year in Mexico but it will still be great to "return home." I haven't been to Mexico in three years and I'm really homesick for the delicious small, thick tortillas, black beans and the culinary specialties of Veracruz, as well as to see my "family" of friends whom I love dearly.

The Vanilla/Mosquito Connection

2005-05-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Last year I received a phone call from a popular call-in talk radio station asking if imitation vanilla would repel mosquitoes. Word was out that wearing the vanilla would protect you from being bitten. I also received several e-mails from people, and one man in Canada actually considered creating a mosquito repellent with a vanilla aroma.

At the time I was busy completing the history book and I didn't get around to testing the theory. I know that spiders aren't wild about vanilla and that you can put a vanilla bean in furniture polish to keep them off the furniture (at least until the aroma wears off), so it seemed reasonable to me that mosquitoes might not like vanilla either.

This year I decided I should try the vanilla approach to combatting flying insects. I live next to a lake and it is full-on mosquito season here. West Nile Virus has shown up in the area and health officials anticipate a real problem, so the time was right use myself as a guinea pig. I bought some imitation vanilla at the grocery store and put it on the left side of my face, neck, and left arm. On the right side of my face, neck and right arm I put pure vanilla extract.

The first thing I noticed is that the pure vanilla smelled better on my skin than the imitation. I also found that the aroma seemed to fade fairly quickly, at least to my human nose. Undaunted, I went out into my garden to work. It was late afternoon and the mosquitoes were definitely coming out in force.

The results? Two bites on the left side of my body; two bites on the right! Now, I probably should have had more bites given the number of mosquitoes buzzing around me, but one bite is one too many if the mosquito is carrying a virus. So, chalk up the buzz to another urban legend!

One thing that DOES work is citrus peel. I was out in the fields alongside a river in Mexico several years ago. The mosquitoes were everywhere and all I could think of was malaria or dengue fever. However, we were walking through Mandarin (tangerine) trees, so we picked some Mandarins and I introduced my Mexican friends to the joys of smelling like a Mandarin. I rubbed the fragrant inside of the peel over my face, neck, arms, and hands, and they followed suit. The result kept us from being "eaten alive."

I spoke with the local company that is working on mosquito abatement using natural methods rather than spray. The director said that the most effective mosquito protection continues to be DEET. Although Deet's producer says that it's safe even for small children, it can lift paint off of things, so it can't be perfect. He said that there is a product called Picindirin (or something close to that) that's a little less invasive and there should be a new lemon eucalyptus product coming out next year. Finally, there is a product called "Off." If you have any additional ideas, please let me know and I'll post them.

The moral of the story is that while vanilla may be able to help with cancer prevention it doesn't make it with mosquitoes!

Power Foods

2005-05-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

After receiving the information about vanilla as an anti-mutagenic and that it can repair DNA strand, I've thought a lot about how we can incorporate more vanilla into our diets as yet another healthy food to use in cancer prevention. As many of you know, I was diagnosed 15 months ago with advanced breast cancer, and I'm now cancer-free. Was it the vanilla? Who knows. All I know is that I'm currently fine and I'm working hard to stay well. And...I'm certainly incorporating vanilla and herbs and spices into lots of what I call "power" foods, foods known to be high in vitamins, minerals, phyto-chemicals or amino acids.

Here are some examples: White tea -- especially silver-needle white tea -- is extremely high in antioxidants and quite mild in flavor. Further, you can brew the leaves from white tea several times and still get the health benefits it. Adding a few drops of pure vanilla extract enhances the flavor and boosts the health benefits further.

Research at Pace University in NY showed that white tea is better than green at slowing the growth of viruses and bacteria. The Linus Pauling Institute has found that it helped prevent tumors in laboratory studies more effectively than other teas.

The Wall Street Journal rated white teas, giving Upton Tea Imports Organic China White Paklum the highest rating.(uptontea.com) They also recommended Adaggio Teas, White Peony, the most affordable (adagio.com), and The Republic of Tea's Silver Rain White Tea (republicoftea.com)as excellent. The only downside of white tea is cost; it's considerably more expensive than green or black teas as only the youngest tea leaves and buds are used, limiting the harvest to days or hours for the very finest tea leaves.

Green tea is also very high in antioxidants, is considerably less expensive and is easy to find in the marketplace. I experimented with both teas. The white tea doesn't have the slightly bitter aftertaste that is typical in green tea. It has a very delicate flavor and I found that the addition of vanilla extract enhanced its flavor. I wasn't sure how I'd like vanilla in green tea as its flavor is stronger. In fact, what I discovered is that it cuts the bitter aftertaste and I could add more vanilla to it than I expected I'm now drinking white or green tea daily with a little pure vanilla in it.

It's a "no-brainer" to add vanilla to yogurt and fruits, oatmeal, milk, cereals, power drinks, shakes, etc. Add 1/2 teaspoon or more per serving. It will only make these foods taste better. Add a little cinnamon (especially true cinnamon as opposed to cassia) and you've given the foods an additional boost. Pomegranates, cranberries, raspberries and blueberries are especially good fruits for cancer prevention.

A less obvious choice is to add pure vanilla to vegetables. Sweet potatoes, carrots and winter squash are all high in beta-carotene and antioxidants, are really good for the body, and are all sweet vegetables. Vanilla makes them even sweeter and more appealing. Get the bottle out and add 1/2 teaspoon or more per serving. You might also consider adding a little turmeric, the bright yellow herb found in curries. The curcumin in turmeric is known to be an anti-angiogenic. Be judicious at first, as it can cause slight stomach upset for some people.

Green vegetables are also high in antioxidants and also benefit from vanilla. This afternoon I had a mixture of steamed rainbow chard, English peas and fava beans, all spring vegetables. I added flaxseed oil, fresh lemon juice, Kosher salt and a pressed garlic clove all blended together, and then added 1/2 teaspon pure vanilla extract. The vanilla was subtle as the garlic was the predominant flavor.

Be playful and experiment. Share your best discoveries with us; we'd love to post them for others to use.
* * *

Yesterday I spoke to a group of Culinary Historians in Los Angeles. It was sunny and warm outside, with a pleasant breeze. However, what really impressed me was the Los Angeles Main Library. At 10:00 a.m. when I arrived, people were lined up at all the entrances, despite the beautiful day! I asked the librarians about the crowd and they confirmed that the library is always very busy. There was a photo exhibit featuring the towns and people of Venice Beach, Encino, and Tarzana on the main floor and lovely gardens where people could go outside and read in the sun.

My slide-show and book reading was well-attended, and volunteers had baked cookies from The Vanilla Chef to serve with coffee at the reception. I mention this because with all we hear about the television and computer dominating people's lives, people DO still read and attend educational events! I really enjoy doing programs like this because people are genuinely interested in knowing more about vanilla and its uses, but they're also interested in the people who cultivate it around the world. It's fun to bring my "show on the road."

New Information on Vanilla's Medicinal Properties

2005-04-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Site visitor Bill Oliver sent some remarkable and very interesting information regarding vanilla's ability to repair DNA strands and its anti-mutagenic properties.http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/1997/Suppl-4/stoner-full.html

This is the key paragraph in the monograph:

--Inducers of DNA Repair. There are three possible chemopreventive mechanisms that involve DNA repair (70,71). The first is an increase in the overall level of DNA repair. An example of a naturally occurring chemical that increases the level of DNA repair is vanillin, which inhibits mammalian cell mutagenicity (72). The mechanisms through which vanillin promotes DNA repair have not been determined. Second, the enzyme poly(ADP-ribosyl)transferase (ADPRT) is involved in modulation of DNA damage (73,74), and the level of this enzyme is reduced by chemical carcinogens (75). N-Acetylcysteine prevents the decrease in ADPRT caused by the carcinogen 2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) (75). The third mechanism is suppression of error-prone DNA repair. Protease inhibitors depress error-prone repair in bacteria (76), and it has been suggested that they could prevent carcinogenesis by inhibiting an error-prone repair system activated by proteases that, in turn, are induced by tumor promoters (!
77).--

Citations of additional information about vanilla as medicine:

http://nar.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/31/19/5501

or

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/109741309/ABSTRACT

or (scroll down the page to his information):

http://www.umdnj.edu/umcweb/marketing_and_communications/publications/umdnj_magazine/spring2004/6.htm Here there are two paragraphs about the work of Jeffrey D. Laskin, PhD on the prevention of prostrate cancer.

I intend to follow up on this with more information as I can find it. I would like to find out more about doseage for possible cancer prevention as well as doseage as an integrative therapy treatment for cancer. In the meantime, if any readers have additional information, please either post here or contact me at rain@vanilla.com

Options For Vanilla Growers

2005-04-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Any farmer who has grown "luxury" crops (non-subsistance plants) for more than a few years, knows that supply and demand are the primary factors that drive the market. Several years ago coffee was the big luxury crop. Demand was high and wholesale prices were good. From the perspective of most seasoned coffee farmers, it made sense to produce their normal crop, maybe even increase production. Farmers new to growing luxury crops enthusiastically tore up their food plots on prime land and planted coffee bushes, certain that they would earn enough cash to get ahead.

While the seasoned farmers were careful and the new farmers took a huge risk, neither group had any way of knowing what was happening in other tropical countries. Well-meaning USAID and other government sponsored groups encouraged struggling farmers everywhere to plant coffee as it would be the ticket to their becoming self-sufficient. In fact, suddenly the market was inundated with coffee beans. Further, the cost of living in Vietnam, a country new to the coffee industry, was much lower than Central America where coffee had been grown for generations. Vietnam could afford to sell cheaply, and inadvertently undercut Central American farmers. Farmers who tore up their food crops in favor of coffee were faced with potential starvation. Who benefitted? The large companies who bought the cheap coffee and maintained a larger margin of profit than usual, well aware that people in industrialized countries weren't going to forego their coffee and were willing to pay a good price for it.

When vanilla prices skyrockted, the same pattern occurred. For some coffee farmers, this was an opportunity to recoup from their losses. And even as the prices have now collapsed, farmers contact me all the time to find out how to grow vanilla. Why? Partially because information is slow to reach people who live in the "bush" and haven't access to computers or market information. And partially because cost of living is low enough that it's worth it to take the chance. Unfortunately, it usually isn't in the grower's best interests.

So what should farmers do? First, always keep food crops on prime land so the family eats no matter what. If available land is limited, creating collectives where farmers work together to produce several crops and share in the profits makes sense. This is especially good for getting organic certification or Fair Trade status. Certification isn't cheap, but if costs are shared by several farmers, all benefit as organic crops command a higher price.

Creative planting of luxury crops is another option. An example of this can be seen in the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Central Veracruz has hundreds of hectares in citrus and, at one time, this region produced much of the US citrus crop. Then Brazil planted oranges that were cheaper than Mexican oranges, and Florida's citrus grows near the processing plants, so Mexico was largely cut out of the American citrus market. A few smart farmers started planting vanilla in their orange groves. The trees are excellent tutors, pollination and harvest times don't interfere with one another, and two crops are produced in the same space as one.

One final option is to look for low-interest government or international loans for starting value-added products from crops. In the case of vanilla, create extract for markets in nearby countries or for in-country use. Package vanilla beans and extracts for the tourist market. Start an ice cream factory or bakery in your area where vanilla can be used. Study recipes on my site or in my books and open a cafe in a tourist region featuring local foods flavored with vanilla. Resourcefulness is the key to survival. Work as a team so that everyone benefits. I realize these aren't magic solutions that will completely solve the problems farmers face when prices collapse, but hopefully it will provide "food for thought."

If you have thoughts or ideas to share on this topic, please do e-mail us; we'll be happy to post good suggestions.

The Collapse of Vanilla Prices

2005-04-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Vanilla prices have definitely dropped and everyone who uses pure vanilla is cheering. I'm glad to see the prices drop for several reasons:

When prices hit $250 a kilo at point of origin, most industrial users (mainly frozen dessert manufacturers) stopped using vanilla entirely or switched to cheap synthetics, and vanilla consumption dropped dramatically. In 1998, world demand for pure vanilla was 2300 metric tons of vanilla beans annually. In 2004 it was 1200 metric tons and dropping! Consumption dropped by nearly half in six years!

When prices reached $500 a kilo at point of origin, growing vanilla was as dangerous as growing drugs! Theft, murder, and hijackings were commonplace in most vanilla-growing regions. In Madagascar, workers in the big processing houses had to change clothing when entering and leaving the workplace and were subject to pat-downs. The vanilla was put into large containers and welded shut each night and then opened with a blow torch the next morning! In Indonesia some villages built watch towers and growers all harvested the same day to prevent theft. In Papua New Guinea buses and trucks were ambushed along the highways and the vanilla and cash stolen. Mexico set up check-points along the highway and searched cars for stolen vanilla. Millitary helicopters circled plantations.

Growers harvested their vanilla well before it was ready to avoid theft. As a result, vanilla quality was uneven. Farmers who had paid premium prices to have their crops certified organic no longer bothered with the expensive and time-consuming process because their crops were valuable without certification. As a result, it became nearly impossible to find certified organic vanilla.

Individuals and cooperative groups worldwide planted vanilla with hopes of getting rich -- or at least paying their bills -- as the high prices spoke of hope. Coffee had collapsed a few years before the vanilla boom and growers tore up one crop to replace the other. Eventually an enormous overabundance of vanilla flooded the market from tropical countries worldwide. Some of the vanilla is premium quality, some is mediocre. But most of it was grown with hopes for a better life.

Now the craziness of the past several years is fading into the past...but what is the fallout of a boom/bust situation like this? Unfortunately, it's huge, but it's something that most of us are unlikey to hear about. Vanilla is an insignificant crop when compared with chocolate, coffee, sugar, or most other tropical commodities. We're talking less than 2500 metric tons in a boom time compared with millions of tons of coffee or cocoa beans. More than 97% of the world use of vanilla is from synthetics. So, it's highly unlikely that stories of the impact of the vanilla collapse will be headlines in industrialized countries.

So, here's what's happening currently: Most of the industrial users haven't switched back to pure vanilla, so tons and tons of vanilla are going to waste. Farmers have watched their latest dreams of getting a little further ahead dissolve into thin air. By the way, unless they knew how to properly cure and dry vanilla beans, the farmers didn't really benefit from the high prices. Rather, it was processors who gained from the high prices. A lot of middlemen, hopeful of breaking into the market and making it big-time are now considering new career options. The big vanilla companies are experiencing huge competition for the relatively small marketshare of vanilla sales. And the little companies are hanging on tooth and nail as it's nearly impossible for them to drop their prices rock-bottom to match the prices of the big companies as they haven't the resources to make it through until the prices stabilize. The only people to benefit from this transitional period are the consumers.

Personally, I hope that all of you who read this blog will take advantage of the low prices to use more pure vanilla. If you are at a loss for ways to use vanilla, our site offers hundreds of wonderful recipes and ideas: http://www.vanilla.com/html/recipeintro.html Our chefs-in-residence provide myriad ideas for using vanilla: http://www.vanilla.com/html/chef.html

While most of us won't take the time to do this, if you are so motivated, please encourage your favorite ice cream makers, chefs, restaurants, etc. to use pure vanilla in their products. More on this topic tomorrow.