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### Helping others: Agriculture: (page created November 2007)


## HEMP and 3rd world countries, by Panacea

Third world countries are conditioned (via their education system) into thinking that to acquire the means for their survival and ensure their sustainability, they need to conform to the same industry technology that western countries have adapted in their cities. The WTO organization is a lucrative business to say the least.

So they (third world countries) sell out their natural resources (via mining etc) and leave their land unusable. Further they acquire trade debts and regulations from the WTO which provides a means for the corporations (which Hemp can replace), to make money.

Hence why (hemp products proves it) hemp is not mainstream, in simplistic terms its too self sustaining, corporations and the WTO cannot make money from it. There is a myriad of well established FACTS which clearly spell out the hemp benefits band facts which prove this.

The university of South Australia Lois Lay Bourne Smith School Of Architecture has a clear and concise Paper presented for a Masters of Architecture (Coursework) entitled ‘Urban Ecology’. This has alarming facts and figures.

Third world countries MUST and can be taught hemp production for the liberation and survival of their country and citizens, this will give them the basic necessities of life which they are currently lacking.

The human union movement mission which started in 1992 in Nepal helped the Nepalese establish a commercial hemp paper, textile and oil industry.

Scene from Nepal's Hemp industry

Scene from Nepal's LIMITED hemp industry

, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

We partner with organizations all over the world

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified borrowers. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva.org , our partners upload their borrower profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. We show you where your money goes.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform for the poor. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle. The below diagram shows briefly how money gets from you to a third-world borrower, and back!

Kiva is using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business.

Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money. -End quote

Kiva's long term goals can be better served by the establishment of a HEMP production program. This will provide third world countries with a sustainable and renewable industry to produce the basic necessities for life, not just energy, but food, clothing and building materials etc.

Panacea wishes to emphazie that you have to put this in collaberation with a supportive LAW on basic human rights and ask the sponsored businesses to sign a petition with the donation STATING:

In support of helping and sponsoring a HEMP program for third world countries, we agree that it should be in the Geneva convention that the basic necessities for life being FOOD, CLOTHING , ENERGY AND SHELTER, are put into manditory human rights protection.

And further cannot be hindered by CORPORATE activity, IE:or interfered with by the current imposed corporate industry boundries, and further HEMP is to provide these means.

Every human being on the planet has to be agreeance to SHARE and to contribute to provide sustanable basic necesities of life and cannot allow the corporation or industry technology cartels to create conditons where by the corporation is relyed upon to provide these basic necessities.

HEMP is a fundermental human right to provide these renewable necessities. If you are an aid agency, government body, member of the public or philanthropic group who can help towards these goals please contact Panacea http://www.panacea-bocaf.org/forms/contact.php .

Hemp is also a source which is able to be developed into bio mass for all the worlds’ power needs. Next we we present facts and justification for constructing hemp bio fuel stations.

(to link the article above use: #A3 )

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## 'Livestock meltdown' threatens developing world, 04 September 2007, NewScientist.com news service, Catherine Brahic http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12584-livestock-meltdown-threatens-developing-world.html

Hardy breeds of livestock vital for world food supplies are dying out across developing countries, especially in Africa, farm scientists are warning. The researchers are calling for the creation of regional gene banks to save such breeds.

"There is a livestock meltdown under way across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Valuable breeds are disappearing at an alarming rate," Carlos Seré of the International Livestock Research Institute told a gathering convened by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Interlaken, Switzerland. "In many cases we will not even know the true value of an existing breed until it has already gone."

Native breeds are increasingly being supplanted by high-yield Western farm animals, which may be less well able to adapt to their new environment in times of drought or disease, found a joint report by Seré's institute and the FAO on the diversity of farm animals in 169 countries.

For example, in northern Vietnam, local breeds made up 72% of the pig population in 1994, but eight years later the proportion had dropped to 26%. Of the 15 local pig breeds, 10 now face possible extinction.

Tougher cattle
The black and white Holstein-Friesian dairy cow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holstein_(cattle) has high milk yields, and is now found in 128 countries and all of the world's regions. Fast egg-laying white leghorn chickens and quick-growing large white pigs are other examples of high-yield stock.

These breeds offer high volumes of meat, milk and eggs. But the researchers warn that the growing reliance on a handful of farm animal species is causing the loss on average of one livestock breed every month in developing countries.

And over the longer term, the imported breeds may not cope with unpredictable environmental change or outbreaks of indigenous disease.

For example, many experts predict that Uganda's indigenous Ankole cattle, famous their graceful and gigantic horns, could be extinct within 20 years because they are being rapidly supplanted by Holstein-Friesians.

Yet, during a recent drought, farmers who had kept their Ankole were able to walk them long distances to water sources, while those who had switched to the imported breeds lost their entire herds, Seré told the meeting.

Gene banks:
"For the foreseeable future," says Seré, "farm animals will continue to create means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty."

He is calling for the creation of gene banks to store semen, eggs and embryos of farm animals. Seré says such gene banks have been set up in Europe, the US, China, India and parts of Latin America, but are absent from Africa.

But gene banks are just one step needed to better manage farm animals in developing countries, Seré says. The other steps he suggests are:
- Encouraging farmers to maintain a diversity of breeds
- Making it easier for farm animals to cross national borders with their owners
- Generate "landscape genomics", which help predict which breeds are best suited to different environments around the globe

Endangered species – Learn more about the conservation battle in our comprehensive special report http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/endangered-species .
Genetics – Keep up with the pace in our continually updated special report http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/genetics .

(to link the article above use: #A1 )

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## Saving the Banana, By David Ewing Duncan, July 05, 2007 http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17633/

As the banana falls to a devastating fungus, Ugandan scientists launch tests on genetically modified varieties to save a food staple of 500 million people.

In 2003, I met Geoffrey Arinaitwe, a Ugandan plant geneticist training at Belgium's Catholic University of Leuven one of the early research centers developing genetically modified (GM) crops. Regardless of what you think about GM food, Arinaitwe had a compelling story: without genetic modification, the main food source of his country and many others in the tropics would die off, impacting the diet of 10 million Ugandans and hundreds of millions more poor people from Brazil to Indonesia.

Now Arinaitwe is back in Kampala, where he is poised to test the first modified bananas to be planted in Ugandan soil. A researcher at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute http://www.hridir.org/countries/uganda/PROVCOUN/national_agricultural_research_organisationnaro/kawanda_agricultural_research_institute_kari/index.htm , this shy scientist with a gentle voice and slight build is waiting for GM plants to arrive from Leuven; they are expected within the month.

In 2003, I wrote a story for Seed magazine about the plight of the edible banana. Since it's seedless and therefore sterile, all bananas come from mutant plants discovered some 8,000 years ago, probably in Papua New Guinea. They have been grafted, or cloned, ever since, and developed into dozens of varieties, colors, and sizes. Bananas are ideal for the developing world because they are compact, easy to grow and transport, and highly nutritious. In these parts of the world, they are eaten raw and cooked and used to make beverages. In Uganda, they are so important that the word for banana, matooke, also means "food."

Unfortunately, with an 8,000-year-old genome, the edible banana hasn't evolved to keep up with new pests. These include the black sigatoka, a leaf-destroying fungus, which has devastated vast acres of bananas. It cripples plants and reduces output by 50 percent. Close to half the banana crop in Uganda has been afflicted as this fungus spreads around the world.

Scientists at Leuven have been working to combat the problem. Led by Rony Swennen, a team discovered that inserting a gene from rice provides significant protection for the banana with apparently no danger to either humans or the environment. Because the banana is sterile, it can't get loose in the environment, nor is there a seed allowing Monsanto or other corporations to sell it. In fact, Swennen and banana organizations around the world are prepared to provide the initial plants to farmers at a cost. Once a farmer has the plant, he or she can graft more.

Another advantage, according to Swennen and Arinaitwe, is that the GM banana greatly reduces the need to use pesticides that fend off the black sigatoka in export crops going to markets in the West. Most Ugandan farmers growing bananas for local consumption can't afford expensive pesticides, but on huge plantations in Africa and Latin America, growers use some of the highest levels of chemicals sprayed in the world to fend off fungi and other pests. This has led to reports of higher than normal instances of leukemia and sterility in growers.

By the way, organic bananas sold in the West are grown without pesticides. They are raised either in areas unaffected by the black sigatoka or are harvested out of the reduced yields of afflicted plants, further reducing the amount of fruit available to locals.

None of this convinces opponents of GM foods, who responded to my Seed article with astonishing vitriol and even some personal attacks. I'll leave it to readers to decide if inserting a rice gene into a cloned banana is repugnant and undesirable.

Almost certainly, though, critics are correct that acceptance of the modified banana may make other forms of GM foods more palatable, so to speak, particularly in much of Africa, which has largely opposed GM crops. As modified corn, cotton, and other crops become more prevalent in the West and elsewhere, it's obvious that GM creep has already begun.

As for safety, the scientists at Leuven say that their GM bananas are harmless. Now Arinaitwe will test them in Uganda to see if he and the Ugandan government agree. Hurdles remain before a rice-banana hybrid is approved and accepted. Protests are also expected, although in the end the withering, decimated crops that cover hill after hill in this country, which has an entire culture built on the banana, may make this banana update stick. We'll see.

(to link the article above use: #A2 )

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