earth matters april 2012

Hastingsrsquo only retail outlet specialising in sourcing a wide range of

Demeter certifiedBio-dynamic products

Large selection of organic and Bio-dynamic flours grains nuts beans dried fruit dairy products bread meat tea coffee fruit juices and winesPlus gluten free products Weleda remedies organic skin care and cosmetics (including Dr Hauschka) organic baby clothing and baby food household cleaning products organic seeds seedlings and garden products and moreA qualified Naturopath and Medical Herbalist available all day every day to assistWe will always do our best to source items we do not have in stock Come in and see us or phone

221 Heretaunga Street East HastingsTelephone (06) 876 6248

wwwcornucopiaorganicsconzemail cornucopiaorganicsgmailcom

salessonettconzwwwsonettconz

wwwparisberlinconz

wwwviacampesinaorg

1 APRIL 2012 Issue 7

2 Editorial

3 Seedlines

10 No to Nuclear Energy ndash the future of our children and grandchildren is at stake

11 Make the Earth Gladhellip Collette Leenman

12 Radioactive Material Free for All Leuren Moret

16 Of Star hellip Taurus the Bull

17 hellip and Flower Sunflower

18 Wood-fired or microwaved ndash how do you like your pizza Wendy Cook

19 Irradiated Food

20 How radiant are you Dr J W Rohen

21 Ferretti Growers ndash Flavour and Freshness Helen Lagerstedt

23 One Year in the Making C Moginie

24 Avondale Community Gardeners

25 A Welcome Outbreak of Sanity ndash The Crafar Farm Court Decision Murray Horton

26 Radiation from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Spreads Yuri Wilson

29 Food Bill 160-2 leaves a bad taste

30 Autumn-made Margaret Colquhoun

31 Atomic Bombs ndash experiments without prayers E Alington

Contents

Earth Matters is a New Zealand-based Journal for the Renewal of AgriCulture through science art and spirituality It is a not-for-profit publication and proceeds will be used to help fund The Land Trust registered charity CC37781

Earth MattersPO Box 24-231 Royal Oak Auckland 1345

EditorElisabeth Alington

Assistant EditorMary Vander Ploeg

AdministratorPaula Kibblewhite

Australian DistributorHeather Weiss

Design and MarketingZoe Carafice

LayoutKarl Grant

Earth Matters is published three times a year April August and December Subscriptions of $NZ 3500 local $NZ 4500 overseas may be purchased on-line at wwwearthmattersconz or by direct credit to Earth Matters Kiwibank account 38 9010 0519122 00 or by sending a cheque to the above address Please make sure you supply postal details and notification of payment to infoearthmattersconz

All material published in these pages is Copyright Earth Matters 2010 For permission to use material from this publication in any form please contact the editor infoearthmattersconz

Opinions and statements expressed in this journal are the responsibility of the contributing authors The Journal accepts no responsibility for results arising from advice offered in good faith through its pages Readers who wish to contribute articles or express views are invited to submit content for consideration to the postal address above or via Word document toinfoearthmattersconz

ISSN 1179 - 5298

5 The rising future world of the Sunhellip Nuclear Radiation and Christianity

Hartmut Borries

14 Chalk and Cheese and CPP ndash Remediating the effects of radiation on the

Earth

E Alington

4 Earth Rights ndash Without Earth Rights there can be no human rights

Vanadana Shiva

Front Cover Leek seedlings at dawnPhoto Earth Matters


Editorial

Pic

J B

ruce

-Gor

don

Lis Alington

What makes a living cat different from a dead cat Is radiation a substance or a force The way the worldrsquos going we urgently need to learn to think in terms of life lsquoforcesrsquo and not just lifeless substances Many biologists are finding that the laws of physical matter

can explain a corpse but they canrsquot penetrate the mystery of living organisms Like the life forces nuclear radiation poses a conceptual challenge to most of us It cannot be sensed with our physical senses any more than life force can be seen through our eyes Earth Matters 7 takes a look at some of the phenomena that have emerged since radiation became a man-made reality in the world

Vandana Shiva calls for legal protection to the earth without Earth Rights there can be no human rights Opposing that earthly-logic the harm wrought by the nuclear industry is intensifying 25 years after the meltdown at Chernobyl Fukishima is in trouble Less visible to the western world are the victims of depleted uranium warfare Earth Matters doesnrsquot ignore these ugly sides but we donrsquot give them all the ink For we think therersquos a lot more going on than meets the eyehellip

Hartmut Borries leads us to a fresh way of thinking about the earth with his empowering and hope-filled view of humanityrsquos task He ends with a remarkable account of whatrsquos happening in Chernobyl where meditative lsquoradiationrsquo seems to be having a redeeming quality upon that of nuclear Just here does it become clear how intimately World and Man Matter and Spirit belong together

We share Dr Arden Andersonrsquos view on irradiating your food Dr Rohenrsquos account of the radiant powers carried by your blood Wendy-the-Cookrsquos praise for the woodstove in place of the microwave We revel in the dedication of Avondale community gardeners and Ferretti growers who put fabulous fresh food on our tables of people like Avaaz and CAFCA and Foodbillorg who organise a movement ndash a life force ndash for the sake of people and planet We invite Nature to speak to us through autumnal artistry and we end on a quiet reflective note from a Japanese doctor

We welcome Zoe Carafice to our team An accomplished landscape designer Zoe has an eye for design and a heap of enthusiasm for what really matters

Indeed Earth Matters and so do our efforts Herersquos to yours together with a poem from Rumi to keep you inspired this winter

The Waterwheel

Stay together friends Donrsquot scatter and sleep Our friendship is made

of being awake

The early birds get all the worms The Biodynamic Market is a fledgling event that opens once weekly on Sundays from 1115 am until sold out which is often before 1230

We invite your expressions of interest If you live in Auckland and would like to shop at this market regularly for freshly harvested certified-biodynamic produce then please let us hear from you by emailing lisalingtongmailcom

It takes time to grow vegetables A wide choice of seasonal produce doesnrsquot happen overnight For the grower there is some financial risk in shifting the product line from one or two high-return crops to a variety of products suitable for a local market If we can build a group of committed consumers from which to support a committed grower then we have really started to make food security a reality We look forward to hearing from you


People today are altogether unaware how the minutest quantities will often work with great intensity precisely where living things are concerned

Therefore we need to treat our manure or compost hellip in ways that will give it the right living property so that it will retain of its own accord as much nitrogen and other substances as it requires

It is not a question of merely adding substances to it that we think will be of benefit to plants No the point is that we should add living forces to it The living forces are far more important for the plant than the mere substance-forces or substances

Though we might gradually make our soil especially rich in one substance or another that would not help the plants unless our fertilising also enabled them to absorb what the soil offered That is the important thing

Rudolf Steiner Agriculture Lecture Five


We need a new paradigm for living on the Earth An alternative to the present

paradigm is now a survival-imperative for the human species And the alternative that is needed is not only at the level of tools or technologies it is at the level of our worldview How do we look at ourselves in this world What are humans for Are we merely a money-making and resource-guzzling machine Or do we have a higher purpose

The world order built on the economic fundamentalism of limitless growth and on the technological fundamentalism that maintains there is a technological fix for every social and environmental ill is clearly disintegrating

The collapse of the economic system in 2008 and the continuing financial crisis signal the end of the paradigm that values fictitious finance above the real wealth created by Nature and humans profits above people and corporations above citizens This paradigm can only be kept afloat with limitless bailouts directing public wealth to private rescues instead of using it to rejuvenate Nature and economic livelihoods It can only be kept afloat with increasing violence to the Earth and people It can only be kept alive as an economic dictatorship

This is clear in Indiarsquos heartland where the limitless appetite for steel and aluminium by the global consumer economy (and the limitless appetite for the profits generated by the steel and aluminium corporations) is now clashing head-on with the rights of tribal people to their land and homes their forests and rivers their cultures and ways of life

Tribal people are saying a loud and clear lsquonorsquo to their forced uprooting The only way to get to the minerals and coal that feed the lsquolimitless growthrsquo model in the face of democratic resistance is the use of militarised violence Operation Green Hunt has been launched in the tribal areas of India with precisely this purpose ndash

Earth Rightsby Vandana Shiva

even though the proclaimed public objective is to clear out the lsquoMaoistsrsquo

More than 40000 armed paramilitary forces have been placed in tribal areas that are rich in minerals and where tribal unrest is growing demonstrating that the current economic paradigm can only unfold through increased militarisation and the undermining of democratic and human rights

The technological fundamentalism that has externalised costs both ecological and social and blinded us to ecological destruction has also reached a dead end Climate chaos ndash the externality of technologies based on the use of fossil fuels ndash is a wake-up call a warning that we cannot continue on the fossil-fuel path The high cost of industrial farming is running up against limits in terms of both the ecological destruction of the natural capital of soil water biodiversity and air and the creation of malnutrition with a billion people denied food and another two billion denied health because of rampant obesity diabetes and other food-related diseases

We are all members of the Earth family and our first and highest duty is to take care of Mother Earth Prithvi Gaia Pachamama ndash however you name her And the better we take care of her the more food and water health

and wealth we have lsquoEarth rightsrsquo are first and foremost the rights of Mother Earth Earth rights are also the rights of humans the right to food and water health and a safe environment and the right to rivers seeds biodiversity and an unpolluted atmosphere

I have given the name Earth Democracy to this new paradigm of living as an Earth Community respecting the rights of Mother Earth Earth Democracy enables us to create living democracies which enable democratic participation in all matters of life and death the food we eat or do not have access to the water we drink or are denied through privatisation or pollution the air we breathe or are poisoned by Living democracies are based on the intrinsic worth of all species all peoples all cultures

Earth Democracy protects the ecological processes that maintain life and the fundamental human rights that are the basis of the right to life including the right to water the right to food the right to health the right to education and the right to jobs and livelihoods

Ahimsa or nonviolence is already the basis of many faiths that have emerged on Indian soil Translated into economics nonviolence implies that our systems of production trade and consumption do not use up the ecological space of other species and other people Violence results when our dominant economic structures and economic organisation usurp and ring-fence that space

According to an ancient Indian text the Isha Upanishad lsquoThe universe is the creation of the Supreme Power meant for the benefit of all creation Each individual life form must therefore learn to enjoy its benefits in close relation with other species Let not any one species encroach upon othersrsquo rightsrsquo Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns that take more than we need we are engaging in violence Non-sustainable consumption and non-sustainable production constitute violent economic order

A physicist by training Dr Vandana Shiva has written more than 20 books and had

over 500 papers published in scientific and technical journals She is a leading activist

in the global solidarity movement


When I was in Europe for our synod last year it was the 25th anniversary of

the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl One of the leaders of our Movement for Religious Renewal Rudolf Frieling reminded us that ldquoThis is the Christian awareness of life knowing that you are at the beginning not the end looking with hope into the rising future world of the Sunrdquo

Now this is a grand image Letrsquos look for a few everyday ones

The rising future world of the Sunhellip Nuclear Radiation and the Christ Impulse

by Hartmut Borries

What has Christianity to do with nuclear radiation In his work in Auckland as priest of The Christian Community a new movement for religious renewal based on an esoteric understanding of the Christ-impulse in world evolution Rev

Hartmut Borries upholds a view that is neither Protestant nor Catholic or Orthodox He periodically travels to meet with communities throughout New Zealand The article is based on one of his talks

(1) Several people each holding some earth in their hands - itrsquos an image that we can understand in different ways one being that the earth needs to be helped not only in our consciousness but also through our hands What is it that we allow to grow

(2) Another yoursquore driving behind a car and something is thrown out ndash a burning cigarette takeaway rubbish a banana skin What gathers at the roadsides and

what does this tell about our relationship with the earth That itrsquos a place where we can discard things which the earth has to deal with one way or another

(3) Lastly remember how in the 60s and 70s when the rockets were going into space how the astronauts were amazed to see what the earth looked like from afar What does this mean to see our planet of sublime beauty surrounded by dark space


The cosmonauts knew that their lives depended on finding their way safely back to earth Nowadays many people forget that if we donrsquot look after this earth we donrsquot survive Which brings me to my next point I want to speak about fundamentalism because it is widespread growing very rapidly and has a lot to do with how we treat the earth In his booklet Fundamentalism A Challenge to the Secular World NZ theologian Lloyd Geering writes that between 1909-1915 there were two oil billionaires in America who were very concerned about the increase of liberal Christianity They took upon themselves to publish 3 million tracts outlining the fundamentals of Christianity and exhorting people to submit to divine authority as revealed by the Holy Bible In other words the human freedoms of western enlightenment regarded by many people worldwide as immensely significant were to be looked upon with skepticism because they encouraged people to think for themselves Instead people were to accept that the truth is revealed in books like the Koran the Old Testament and the Bible

The appeal of fundamentalism and its great advantage is that you know whatrsquos right It offers you clear directives about lsquorightrsquo and lsquowrongrsquo good and evil heaven and hell These polarities are very strong in fundamentalism and they are gathering momentum among the worldrsquos religions particularly Judaism Islam and Christianity Yet you can be fundamentalist about anything within political and

Cre

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economic spheres as well because fundamentalism is basically about how one thinks Itrsquos about thinking in terms of polarities ndash black or white good or bad in or out

What does fundamentalism mean for our relationship with the earth

I grew up in Germany during the time of the Cold War We had more nuclear warheads stacked up on our borders than anywhere else in the world What did fundamentalists say to that According to Geering they were for nuclear armament In their thinking it becomes necessary to prepare for war because before Christ can come again there has to be the war of all against all Preaching that communist Russia was the great Satan who would invade the Middle East and initiate the nuclear war which would be the prelude to the return of Christ televangeists actually encouraged people to look forward to the prospect with joyful expectation

Such views were expanded in Hal Lyndsayrsquos book The Late Great Planet Earth read by literally millions of people President Ronald Reagan even invited one of these televangelists to security meetings at the White House So fundamentalist Christians believing in nuclear conflict and armaments were part of security discussions at the highest level

Now Geering is a wonderful researcher Whereas Thomas Aquinus said God has no body Geering says God is a nobody Hersquos witty He goes on to say that Jesus was not

divine but was a human person and that ldquoGod is a symbolic termrdquo Now you know why fundamentalists fight people like Geering I would say to that ldquoYes thatrsquos Jesus but what about Christrdquo

Itrsquos the same with the resurrection Geering would say itrsquos symbolic that therersquos no life after death so forget about it All these people who have near-death experiences ndash that can all be explained physiologically as a condition made up by your brain To me this has nothing to do with the spiritual experience of light and of the being of love

In another booklet The Greening of Christianity Geering suggests we need a new ethic whereby the new God is our planet Earth Here the essence of Christianity is lost altogether for now there are no spiritual worlds no spiritual beings no pre-existence before birth no post-existence after death The entire spiritual side of things disappears which is why fundamentalists have a point This is the other extreme the opposite pole to that of the fundamentalist viewpoint In both real spirituality disappears

Geering would call himself a liberal theologian But a theologian without God Thatrsquos how far you can go these days

For many people today the earth is merely a planet of resources there for the taking for us to plunder pollute and destroy without concern for the future because we live only once Economic life without morality leads to rampant consumerism and this is part of our everyday experience


I would now like to come to a possible Christian way of looking at all this starting with Diederich Bonhoeffer He was a German theologian who died in 1945 just a few days before World War II ended He was condemned to death in a concentration camp for his part in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler ndash yes that even as a Christian theologian He had been in political circles in Berlin where people knew what was happening to the Jews and hersquod helped save many lives working as a double agent during the war trying to create a future for Germany

In his Letters and Papers from Prison Bonhoeffer expressed how even today Christ suffers what humanity is doing to him and to the earth while we are all still asleep Wersquore really being asked to wake up and begin a spiritual life The question is will we fail him again today and repeat what happened 2000 years ago or will we wake up and take responsibility

At the last supper Christ took earthly substance ndash bread ndash lifted it up and united himself with it He did the same with wine ndash ldquotake with the wine my bloodrdquo Earthly substance becomes a vessel an instrument for the body He continued ldquodo this from now on re-membering me by taking bread and wine into yourselves and allowing my being to work into yourdquo

Then came the crucifixion where his blood streamed into the earth Therersquos an old legend about the bees coming to the cross and consuming Christrsquos blood as if it were the nectar of flowers Like the green sap of flowering plants Christrsquos blood was totally selfless substance there was no egoism working in it Jesus was an exceptional human being but he was further transformed by the Christ Through the being of Christ his blood took on a totally different quality This blood now enters the earth from the cross Then the body is put into the tomb and it too enters the earth when as a result of the earthquake the earth opens up and

receives Christrsquos body Here we have the new communion of the earth Now the whole earth becomes Christrsquos body

Christrsquos death was different from ours When we die we put our body aside and a separation takes place between body soul and spirit While the body decomposes or is burnt to ashes with which to fertilise the earth soul and spirit take a different journey They do not stay connected to the body That was different for Christ Because his body was already transformed his death was different he stays connected with the whole earth So fundamentalists do have a point in that we must to some degree leave the earth (ie) soul and spirit leave However they forget that we have to come back We cannot leave the earth for good Our future depends on our connection with this earth

Indeed life after death depends on our relationship with the earth What wersquore able to perceive spiritually in life after death depends on what wersquove learned in life before death it depends on the organs of perception that we have developed throughout life Letrsquos look at this more closely

One of Jesusrsquo parables1 makes it clear that whatever we do to one another we do to Christ Christ ndash you could also say the Creator or the being of love ndash dwells in the heart of every human being But this depends on how much we welcome it on how we develop our religious activity in the sense of reconnecting with the divine within one another If I look for the divine within myself the danger is that I become self-centred and fall into illusion In order to meet the divine in the other I must develop empathy love and compassion Only then will I meet what is divine in myself

Against the background of how Christ died into this earth making it the place for future development then it also means that whatever

we do to the earth we do to Christ That realisation could change our relationship to the Earth It can also change any dualistic thinking about heaven and earth Heaven is not some place far removed heaven and earth need to come together How they come together depends on our work here on earth The heavens want to find their home in our hearts in our communities on this earth not somewhere in outer space or on another planet

Fundamentalists who maintain that they can enter heaven and eternal life by bombing themselves or others will discover that any action causing physical death or death of soul only leads to spiritual blindness We know something of this from Near Death Experiences (NDE) (eg) a woman who tried to take her life with medication and describes finding herself among many young people who had committed suicide Remarking flippantly lsquooh are you all the other guys who took their own livesrsquo she experienced how no one heard her no one saw her ndash they all remained gazing blankly in one direction All were cut off from consciousness from light from the ability to perceive The same you can read in George Ritchiersquos Return from Tomorrow On his journey he meets deceased alcohol and drug addicts who could not lsquoseersquo the being of life known by name as Christ

What we perceive in life after death depends on our organs of perception These we form only while inhabiting the physical body given to us by this earth They are not organs of clairvoyance or powers of insight associated with being an initiate We donrsquot all have to be highly developed ndash those who had NDE could see and they werenrsquot initiates But some see and some donrsquot It all depends on whether yoursquove learned to love and whether you have become aware that there is more to life than physical existence alone that there is spirit and there are spiritual beings1 Matthew verse 25


Irsquod like to mention something that Rudolf Steiner spoke about early in 19112 around the time fundamentalism began He described how we need to develop a new awareness namely that we know whatever we do there is one spiritual being who shares everything ndash our whole life ndash and that is Christ3 And this awareness ndash that I am continuously living in the presence of spiritual beings and of that spiritual being of love ndash that this awareness becomes a source of light Our consciousness our awareness becomes a source of light We begin to radiate light like a candle We become a source of light which is the light that is needed to perceive We need to create a source of light in order to see the light

He went on to say how in our time Christ will come to be perceived in a wholly new way Christ will not come again in a physical body for thatrsquos already happened The second coming will be in the realm of the lsquocloudsrsquo which is symbolic language for the etheric4 or the life realm of the earth In order to perceive the etheric Christ we must learn to cultivate this light of awakened conscience and consciousness

How we enter life after death depends on the life we have led ndash it depends on how we have learned to care to be interested to love We become a source of light when we become conscious of what we do to Christ and his body this earth The future of this earth including all the joys and sorrows of the Creator being of love ndash all this has to do with our development

Furthermore our future development also depends on this earth Itrsquos an illusion to say that what we do to matter doesnrsquot matter because wersquore on our way to paradise 2 Steiner R From Jesus to Christ 3 Oct 1911 3 Christ is not owned by Christianity The worldrsquos initiates know the being of the Sun by name as Christ Prior to the physical incarnation

he was known by indigeneous seers throughout the world by other names Ahura Mazdao Great Spirit etc4 We can learn to understand etheric life by observing the processes and activities associated with water clouds refer to the subtle

uniting of air and moisture such as found in breath and heartbeat ndash or the uniting of light and sap in photosynthesis5 lsquoFor all that there are many planets Gaia is if not unique extremely rare Of the billions of stars that make up the galaxy only the

Sun helliphas an orbit that places it in the habitable zone of the galaxy where life is possiblersquo Seth Borenstein Science Writer The Associated Press Schwartz Report 120112

in the after-life No we need to come back here And we will meet the consequences of what we are creating now This is the necessity of karma (The word means deed)

Transformation of the Earth

A scientist at our seminary in Stuttgart Dr Friederich Benesch could explain in detail how a nuclear reactor works He was also a theologian and he used to emphasise how the Bible begins with nature ndash Paradise is a heavenly garden ndash and ends with a city built by human hands You might well ask what sort of paradise is found in a modern city but the point is therersquos a significant transformation of the earth taking place How does this happen

Benesch used to answer with one word eating The transformation of the earth takes place by eating We have to eat it up not by greedily consuming all its resources but through communion ndash through our baking bread making grape juice lifting them up in blessing and eating them The earth needs to go through the human being You can also understand it metaphorically that we penetrate the earth with our consciousness

It also matters how we work with the earth which is why the biodynamic preparations are important Itrsquos not about leaving nature to fend for itself as if the earth would be better off without human beings Itrsquos about learning how to work transformatively with matter Even when we speak we are transforming substance for we take in and breathe out refined matter The earth is waiting to be transformed through the conscious activity of human beings How long will this take It will take as long as we need to learn to love Once humanity has

learned to love the earth will have been transformed from a planet of war to a planet of love Then the transformation of the earth will have come to an end As long as we continue to struggle as we do we will continue to need the earth Therersquos no other planet that will provide for us5 We canrsquot leave it behind saying lsquonow we will learn the rest in Paradisersquo No the learning takes place here This is our school where we learn to love and our love must extend to the earth

Chernobyl

Another colleague of mine knew a lot about the Sun and also about nuclear energy He used to say that wherever therersquos a nuclear reactor there also needs to be an altar because the two work as opposites The nuclear reactor radiates This radiation is not sense-perceptible ndash even animals cannot perceive it Yet it works with deadly power What takes place at the altar is also unknown to us through our organs of sense perception But it too radiates It radiates light only you donrsquot see this light with your eyes you must learn to lsquoseersquo it with your heart Today there are more and more people who have this ability

Nuclear substance is the heaviest substance on earth so heavy that it exists for a short while only before it falls to pieces The altar it is all about levity about taking earthly substance and lifting it up into another realm

At the synod we heard of a journalist from Berlin who visited Chernobyl 25 years after the accident He told of his meeting with a Russian engineer by the name of Nikola Jakushin who was living in Chernobyl at the time of the meltdown in 1986 When Nikola saw all the cars ambulances and


Nikola ndash ldquowhen you pray when you celebrate the sacraments there is no pollution You heal that pollutionrdquo

Radiation levels are also significantly lower in the homes where people pray regularly No one living in Chernobyl ignores the question of life after death because sooner or later each will have their own health problems All 450 residents are intensely aware of the necessity for a religious-spiritual life Everybody knows they must care for their eternal soulrsquos life beyond space and time

In Chernobyl a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church is keeping the altar alongside the nuclear reactor Currently there are research projects underway exploring how an active spiritual life can help to counter the effects of nuclear radiation

Christ the earth the human being ndash we

create the future We come back to this future here on earth The more we learn to love and the more we become a source of light the move we too will take the earth into our hands and make new growth possible

fire engines going to the reactor he knew something was up It was Holy Week on Easter Monday everyone was evacuated and a fence built around the reactor officially containing the worst pollution within a 30 km radius A concrete mantle was built to cover the reactor Today that mantle is cracking up even though it will have to be maintained for some 50000 years It costs billions to renew and this is only the mantle around what we can see ndash beneath it therersquos nothing to stop the radiation from spreading into the earth

Chernobyl had been inhabited for a thousand years Ten years after the accident many old people chose to return to their homes knowing they hadnrsquot long to live anyway Nikola also went back and discovered that the old church in which his grandfather and great-grandfather had been priests was becoming derelict Nikola went to the bishop to ask for a priest for Chernobyl and after some haggling eventually the bishop agreed to look for someone However he couldnrsquot find anyone willing to work in the devastation So Nikola trained for ordination and became a priest of the Russian Orthodox church Using his engineering skills he soon had the church scaffolded and the renovation underway Shortly after someone who had been living in Chernobyl during the meltdown experienced a vision of Christ appearing in the (nuclear) clouds and beneath him were all those who had worked on the reactor and had died at Chernobyl wearing their gas masks This vision was subsequently painted and is now a consecrated ikon

to which healings have since been attributed

ldquoWhat do you drink hererdquo asked the journalist

Nikola replied ldquothe water from the riverrdquo

ldquoThe river that flows past the reactorrdquo

ldquoYes of course We have no other water But no one here will drink or eat anything without blessing it You draw your crosses you bless what you consume and then you can eat and drink itrdquo

A walk around Chernobyl with a Geiger counter will show irregular readings all over the place Enter the church though and the readings drop to zero There is no radiation in the church whatsoever

Hartmut Borries works from his church at 10 Rawhiti Rd One Tree Hill Auckland He is available for personal consultation by appointment ph 09 525-2305 For further information see wwwthechristiancommunitynet

The ikon of the lsquoChernobyl Saviourrsquo The unusually shaped tree used to exist near the nuclear reactor In April 2011 in an act of compassionate

solidarity with the suffering people of Japan the ikon was sent to an Orthodox Japanese church


In November 2011 Avaaz delivered a petition to Japanrsquos Prime Minister Noda asking

that immediate action be taken to support Fukushima Cityrsquos children still trapped in highly contaminated areas and to provide urgent assistance to those wanting to relocate to safer areas In the face of mounting evidence of brutal levels of soil and food contamination more than 300000 children remain at risk across Fukushima Prefecture Their brave mothers are crying out for help having started a 10 month10 day sit-in to demand government action Initially the government ignored them hiding behind a virtual wall of media silence

Then on 26th January 2012 Japanrsquos Minister of the Economy ordered the eviction of the Fukushima mothers peacefully camped outside METI to demand a radiation-free future for their children Minister Edano was bowing to pressure from the powerful nuclear industry furious that the brave mothersrsquo efforts were working Their struggle has captured public attention and throughout the country people have been speaking out to end unsafe nuclear energy

With the help of an Avaaz petition and worldwide publicity emails flooded the Ministerrsquos office urging him to reverse his decision to evict the brave Fukushima mothers and

23000 cherry trees are being planted along the 500 km length of ravaged coast as a memorial to those who died in the 2011 Japanese tsunami

No to Nuclear Energy ndash the future of our children and grandchildren is at stake

other activists camped outside the ministry to demand a radiation-free future On 30th January the police came and left without saying anything Avaaz staff were also there standing in solidarity with the mothers

Meanwhile the French government is preparing to start financing the worldrsquos largest nuclear plant in a high risk earthquake-zone in Jaitapur India Local and international experts have confirmed the likelihood of devastating tremors right underneath the plant site

Dr Vandana Shiva physicist says that ldquothe highest cost of nuclear energy in India is the destruction of democracy and constitutional rights Nuclear power must undermine democracy We witnessed this during the process of signing the US-India Nuclear Agreement We witnessed it in the lsquocash for votesrsquo scandal during the no-confidence motion in Parliament And we witness it wherever a new nuclear power plant is planned

hellipThe world has potential for 17 terra watt nuclear energy 700 terra watt wind energy and 86000 terra watt of solar energy Alternatives to nuclear energy are a thousand times more abundant and a million times less risky To push nuclear plants after Fukushima is pure insanityrdquo

But this is big business for France Avaaz encourages people to join forces with citizens in France and create a massive international outcry scaring President Sarkozy who knows that another scandal could ruin his chances of re-election Despite the best propaganda efforts of the French nuclear industry it appears the French people are not convinced In a poll conducted post-Fukushima by Journal du Dimanche 77 of French people said that they would like to see nuclear phased out

From people-powered revolutions in the Middle East to national anti-corruption movements direct-democracy is on the march The Times of London have named them lsquoOne of the most important new voices on the global stagersquo Avaazorg is a multi-million-person global campaign network It works to ensure that the views and values of the worldrsquos people shape global decision-making (lsquoAvaazrsquo means lsquovoicersquo or lsquosongrsquo in many languages) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world their team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages Get involved at wwwavaazorg

Phot

o T

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Although Easter is a global festival it is a moveable one Its date is determined by

the moon Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the autumn equinox (when day and night are of equal length) Those who are new to the Southern Hemisphere or who return after having been away in the north for a long time are often astonished by the brightness of the blue sky and the sun in the south Similarly at night the stars can seem incredibly vivid This gives us lsquosouthernersrsquo a great opportunity to include the night sky as part of our festival build up

Children love anticipation and this is an important part of creating the mood for any festival Because Easter is determined by the moon watching the night sky for a while before bed and observing the slight changes in the moon can be an important step in the build-up towards Easter for children and adults Children often find it hard to grasp time frames Eleven days doesnrsquot mean much to a young child but watching the moon grow from a

Make the Earth Glad Little Onehellipby Collette Leenman

tiny sliver and knowing that it will be Easter when it has grown into a bright golden round ball is something they can grasp This is a much more tangible picture for a child than an abstract number

The Seed in the CaveOne way of bringing the Easter

picture to young children without burdening them with intellectual explanations is to plant seeds or bulbs with them A seed often has a hard contained dead look about it and gives no clue to the abundant life which will spring from it Just as Christrsquos dead body was placed in a cave in the earth so too the children can dig a hole or even a little cave in the earth and plant their seeds or bulbs in it And just as Christ later overcame death to give abundant life to us so the lsquodeadrsquo seed or bulb will blossom into joyful life

With this in mind Good Friday could also be an appropriate time for families living in the Southern Hemisphere to look for and collect seeds as this time of year provides us with plentiful seedpods Where

I live we are often woken in the early morning by the sound of our native kauri tree cones falling on the woodshed roof See what is around you Maybe there are sunflower seeds acorns flax pods and all manner of native seeds to be found Collecting some of these can bring to mind the inner aspect the germ of life in that which appears dead

Collette Leenman is a retired kindergarten teacher and has written several books on celebrating seasonal festivals with children They may be ordered directly from the author colletteleenmanclearnetnz

Maria Thun died in February this year aged 89 She was a remarkable torch-bearer

lighting the way for our understanding of plants in relation to the wider cosmos and

gifting us the results of her enormous practical experience based on meticulous research

Her annual planting and sowing calendar is widely used by biodynamic-organic gardeners

and When Wine Tastes Best ndash a biodynamic calendar for wine drinkers is used by several

leading UK supermarkets for timing their wine promotions Thun also wrote a number

of books including The Biodynamic Year increasing yield quality and flavour Temple

Lodge 2007


Radioactive Material Free for All

Leuren Moret is an American geoscientist A whistleblower in 1991 at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab after witnessing fraud on the Yucca Mountain Project1 Moret now works as an independent citizen scientist and radiation specialist in communities around the world She testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan in Japan in 2003 presented at the World Depleted Uranium Weapons Conference in Hamburg Germany and spoke at the World Court of Women at the World Social Forum in Bombay India in January 2004 Her article ldquoDepleted Uranium The Trojan Horse of Nuclear Warrdquo in the June 2004 World Affairs Journal was translated at the request of the Kremlin for distribution throughout the Russian government She has been invited to speak in Japan on more than twenty occasions

Through the continued use of depleted uranium which is essentially a nuclear weapon

the USA has conducted four nuclear wars since 1991 The calculated number of atoms discharged into the atmosphere to be transported by dust storms across the globe is estimated to be equivalent to 400000 Nagasaki bombs

Lauren Moret is an expert on atmospheric dust ldquoWe have huge dust storms that transport millions of tons of dust and sand around the world every year

ldquoThe main centres of these dust storms are the Gobi Desert in China which is where the Chinese did atmospheric testing so thatrsquos all contaminated with radiation and it gets transported right over Japan and it comes straight across the Pacific before dumping all its sand and dust on North America Itrsquos loaded with radioactive isotopes soot pesticides chemicals pollution mdash everything is in it mdash fungi bacteria viruses

ldquoThe Sahara Desert is another huge dust centre and what it generates goes north all over Europe and straight across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and up the East Coast

ldquoThe third region is the Western United States which is where the Nevada test site is located We did 1200 nuclear weapons tests there so all this radiation that is already there which is bad enough has caused a global cancer epidemic since 1945 All of that radiation was the equivalent of 40000 Nagasaki bombs Wersquore now talking about 10 times more since the use of DU as a weapon of war

ldquoThese dust storms remobilise all the radiation but those are the larger chunks The depleted uranium (DU) burns at such high temperatures ndash itrsquos a pyroforic metal which means it burns so the bullets and big calibre shells are actually on fire when they

come out of the gun barrel because they are ignited by the friction in the gun barrel Seventy percent of the DU metal becomes a metal vapour So itrsquos actually a radioactive gas weapon and a terrain contaminant

ldquoIn 1942 under the Manhattan Project General Leslie Grove dropped the atomic bombs on Japan but they didnrsquot use the DU weapons because they thought they were too horrific

Irsquove toured and gone all over Japan with a pediatrician from Basra and an oncologist a cancer specialist These poor doctors mdash their whole families are dying of cancer He has 10 members of his family with cancer now that hersquos treating and this is just from the Gulf War Theyrsquove used much much much more in 2003

ldquoDU goes straight into the blood stream Itrsquos carried all throughout the body into the bones the bone marrow the brain It goes into the fetus Itrsquos a systemic poison and a radiological poison

ldquoThere are two purposes in the military use of weapons One is to destroy the enemy soldiers and the other which is just as important is to destroy the enemy civilian population By causing illnesses and disease long lingering illnesses really have a detrimental impact on the productivity and economy of a country

ldquoDepleted uranium is a very very very effective biological weapon This is the primary purpose for using it Itrsquos just a slow death sentence In Yugoslavia Iraq and Afghanistan it is clear from the birth defects and the illnesses that things are pretty severe Each year the number of birth defects and illnesses will rise because of the total contamination levels in all living things that will increase because they are breathing air and drinking water and eating the food from contaminated soils They will have fewer and fewer healthy workers

ldquoThe impact of atmospheric testing is also clearly apparent from the percentage of population investigated for some form of mental illness Wersquove collected 6000 baby teeth around nuclear power plants and measured the radiation in them You have to look at how much bomb testing material was released into the atmosphere and therersquos a direct

1 Yucca Mountain a mountain range of volcanic origin in Nevada USA was going to be used as an underground nuclear waste repository


ldquoI donrsquot care if people believe me or not All I can say is that over time what I am saying will actually be an underestimation of the long term effectsrdquo

From an interview given on 30th May 2005 sourced at httpwwwthewecc

correlation of the decline in SAT2 scores for all teenagers in the US to the amount of radiation that was released into the atmosphere the year their mother was carrying them These are delayed effects of radiation exposure in utero It is at low levels and the main pathways are drinking water and dairy products

ldquoIn Japan the incidence of mental illness is 88 percent Nigeria is very low mdash 47 percent They have almost no radiation in Nigeria In the Ukraine where they had the Chernobyl accident it is 204 percent Spain is at 92 percent Italy is 82 percent Itrsquos pretty low because they donrsquot have nuclear power plants France is 75 percent reliant on nuclear power so you have mental illness in 184 percent of the population Mexico is at 122 percent and the United States is at 263 percent mdash the highest rate of mental illness in the

worldldquoThe only countries we know that

have used DU are Britain the US and Israel It is now clear that DU was used on a large scale by the US and the UK in the Gulf War in 1991 then in Bosnia Serbia and Kosovo and again in the war in Iraq by the US and the UK in 2003

ldquoIn 1996 the United Nations passed a resolution that depleted uranium weapons are weapons of mass Ph

oto

edw

ardk

hoo

com


destruction and they are illegal under all international laws and treaties In November 2007 the UN passed by a land-slide vote of 1226 (the six who voted against were US UK France Netherlands Czech Republic Israel) a resolution calling for member states to re-examine the health risks associated with the use of uranium weapons In December 2008 141 states in the UN General Assembly ordered the World Health Organisation International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations Environment Programme to update their positions on the long-term health and environmental threat posed by the use of uranium weapons

ldquoI call DU the lsquoTrojan Horsersquo Itrsquos the weapon that keeps killing This is like smoking radioactive crack It goes right in your nose It crosses the olfactory bulb into your brain Itrsquos a systemic poison It goes everywhere

ldquoThese particles that form at very high temperatures are nanoparticles They are one tenth of a micron or smaller They get picked up in the lipids and go right through the cell membranes of the cell They screw up the cell processes and mess up brain function The DU issue affects every single living thing on this planet What else has that impact

ldquoThe Pentagon people say ldquoYoursquore exaggerating or you use the uranium word to scare peoplerdquo

Life magazine Nov 1995 published a photo

essay which is still on the Internet lsquoThe

Tiny Victims of Desert Stormrsquo httpdu101

org09112995life1195life1html shows the post-Gulf War babies playing with their brothers and sisters who are normal Pictures of the Chernobyl children

are on the internet Ed

2 The SAT Reasoning Test is a Standardized Assessment Test for college admissions in the United StatesHydrogen Bomb Explosion

There is growing consensus among civil society groups scientists and some military organisations that the health risks from DU have been seriously underestimated Establishment scientific bodies have been slow to react to the wealth of new research into DU and policy makers have been content to ignore the claims of researchers and activists Deliberate obfuscation by the mining nuclear and arms industries has further hampered efforts to recognise the problem and achieve a ban The past failure of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to deal with landmines and cluster bombs suggests that an independent treaty process is the best route to limiting the further use and proliferation of uranium weapons The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons httpwwwbandepleteduraniumorg has prepared a draft treaty which contains a general and comprehensive prohibition of the development production transport storage possession transfer and use of uranium ammunition


Following the 1986 accident at Chernobyl it was reported in Germany that

many biodynamic farms registered lower radiation counts than their conventional neighbours1 Whereas most farms couldnrsquot sell produce owing to contamination levels some biodynamic farms were allowed to continue selling milk and other food products Those farms were later found to have been using a special mix of cow manure basalt and eggshells known as CPP ndash Cow Pat Pit ndash in addition to standard applications of biodynamic preparations

While published peer-reviewed research on biodynamics is increasing the subject of radiation amelioration by soils hasnrsquot been researched Anecdotal accounts based on farmersrsquo experience suggest it ought to be

Chalk and Cheese ndash Dietary Calcium and RadiationSea vegetables such as kelp wakame arame and

kombu contain high amounts of sodium alginate Sodium alginate promotes calcium absorption through the intesti-nal wall while binding and excreting strontium 2

Like plants our bodies are primed to make use of sunlight They arenrsquot equipped to deal with ionising radiation from nuclear fallout When it happens vegetables are an essential therapy for it seems that calcium carried by the living plant stream has a central role In our bodies calcium is concentrated in bones and teeth ndash places where life processes have slowed down or ceased Calcium acts to reduce rampant proliferation (eg) rapidly multiplying cancer cells so that formative activity can shape growth according to the organismrsquos lsquoblueprintrsquo Radiation is particularly harmful to this lsquoformrsquo impulse to which rapidly dividing cells and DNA respond

After hundreds of sap tests researchers found that many food plants suffer from calcium deficiency Calcium contributes to maintaining the acid-alkaline balance in plant sap No matter whether the plant is a pumpkin or a pear tree a sap pH of 64 or greater is correlated with its health 3

In human health too pH 64 is ideal ndash blood saliva and urine are less acid more alkaline If pH drops toxicities

Chalk and Cheese and CPPRemediating the effects of radiation on the Earth

by E Alington

pH is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution A pH less than seven is acidic a pH greater than seven basic or alkaline A pH of 70 is defined as neutral

become acid-waste the immune system suffers digestion and assimilation are impaired and the body becomes ripe for cancer

Calcium therefore plays a significant role in maintaining the health of organisms of plants people livestock and the farm as a whole

Acid sap is the result of cation shortage which farmers counter by adding lime (calcium carbon-ate) to their fields But lsquophos-phorus drags calciumrsquo Soluble phosphorus is an anion meaning it has a negative charge So any free positively-charged calcium in the soil reacts with phosphorus to form insoluble (or very slowly soluble) Ca-P compounds that are not readily available to plants

Likewise in our intestines phosphorus ties up cal-cium making it less available to our bodies This is why some dietitians will tell you milk isnrsquot the best source of calcium because it comes with too much phosphorus (the calcium phosphorus ratio in breast milk is 21 cf cowsrsquo milk 12) Much better sources of calcium are to be had from leafy dark green vegetables nuts and legumes

We should also note that the main pathways for radiation exposure in-utero are water and dairy products consumed by the mother4

Farmers spend money putting NPK and superphos-phate on their land They spend more money spreading lime We should ask ourselves how much acid-inducing fertiliser has been spread over our farms What happens to the plants grown from those soils to the cows forced to eat them to the people drinking the milk

Wouldnrsquot it make more sense to maintain farms in a balanced state like we want for our bodies based on mineralisation through living processes rather than on inorganic industrial amendments After all what happens on the farm is intimately connected to our bodies One of the defining characteristics of biodynamics is the lsquomiddle groundrsquo Over time a biodynamic farm approaches a state of homeostasis producing neither maximum nor mini-mum yields internalising its waste and closing its energy cycles In particular biodynamic farms have an extra-ordinary affinity to calcium which may help explain their lower radiation levels following the Chernobyl meltdown


a base material added chicken eggshell and ground basalt and dynamised the mixture by turning it over in a circular movement for one hour Then we put it into a barrel from which the bottom was removed and which was dug into the ground and added the five compost preparations one gram each and ten drops of the valerian preparation (At the same time the same procedure was performed but with compost preparations added prior to mixing This method did not prove to be good) After four weeks the content of the barrel was mixed by turning over thoroughly with a spade and after a further four weeks the cow-pat preparation was ready for use in new trials

In 1986 the Chernobyl disaster happened Radioactivity was measured at many farms An article in Lebendige Erde showed that bio-dynamic areas were equally contaminated as all the others However in some distinct areas the experts measuring the radioactivity had the feeling that there was something wrong with their instruments They came back with new instruments the next day but these only worked as expected on the land belonging to the neighbour Meanwhile employees of a government research institute got hold of manure concentrate produced after the disaster by different farmers and gardeners in the contaminated region The results were incomprehensible to them mdash it was not radioactive except for a very small amount of old Caesium (old meant that it did not stem from the Chernobyl disaster but from fallout of earlier atomic bomb tests) However they did not give any written confirmation of this to avoid the claim that a means against radioactivity exists I told them something about lsquolife-promoting radiationrsquo mentioned by Rudolf Steiner in the context of the compost preparationsrdquo6

CPP for your gardenRadiation remediation using biodynamic preparations

has by no means been proven But after decades of practical experience users have surmised that they work by lsquoradiating an enlivening impulsersquo throughout the farm or garden And CPP is an easy way to bring this effect to your patch of planet earth

Stir a portion of CPP in a bucket of rain water Stir vigorously in one direction until a deep vortex is formed Then reverse the flow and stir vigorously in the opposite direction until another vortex is created Carry on like this ndash first one way then the other ndash for 20 minutes

Then simply take a hearth brush and flick the liquid throughout the garden particularly onto the soil You donrsquot have to cover every inch as the preparation will lsquoradiatersquo outwards

You can also work wonders with stirred CPP in lots of other ways One especially rewarding practice is using it to water-in newly transplanted seedlings Next morning theyrsquoll all be standing up straight and waving at you

CPP can be ordered from infoearthmattersconz or wwwgrowbiodynamicsconz

Cow Pat PitIn Germany Maria Thun has extensively researched the

effect of biodynamic preparations on plant health Since the 1970s she has sought a means of countering the effects of atmospheric testing and fall-out from nuclear accidents

Thun outlines the history of the Manure Concentrate Preparation (Cow pat pit or CPP in NZ) that she developed between 1958 and 1972 with the help of Dr E Pfeiffer after numerous experiments and trials

ldquoIn the 1950s several nations had performed atmospheric atomic bomb tests leading to the pollution of many parts of the world with radioactive Strontium 90 Many research institutes in the USA Britain and Germany have measured this Plants of the same kind grown on different soil have been investigated at a research institute in Treiburg Germany Plants grown on silica-rich soil contained high residues of Strontium 90 while plants grown in the Rhein valley contained less The same kind of plants grown on lime soil contained only traces of radioactive Strontium

In the USA Dr Ehrenfried Pfeiffer performed similar investigations and obtained comparable results After discussions with him we planned to perform joint experiments he in Spring Valley (New York) and we in Marburg (Germany) We decided to grow plants on organic lime soil and study the influence of Strontium 90 incorporation

An unambiguous result was obtained plants grown with eggshells and ground basalt did not incorporate or store any radioactive Strontium 90

So we thought a lot about a way to bring these two substances to the biodynamic farms Research with hourly ground substances showed a new way We chose cow-pats as

Research from a 21 year long trial in Switzerland has shown that biodynamic farms are sustained by high lev-els of calcium while their conventional neighbours rely on inputs of nitrogen phosphate and potassium (NPK) 5

Average input of nutrients in kghayr

3 Treatments L-R Biodynamic Organic MineralControl manure plus mineral fertilisers = 100

lsquoInputsrsquo refers to what was generated by the farming system andor the addition of amendments Corg is higher in the organic system because more organic material (com-post) was brought in Total NPK was 40 ndash 50 lower in the organic systems The stable humin fraction was significantly higher in the biodynamic soils as was the calcium surplus

Dr Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was a German biochemist who moved to the USA in 1940 where he established a research laboratory for studying agriculture nutrition and medicine in particular the contribution of biodynamics to all three He was awarded a doctorate in the USA for his medical work

SOURCES1 Lebendige Erde reported by thebovinewordpresscom 2 httpwwwoasisadvancedwellnesscom 1964 McGill University study

published in the ldquoCanadian Medical Association Journalrdquo 3 Sait Graeme Nutrition Rules Jan 2005 Soil Therapy Pty Ltd Aus4 Leuren Moret httpwwwthewecc5 Results from a 21 year old field trial Organic Farming enhances soil

fertility and biodiversity FiBL 1 Aug 20006 Thun M Results from the Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar

Floris Books 2003


On old star-maps Taurus the Bull is depicted with lowered head and horns as if caught up in a powerful charge Yet therersquos more to Taurus than the lsquobull at a gatersquohellip

The Zuni of New Mexico called the Pleiades cluster that forms the back of the Bull the lsquoSeed Starsrsquo and these they used as an agricultural calendar When

in spring the Pleiades disappeared into the west at dusk they knew it was safe to plant seeds for the danger of frost had passed

The Zuni werenrsquot alone in using the Pleiades for a planting calendar In the southern hemisphere Maori used their appearance at winter solstice to determine the best time for planting kumara

Taurus is one of the more spectacular sights in the night sky With two bright stars Aldebaran and Elnath and two fine star clusters the Pleiades and the Hyades it is one of just a few constellations renowned for timekeeping celebration and storytelling

The (northern hemisphere) spring equinox hasnrsquot always occurred when the Sun stands in Pisces When by precession of the vernal equinox the Sun stood before the stars of Taurus it was the height of the Egyptian civilisation During this epoch humans sought increasingly to master the outer material world as well as their inner world of animal instincts Just as oxen were harnessed to shift the weighty substances of earth so was the Bull symbolic of all that required great strength in both a material and spiritual sense

The divine Hathor-Isis forces were ven erated Hathor imaginatively experienced as the world-cow gave sustenance to all while Isis represented a primal creation-energy ndash the divine feminine the Holy Spirit of the universe Isis later took on aspects of Hathor and is represented wearing a pair of cow horns with the sun disk between them To those who approached her in the temples of the Mysteries Isis spoke ldquoI am the All that has been

that is and that will berdquo She was experienced as the Great Mother of all that had come into existence and that will come in the future This is how in their own language the Egyptians expressed knowledge of the world-creative powers working through the constellation of the Bull

In Greek mythology Taurus commemorates the time when Zeus changed himself into a beautiful white Bull to woo the affections of the Phoenician princess Europa After hopping onto the Bullrsquos back the Bull swam across the Mediterranean Sea abducting Europa ndash after whom Europe is named ndash to the island of Crete

Creativeness through the Bull-forces is an archetype found in all ancient mythologies Ancient star-wisdom saw in the constellation Taurus the source of archetypal formative forces giving rise to the human larynx and the capacity for speech Those same forces were also understood as being active in nat ure In the Bull there lie forces related to the beginning of creat ion (ie) the manifestation of the Divine Word in the physical world in the biblical sense of ldquoIn the beginning was the Word and the Word was with GodAll things were made by him and with out him was not anything made that was maderdquo Thought becomes creative when it is grasped by the active strength of the word Essentially the Bull represents the divine lar ynx

With the passing of the vernal equinox into Aries the cultural significance of the Bull gave way to other life-myths However a last vestige of the Bull as a mystery religion was perpetuated by the Romans in the Mithraic Mysteries AD1-4 In the Mithras legend the bull is sacrificed so that manrsquos development may be furthered The Bull came to be associated with the capacity for complete surrender after the Christ-deed it became the symbol of the Gospel of St Luke

On a clear summerrsquos night you will see Taurus accompanied by Orion the Hunter and the dog-star Sirius The cluster of stars forming the Bullrsquos back is called the Pleiades Known to Maori as Matariki the Little Eyes

their rising at dawn at winter solstice announces the return of the light the start of a new year

Sources W Sucher Isis Sophia an outline of new star wisdom Floris Books 1974 N Davidson Sky Phenomena Lindisfarne Books 2004Taurus the Bull The World Cow Hathor Isis

Cre

dit

Zod

iac

Atla

s Cel

este

De

Stra

bov

Cre

dit

pub

lic d

omai

n

Cre

dit

pub

lic d

omai

n

Blos

sfel

dt

Of Starhellip Taurus ndash the Bull


Blos

sfel

dt

hellipand Flower Sunflower

Who doesnrsquot love the bright yellow sunflower its strong stem bearing a giant nodding head above most peoplersquos heads

Not only in shape and colour does the sunflower lsquospeakrsquo of the sun the whole plant has an unusual affinity While still growing its leaves and buds lsquotrackrsquo the position of the sun a phenomenon known as heliotropism The buds face east in the morning and west in the evening During the night they turn back again in readiness to greet the sun at dawn next day Only when the buds finally bloom and the seeds ripen do the flowers come to a standstill ndash generally facing east ndash as the sunrsquos power is harnessed for oil production

The sunflower is the largest member of the aster family (from the Greek aster star) The flower is really a solar community of many tiny individual florets cohabiting on a broad plate-like inflorescence An array of outer florets is modified to bear what appear as petals In this way there can be anything from 100 to 8000 individual flowers in one sunflower

Native to Mexico and Peru this striking flower has been cultivated for over 4000 years The Aztecs revered it as an image of their sun god giving it ritual significance and decorating their temples with pure gold representations of the sacred flower It later thrived on the North American prairies where it grew wild among the high prairie grasses often to a height of more than two metres

It is remarkable how the plant manages to neutralise the effect of gravity despite accumulating more and more weight in the flower at the top end Unlike most plants where the largest leaves are produced close to the earth sunflower leaves grow progressively larger the higher they emerge up the stem The hollow stem is well-suited to weight-bearing being better suited to the task than a fleshy one Rather than an elaborate inflorescence the plant forms a single flowerhead whose compactness also serves to concentrate the sunrsquos energy into oil-formation

Sunflower oil and seeds are highly nutritious The oil is an excellent source of essential linoleic acid and Vitamin E while its polyunsaturated fatty acid content is significantly higher than olive oil Given the sunflowerrsquos unique relationship to the solar lsquoheartrsquo of our universe itrsquos not surprising that its seeds strengthen the heart and improve circulation Less clear is how the plant appears to reduce radioactive fallout

Scientists in Japan and elsewhere have begun testing the effectiveness of sunflowers in reducing radiation levels Apparently every plant that absorbs high levels of

calcium and confuses calcium with radioactive cesium will absorb a lot of radiation Grown near Chernobyl after the 1986 nuclear disaster sunflowers were found to have absorbed radioactive cesium and strontium from their roots One Japanese villager whose home is near a radioactive hot spot found that sunflowers helped reduce radiation to levels well below government safety recommendations

Radiation is countered by water ndash radioactive fuel rods must be stored in water The sunflowerrsquos relationship with water enables it to handle waterlogged soils ndash for years the Dutch have used sunflowers to turn damp muddy swathes of land into habitable sites

This wonderful plant with its combined affinity with water and capacity for absorbing solar radiation exemplifies how the death forces of nuclear radiation are countered by the uplifting power of the life lsquostreamrsquo

Sources httpwwwwalade httpwwwinfiniteunknownnethttpwwwhealthalternatives2000comhttpwwwoasisadvancedwellnesscom

When 80000 people had to abandon their homes after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan Buddhist monks took to planting and distributing sunflowers in an effort to lift spirits and lighten the radiation impact

At least eight million blossoming sunflowers are attributed to the efforts of a single

monastery

Sunflower Helianthus ndash from the Greek helios sun and anthos flower

Cre

dit

orc

hidfl

ower

sfil

esw

ordp

ress

com


As a child living with an old-fashioned kitchen fire with a range occasionally used

for baking bread I grew up with the realisation that heat coming from wood or coal was qualitatively different from that of an electric fire Although the calorific value might be equivalent there is a huge difference as is a flame from gas Later on in my life I had the opportunity to experience cooking with a range (cast-iron solid fuel or oil-fired) whose qualities once mastered had real advantages Such cookers have a real presence in the home they also often heat the water and the radiators and transmit a quality to food that will be appreciated Then when living on a farm in Mallorca our bread was made sev eral times a week with a natural-rise fermentation process and cooked in a wood-fired stone oven into which other dishes were placed after the bread came out This was the best bread Irsquove ever tasted It would be covered with flecks of wood-ash and eaten with olive oil garlic and ripe tomatoesmdashunbeatable Our guests immediately spotted the difference to most commercial bread but it was a real art to get the temperature correct

Most fire that we have traditionally used whether released from wood coal or gas is directly or indirectly a gift of the sun All these substances come from a kind of ripening process that has taken place in growing organisms to produce usable energy so when we cook with awareness we should be continuing that ripening process making our foods more flavoursome and digestible

How does electricity compare as a heat source John Davy in his book Hope Evolution and Change described electricity as being like a meeting with a mysterious and foreign will

Wood-fired or microwaved ndash how do you like your pizza

by Wendy Cookwhich can shake our body in strange contortions It is like a trapped energy emerging from the hidden depths of nature full of tension and buried lsquoviolencersquo Despite our seeming array of choices some people only have access to electricity Even so it is possible to produce excellent meals using skill and love

I have great reservations however about the use of microwave technology The inven tion dates from the Second World War and began to be marketed to the public with vir-tually no research until the 1970s when histological studies showed what molecular changes took place in food Swiss food scientist Dr Hans Ulrich-Hertel conducted some of the early research and he concluded (in 1989) Any food eaten that has been cooked or defrosted in a microwave oven can cause changes in the blood indicative of a devel oping process that is also found in cancerrsquo He continued lsquoWhen food is microwaved the oven exerts a power input of about IOOO watts or more The resulting destruction and deformation of food molecules produces a new radiolytic compound unknown in naturersquo The results of this research were suppressed following a complaint by the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatus for Households and Industry

In a microwave oven a device called a magnetron tube causes an electron beam to oscil late at a very high frequency Microwave radiation at 245 gigahertz is pro duced As water absorbs electromagnetic energy quickest at this frequency food con taining water is heated more rapidly The molecules in the food are forced to align them selves with the very rapidly alternating field and to oscillate around their

axis Heat is produced from intense intermolecular friction Microwaves are beamed from the magnetron in the oven compartment where they heat the food from the inside out Apart from being the counter-picture to what we have described in a normal cookingripening process this heating from the inside can give rise to cold spots hence the need to constantly rotate the dish Space will not allow more recent research to be shared here but I urge you to consider carefully whether the microwave has a place in your kitchen

As wife of satirist the late Peter Cook Wendy Cook was formerly a well-known hostess in London and New York When their daughter developed severe allergies Wendy began exploring the connection between food production and health discovering how the macrobiotic and biodynamic approaches to nutrition can be life-changing Article from The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook by Wendy Cook Clairview 2006 used here with the authorrsquos permission

Copper chloride crystallisations of extracts from chicken ndash left raw right above fried right below microwaved The multiple centres visible in the latter suggest an inferior product this sort of crystalline image normally correlates with poor keeping quality inferior flavour and diminished nutritive quality From the book Sensitive Crystallisation by C Marcel published by Floris Books 2011 available from Humanity Books ndash see advertisement inside back cover


quality and increase health prob lems without a doubt

Having observed farmers becoming ill from pesticide use during his time working as an agricultural consultant Arden Anderson became a doctor of Medicine He now juggles work as an Air Force surgeon farm consultant lecturer and author in a specialised field of soil-crop- human health that could be called lsquomedical agronomyrsquo

From an interview with Anderson published in Nutrition Rules by Graeme Sait Soil Therapy Pty Ltd 2005

Phot

o E

arth

Mat

ters

Graeme I understand the US government is set to introduce large-scale irradia tion of meat How do you feel about that proposal

Arden I think itrsquos crazy Again theyrsquore not looking at the associated degradation of food Again itrsquos the paranoia thing that you mentioned in relation to the national psy che They are either trying to prevent deliberate contamination andor inadvertent con-tamination with things like salmonella and E-coli If you look at root causes you must ask ldquowhy do we have so much

Irradiated Food

E-coli present ldquo Itrsquos because the nutrition is screwed up in the animals We are feeding them grain and loading them with antibiotics The meat is already contaminated when it leaves the farm Itrsquos the same deal with chickens and salmonella Itrsquos really just another ploy to address the symptom rather than the cause Itrsquos also another political ploy of ldquohow do we dispose of or make use of nuclear waste hellip Letrsquos use it for irradiating foodrdquo Then we have to pay for the service rather than them having to pay for disposal It will decrease food

While Dr Arden Anderson suggests the best use for a microwave oven in the kitchen is as a vase-stand others keep them well away from food (Above) Having observed farmers becoming ill from pesticide use during his time working as an agricultural consultant Arden Anderson became a

doctor of Medicine He now juggles work as an Air Force surgeon farm consultant lecturer and author in a specialised field of soil-crop-human health that could be called lsquomedical agronomyrsquo


physical warmth but also the actual transformation of physical forces into soul-spiritual forces

The heart organ which lies in the centre of the circulatory system is then the place where physical warmth is transformed into soul warmth and vice versa After all our language is full of expressions such as lsquowarmth of heartrsquo or lsquoa warm-hearted personrsquo Perhaps what the blood carries into the interior of the organism is more than simply gaseous components (oxygen etc) that serve the lsquocombustionrsquo of energy-rich compounds in the tissues Perhaps the blood also carries forces of intentionality mediated by warmth Ultimately this view could lead to an understanding of psychosomatic processes that originate in the soul but cause bodily health or illness

ldquoThe earth was small light blue and so touchingly alone our home that must be defended like a holy relicrdquo

Aleksei Leonov ussR Astronaut

The heartrsquos muscle contractions increase blood pressure from near zero to 80 to 120mm

Hg Because of this fact the heart has always been described as a mechanical pump a view that does not do full justice to its function What is the real significance of blood pressure Isnrsquot it an indicator of our soulrsquos activity our desire to be active in space and our confrontation with the earthly world Ultimately the will activity that arises in the heart and radiates into the entire body originates in the human individuality itself This will-activity triggers metabolic processes that in turn through the bloodrsquos respiratory capacity support very subtle lsquocombustionrsquo processes (ie) warmth processes and life processes Warmth makes the transition between bodily and soul processes possible

Under normal circumstances core temperature remains constant in the torso which houses the heart in its centre In contrast body temperatures fluctuate widely in the skin and limbs Thus streams of warmth generally following the pathways travelled by the blood are present in the body If we consider the qualities of the four lsquoelementsrsquomdash earth water air and warmth mdash we can say that cells and organs (especially bones) are the most solidified and lsquoearthlyrsquo

How radiant are youby Dr J W Rohen

Dr Rohen suggests that the warmth in our blood carries forces of intentionality it is the bridge between body and soul processes Does this suggest a physiological basis for how health can be strengthened through

spiritual as well as physical exerciseAt the boundary with interstitial or extracellular space (which has a total volume of approximately ten to twelve litres) these relatively solid features give way to fluid Because the circulating blood transports respiratory gases the entire body is also pervaded with the element of air Blood however is also the organ of warmth transportation

In metabolic processes in the organs and especially in the muscles energy transfers take place constantly To a certain extent these transfers are temperature-dependent Metabolic intensity can be increased by warmth and reduced by cold fevers and hypothermia are impressive examples It is conceivable that the will the actual driving force in metabolic processes makes use of the warmth in order to manifest its intentions in the form of physical movement If this is so the warmth transported by the blood is the actual bridge between bodily and soul processes

Conversely it is also conceivable that the warmth energy released through metabolism is taken up by the soul and lsquoradiatedrsquo into our surroundings in the form of love empathy compassion or devotion In this case the blood and circulation serve not only the regulation of

Dr Johannes Rohen spent most of his scientific career studying the physiology of the eye Until his retirement in 1989 he lectured in anatomy and embryology at the Universities of MarburgLahn and ErlangenNurnberg He is author of many textbooks which reflect his standing as one of the founders of functional anatomy This article from his book Functional Morphology The Dynamic Wholeness of the Human Organism Adonis Press 2007 used with kind permission of the publishers Available from Humanity Books see inside back cover


Every weekend without fail Ferretti Growers put their wares on display at the

local farmers markets around the Coromandel Peninsula Wooden boxes and crates are filled with brightly coloured freshly picked vegetables As the day warms up happy punters flow in and out snapping up what they need and stopping for a natter Dom Ferretti and Jeanette Ida are the steam behind lsquoFerretti Growers fresh organic producersquo The pair bought a piece of land just out of Whitianga five years

Feretti Growers in action at a Coromandel farmers market

Phot

o H

Lae

gers

tedt

Ferretti Growers ndash Flavour and Freshness

ago with the dream of supplying fresh organic vegetables to the local markets They could see a demand for locally grown produce because the majority of vegetables sold on the peninsula were trucked in from the Bay of Plenty and Auckland Ferretti Growers sell their vegetables through farmers markets veggie boxes organic shops in Whitianga and Tairua restaurants cafes and Ceres Organics in Auckland Dom says ldquowe supply to a variety of buyers because sometimes one market drops right down and another picks uprdquo

Itrsquos not at all surprising that Dom dived into the market gardening trade his grandfather came out from Italy as a market gardener his father and six brothers were market gardeners in the Hutt Valley and his cousin Brent Ferretti is an organic market gardener in Nelson Jeanettersquos face lit up when she told of Brentrsquos role in inspiring them to grow nutritious vegetables for local markets and of continuing the family tradition

When Dom remarked ldquoI had always been around people and family

Pulling up to a gorgeous wooden shingle house Helen Lagerstedt is about to find out what makes Ferretti Growers tick Signs of small children busyness and vegetables poking out from all available spaces intrigue

her Jars of pickles and preserves freshly made from excess produce line the kitchen bench Sprouts are draining bursting full of enzymes and vitamins nearly ready for market Herersquos what she found out


who were growing vegetablesrdquo I realised he was living his calling vegetable growing is in his blood His hands-on experience right from day dot has been the driving force behind their successful crop production each year

Before Dom and Jeanette became the fully fledged Ferretti Growers they are today Dom was an uncontrollable seed sower When he was sowing a few seeds for their home garden he couldnrsquot help but sow the whole packet ndash and then try a range of varieties ending up with hundreds of plants The pair sold excess vegetables from their home garden at weekend markets giving them a feel for what customers might like to buy Dom and Jeanettersquos passion for growing nutritious vegetables moved them permanently from their previous lives Dom as a scientist for NIWA (National Institute of Water amp Atmospheric Research) and Jeanette a physiotherapist

Ferretti Growers can proudly display their OFNZ (Organic Farm NZ) certification with their produce but more lies behind their label than meets the eye A few years ago Dom was given some Earth Matters magazines by the organisers of the Whitianga Biodynamic Group Rob Middleton and Erin Morgan Rob would often lsquopoprsquo by and chat about biodynamics with them Then one day Rob offered to run a biodynamic workshop on Dom and Jeanettersquos property It was a busy day of activities making a compost heap a cow pat pit and mixing and spreading preparation 500 At first Dom and Jeanette were rather sceptical about biodynamics wondering what astronomy had to do with growing vegetables Now through their observations and monitoring Dom and Jeanette can see how biodynamic growing is all-encompassing taking into account the effects of both macrocosm and microorganisms on plant growth

At this stage of their business (with two years experience behind them) Dom and Jeanette focus on mastering

the organic method while including biodynamic principles when they can Dom enthusiastically described how feeding microorganisms to the soil through compost helps make nutrients more available to plants giving their vegetables the flavour-burst they are striving for They make their own compost on site using crops grown for carbon content grass clippings cow manure fish and seaweed They add the biodynamic preparations when available Regular foliar feeding with homemade fish fertiliser is part of their schedule as well

Around the back of the house soaking in warm afternoon sun lies Dom and Jeanettersquos acre of garden including two 50 metre tunnel houses One tunnel house is a tomato loverrsquos dream As I walk down the path tomato plants tower over me dripping with delicious tomatoes at various stages of ripeness Most of these tomatoes come from Domrsquos fatherrsquos original heritage seed collection Brushing past basil plants and tomato leaves in the warm sun takes my mind off to Italy with its fine wine and fresh olive oil I canrsquot help but pick a bright red cherry tomato and pop it into my mouth ndash its a flavour sensation This is real food I mention that my tomatoes taste quite watery compared to theirs Dom suggested all the rain wersquove been having causes this effect I stopped watering my tomato plants that day This tunnel house pumps out about 300kg of tomatoes every week for the summer growing season Soon Jeanette will be making her famous tomato kasundi which was such a hit at last yearrsquos markets she already has orders waiting for when the tomatoes ripen I spy volunteer courgettes and leafy greens peeking out from behind the tomatoes every available space is exploding with life it feels so abundant

A big seller for Ferretti Growers is their mesclun salad mix This is grown in the second tunnel house along with cucumbers climbing up strings bright purple eggplants and hot chillies Dom explains the profound difference between their mesclun mix

and supermarket mesclun ndash time and simplicity Dom and Jeanette pick wash bag and sell their mesclun within 12 hours it couldnrsquot be fresher Meanwhile supermarket mesclun is picked processed bagged flushed with nitrogen (to keep it lsquofreshrsquo) transported to a distributer transported to a shop stored packed on shelves then goes to a fridge at someonersquos home Spot the difference Itrsquos not only the time factor that Ferretti Growers are focussing on but also the taste They choose varieties for flavour over volume and productivity Most consumers say they like Ferretti Growersrsquo produce because itrsquos fresh out of the ground and so tasty

Looking to the future Dom and Jeanette intend to increase their growing area This will allow them to provide a continual supply of staples as well as a few specialty items to restaurants They aim to entice new customers to become regulars by providing the produce which the customer is looking for

In terms of biodynamics Dom and Jeanette are bringing the biodynamic calendar into their daily routine Jeanette says the calendar helps them focus on what needs to be done each day They are not striving for Demeter certification at this stage It is their intention to supply locally rather than trying to get a market share of biodynamic distributers in Auckland

What inspires Dom and Jeanette to keep going Simply the pleasure of growing a tiny seed and nurturing it into tasty vegetables they can offer at the market ldquoThe whole process is a satisfying occupationrdquo said Dom grinning from ear to ear

Jeanette adds ldquoItrsquos hugely rewarding hearing customers and chefs say Ferretti Growers grow the best vegetables theyrsquove eaten or served At the end of the day itrsquos all about people enjoying good tasty local organic foodrdquo

Helen Lagerstedt has been living in Whitianga In the coming months she intends to travel


A gentle misting rain danced briefly through the garden as morning sunshine slipped in

and out of the clouds It was a lovely calm slightly cloudy morning when I got up at 430-ish and I wondered ldquowhy donrsquot I get up earlier more oftenhelliprdquo

A friend and I were about to spray the second application of biodynamic silica preparation 501 This week the message had come loud and clear ndash I must catch the tail- end of the ascending moon phase and put the 501 on so as to support the budding and almost unfurling leaf growth that was already underway Two weeks earlier Irsquod applied the third lot of cow manure preparation 500 and before that the cow pat pit and seaweed fertiliser when the warm wet winter tricked the plants into thinking spring was already here Even back then there was a feeling of expectancy in the air

I sit musing while stirring the rainwater in my copper cauldron with bits of bluetack plugging the holes in its bottom Here am I in New Zealand stirring BD preparations and eating home-made muffins with a cup of Earl Grey tea Itrsquos a world of difference from sitting on rocks in the pre dawn light at Mittagong NSW Australia taking turns to stir the copper resting near the fire a steaming billy of tea coming to the boil and buttering warm sconeshellip

Different people different countries different energies different climates plants and soils so many differences yet the same activity has been going on for decades all over the world There is something wonderfully familiar simple and uncomplicated about sharing the stirring with others something that warms more than just the physical no matter where you are or who you are with

Community common-unity is for me the special ingredient Since

One Year in the Making

I started the garden at Vortex this is the lsquomagicrsquo that has occurred in abundance Many wonderful helpers have donated time soil plants sleepers recycled timber Others help with weeding planting watering shoveling soil We are all inspired by what emerges

Many people comment on how wonderful the garden looks and feels Others begin to help themselves as they realise a community garden is there for everyone and it is absolutely okay to pick whatever they like to take home Children from the nearby cregraveche and Kindergartens come by often to see whatrsquos growing and take something back for their lunch or morning tea

Our third compost pile is ready to use We have made the soil ourselves and two of our garden beds overflow with vegetables herbs and flowers Our enriched earth makes clear to people who havenrsquot seen lsquoproperrsquo compost before the difference between store-bought kiln-dried and tumbled compost that is almost devoid of life forces and the living humus-like soil wersquove developed

For a small area not much larger than the average roadside grass verge therersquos a lot growing here - broccoli snow peas fennel miners lettuce NZ spinach silverbeet

dill coriander rocket parsley broadbeans radicchio thyme sage rosemary chamomile yarrow valerian dandelions rhubarb blueberries raspberries a lemon tree and a persimmon All co-habit cheerfully in their north-facing recycled timber beds interspersed with tulips daffodils freesias dutch iris lavender canterbury bells sweet peas echium borage phaecelia calendula gaznaias cyclamen poppies marigolds nasturtiums pink lachanalias gaura primroses marguerite daisies and an out-of-season self-seeded sunflower smiling happily amongst the riot of vegetables and herbs

Bees bumblebees and wasps buzz in the borage and calendulas swallows have nested in the roof of the shops and help to keep the bad bugs at bay the sacrificial broccolini plant - gnawed to pieces by slugs snails and whitefly - has helped keep the rest of the garden in good health Therersquos a family of weta often found in the waterbin (a recycled wheelie bin connected to the downpipe) or in the bark pile and there are even a few early monarch butterflies to be seen

You can really feel the difference in a biodynamic garden where everything is alive and working in harmony itrsquos an example of how the whole world could be

Aucklandrsquos Vortex Creative Wellbeing Centre is located in Michaels Ave Ellerslie Owner Christine Moginie describes the abundance she has coaxed from a small strip of roadside verge using

biodynamic methods in just one year

From thishellip hellipto thisVortex Centre shows whatrsquos possible from a small strip of roadside verge in just one year using biodynamic methods


Avondale Community Gardeners specialises in Socially Inclusive Design models for community Made up of pioneer volunteers

who banded together in February 2009 to support local street initiatives that today include Heron Park Heritage Orchard Lifespace Lunch Park (Tait Park improvements) and Biodynamic Community Food Garden (Rangi Matariki project) this volunteer-based neighbourhood group has recently found support and assistance in the form of a research project on Community Mapping led by the Unitec Design DepartmentThe original co-founders of Avondale Community Gardeners (ACGrsquos) brought together the social influences of New Zealandrsquos Whole Earth Movement Americarsquos Growing Communities Principles with the urban Biodynamic and Permaculture programme in Auckland

ACGrsquos special interest in biodynamics began when members discovered handbooks in cupboards and biodynamic home gardens in backyards left behind by former residents of Avondale and Rosebank In 2010 ACGrsquos rallying of community support to protect remnant historic trees and the much forgotten horticultural legacy of the Rosebank Peninsula revealed another layer of New Zealandrsquos early Plantsman history Hayward Wright who was best known for kiwifruit research lived in the area and records of key trials by DSIR were also found in Avondale Here too our familiar kumara variety was developed as well as a municipal composting programme chemical fertilisers and technology for the industrialisation of horticulture

Originally open fields were cultivated by Maori In mid C19th Pakeha introduced agriculture orcharding and family market gardens to Auckland Although extensive property development and modernist interests have been occurring in Avondale since the 1960s there remains a cultural memory of the days before we became totally reliant on machines Despite the transition from rural to industrial and residential subdivisions remnants of horse stables early State house sections and large pockets of undeveloped wild zones particularly shelter belts still remain in Rosebank

Recently local residents and ACG successfully nominated a dozen more local trees onto Auckland Councilrsquos Schedule of Notable Trees Avondale

A neighbourly cooperative gardening culture based on the core value of companionship

Community Gardenersrsquo submissions on a range of concerns relating to Council Planning have also helped to highlight matters of spiritual cultural and ecological significance in Avondale within a contemporary social and economic context

Our Soil Stewards course launched in February 2012 follows on from a series of 25 home-garden workshops begun at ACGrsquos public launch in July 2009 The community outcomes of the Soil Stewards course are

bull to develop neighbourhood cooperatives

bull to understand our bioregional heritage

bull to actively practise sustainable gardening and land management

The courses are designed to help local residents re-learn technical skills in horticulture local knowledge and cooperative economy within a community setting Workshops are held monthly with seasonal home garden visits in the area Sampling new developments in local cuisine is another creative outlet for the group and it operates alongside ACGrsquos maintenance teams for orchards compost flowers and herbs vines and shrubs

ACG would like to help members develop `lifespace gardensrsquo as centres from where religious inspiration cultural enlightenment and social cohesion can radiate As part of a modern renewal of AgriCulture the Lifespace philosophy of Avondale Community Gardeners is being put into practice through the Biodynamic Home Garden Cooperative and Community Food Garden The proposed Rangi Matariki garden project on a patch of Council Reserve in Rosebank is being serviced by the Soil Stewards programme and the creative talents of its tutors participants and Trustees with the support of The Kete Ora Charitable Trust For more information about ACG contact Imi on 828-5854 or avondalecommunitygardenergmailcom

ldquoThe best compost wersquove ever seenrdquo- making biodynamic compost at an Avondale Community Gardeners workshop

in 2011


Plus the Prime Minister is stressing quantity when once again the key factor is the quality of the land being sold Foreign buyers are cherry-picking not buying the rubbish (thatrsquos left for the locals)

In 2010 when controversy was raging about the original Chinese proposal to buy these farms that same The Prime Minister said he didnrsquot want to see New Zealanders become tenants in our own land A commendable sentiment one with which CAFCA completely agrees But his Governmentrsquos decision has since ensured that is exactly what is happening

However Justice Millerrsquos decision to order a review of the decision to approve the sale of the Crafar Farms to the appropriately named Milk NZ owned by Shanghai Pengxin of China is a welcome outbreak of sanity in this whole sorry saga Not to mention a two fingered judicial poke in the eyes of the Government and its rubber-stampers the Overseas Investment Office

Only a few weeks ago the Government was trumpeting the lsquostrict conditionsrsquo attached to the approval They have been swept aside by the judge for the load of piffle that they are The decision recognises that the would-be foreign owner has no dairy farming experience thus failing the legislative requirement that it have relevant business expertise The Chinese company and the Government aimed to get around this inconvenient law by contracting Landcorp to manage the Crafar Farms The appellantrsquos lawyer pointed out that this would set a precedent for future land sales as any ldquowell-resourced overseas conglomerate could come and buy dairy farms in New Zealand provided it had a contract with Landcorprdquo This attempt to sugarcoat the bitter pill of loss of yet more of our land could be described as a policy of phony New

The announcement of Ministerial and Overseas Investment Office approval of

the sale of the bankrupt Crafar Farms to Chinese buyers was no surprise to the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) The only surprise was that it took them so long to rubber stamp it This was all to have been a done deal back in 2010 when it was supposed to be sold to the first lot of would-be Chinese buyers That all turned to custard because of an even greater lack of good character than usual among the companyrsquos principals who are now facing serious criminal charges in Hong Kong (but nothing in New Zealand which tells you a lot about the diligence of NZrsquos lsquoregulatoryrsquo authorities)

The lily is being gilded by the announcement that Landcorp will manage it on behalf of the Chinese buyers Everyone knows that there is the world of difference between being the owner and the property manager Ownership is power owners make the decisions (including onselling it) owners get the profits

The lily is being further gilded by the conditions attached to it (Labour when it was in office set the precedent for this in regard to the equally controversial Shania Twain land purchases) conditions such as the buyers remaining of good character (this could be renamed the May Wang clause) and paying millions of dollars to various worthy causes These should be taken with a well deserved grain of salt Why Two words ndash Kim Dotcom

The Prime Minister keeps issuing soothing noises about foreign land purchases only totaling around 1 of the total land area He is being disingenuous What is important is what percentage of the total area of commercially productive land is foreign-owned These statistics are no longer issued by the Overseas Investment Office but when they were last decade CAFCA calculated the figure at 7 - and it was never officially denied or disputed Wersquove seen no evidence of that figure having gone down quite the opposite

A Welcome Outbreak of SanityThe Crafar Farm Court Decision

by Murray Horton

What is important is what percentage of the total area of productive land is

foreign-owned

Zealandisation Landcorp would be nothing more than a property manager for the Chinese owners

The judge recognised the central fact that the sale would bring no discernible benefit to New Zealand as required under the Overseas Investment Act saying that the benefits were likely to accrue regardless of who owns it ldquoIf a given benefit will happen anyway it cannot easily be described as a substantial consequence of the overseas investmentrdquo

CAFCA stresses that the nationality of the buyers is irrelevant Selling the Crafar Farms to off-shore investors is reprehensible regardless of whether the foreign buyers are Chinese Americans British or Australians CAFCA doesnrsquot carry a flag for Sir Michael Fay and his merry men either If his consortium succeeds in buying the Crafar Farms there is nothing to stop it on-selling them overseas for a tidy profit The opportunity to have the Crafar Farms genuinely stay in local hands was lost when the receivers rejected Landcorprsquos bid to buy them outright

The recent judicial decision provides a chance to halt this whole policy of flogging off the countryrsquos agricultural land (of which they ainrsquot making any more) which is New Zealandrsquos comparative advantage in the global market New Zealand is first and foremost an agricultural country And wersquore very very good at it which is why foreign buyers want to snap it up As a bare minimum first step freehold sales of such land to foreign buyers should be stopped as soon as possible allowing them lease-hold rights only as is common practice overseas And all such leases should be subject to much stricter conditions and scrutiny than is the case now

Murray Horton is Secretary of Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa You can subscribe to CAFCArsquos efforts for $2000yr Send a cheque and your details to CAFCA P O Box 2258 Christchurch


When the nuclear reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in

Japan were severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in March last year1 it was my wake-up call to the issue of nuclear radiation and energy Not quite reassured by the Japanese governmentrsquos statement that lsquoIt will not immediately affect your healthrsquo2 I began to search for information through the various online media and websites in order to make some sense of the situation in my country The more I searched however the more I began to get the impression that many people in Japan are experiencing psychological chaos largely due to the wide-ranging and often conflicting views on radiation risks

Whilst some are asserting the relative safety of the situation3 others are warning that the situation is extremely serious4 So what is going on I believe that we will not know for sure how the Fukushima incident will actually affect the people and the environment until much later and only after extensive independent surveys Moreover in my view we cannot necessarily rely on our previous experiences of nuclear incidents such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island as the Fukushima incident is qualitatively different from previous incidents In Chernobyl for example the major radiation leak was more or less contained within 10 days whilst in Fukushima the radiation leak went on for months at least5 The Fukushima incident has also caused a significant amount of radioactive substances to leak into the Pacific Ocean6

Nevertheless aside from the debate of whether the situation in Japan is safe or not there is already data suggesting that the radiation from Fukushima has spread far and wide This worries

Radiation from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Spreads

by Yuri Wilsonpeople as some of the radioactive isotopes emit potentially harmful rays for a considerable period of time7 Please note the information I provide here is by no means a comprehensive summary8

AirAlthough there are discrepancies

among the studies regarding the amount of radioactive emissions they nevertheless seem to suggest that a significant amount has been released into the air9 Radioactive particles from Fukushima have been consistently detected across the globe10 and one study has found radioactive cesium in car air filters in Japan11

Soil amp GroundIt is now known that the soil

in many areas in the Fukushima prefecture is radioactive Whilst the current no-entry zone is within a 20 km radius area of the nuclear power plant radioactivity has been measured beyond this zone For example high levels of cesium were detected outside of the 30km radius12 within a 40 km radius13 and at 60km14 from the power plant Strontium which has a long half-life and tends to accumulate in bones was detected in the soil as far as 36km northwest of the plant15 One report estimates that the total area contaminated at the level of the Chernobyl evacuation zone is about 800 square kilometres16

The soils beyond Fukushima are also contaminated17 High levels of cesium have been detected in neighbouring prefectures as far as 250 km1819202122Radioactive strontium exceeding normal levels was found in Yokohama (250km away) and south of Tokyo23 One study estimates that the radioactive iodine and cesium may have spread across a wide area encompassing 15 prefectures24

Marine and Inland WaterUnsurprisingly as radioactive

water was released into the ocean radioactive substances have been found in seawater High levels of iodine25 and strontium26 were detected in the sea around Fukushima after the incident One group of scientists estimates that high quantities of radioactive cesium 137 leaked into the sea from the Fukushima plant27 another predicts that cesium will not only disperse in the Pacific Ocean but also flow into the Indian Ocean and eventually reach the Atlantic28 According to the State Oceanic Administration of China one survey found cesium -137 at 300 times higher than normal levels and Strontium-90 up to 10 times higher than normal in seawater in China which suggests that the radioactive contaminants have already spread further afield29

The contamination seems to have affected inland waters as well In March 2011 radioactive iodine and cesium were detected in tap water in 14 prefectures and in 5 prefectures (including Tokyo) people were advised not to use tap water for infants for a brief period of time30 In June highly radioactive strontium was detected in the groundwater around the Fukushima plant31

FoodRadioactive contamination has been

found in various foods On several occasions the Japanese government has had to ban the shipment and consumption of several kinds of food such as kakina and komatsuna (both green vegetables) spinach broccoli cabbage cauliflower turnip celery parsley milk green tea beef wild boar meat chestnut yuzu (citrus) bamboo shoot salmon ume (plum) and several kinds of mushrooms produced in different regions32


The Japanese Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare (MHLW) reports that between March and September 2011 varying amounts of iodine 131 cesium 134 cesium 137 were detected in beef pork hen egg and sheep meat produced in 22 prefectures33 They also found radioactive iodine and cesium in raw milk across 14 prefectures34 and in various vegetables grains and fruits in over 10 prefectures35

Again not surprisingly much seafood obtained from the sea around Japan has been found to be contaminated Greenpeace has been conducting independent surveys since the incident and reports high levels of contamination in seafood including several types of seaweed shellfish and fish which are commonly eaten in Japan36 The Japanese Fisheries Agency has also been monitoring radiation levels in seafood and report that so far they have found various amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium in various marine fishes inland freshwater fishes (both wild and artificially bred) shellfish and seaweeds in and around 15 prefectures37

Human Bodies

In March 2011 a medical survey checked 1080 children up to 15 years of age in three towns within 50 km of the reactors They found some thyroid radiation exposure in 45 of these children38

Radioactive iodine and cesium were detected in 7 of 23 breast milk samples provided by mothers living in Fukushima Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures in April 201139 and cesium was found in 4 of 41 breast milk samples from mothers living in Fukushima Ibaraki and Tokyo40

Traces of radioactive cesium were found in all 10 urine samples taken in May from children in Fukushima city (60 km away from the plant)41 and in June it was reported that radiation had been detected in the urine of 15 Fukushima residents between the age of 4 and 7742

Household WasteRadioactivity has entered into

household wastes as well Radioactive cesium has been detected in ash from garbage disposal facilities in Kashiwa City43 from household wastes in Matsudo City and by September 2011 Nagareyama City was storing about 360 tons of radioactive ash at their incineration facilities44 By mid-October 2011 the volume of radioactive ash in a number of cities and municipalities in the northern part of Japan was growing at a rate of 360 tons per day45

ExportsGoods exported from Japan have

also been found to be radioactive although this has been reported only sporadically Singapore reported low levels of radioactivity in parsley rapeseed mustard and perilla imported from Japan in March 201146

In May 2011 Dutch authorities found traces of radiation on 19 containers originating from Japan Five of the containers scanned on arrival at the Port of Rotterdam were quarantined because the level of contamination was above the permissible threshold47 Again in May custom agents in Chile detected radioactivity on cars shipped from Japan4849 and in June French authorities confiscated 162 kilograms

of green tea imported from Shizuoka Prefecture central Japan because radioactive cesium had been detected at levels exceeding EU limits50

While in recent years pressing environmental concerns may have encouraged the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels51 a major problem lies with the fact that a single accident can potentially affect vast areas of the earth and human lives Spreading radioactive isotopes are elusive to our senses yet humans and our planet may suffer for many generations Many countries around the world are starting or continuing to use nuclear energy52 We may be inclined to think that this is lsquotheirrsquo issue and not lsquooursrsquo yet it is clear that in our globalised world we are all inter-connected ndash economically materially and relationally We all share the responsibility for the preservation of our shared space I believe it is crucial that we keep track of the continuing spread of radioactive substances and that we keep an eye on their effects as much as possible so that we may learn the lessons from Fukushima and together build a safer more sustainable future

Yuri Wilson lives in Christchurch with her husband and young son She has family in Japan For the extensive list of footnotes and references that accompany this article please email the editor infoearthmattersconz



Wersquore told by the NZ Food Safety Authority that the aim of the Food Bill is to

ldquoprovide an efficient effective and risk-based food regulatory regime that manages food safety and suitability issues improves business certainty and minimises compliance costs for businessrdquo

Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson says high risk businesses such as baby food manufacturers and restaurants will fall under a stringent food control plan Medium-risk businesses ndash pre-packaged food manufacturers and bakeries ndash will have more flexibility under a national programme The low-risk categories of farmers markets roadside stalls and charity sausage sizzles will incur no extra cost but will receive food handler guidance information

That all sounds fairly innocuous and indeed itrsquos easy to see how people could overlook the small print donrsquot we all agree that lsquosafersquo food is in everyonersquos best interest But it seems therersquos a lot more than food safety at stake here Which is why more than 15000 people have already signed a petition against Food Bill 160-2

ldquoThere are a lot of positive things about the billrdquo Green Party MP and spokesperson for soil and health New Zealand Steffan Browning told TV One in January this year ldquoBut it really drives down far too far bureaucratically into what is really kiwi culture The Green Party certainly wants healthy safe food affordable food local food so thatrsquos positive But this bill discourages rather than encourages people that are small growersrdquo

He said not enough has been said about this bill Most people were unaware of how far it has progressed and that a submissions process was already in place

Food Bill 160-2 leaves a bad tasteldquoNone are more hopelessly enslaved that those who believe they are freerdquo

J W von Goethe

Browning also noted ldquoTherersquos huge power to the minister that you wouldnrsquot expect in terms of regulation and we actually need to push back a bit and have more people exemptrdquo

What can you do about the Food Bill

Foodbillorgnz is a community project for raising awareness about the issues with the proposed new Food Bill 160-2 introduced to New Zealandrsquos Parliament on 26 May 2010 The bill has been through a public submission process and is now waiting to proceed through the House Go to wwwfoodbillorgnz for help with the following1 Write a letter to all members of

NZ Parliament (see sample letters amp instructions at wwwfoodbillorgnz)

2 Write a letter to your local MP 3 Write a letter to the Food Safety

Minister Addressed to Hon Kate Wilkinson Freepost Parliament Private Bag 18 888 Parliament Buildings Wellington 6160

4 Write a letter to Green Party MP Steffan Browning Addressed to Hon Steffan Browning Freepost Parliament Private Bag 18 888 Parliament Buildings Wellington 6160

5 Contact your local Green Party candidate

6 Contact your local Green Party branch

7 Distribute Food Bill Flyers into letter boxes

8 Sign the online petition9 Contribute to or comment on the

Food Bill Issues List10 Tell your friends and family -

spread the word about what Food Bill 160-2 means for Kiwis

11 Organise or attend a peaceful public protest

12 Write an article for foodbillorgnz (email to buzzybeefoodbillorgnz)

13 Add your concerns amp stories as comments to existing articles on foodbillorgnz

14 Direct informed people that you know to foodbillorgnz to participate in evolving the wiki

15 Follow the Natural Health Products bill (and write letters government blog comment etc) which has also passed first reading in Sept 2011

16 Subscribe to NZ Parliament Alerts so that yoursquore aware of other new legislature that may be accepting submissions Then make a submission

Phot

o pu

blic

dom

ain

How come we werenrsquot told that lsquoseed controlsrsquo are part of the Food Bill Is the Food Bill really about food safety or has it more to do with facilitating capital acquisition by multinational food corporations


Autumn-madeby Margaret Colquhoun

The interpenetrating cycles of life are even more

profoundly experi enced if we look at something like the apple tree in all its autumn activity We see the final culmination of this yearrsquos growth hanging in heavy ripe apples and falling as pale golden-yellow leaves A few inches away all that will grow next year is already developed in the new buds Even the number of leaves for each twig together with the potential flowers are tightly packed inside the two different sorts of buds

Fig 1 shows an apple twig with both leaf and flower buds The larger more rounded fat buds will develop into flowers and bear fruit next year The thinner more pointed ones will become vegetative long leaf-bearing shoots and bear no flowers or fruit

If you look at our drawing - or better still at a fruit-bearing tree outside at this time of year - you will be able to lsquolive intorsquo the whole cycle of the year since last autumn as it has unfolded for this tree Let the buds rest all winter in your imagination swell and burst in spring into that soft apple-green rosette of rounded leaves surrounding the flower bud which then opens into blossom white with a tinge of pink Imagine the insects humming around the flowers pollinating the carpels and lsquoseersquo the subsequent setting of the fruit At the same time the leaves are growing the long shoots form twigs thicken new buds form and fruits swell Eventually autumn tinges the leaves and fruit with gold and yellow and red and finally we

ldquoWhat has been formed is immediately transformed again and if we would

succeed to some degree to a living view of Nature we must attempt to remain

as active and plastic as the example she sets for

usrdquo

Fig 1 Branch of apple tree [pencil]

Margaret Colquhoun PhD lives in Edinburgh where she leads the Life Science Trust that helps people to rediscover their physical and spiritual connection with the natural world The article comes from Colquhoun M New Eyes for Plants and is used here with permission of the publishers wwwhawthornpresscom Available from Humanity Books see advertisement inside back cover

arrive back where we started - one year one cycle of time later

Try living with these thoughts for a moment while contemplating the apple twig A feeling of gratitude might awaken in you for all that led to the final culmination of growth the fruit which the plant offers to the world The tiny seeds which the fruit harbours within itself as well as the tightly-packed buds can awaken in us a sense of hope and anticipation for all that will develop and come to fruition in the coming year With thoughts like these we realise how time is never still how life is always changing and transforming

itself Opposite and contradictory processes (the seasons dying and becoming) and places (the two sides of the earth) work continuously hand in hand


creationrdquo must be approached ldquowith profound respect and a certain chastity A real scientist experimenting in his laboratory is like a monk in his cell Yes experiments become prayersrdquo

By the end of 1948 people all over Japan were reading Nagairsquos writings His book We of Nagasaki was the first book published in English by a survivor of nuclear bombing In 1949 he was declared Nagasakirsquos first honorary citizen To this he replied with characteristic humility that ldquothe moon that lights the night sky is nothing but a cold lump of matter reflecting the sunrsquos lightrdquo

ldquoIn your light we see lightrdquo Psalm 36

After the bomb these few words held an immense significance for Nagai He noted that wheat exposed to radiation started sprouting everywhere Corn did too but yielded no grain Morning glories immediately put out new tendrils but flowers were small and leaves deformed Green vegetables thrived whereas sweet potatoes sprouted immediately but produced no edible crop The leafy part of plants the place where light is transmuted into substance continued to give of itself to the world However reproduction the fruiting and seeding processes were rendered impotent

Itrsquos well known that not all living cells are equally sensitive to radiation As became clear in Japan Chernobyl and more recently Iraq (depleted uranium warfare) the invisible radioactive forces bearing death primarily affect the invisible forces of coming-into-being Interfering with the germinal embryonic material they deprive life of its formative capacity Immature cells and rapidly dividing cells (cells that are actively reproducing) are more sensitive to ionising radiation than mature cells The blood-forming cells located mainly in the bone marrow are both immature and rapidly-dividing They are highly susceptible to radiation injury By contrast most mature blood cells are relatively radio-resistant A curious exception to this rule is the lymphocyte a particular kind of mature white blood cell which is extremely radio-sensitive

ldquoGoodbye my flesh I must now journey beyond as the fragrance must leave the roserdquo

Nagai died from extremely reduced white and red blood cell counts as the lsquoastral grainsrsquo in his blood were rapidly extinguished He ended his days living in a small hut beside a busy street just metres from a bus stop where he was accessible to people who needed to speak with him

Paul Glynn A Song for Nagasaki Marist Fathers Books Aus 1997

In the book A Song for Nagasaki author Paul Glynn tells of the life of Doctor Takashi Nagai a professor of radiology at the University of Nagasaki who died

of atomic disease six years after the second atom bomb incinerated his wife and home Itrsquos a moving biography of a dedicated man who devoted his life to medicine and science which particularly in the last years of his life called for great courage After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings Japanese doctors had to call upon great reserves of fearlessness in mind and deed with which to meet the suffering of Japanrsquos people Their creativity was frequently called upon lacking blood for transfusions they injected patients with sap from seaweeds

Being Japanese rice was a feature of daily life for Nagai with the grain featuring symbolically as much as gastronomically His mother used to tell him to ldquolook at the rice carefully and discover behind it the countless generations of farmers who pioneered wild land and nurtured rice paddies through droughts and floods poverty war and pestilencerdquo

She continued ldquoSee generations of artisans too in the simple practical beauty of the bowl and chopsticks and all the merchants who handled them See your parents too who worked hard to be able to buy and cook the ricerdquo

Before eating her family would offer prayers to Amidha Buddha expressing gratitude for the food and for the universe that provided it

Her son embraced the Catholic faith On clear nights from his mountain home Nagai would frequently gaze spellbound at the celestial fields laden with astral grains [aster = star Ed] He often experienced a profound sense of gratitude for the world a sense of exhilaration because ldquowe are in pursuit of truth which is eternalrdquo He saw the research laboratory as a threshold to the house of God Once while studying a kidney patientrsquos case he felt a deep urge to kneel at the sight of the brilliant formation of urine crystals

Men of science were his mentors but only those who were free enough to allow themselves to look at creation with humility and understanding people like Pascal Copernicus Pasteur and Marconi It annoyed him intensely to read that science and faith occupied polar camps ldquoif you read what the great scientists actually said it is not so Social and literary critics that is men who have held pens but never test tubes are the ones who make that claimrdquo

Nagai maintained that ldquothe study of any part of Godrsquos

Atomic Bombs ndash experiments without

prayersby Elisabeth AlingtonPh

oto

ww

wa

bcn

eta

u


AVAILABLE AT $1200 EA (inci pampp)

Send orders with name and postal address to ndashinfoearthmattersconz

Eating is anagri-cultural acthellip

your health economic and cultural wealth start with seeds

sown in the field the lsquoagerrsquo

3 issues a year Subscribe on-line atwwwearthmattersconz for $NZ 3500

[$4500 orsquoseas] or by direct credit Kiwibank account 38 9010 0519122 00 or by

cheque to P O Box 24-231 Royal Oak Auckland 1345

Available from infoearthmattersconz

and receive a FREE set ofbiodynamic compost preps for

your garden

Subscribe a friend tol l l l

wwwearthmattersconz

wwwastro-calendarcom

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wwwhungrybinconz

Hidden Geometry of FlowersLiving rhythm form amp numberFloris Books 2011 448 pages paperbackKeith Crithchlow

In this beautiful and original book renowned thinker and geometrist Keith Critchlow has chosen to focus on an aspect of flowers that has received perhaps the least attention This is the flower as teacher of symmetry and geometry (the lsquoeternal veritiesrsquo as Plato called them) In this sense he says flowers can be treated as sources of remembering away of recalling our own wholeness as well as

Can we imagine a world without flowers Flowers are beautiful offering us delight in their colour fragrance and form as well as their medicinal benefits Flowers also speak to us in the language of the plant form itself as cultural symbols in different societies and at the highest levels of inspiration

$7495

Humanity Books amp Fine Arts ph 06 870 7069email humanitybooksxtraconz

awakening our innerpower of recogni tion and consciousness What is evident in the geometry of the face of a flower can remind us of the geometry that underlies all existence

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2 Editorial

3 Seedlines

10 No to Nuclear Energy ndash the future of our children and grandchildren is at stake

11 Make the Earth Gladhellip Collette Leenman

12 Radioactive Material Free for All Leuren Moret

16 Of Star hellip Taurus the Bull

17 hellip and Flower Sunflower

18 Wood-fired or microwaved ndash how do you like your pizza Wendy Cook

19 Irradiated Food

20 How radiant are you Dr J W Rohen

21 Ferretti Growers ndash Flavour and Freshness Helen Lagerstedt

23 One Year in the Making C Moginie

24 Avondale Community Gardeners

25 A Welcome Outbreak of Sanity ndash The Crafar Farm Court Decision Murray Horton

26 Radiation from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Spreads Yuri Wilson

29 Food Bill 160-2 leaves a bad taste

30 Autumn-made Margaret Colquhoun

31 Atomic Bombs ndash experiments without prayers E Alington

Contents

Earth Matters is a New Zealand-based Journal for the Renewal of AgriCulture through science art and spirituality It is a not-for-profit publication and proceeds will be used to help fund The Land Trust registered charity CC37781

Earth MattersPO Box 24-231 Royal Oak Auckland 1345

EditorElisabeth Alington

Assistant EditorMary Vander Ploeg

AdministratorPaula Kibblewhite

Australian DistributorHeather Weiss

Design and MarketingZoe Carafice

LayoutKarl Grant

Earth Matters is published three times a year April August and December Subscriptions of $NZ 3500 local $NZ 4500 overseas may be purchased on-line at wwwearthmattersconz or by direct credit to Earth Matters Kiwibank account 38 9010 0519122 00 or by sending a cheque to the above address Please make sure you supply postal details and notification of payment to infoearthmattersconz

All material published in these pages is Copyright Earth Matters 2010 For permission to use material from this publication in any form please contact the editor infoearthmattersconz

Opinions and statements expressed in this journal are the responsibility of the contributing authors The Journal accepts no responsibility for results arising from advice offered in good faith through its pages Readers who wish to contribute articles or express views are invited to submit content for consideration to the postal address above or via Word document toinfoearthmattersconz

ISSN 1179 - 5298

5 The rising future world of the Sunhellip Nuclear Radiation and Christianity

Hartmut Borries

14 Chalk and Cheese and CPP ndash Remediating the effects of radiation on the

Earth

E Alington

4 Earth Rights ndash Without Earth Rights there can be no human rights

Vanadana Shiva

Front Cover Leek seedlings at dawnPhoto Earth Matters


Editorial

Pic

J B

ruce

-Gor

don

Lis Alington








The Waterwheel


of being awake



































by Hartmut Borries










Cre

dit

city

ofpfl

uger

ville

com

Cre

dit

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pnat

uren

etn

et

Cre

dit

nas

a-ap

ollo

8-de

c24-

eart

hris

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Chernobyl


































Phot

o T

hom

as S

imon

son


Cre

dit

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wc

om


















Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

ardk

hoo

com























by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

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Stra

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Cre

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Blos

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Phot

o E

arth

Mat

ters



Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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tedt






















































in 2011












by Murray Horton


foreign-owned


























Human Bodies





















J W von Goethe




















Phot

o pu

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dom

ain











usrdquo

























oto

ww

wa

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your garden


wwwearthmattersconz


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$7495



weledaconz


Editorial

Pic

J B

ruce

-Gor

don

Lis Alington








The Waterwheel


of being awake



































by Hartmut Borries










Cre

dit

city

ofpfl

uger

ville

com

Cre

dit

htt

pnat

uren

etn

et

Cre

dit

nas

a-ap

ollo

8-de

c24-

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hris

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Chernobyl


































Phot

o T

hom

as S

imon

son


Cre

dit

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wc

om


















Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

ardk

hoo

com























by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

iac

Atla

s Cel

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De

Stra

bov

Cre

dit

pub

lic d

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Cre

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Blos

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Cre

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Phot

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Mat

ters



Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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tedt






















































in 2011












by Murray Horton


foreign-owned


























Human Bodies





















J W von Goethe




















Phot

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ww

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your garden


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$7495



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by Hartmut Borries










Cre

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a-ap

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8-de

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Chernobyl


































Phot

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imon

son


Cre

dit

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wc

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Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

ardk

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by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

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De

Stra

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Cre

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Cre

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Mat

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Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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tedt






















































in 2011












by Murray Horton


foreign-owned


























Human Bodies





















J W von Goethe




















Phot

o pu

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dom

ain











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oto

ww

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$7495



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dit

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Cre

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pnat

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Cre

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a-ap

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8-de

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Chernobyl


































Phot

o T

hom

as S

imon

son


Cre

dit

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wc

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Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

ardk

hoo

com























by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

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s Cel

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De

Stra

bov

Cre

dit

pub

lic d

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n

Cre

dit

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Phot

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Mat

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Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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in 2011












by Murray Horton


foreign-owned


























Human Bodies





















J W von Goethe




















Phot

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Chernobyl


































Phot

o T

hom

as S

imon

son


Cre

dit

eho

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Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

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by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

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Cre

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Phot

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Mat

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Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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in 2011












by Murray Horton


foreign-owned


























Human Bodies





















J W von Goethe




















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o pu

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dom

ain











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ww

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Phot

o T

hom

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imon

son


Cre

dit

eho

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om


















Lodge 2007



























oto

edw

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by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

dit

Zod

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Atla

s Cel

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De

Stra

bov

Cre

dit

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lic d

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n

Cre

dit

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Irradiated Food






















Phot

o H

Lae

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in 2011












by Murray Horton


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J W von Goethe




















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Cre

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Lodge 2007



























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by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















Cre

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Phot

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in 2011












by Murray Horton


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Floris Books 2003
















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by E Alington

































Floris Books 2003
















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