• India's wheat stocks add to swelling global harvest
• United States: Ohio gets greener as more farmers switching to renewable energy
• Green Revolution solution to Africa's problems, says Kofi Annan

• Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture in greenhouses in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, USA - Part II
• Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture thriving in greenhouses in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, USA - Part I
• Serbian Organic Foundation launches new programmes

• FAO sees energy, biofuel keeping world food costly
• Overlooked in the global food crisis: A problem with dirt
• Why grain prices are at record highs

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

India's wheat stocks add to swelling global harvest
10 May 2008 - India has bought 18 million tonnes of wheat from its farmers this year, 62 per cent more than last year, the government said, confirming a bumper crop that would add to a record global harvest and ease fears of scarcity. Prospects of bumper crops in India, Australia, and the United States have helped world prices ease by 40 per cent from record highs hit in February. (more)

United States: Ohio gets greener as more farmers switching to renewable energy
7 May 2008 - Ohio's governor and legislative leaders want the state to rely more on alternative energy and are pushing a stimulus package that would earmark $150 million for advanced energy sources such as solar power, wind, and clean coal. More farmers are expressing interest in green farming and in using renewable energy sources. (more)

Green Revolution solution to Africa's problems, says Kofi Annan
4 May 2008 - Farmers in Africa could double food output in five to 10 years if rich countries partner them in a 'Green Revolution' for a long-term solution to the continent's food crisis, former UN chief Kofi Annan said on Friday. Annan made his appeal as chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an organization which seeks a sustained partnership between donors, governments, NGOs, and farmers in Africa to make the continent self-sufficient in food. (more)

Cuba announces farm overhaul on May Day
2 May 2008 - Cuba announced a major changes in its farm sector on May Day, shifting control of the island's farms from officials at the Agriculture Ministry to more than 150 local councils. The move is part of an effort to increase food production and reduce Cuba's dependance on imports. The government hopes granting small farmers and local leaders more autonomy could revitalize the sector. (more)

Canada: In a landmark victory, Monsanto agrees to cleanup of farmer's GMO contaminated field
25 April 2008 - In an out-of-court settlement finalized on 19 March 2008, long time farmer and farm equipment dealer Percy Schmeiser of Bruno, Saskatchewan, Canada has settled his lawsuit with biotech giant Monsanto over the contamination of his canola fields. (more)

Humming praises for the wild bee
24 April 2008 - A report by the National Research Council in Washington states that there are more than 4,000 species of native bees in North America. With the growing importance of native wild bees, growers have an incentive to reduce their pesticides to encourage native bees in their area. (more)

Indonesia says has ample rice, due to bumper crop
24 April 2008 - Indonesia can meet domestic demand for rice this year, avoiding the risk of social unrest, thanks to a bumper rice harvest, curbs on rice exports, and subsidies for the poor, the trade minister said on Thursday. Indonesia's rice production is likely to be more than 34 million tonnes this year, or about 2 million tonnes higher than domestic demand. (more)

Silkworms give Philippine farming town a makeover
21 April 2008 - Hundreds of white mulberry trees have started to cover mountain slopes deep in the northern Philippines' Cordillera region, changing not just the landscape but also making over the image of a poor farming town. Some farmers have started growing mulberry trees, the main food of silk-producing worms from China and Japan, after sericulture was introduced in nine of Kapangan's 15 villages in late 2004. Silkworm project could produce as much as 2,000 kilos of rawsilk every year once operations expand in two years, bringing in an extra 4 million pesos ($95,690) for the farmers. (more)

US: Maryland joins national Farm-To-School movement to put local food in school cafeterias
21 April 2008 - A new bill awaiting the Maryland governor's signature aims to make it easier for schools to use local produce. It's part of a national Farm-To-School movement to encourage more local produce on cafeteria trays. Officials in other states have said schools and farms alike are enthusiastic about the idea of local food in cafeterias. Oklahoma started serving locally grown melons in a few schools in 2002, and now that state's melon programme has grown to hundreds of schools. When schools buy locally, they can make local farmers more profitable and more likely to keep farming. (more)

Vegetarianism urged to fight global warming
21 April 2008 - Environmental groups are being urged to add vegetarianism as a top way of curtailing global warming. Changing to a vegetarian diet is the best way to fight global warming because the amount of land and water used to maintain the meat industry makes it a major contributor to climate change. (more)

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

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture in greenhouses in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, USA - Part II
8 May 2008 - Speaking recently on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Robert Wynne, Mayor of Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA, and Raja of New Zealand and other countries for the Global Country of World Peace, answered questions about Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture--the greenhouses and field crops--in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, USA. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture thriving in greenhouses in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa, USA - Part I
7 May 2008 - Speaking recently on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Robert Wynne, Mayor of Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA, and Raja of New Zealand and other countries for the Global Country of World Peace, answered questions about Maharishi Vedic Organic agriculture--the greenhouses and field crops--in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield, Iowa. (more)

Serbian Organic Foundation launches new programmes
21 April 2008 - The Serbian Organic Foundation, established to promote Maharishi Vedic Agriculture, has become the premier producer and distributor of organic foods for Serbia, and is gaining momentum with the launch of a programme to offer practical guidelines for all aspects of organic food production. (more)

Global Country of World Peace cultivates acres of organic roses in Bulgaria
17 April 2008 - Speaking recently on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Peter Warburton, Raja of Bulgaria for the Global Country of World Peace, spoke about a special agricultural project for organic roses close to the Brahma-Sthan of Bulgaria in the Valley of the Roses. (more)

New Maharishi Sthapatya Veda communities planned for England
16 March 2008 - England's Yogic Flyers plan to build new Maharishi Sthapatya Veda homes and communities in several locations in the country. (more)

Maharishi University of Management graduate publishes non-GMO directory
9 March 2008 - A graduate of the MA in Professional Writing at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA recently published The 2008 Non-GMO Sourcebook, the world's only 'farm to fork' directory of non-genetically modified products. The Sourcebook features more than 700 suppliers of non-GMO products and services. (more)

Success of Maharishi's programmes in Australia
3 January 2008 - Dr Rogers Badgett, Raja (Administrator) of Australia for the Global Country of World Peace and former Raja of Hawaii, USA reported on progress in his new Domain. (more)

Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture products inspire 'rapt attention' at India Organic Trade Fair in New Delhi
3 December 2007 - On the Global Family Chat, broadcast on the Maharishi Channel, Dr Peter Swan (Minister of Communication of the Global Country of World Peace) read a report and showed slides from Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture in India about the success of their booth in New Delhi, which was visited by over 300 individuals and groups. (more)

Maharishi University of Management greenhouses teach organic farming
13 November 2007 - The Maharishi University Organic Farm offers students in the sustainable living programme at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA practical experience in the field of organic agriculture, and also provides fresh, pure food to the school. (more)

National invincibility rising from the heart of Central Vedic America
13 November 2007 - Dr Robert Wynne, Raja (Administrator) of Central Vedic America for the Global Country of World Peace, and Mayor of Maharishi Vedic City in Fairfield, Iowa, recently reported progress in many aspects through which his domain is contributing to the rise of invincibility in the United States. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

FAO sees energy, biofuel keeping world food costly
15 May 2008 - World food prices should stay high because of rising energy costs and the use of biofuels, though they may ease after stocks are replenished, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday. Senior officials from the UN agency, testifying by video link to a Canadian Senate committee, cautioned lawmakers to consider the effects on world markets of any attempt to require a minimum content of biofuels in gasoline and diesel. (more)

Overlooked in the global food crisis: A problem with dirt
9 May 2008 - Soils around the world are deteriorating with about one-fifth of the world's cropland considered degraded in some manner. The poor quality has cut production by about one-sixth, according to a World Resources Institute study. Some scientists consider it a slow-motion disaster. The cause of the current global food crisis is mostly based on market forces, speculation, and hoarding, experts say. But beyond the economics lie droughts and floods, plant diseases and pests, and all too often, poor soil. (more)

Why grain prices are at record highs
9 May 2008 - Grains prices set record highs this year, which helped to pushed up prices for food items. There are multiple reasons for higher prices, including more land used for biofuels instead of food crops, a weak US dollar, more grain needed to feed cattle, drought, and restricted exports. (more)

Food crisis leaves many Afghans desperate
3 May 2008 - Rising global food prices have hit few places as hard as Afghanistan, where the cost of wheat flour has shot up 75 per cent in three months, fuelling anger against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. In the volatile south, officials fear it could boost recruitment for the Taliban insurgency. The UN World Food Program, or WFP, warns that the situation for the poorest in Afghanistan is dire and deaths from malnutrition are likely to increase. Protests have broken out in at least one city. (more)

South Korea begins imports of biotech corn
2 May 2008 - About 63,000 tonnes of genetically modified US corn arrived in South Korea on Thursday, the first large-scale imports for human consumption since the government began regulating biotech crops in 2001. Four major South Korean companies, which make up about 90 per cent of the corn processing market, had refrained from importing such corn because of negative perceptions among consumers of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. But now they say they cannot help but import GMO corn. (more)

Work exposure to weed killers tied to brain cancer, US study
2 May 2008 - Women whose jobs regularly expose them to weed killers may have a higher-than-normal risk of a particular form of brain cancer, results of a US study suggest. Data showed that women who had ever been exposed to herbicides at work had a two-fold higher risk of meningioma than women with no such exposure. Meningiomas are slow-growing tumors that arise in the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord. A few studies, but not all, have linked both farming and heavy pesticide exposure to a higher risk of brain cancer. (more)

Asia: Golf courses, developers nibble at rice paddies
1 May 2008 - From Bali to Viet Nam, rice paddies are being replaced by golf courses, hotels, villas, and industrial parks as Asian economies surge ahead, the standard of living rises and locals opt for higher-paying, less labour-intensive work away from farming. This shift has cut into rice production, a staple food throughout much of the region. The recent surge in rice prices to historic highs has sparked fears of political unrest in some parts of Asia and highlighted the dilemma faced by Asian governments about how to balance economic growth with food security in the future. (more)

North Korea heading towards famine - report says
30 April 2008 - Soaring global food prices and reluctant donors are pushing North Korea back towards famine, which could see the government turn even more repressive to keep control, a paper released on Wednesday said. North Korea, which even in time of good harvests is about 20 per cent short of what it needs, has grown more dependent on rice imported from neighbouring China since a famine in the late 1990s that experts estimate killed at least 1 million people. On top of that, North Korea also lost crops and farmland last year to floods. (more)

World: Poorer farmers not benefiting from food price rise
29 April 2008 - Crops are fetching far higher prices in markets worldwide, but farmers in poor countries have not seen their incomes rise as a result, international officials said on Tuesday. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that increases in fertilizer and fuel costs had kept many poorer producers from meeting the huge demand for food staples that has driven up prices and caused shortages, hoarding, hunger, and riots. And in the poorest corners of the world, where people spend up to 75 per cent of their incomes on staple foods, only a tiny proportion of farmed crops are sold on the market, according to analysis by the Washington-based development lender. (more)

Staple for half the world, five facts about rice
27 April 2008 - Soaring food prices are hitting rice, a staple food for more than half the earth's population, causing political unrest, supply bottlenecks, and sometimes draconian moves by governments to protect domestic stocks. Most of the 3 billion-plus people for whom rice is a staple are in Asia, but the grain is also important in areas of Africa and the Caribbean. Here are five facts about rice. (more)