[Good News 1]

I MEAN GREAT NEWS

US District Judge Owen Panner has released his decision. Santo Daime is now free in Oregon. The conclusions were so supportive that there is speculation that the government will not appeal this decision and that it will become a legal precedent beyond Oregon.

A huge bow of gratitude to all the people who risked imprisonment and their reputations to achieve
this victory for Santo Daime and religious freedom.

The full text of Judge Panner's decision follows.




IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON

CHUCH OF THE HOLY LIGHT OF
THE QUEEN, et al.,


Plaintiffs,
v. F

MICHAL B. MUKASEY, et al.,
Defendants.


The issue is whether plaintiffs, who are followers of the
Brazilian Santo Daime religion, are entitled to an exemption
from the Controlled Substances Act to import and drink their
sacrament, Daime tea. Because Daime tea contains the
hallucinogen DMT, which is a Schedule I controlled substance,
the federal government contends that it may prohibit
plaintiffs i possession and use of Daime tea regardless of its
use as a sacrament in plaintiffs J religion.

Guided by the unanimous decision of the United States
Supreme Court in a very similar case, Gonzales v. 0 Centro
Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, 546 U. S. 418 (2006) (UDV
III), I conclude that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 42
U.S.C. §§ 2000bb to 2000bb-4, requires that plaintiffs be
allowed to import and drink Daime tea for their religious
ceremonies, subject to reasonable restrictions. I will enter
a judgment and permanent injunction.

These are my findings of fact and conclusions of law after
the court trial. Fed. R. Civ. P. 52 (a)

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. The Plaintiffs

There are about 80 active members of the Santo Daime
church living in Oregon. The plaintiff Church of the Holy
Light of the Queen (CHLQ) in Ashland has about 40 active
members. CHLQ oversees a small satellite church in Bend with a
few members.

Plaintiff Jonathan Goldman is CHLQ i s spiritual leader or
lIpadrinho. " Goldman has been studying the Santo Daime religion
for 21 years, traveling frequently to Brazil to receive
instruction from church leaders. He has learned Portuguese to
understand the Santo Daime hymns that constitute church
doctrine. Goldman has been an initiate of the Santo Daime
church for almost 19 years. He founded CHLQ in 1993 with
authorization from the Santo Daime mother church in Brazil.

I find that Goldman's testimony is credible. His conduct
over the years shows his sincerity and dedication to CHLQ and
its members.

There is a separate Santo Daime church in Portland, called
Céu da Divina Rosa (Church of the Divine Rose), with about 25
active members. The Portland church is led by plaintiff
Alexandra Bliss Yeager. I find Bliss-Yeager's testimony to be
forthright and honest.

The four remaining plaintiffs, Jacquelyn Prestidge, Gathel
Scott Ferguson, Miriam Ramsey, and Mary Row, M.D., are active
members of CHLQ. I credit the testimony of these plaintiffs
and the other church members who testified. These witnesses
appear to represent a reasonable cross-section of church
members. Many CHLQ members did not want to testify because
they feared repercussions if their membership in a
controversial church became public.

II. The Santo Daime Religion

The Santo Daime religion has its origins in the jungles
and rainforests of South America. For many centuries
indigenous tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins have
brewed a psychoactive drink from a vine, Banisteriopsis caapi,
which they use as a medicine and in religious rituals. Both
the vine and beverages brewed from the vine are called
"ayahuasca," which means "vine of souls" or "vine of the dead."
As the name implies, ayahuasca is believed to allow
communication with the spirit world.

According to Santo Daime lore, the religion's founder, an
Afro-Brazilian man named Raimundo Irineu Serra, worked as an
itinerant rubber tapper and guard in the remote Amazon region
of northern Brazil when he met a shaman who taught him about
ayahuasca. Irineu, now known as Master Irineu, had visions of
a woman who called herself the Queen of the Forest, whom he
later identified as the Virgin Mary. The woman instructed him
to start a new religion using ayahuasca as its sacrament,
telling him that ayahuasca should be called "Daime," a
Portuguese word meaning "give me," as in the prayer, "give me
light," "give me strength," "give me wisdom."

Santo Daime is a syncretic religion, blending elements of
Catholicism with indigenous Amazonian and African beliefs.
Followers of the Santo Daime religion believe that Daime tea is
the blood of Christ, analogous to wine in the Catholic
Communion. They also believe that Daime tea itself is a holy
being of great power. Daime tea is consumed during all Santo
Daime services. CHLQ cannot survive as a viable church without
the Daime tea.

Although ayahuasca generally may be brewed with a variety
of different plants, the Santo Daime religion requires that
Daime tea be brewed from only the B. caapi vine (which
plaintiffs call JagUDe), and leaves of the shrub Psycnotria
viridis (which plaintiffs call Rainha). If consumed orally,
digestive enzymes destroy the DMT in P. viridis leaves before
the DMT can take effect. In Daime tea, however, the harmla
alkaloids in the B. caapi vine temporarily inhibit digestive
enzymes, allowing DMT in the P. viridis leaves to reach the
bloodstream and become psychoactive. Daime tea i s synergistic
action is complex and not yet fully understood.

Following Master Irineu's death in 1971, Santo Daime split
into different groups. CHLQ is affiliated with the Santo Daime
church started in 1974 by Sebastião Mota de Melo (known as
Padrinho Sebastião). When Padrinho Sebastião died in 1990, he
was succeeded by his son, Alfredo Gregorio de Melo. De Melo
has overseen the growth of the Santo Daime church in Brazil,
and the opening of branch churches in the United States, Japan,
and Europe.

The head office of the Santo Daime church, which is called
Centro Eclectico da Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra
(CEFLURIS), authorizes and supervises the churches in Ashland
and Portland. CEFLURIS is responsible for brewing the Daime
tea and shipping it to CHLQ in Ashland and to the Portland
church. CHLQ is responsible for distributing Daime tea to the
satellite group in Bend.

The Brazilian government, after studying the Santo Daime
religion and the effects of Daime tea on church members, has
recognized the Santo Daime church as a legitimate religion and
permits sacramental use of Daime tea. The Catholic Church in
Brazil considers Santo Daime to be a valid religion and treats
the Santo Daime church as a full partner on humanitarian and
environmental issues. Santo Daime is also recognized as a
legitimate religion in Spain and the Netherlands.

The Brazilian government has recognized another syncretic
ayahuasca-based religion, the União do Vegetal (UDV) church.
The UDV church, which was founded in 1961, differs somewhat
from Santo Daime in doctrines and practices, but the UDV's
sacrament, called nhoascan (the Portuguese transliteration of
ayahuasca), is identical to Daime tea, and hoasca is consumed
only during church ceremonies.

Defendants emphasize that during the late 1970s, Padrinho
Sebastião briefly condoned the ritual use of marijuana, which
he called Santa Maria (Holy Mary). Brazilian authorities did
not approve the new sacrament, and the Santo Daime church has
affirmed that the Daime tea is the church's only sacrament and
that the church does not permit ritual use of marijuana.

Goldman testified that Padrinho Sebastiãoi a simple,
illiterate man who venerated all plants, was persuaded to
condone the use of marijuana while he was living in a tiny
isolated,community in the jungle. Goldman testified that CHLQ
has never permitted marijuana use because Daime tea is CHLQ's
only sacrament. CHLQ discourages the use of drugs, including
alcohol and marijuana, especially during the days before a CHLQ
"work n when Daime tea will be consumed. There is no evidence
that marijuana has been a part of CHLQ practice.

Defendants point out that when federal agents raided
Goldman's house in 1999 to confiscate a shipment of Daime teai
they also seized an unspecified amount of marijuana from
Goldman's bedroom. Plaintiffs state in a brief that the
marij uana belonged to Goldman i s wife, who was using it, for
medical purposes. Reply Br. 10 n.9. At trial, Goldman
testified that he was aware of the marijuana, but he did -not
give any explanation for its presence. Regardless of why
marijuana was in Goldman's bedroom nearly ten years ago, a
spiritual leader's possible personal failings should not
discredit the entire church.

Defendants also note that a very small minority of CHLQ
members stated on intake questionnaires that they occasionally
smoked marijuana, although they were trying to quit. This does
not reflect on CHLQ itself or on the majority of church
members.


Federal agents also claimed to have seized a small amount of
bufotenine, a hallucinogenic drug derived from animal secretions.
Goldman testified that he had no knowledge of bufotenine or its
presence in his house, and that he had never heard of bufotenine
until learning about it through the discovery process a few
months ago.

III. Events Leading to this Litigation

After Goldman's arrest and the seizure of Daime tea in
1999, plaintiffs attempted through counsel to negotiate an
agreement with the U. S. Department of Justice. The Department
refused to consider a religious exemption for plaintiffs. See
PIs. i Ex. 44.

Plaintiffs were more successful with the state of Oregon.
In 2000, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy determined that CHLQ' s
religious use of Daime tea was a Rnon-drug" use and therefore
not subject to state drug laws and regulations. Since then,
Daime tea has enjoyed a status under Oregon law similar to the
status of peyote when used as a sacrament by the Native
American Church.

At about the same time as the raid on Goldman i shouse,
federal agents seized hoasca from a UDV branch church i~ Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Later that year, the New Mexico UDV church
brought an action in U. S. District Court, seek.ing inj unct i ve
relief. In 2002, U. S. District Court issued a preliminary
injunction, allowing the UDV church to import and use hoasca in
religious ceremonies, subj ect to reasonable conditions. Q
Centro Esp!rita Beneficiente união do Vegetal v. Ashcroft, 282
F. Supp. 2d 1236 (D. N.M. 2002) (UDV I), aff'd, 389 F.3d 973
(10th Cir. 2004) (en banc); see Pis. i Ex. 20 (copy of the UDV
preliminary injunction). The Supreme Court upheld the
preliminary injunction. Gonzales v. 0 Centro Espfrita
Beneficente União do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006). As of now,
a final judgment has not been issued in the UDV litigation.

After Goldman's arrest in 1999, plaintiffs decided to
practice their religion in secret, so they stopped keeping
records of the Daime tea supply and of church activities. In
2006, after the Supreme Court's decision in the UDV case,
plaintiffs resumed their record keeping. Plaintiffs brought
this action in September 2008.

XV. Health Effects of Daime Tea

The parties dispute the extent of the danger posed by the
consumption of Daime tea during church ceremonies. There is no
question that Diame tea could be dangerous if used improperly.
Almost any substance can be toxic under the right conditions.

The Santo Daime church brews Daime tea in Brazil during art
elaborate religious ritual. Men gather the woody B. caapi vine
and pound it for hours with mallets, while women collect and
clean the P. viridis leaves. The shredded vine is boiled for
many hours, constantly tended. P. viridis leaves are not added
until boiling is nearly complete because the DMT dissolves
rapidly.

The resulting tea is a reddish brown liquid, with a very
unpleasant bitter taste. Church members usually drink between
45 to 150 milliliters of Daime tea during ceremonies, enough to
provide 15-60 milligrams of DMT, a small, barely effective
amount. See Gerule Am. Statement at 8.

Users may experience anxiety and discomfort soon after
drinking Daime tea. In perhaps a third of users, Daime tea
initially causes nausea and vomiting. It less frequently
causes diarrhea. Church members view these ostensibly
unpleasant effects as a beneficial purging or cleansing. Daime
tea may also cause mild increases in heart rate (5 to 15 beats
per minute) and blood pressure.

Daime tea's psychoactive effects begin about 20 to 30
minutes after ingestion, and last 1 to 2 hours. The body
eliminates DMT in about 3 to 4 hours.

As Daime tea takes effect, members may sit quietly with
eyes half-closed. Users describe the experience as dream-like.
They may experiènce visual effects, although not true
hallucinations (i.e., the person is aware that the effect is
not real) i alterations in the perception of time and space; and
intense emotions, including euphoria. Users report profound
insights into their personal problems.

Goldman states that in all his years with CHLQ, he has not
observed anyone who suffered serious physical or mental harm
caused by Daime tea. No apparent ill effects were found in
Brazilians who had regularly consumed hoasca during religious
services for more than thirty years. Defs. i Ex. 1169 at 40.
Several of plaintiffs' experts suggest that Daime tea or hoasca
may actually benefit church members mental and physical
health, although these expe~ts caution that larger and more
rigorous scientific studies are necessary to confirm possible
health benefits.

Defendants have not presented evidence that Daime tea is
addictive or causes long-term health problems. Defendants i
experts cite studies of LSD, pure DMT, or other powerful
hallucinogens. See. e.g., Frankenheim Statement at 8, 11;
Tella Statement at 6 (comparing the DMT in ayahuasca to pure

I find studies of LSD and pure injected DMT are
only marginally relevant in evaluating the risks of consuming
Daime tea in a religious ceremony. LSD is one of the most
potent and powerful hallucinogenic drugs known, whose effects
may last 8 to 12 hours. When DMT is inj ected, smoked, or
inhaled, it is far more powerful, although shorter-acting, than
DMT consumed in Daime tea. One researcher has found that the
harmala alkaloids in hoasca and Daime tea appear to render DMT
"far less potent." Defs.' Ex. 1122 at 176.

In 2006, plaintiffs commissioned a study of CHLQ members
by Dr. John H. Halpern,. a psychiatrist. Dr. Halpern has
written extensively on use and abuse of hallucinogenic drugs,
including a paper on the health of members of the Native
American Church who consume peyote as a sacrament. See Defs. '
Ex. 1154 (John H. Halpern, et al., Psychological and cognitive
effects of long-term peyote use among Natiye Americans (2005)).
Dr. Halpern's peer-reviewed report on CHLQ, published in August
2008, is apparently the only such study of Santo Daime church
members in the United States. ~ Defs.' Ex. 1103 (John H.
Halpern, et al., Evidence of health and safety in American
members of a religion who use a hallucinogenic sacrament).
Although Dr. Halpern frankly acknowledges the study's
limitations, I find the stndy is relevant and useful in
evaluating the health effects of Daime tea on plaintiffs.

Dr. Halpern interviewed 32 of CHLQ' s 40 active members.
The interviewees i experience ranged from 20 to 1300 Daime tea
ceremonies. Dr. Halpern found that the church members
interviewed generally were mentally healthy and appeared to
have benefitted from their participation in CHLQ services.

Five members who reported past alcohol dependence, and one
who reported past alcohol abuse, attributed their recovery and
continued abstinence from alcohol to attending CHLQ services.
This is in accord with a research paper on members of Santo
Daime and UDV, which noted that "dedicated members of these
modern religions typically lose their interest in the habitual
use of alcohol, cocaine, and other addictive substances."
Defs.' Ex. 1118, at 245 (J. C. Callaway, et al.,
Pharmcokinetics of Hoasca alkaloids in healthy humans)) .

About 60% of CHLQ members interviewed reported histories
of psychiatric conditions. Dr. Halpern stated that the study
suggests that participation in the Santo Daime church "is not
proving harmful even to those members most susceptible to
mental health problems." Defs.' Ex. 1103, at 20. Dr. Halpern
cites a double blind study of Brazilian Santo Daime members
which noted acute amelioration of anxiety and panic in church
ceremonies. Id. at 16.

Defendants i experts raise the possibility that Daime tea
could cause acute or long-term psychosis. See Frankenheim
Statement at 11. However, defendants rely more on speculation
than empirical evidence to support this assertion. For
example, one author, Robert Gable, systematically reviewed the
available scientific literature on risks of ingesting hoasca
and Daime tea. Defs. i Ex. 1089 (Robert Gable, Risk assessment
of ritual use of oral dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmala
alkaloids (2007)). Gable cited a study of UDV members in
Brazil which found that out of an estimated 25,000 servings of
hoasca, there were between 13 and 24 cases in which hoasca may
have contributed to a psychotic incident. Gable concluded that
the "reported UDV rate of psychotic episodes under 1% suggests
that the use of hoasca is not a triggering event for sustained
psychosis. Many or most of the UDV psychotic episodes were
transient in nature and resolved spontaneously. n Id. at 30.
Defendants' expert Alexander Walker argues that Gable minimizes
the risk of psychosis because the cited study covered 25,000
uses of hoasca, not 25,000 different persons using hoasca.
Even so, the study still indicates only a small risk that Daime
tea will cause a transient psychotic episode i and an even
smaller risk that Daime tea will cause long-term psychosis.

Plaintiffs' expert George Gerding states that set (i. e.
the drug user's purpose and expectations), and setting are
important to determining how a drug will affect a person. I
find that the set and setting fostered by CHLQ reduce the
potential danger posed by Daime tea. Plaintiffs i screening and
orientation process attempts to ensure that when applicants
first drink Daime tea during a church service, they do so with
the proper frame of mind.

The Santo Daime church forbids proselytizing. Potential
new members usually learn about CHLQ through word of mouth from
friends or relatives. Applicants generally must have a sponsor
who is already a church member. If the sponsor's answers to
questions about the applicant are acceptable, the applicant is
. given reading material about the Santo Daime religion. The
applicant is then screened and receives an orientation.

Goldman describes Daime tea as an arduous spiritual path
that is not suitable for most people. In its scréening
process, CHLQ attempts to select only those who are serious
about the Santo Daime religion, and to turn away would-be
recreational users or thrill-seekers. CHLQ demands a serious
commitment of time and energy from members, requiring
attendance three or four times per month at services lasting
several hours and sometimes almost all night. Members are
expected to learn some Portuguese so that they can understand
the hyms sung at most services.

Plaintiffs also attempt to screen persons who might be too
weak physically, or too unstable mentally, to drink Daime tea
safely. Plaintiffs 'screening process is not perfect, but
their track record indicates it has worked well enough. An
applicant occasionally may be allowed to participate in a CHLQ
work within a day of the initial interview. However, the
orientation is usually a longer process.

Plaintiffs give applicants detailed medical questionnaires
to determine whether an applicant has a medical condition or is
taking drugs, such as antidepressants, that might conflict with
drinking Oaime tea. CHLQ has prepared a seven-page list of
drugs that might cause problems in combination with Daime tea.
CHLQ periodically updates the list. CHLQ also advises members
to avoid certain foods, such aged cheese, and drink, such as
red wine, before drinking Daime tea.

Plaintiffs ask applicants about psychiatric histories,
criminal records, and drug and alcohol abuse. Goldman
testified that if an applicant has a history of psychiatric
problems, plaintiffs try to determine whether person might
benefit from the Daime tea. If a screener determines that an
applicant needs the type of attention or environment that the
church cannot provide, the screener will turn the applicant
away no matter how enthusiastic the applicant is.

Defendants criticize plaintiffs for not conducting a more
formal interviewing process. I note that the Native American
Church does not request medical information before allowing new
applicants to participate in services, even though the peyote
consumed during NAC religious ceremonies contains mescaline, a
hallucinogen comparable in strength to the DMT in Daime tea.
The application form for membership in the Native American
Church seeks only name, address, phone number, tribe, and
tribal enrollment. Pis.' Ex. 40.

Turning to setting, CHLQ permits plaintiffs to drink Daime
tea only in a controlled and supportive religious ceremony.
Access to the Daime tea is limited to three or four church
leaders. The spiritual leader who conducts the service
dispenses Daime tea individually to each worshiper.
Consumption of Daime tea outside of the church is a serious
sacrilege.

During services, men and women sit separately. Members
generally are required wear modest white clothing. They are
forbidden to leave the ceremony once the service begins.

The church designates experienced church members as
"guardians" to monitor the congregation during services and
tend to members, particular new ones, who are suffering from
nausea, diarrhea, or other discomforts. The spiritual leader
conducting the ceremony circulates among the congregation to
counsel those who appear anxious or upset. Three church
members are physicians and two are registered nurses, so a
person with medical training is often present during services.

On rare occasions, plaintiffs have permitted children to
drink Daime tea, but only a token or symbolic amount. There is
no evidence that the church allows children to drink enough
Daime tea to experience psychoactive effects. Given the tea's
repulsive and nauseating taste, it seems unlikely that a child
would want more than a sip.

Defendants also raise the possibility that a fetus may be
harmed if a pregnant woman ingests Daime tea. Defendants cite
no evidence that pregnant CHLQ members have consumed Daime tea,
or that any harm has occurred. I note that in the Brazilian
studies UDV church, pregnant women routinely drink hoasca, and
have not reported harm. See, e.g., Defts.' Ex. 1088 at 11
(Dennis J. McKenna, et al., The Scientific investigation of
Ayhuasca: A Review of Past and Current Research) ("most n women
drink hoasca "throughout pregnancy and lactation").

Defendants argue that consuming Daime tea could be fatal.
However, defendants have not presented evidence of that Daime
tea or hoasca has caused any deaths, although there
theoretically is a toxic dose. Plaintiffs i experts state that
the risk of a toxic overdose is minimized by the emetic effect
of Daime tea.

In Brazil, t~ousands of people consume hoasca or Daime tea
several times each month. The government of Brazil would not
allow the UDV and Santo Daime churches to operate if there was
evidence that Daime tea or hoasca was killing church members.
One researcher recently noted that, to his knowledge, "there
have been no deaths caused by hoasca or any other traditional .
ayahuasca brews." Defs.' Ex. 1089 at 29.

Defendants submit evidence regarding two deaths, neither
of which had anything to do with Daime tea or hoasca. One
death reportedly occurred after the victim ingested an unknown
potion that contained a very powerful drug, 5-methoxy-N,N-
dimethyltryptamine, which is not an active component of Daime
tea. The authors of the report admitted that "the composition,
dosage, and precise dosing timeframe are unknown.". Pls.' Ex.
46 at 407. . Antihistamine was also found in the victim's
system, which could have contributed to the death by
suppressing the vomiting reflex.

The other death cited by defendants is also irrelevant.
The autopsy report concluded that the victim, a 71-year-old
woman, had died from "acute nicotine intoxication" after being
gi ven repeated doses of a brew containing tobacco leaves.

Defendants raise other possible dangers, based largely on
extrapolation from studies of òther drugs and on speculation.
For example, defendants assert that Daime tea could cause
"central serotonin syndrome" if a person is also taking an
antidepressant such as Prozac. Defendants have no evidence
that drinking Daime tea or hoasca has caused this syndrome. In
any event, Prozac and similar drugs are on plaintiffs i list of
drugs that should be taken cautiously, if at all, with Daime
tea.

V. Diversion

Defendants raise the possibility that plaintiffs will
allow the diversion of Daime tea to non-church members,
including recreational users. Defendants cite the testimony of
DEA Deputy Directory Denise Curry, who states that the amount
of Daime tea confiscated from Goldman in 1999 indicated that
CHLQ possessed more tea than needed for its members.
However, defendants presented no evidence that plaintiffs have
ever allowed Daime tea to be used without the church is
authorization. Because plaintiffs believe that Daime tea is a
sacrament, use of Daime tea outside of the church violates
church doctrine.

Nor have defendants presented evidence of a viable market
for Daime tea. DMT itself is not a common drug of abuse.

Except when plaintiffs practiced their religion in secret
from 1999 to 2006, they have kept detailed perpetual logs
tracking the supply of Daime tea. Only three or four leaders
of each church have access to the supply of Daime tea.

CONCLUSIONS OP LAW

I. The Religious Preedom Restoration Act

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) prohibits the
federal government from nsubstantially burden(ingl a person's
exercise of relig!on even if the burden results from a rule of
general applicability." 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-l(a). RFRA allows
the federal government to n substant ially burden a person IS
exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application
of the burden to the person (1) is in furtherance of a
compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least
restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental
interest. n ~ § 2000bb-l (b) Case 1 :08-cv-03095-PA Document 160

The Ninth Circuit recently explained that II (tlo establish
a prima facie RFRA claim, a plaintiff must present evidence
sufficient to allow a trier of fact rationally to find the
existence of two elements. First, the activities the plaintiff
claims are burdened by the government action must be an
i exercise of religion.' Second, the government action must
i substantially burden i the plaintiff i s exercise of religion."
Navajo Nation v. U.S. Forest Serv., 535 F.3d 1058, 1068 (9th
Cir. 2008) (en banc) (quoting 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1(a)),
petition for cert. filed, 77 U.S.L.W. 3412 (Jan. 5, 2009) (No.
08-846).

If a plaintiff meets the initial burden, the burden then
shifts to the government to prove "that the challenged
government action is in furtherance of a 'compelling
governmental interest i and is implemented by i the least
restrictive means. '" ~ (quoting 42 U. S.C. § 2000bb-l (b) ) .
If the government cannot meet its burden under this strict
scrutiny test, "the court must find a RFRA violation.

II. Plaintiffs Have Met Their Burden of Proof

Plaintiffs have established their prima facie claim by
more than a preponderance of the evidence. Plaintiffs have
established that they are sincere in their religious beliefs,
and that the ceremonial use of the Daime tea is essential to
their religion.

It is obvious that prohibiting the use of Daime tea would
substantially burden the exercise of plaintiffs i religion. To
paraphrase the California Supreme Court's observation about the
role of peyote in the Native American Church, the ceremonial
use of Daime tea is "the sine qua non of (plaintiffs' i faith.
It is the sole means by which (plaintiffs) are able to
experience their religion; without (Daime teal (plaintiffsl
cannot practice their faith. n People v. Woody, 61 Cal. 2d 716,
725, 40 Cal. Rptr. 69, 394 P.2d 813, 820 (1964).

In the UDV litigation, at least at the preliminary
injunction hearing, the government conceded that the UDV
plaintiffs had made a prima facie claim under RFRA. Here¡
however, defendants challenge plaintiffs' sincerity, citing
plaintiffs' decision to conduct ceremonies in secret until the
Supreme Court ruling in favor of the UDV plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs' secrecy does not show a lack of sincerity.
Instead, it shows that plaintiffs remained committed to
practicing their religion despite the threat of criminal
prosecution and loss of professional status.

IIX. Defendants Have Not Met Their Burden

A. Compelling Interest

The government asserts that it has shown compelling
interests in prohibiting the Daime tea: protecting the health
of plaintiffs and others who drink Daime tea; and preventing
Daime tea from being diverted to recreational users.
Defendants also assert an interest protecting the integrity of
the DEA i S process for regulating controlled substances.

I conclude that the government has failed to show that
these interests justify prohibiting Daime tea outright. These
interests will addressed through the terms of the injunction I
will issue governing plaintiffs' use of Daime tea.

Generally speaking, the government may be said to have a
compelling interest in regulating any drug listed on Schedule I
of the Controlled Substances Act. Of course Daime tea could be
dangerous if misused. However, RFRA requires a more specific
inquiry into the government's compelling interest. See YJ,
546 U. S. at 430-31. Here, the evidence shows that Daime tea is
consumed in a ritual setting by church members who have been
screened for physical or mental problems, and for potential
drug conflicts.

The government argues that Daime tea is inherently unsafe
because it is not, produced in an antiseptic laboratory with
synthetic ingredients. The government correctly points out
that Daime tea varies in strength. Plaintiffs do not contend
that Daime tea is a uniform product, but there is no evidence
that natural variations in the tea have caused problems. This
concern is easily addressed by allowing the DEA to test the
Daime tea periodically.

The government cites the potential danger to children.
There is no evidence that children were harmed when given token
amounts of Daime tea. When Daime tea is not being dispensed at
church services, it is kept under lock and key.

The government raises the specter of danger to pregnant
women or to fetuses. There is no evidence that any such harm
has occurred in Oregon or elsewhere.

The government also asserts a compelling interest in
preventing diversion to recreational users. The government has
not presented evidence that there is a significant market for
Daime tea. The government also has not presented evidence that
plaintiffs have allowed the diversion of a single drop of Daime
tea. This is an issue best addressed through reasonable
guidelines for storing and inventorying plaintiffs i supply of
Daime tea.

The government argues that it has a compelling interest in
maintaining the integrity of the DEAl s administrative process
for approving religious exemptions to the Controlled Substances
Act. The Supreme Court rejected this argument in UDV III,
stating RFR "piainly contemplates that courts would recognize
exceptions to how the law works. n 546 U. S. at 434 (original
emphasis).

B. Prohibition Is Not the Least Restrictive Means

The government has failed to show that outright
prohibition of the Daime tea is the least restrictive means of
furthering its interests. Here, the opinions issued by the
trial and appellate courts in the UDV litigation are
persuasive. The district court, after holding extensive
hearings, concluded that the evidence on health risks caused by
drinking hoasca were "in equipoise, n meaning that the
government had failed to carry its burden under RFRA. Many of
the same experts for the government here also testified in the
UDV litigation. Research completed since the district court's
decision in 2002, including Dr. Halpern's study of thèse
plaintiffs, further undermines the government's arguments for
complete prohibition. I also find it persuasive that the state
of Oregon considers CHLQ i S use of the Daime tea in religious
ceremonies to be a sacramental use that is not subject to
regulation.

The Native American Church's use of peyote in religious
ceremonies is instructive on the feasibility of allowing
plaintiffs to continue the religious use of Daime tea. The NAC
has about 300,000 members. After an applicant completes a
simple application form, he or she may participate in
ceremonies involving the consumption of peyote. There is no
evidence that the NAC i s distribution and use of peyote have
resulted in any significant diversion to recreational users, or
serious health effects to NAC members.

Here, the Santo Daime church in Oregon has fewer than 100
members. The DEA, which monitors the NAC i S use of peyote,
should be capable of shouldering the administrative burden of
monitoring the importation and distribution of Daime tea in
Oregon. A permanent injunction wiii be entered promptly
consistent with this Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

I need not address plaintiffs i claim under the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

CONCLUSION

Plaintiffs are entitled to relief under RFRA. Judgment
will be entered for plaintiffs in accordance with this opinion.

IT is SO ORDERED.

DATED this 18th day of March, 2009.


Owen Panner, U.S. District Judge

CONDOMS



I see that the Pope is at it again, now in West Africa claiming that condoms don't help in the battle against aids. The reactions to this have been global. The NY Times swiftly repudiated this nonsense with a lead editorial.

As I've mentioned before, Brazil -- nominally the most Catholic country in the world -- has a different approach, giving away billions of condoms (yes, including high schools) and even funding a project in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve of producing natural latex ones. Condoms for conservation were chosen by DVICE, a high tech website offering suggestions for "green living", as #4 in their list of sustainability ideas.

Brazil is now the world's largest buyer and distributor of condoms.

A LABOR OF LOVE

At Vila Fortaleza the Santo Daime Sacrament is made the old fashion way. Truly, it's a labor of love. Here is Saturnino leading the opening session where some of the men mash the vines as the rest sing hymns in support.



The coordination of the maracá and the mallets and the voices is a realization of what might be called "establishing the current". It's a very beautiful moment when it all comes together and becomes incorporated with the sacrament. Very special indeed.



And here is the rest of it.

WALKING IN BEAUTY

I've been in quite a funk lately. Yup, it really is possible to feel weird in paradise. I mean a real weirdness – the kind that can make one's face red and twisted.



It's probably due to thinking too much, which I certainly do, but that seems to be my nature. Maybe it's the way that I find the story?

Here's the current "chapter":

Those of you who know me, know of my history as a forest-defending anti-materialism sort of a guy. Now I'm in one of the most special places in the world watching as it enters a new time of material development -- legitimate and well-deserved development. And it's likely to have an enormous impact on the natural world as well. How do we rise out of poverty and achieve reasonable comfort levels AND save the forest? Somehow, I've taken it personally, so, as my Indian friends say, "there are heavy stones in my basket."

First, let me describe the setting...

This region of the Amazon is known by the acronym MAP by the scientists because it is comprised of the political districts of Madre de Dios in Peru, Acre in Brazil and Pando in Bolivia.

The general region is one of the great global centers of biodiversity and, incredibly, home to some of the last remaining tribes of indigenous peoples who have never come into direct contact with modern society. The reason that much remains is that, without any bridges across the major rivers, the roads from every direction have ended here. End of the road, end of the world (at least the world of commerce). Unless you were a cocaine smuggler there was no serious cross-border traffic. It has been a "wilderness" inhabited by “lost tribes”, abandoned rubber tappers and renegades.

It's also the region where Raimundo Irineu Serra and Chico Mendes discovered and elaborated their respective spiritual and environment missions. Coincidently, these two famous Acreanos share the same day of birth -- December 15th. Acre can no longer be considered as the "end of the world" and their histories are part of the huge cultural diffusion unfolding from here. Indeed, tiny Fortaleza was recently written about in the magazine Rolling Stone Brasil.

Everything now seems to be caught in a surge of development. The new bridge has been opened at Assisi near the point where Peru, Bolivia and Brazil meet. When the road is complete through Peru it will form the first cross-continental trade route. As the signs of globalization and modernization appear it's easy to spot the changes. Even for a newcomer, the feeling of "something new" is pervasive. Commerce and enterprise abound. It causes me to wonder how it will impact the forest?

My first encounter with the Amazon forest was a number of years ago when I visited the Santo Daime community of Mapia (located in Amazonas but accessed via Acre). I arrived there both exhilarated and exhausted – exhilarated by my first visit to Amazonia and exhausted because during the previous two weeks I had traveled from the United States to Brasilia and then to the southeast of Brazil to participate in an intense four-day ceremony followed immediately by four more days of travel by bus and plane and taxi and boat to Mapia. Traveling through Acre was my first direct witnessing of the incredible forest destruction that the past has wreaked upon this region. I recall having the strange feeling of being both very glad to be here and also being incredibly sad. It was confusing.

There's a side story here:

My first morning in Mapia I awoke at daybreak, had a coffee with everyone and then headed out into the forest to gather Rainha leaves for the preparation of the Daime sacrament. I worked only for about 20 minutes in the already hot morning sun when suddenly I fell violently ill and started vomiting. It was as if all the stresses of the previous week were pouring out of me. My friends helped me back to the house where we were staying and I rested in a hammock, getting up only to throw up some more. I could not hold down anything – food or water – and this continued throughout the next day.

When I was starting to show the signs of serious dehydration, my friends called upon Francesca Corrente who is a very fine Mapia healer. She arrived and gave me some Daime to drink which (of course) I threw up immediately. Then she asked me to breathe with very slow deep breaths and she began to sing softly one of her beautiful hymns, the one about the blue butterfly – the spectacular Blue Morpho that inhabits the tropical forests. She repeated the hymn over and over again for what seemed like a very long time. Slowly, I felt a calm returning and reaching deeply into my body.

When I became tranquil, she began to speak to me through a translator. She said that I was very open and that there were now many “dark beings following me trying to cause confusion.” She said that I would feel or perceive them as “difficult thoughts.” She continued, saying that she had "sung the hymn into my body", sending it gliding inward with my deep breaths and that now it would always be there as a guide. “When you feel confused,” she said, “watch for the blue butterfly and follow it. It flies along the right path, the path of Juramidam.”

The next evening I attended my first Santo Daime session in Mapia and drank some very strong Daime. I sat down and closed my eyes and a vision arrived almost immediately. It was a beautiful blue butterfly. I watched and became fascinated by the movement of its wings which seemed to have a special pattern of flapping three times and then gliding into the forest. It was following the rhythm of the maraca that was setting the tempo of the hymns that were being sung in the ceremony. Yes, it was following the path of Juramidam.

Nowadays, I somehow feel similarly open and even hypersensitive under the impact of the cleansing power of the strong Daime and powerful ceremonies here at Fortaleza. And, I often feel vulnerable, in awe and at times lost in confusion. It's hard to "locate myself."

For example, here I am, sitting at my computer,



in a somewhere-near-nowhere place, typing a story for a globally dispersed audience far from the Amazon forest. As I type, I gaze out upon a primal world of green, a veritable vista verde, but my thoughts are meandering through the contradictions of modern existence. My heart feels full of love for the forests and its peoples. My mind is obsessed with the challenges of achieving a harmony between human beings and the natural world. I'm used to having conversations about it on the Internet. But this is the Inter- Not-Yet zone.

So, periodically, I travel to Rio Branco to spend time on-line in its magnificent new state-of-the-art air-conditioned and digitally-equipped public library (clearly a product of economic development and modernization).





Surfing the Internet, I read that President Lula has announced an “economic stimulus package” of infrastructure development (big road and hydroelectric projects) in the interior (eg: the Amazon and the Cerrado) in hopes of warding off the negative effects of the global economic downfall. In another article, I read that EMBRAPA (Brazil's world-leading research institute for tropical agriculture) is launching a crash program to develop new drought-resistant varieties to prepare for the possible consequences of global warming. And I read another article saying that you can't expect IBAMA (Brazil's environmental ministry) to achieve a whole lot because its budget is less than BR$ 200 million, whereas the agricultural ministry has a budget that tops BR$ 22 billion. My friend Kelpie sends me a link to a report saying that much of the Amazon forest may be lost in the next few decades due to climate change. I have an on-line forum debate with her about whether empowering women and slowing the rate of population growth can be expected to lessen dramatically the human ecological impact on the earth?

None of the above seems very promising to me.

So I return to Fortaleza where even my physical location seems now as a metaphor for the great challenge of development and sustainability. Somehow, the little house that I'm building sits symbolically in the midst of the contradiction.



On one side, there's “downtown Fortaleza” with its commons and visitor center



and its “industrial zone” of a ceramics kiln, a garage, new water tank and “public baths”.




On the other side, the view from the window above my computer, looks over the “agricultural zone” of mixed plantings of bananas and corn and squash and rice and manioc and more.



The view ends at a horizon created by a great forest wall, a frontier.



But nowadays the forest frontier is shrinking worldwide at alarming rates. Of course, there's no deforestation going on at Fortaleza but it's impossible for me to be here without thinking about the overwhelming impact that humans are having on the earth and its forests. The post World War II consumer and fossil fuel binge in the industrial world was unprecedented across all human time on earth. The global statistics are dramatic. Half of all the primary forests worldwide have been cut since 1950. And now economic development and modernization are bringing purchasing power to previously impoverished populations.

NO, surely we are not land exploiters here and our material improvements are pretty small-scale. But when I multiply them by the millions of people who are now entering the cycle of material development worldwide, what can I say but that it doesn't seem so good for the earth and the forests. Indeed, sometimes I feel like I'm in the spiritual heart of the world and in the belly of the beast – the beast being our collective human nature that keeps expanding and consuming and wasting.

Like I said, we're pretty small-time here. Electricity arrived two years ago and now there's a couple of new refrigerators, a couple of kitchen appliances and TVs and, of course, my computer. And we all eat meat – the more natural open-range grass-fed non-chemical-laden Brazilian variety which is better for one's health and not so good for the forest. (Greenpeace recently released a study showing the 80% of the land deforested in Amazonia in the last 20 years is now used for grazing cows and beef production.) And, yup, my house is built out of wood. I could go on and on but, at the bottom line, the truth is that no one here is living at the level of consumption or making the ecological foot-print that I and my many of my small-is-beautiful environmentally-conscious natural-and-organic-lifestyle save-the-rainforest, politically-correct friends enjoy back in Southern Oregon. It's not even close.

But, truthfully, I do worry about where the collective forces of economic and material development are carrying all of us. Thus, something got triggered in me when Saturnino said,

“Lou, I'd like you to document the things we're building and all the developments that we're making. It's important that people understand how much work goes into creating a physical space that can receive visitors and offer spiritual ceremonies. People often don't understand that there's lot more involved than just making and serving Daime and conducting spiritual sessions.”







But I'm afraid that his words tapped into my fears. Of course, it was a perfectly appropriate and reasonable request but it triggered a rebellion inside me. I was thinking like, “Oops, I'm a voice for the forest, perhaps even a little bit of a spiritual voice. I don't know how to be a voice for material development. I'm not that kind of a storyteller. How did this ever get into my job description? I'd much rather help develop some programs of environmental education or work on some innovative sustainability projects.”

Then Saturnino would show me recently mowed ground near the pineapple plantation



or the ground cleared of vegetation in the forest garden of Rainha or the big lawn in the commons area and say, “Beautiful, isn't it?” and I would think, “Oops, lawns aren't beautiful. They are a war against nature. Just look at all the wasted time and fuel and labor that goes into maintaining them.” But later I would realize that there's a reason for the lawns.

These tall tropical grasses



are home to a host of creatures. Look at what can be living there...



Kids play and people camp in these areas and folks spend a lot of time gathering leaves in the Rainha garden. Making areas humanly accessible, safe and attractive is also beautiful. That's certainly true, but the storyteller in me surely was not inspired. How might the "Jonny Appleseed of ecological idealism” tell this story? Ah, yet another dilemma.

Actually, these tensions have been building since I first arrived in Brazil and seem to have come to a head in recent months as I've begun making my own "developments" in Fortaleza. But it's been hard for me to find the "inspired story." And not posting much recently causes me to feel not very good about my performance as the “official photographer of Fortaleza”. I actually was beginning to wonder if I really should be here. I was discouraged and starting to feel that the whole situation was hopeless.

Last Saturday I did what I usually do when I'm feeling sad – I went for a long walk. I headed down the back-country lane and onto the road that connects with the main highway.



I saw the lone standing nut tree.



It's the standard practice to leave the nut trees during the deforestation and they remain as monuments to the past, their great branches reaching outward at the level just above what had been the canopy of a dense forest – a forest that had been laid to the ground.

For some reason I thought of the last verse of Mestre Irineu's final hymn:

My body in the grave
Neglected in the night air
Someone speaks in my name
Maybe in a thought

Back in the States I had been one of those voices, speaking not for the Santo Daime movement, but for the save-the-forest movement. Indeed, I still yearn to be that kind of a voice. I felt very sad.

I walked for a long time and didn't return to Fortaleza until dusk. When I arrived, people said, “Hurry Lou. Everyone is gathering at Padrinho's house. We're going to sing the prayers." Well, I just didn't feel like it. I was hot and sweaty and dirty and I really didn't want to be with people. I just wanted to take a shower and be quiet at home, which is what I did. But the thoughts began to rage and I did what I often do to escape – I buried myself in work. For me that means sitting at the computer and processing photos. When the current batch was done I decided to have some fun making some Photoshop art. Despite the presence of visitors and extended family in the community, I remained alone that night.

Of course, my thoughts kept raging all the time. I thought, “Wow, I've finally come home to be with my family and I discover that I can't talk with anyone. The language barrier is huge and besides everyone is always so busy working that probably no one would have the time or desire to sit around with an old retired guy and do “nature appreciation” as if on a park bench while discussing the “insurmountable problems of the modern world.” I felt very alone and I thought, “Perhaps, it could be different if I just had a friend who had time to sit around.”

The next day Edson Alexandre visited. To me, he seems as a man full of love and light. I always feel honored when he visits. He plays an important role in the spiritual community and regularly contributes beautiful hymns to the expanding Doctrine of the Santo Daime. For example, in the video below, he is presenting a new hymn. This one is called, "Light, Light, Light."



Edson doesn't speak English so we could not talk much but I knew that he really enjoys listening to music. I started playing mp3s stored in the computer and burning a disk of the albums he liked and I really enjoyed watching the way he sat so long on my veranda looking at the forest view. Without many words it was nevertheless a wonderful sharing. I felt a little less lonely. Maybe it wasn't as hopeless as I had thought.

The next day 9 year-old Polidoro visited. He loves nature and often brings his pet birds along in case I'd like to make a video clip. Polidoro has a real fascination for the computer. He has this calm but intensely watchful demeanor as he stands quietly behind me checking out whatever I'm working on. I was still perfecting the image from the other night, applying some Photoshop filters.



I asked, “Do you like it?” and he gave me a very strong nod, YES! Then I glanced out the window and said, “But I really think that nature is much better, what do you think?”

A smile flashed on his sunburned and somewhat dirty face and light blazed forth from his eyes.



Another memory moved across my mindscape... A few years ago, a couple of months after Murilo's youngest daughter was born, I asked, “How does it feel to be a father bringing a new child into our difficult times?” He thought for a moment and then very quietly, almost in a whisper, said, “Lou, children are our hope.”

I came back to the present and asked Polidoro if he would like to explore nature with me and said, “Maybe I could also teach you some English and you could be my Portuguese teacher. Would you like that?” He flashed another one of his great smiles and reached out to shake my hand.” I think I have found my friend.

Padrinho Luiz loves to laughingly say that “simplicity is the path to emotional tranquility”



and the motto of this spiritual center says, “Humility is the Symbol of Nobility.”



Yet, here I was still wondering how I might get humble and simple. My inner voice responded, “You could join the human race and admit that you really don't know any of the answers for the great dilemmas of sustainable development. Perhaps sharing your photos of the beauties that you discover in nature and in the human-created world around you is all you can do right now.”

It sure felt right. I returned from my thoughts and glanced outward just in time to see a blue butterfly glide past my little “room with a view.”

Below is another window with a digital view, a slide show of a few of the beauties of Fortaleza – natural and human-created ones.


[Note: If you have a low bandwith connection and the slide show
doesn't load very well, please use this LINK to the thumbnails where
you can choose individual photos to view.]

So how do we harmonize people and the forest? Is nature or culture more important? Those polarizing questions now seem to me as a source of much of my mental confusion. The simple truth is that nature is the very ground of our being and culture creates the choices of how we might live with her. The emergent and challenging truth is that, in these current times of ecological crisis, culture and nature are going to rise or fall together. People and creatures too! Hopefully, Fortaleza is one of the places where we can learn a little about how to nurture a healthy reconnection -- to spirit, to culture, to nature and to the each other.

********

It's true that it really does take an awful lot of work to create and maintain and keep expanding Fortaleza. Much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. It's always perfecting, a labor of love. Perhaps you'd like to visit and sit a bit on my veranda. Or volunteer to help with the work. Or make a little contribution. There's no best way. What I keep realizing is that following one's heart is the true and never-ending work. That's what I've been learning to do.

********

As I was sitting here with computer and view putting the final touches on this post, I was listening to the beautiful hinario of Rosana Cristiane Pereira. Just as her hymn, "I Call Juramidam" came on, a Blue Morpho butterfly passed by. (No kidding!) I guess this is what it means to be "living in the Doctrine." My friend Jonathan suggested that this is also what the Native Americans mean when they speak of "Walking in Beauty." I dunno. Words are inadequate. Being here is better.

[CORRECTION: As I reconstructed the day of the Polidoro's photo, I realized that his face is not sunburned. About an hour earlier he had been playing in tall grass and had stirred a nest of bees. He was stung 9 times, including once on the face. Nevertheless he had a smile for the camera and said that nature was "better." What a guy!]



[NOTE: 10 April 2009 -- This post was selected as an "Editor's Choice" in the NY Times blog DotEarth. Thanks to Andy Revkin for his continuing work with a great blog http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/]

PICO-DE-JACA

The Pico de Jaca is one of Amazõnia's largest venemous snakes, sometimes reaching a length of 12 feet. The other day, the guys were out harvesting bananas near Vila Fortaleza and they came across this one coiled at the base of a tree.

Saturnino raced back calling everyone and my camera to the scene. Here's what we saw.



It's hard to estimate the length of a snake on the move through the forest but our guess is that this one was at least 7 or 8 feet long... or, maybe, 9 or 10. What's your guess? For sure it was bigger than any snake I've seen up-close. What a treat to see it in it's natural state.

Some Hard Questions

There's a fascinating conversation going on as to whether or not cheap energy is a fool's paradise that is destined to fail? It is really worth checking out over at DotEarth

In the comment section I entered the debate with a challenge to my dear friend Kelpie's views about how a population policy might solve the problem.



Here is Kelpie's comment:


Thus far in human history, an increase in available energy has always led to an increase in population growth. There are a few instances where civilized societies have maintained a steady state - these are all island nations. Some were found in Polynesia. Edo Japan is the best example.

So-that means that tackling population growth head on is an absolute necessity, whether we can increase the energy available to us or not, ultimately it makes no difference. Let us heed the words of Engles on this. Engles hated Malthus and thought the idea of population outstripping resources was ludicrous, but still said this:

"There is, of course, the abstract possibility that the number of people will become so great that limits will have to be set to their increase. But if at some stage communist society finds itself obliged to regulate the producion of human beings, just as it has already come to regulate the production of things, it will be precisely this society, and this society alone, which can carry this out without difficulty. It does not seem to me that it would be at all difficult in such a society to achieve by planning a result which has already been produced spontaneously, without planning in France and Lower Austria. At any rate, it is for the people in the communist society themselves to decide whether, when and how this is to be done, and what means they wish to employ to the purpose. I do not feel called upon to make proposals for giving them advice about it. These people, in any case, will surely not be any less intelligent than we are."

Engels' abstract possibility is very real to most of us today. Some still can't see it, but as food prices climb ever higher, the mismatch of population and resources on our planet will soon be undeniable. We are those people who must decide how to deal with overpopulation. Fortunately, the solution is not that hard. Just give women the choice and the means to prevent or end pregnancies that they do not want. Accompany that with education about ecology and economic alternatives to motherhood and the problem is solved. Unfortunately, regressive patriarchal forces are incapable of conceding reproductive control to women. Maybe that's the best argument there is for "communism" or some similar economic revolution. It may be the only thing that can topple the patriarchs from power and start the flow of funds to women's health and welfare.

Even our beloved Obama administration allowed funds for women's reproductive healthcare to be stripped from the stimulus package. Women's health is not a side issue. It is THE issue of our time.

More at greenyourhead

And here's my response:

I'd like to challenge the view presented by my old colleague Kelpie Wilson (who does much great work for the earth) as it seems representative of much that is presented as a simple population solution.

In post #109 Kelpie says, "Fortunately, the solution is not that hard. Just give women the choice and the means to prevent or end pregnancies that they do not want. Accompany that with education about ecology and economic alternatives to motherhood and the problem is solved."

The problem is that there is no analysis of how the "economic alternatives to motherhood" will be created for poorer and "less developed" peoples. My understanding is that reductions of family size naturally arrive with women's rights, urbanization, education, economic development, etc. But the development package also includes increased per capita consumption and more energy intensive technologies.

Can anyone provide a study showing that modern woman-liberating and opportunity-creating economic development results in lowering the cumulative impact on the earth? If not, then I've got to think that it's not so simple. Surely, women must have full rights of choice and opportunity but it it is because they are human beings and not necessarily as a solution for the problem over over-consumption of the earth's natural resources.

Truly, the contradictions of development are immense and they arrive as a package. As one who is steeped in the ideologies of deep ecology and wilderness preservation I've been trying to confront these issues as an American tree-hugger now living in Brazil. Here are a few of the posts:

Chico Mendes, Capixaba and Change

Soy in the Amazon

ExpoAcre

All around me, here in Acre, Brazil, I see that the younger newer middle-class families are smaller, better educated and more urban. I also see that as cheap energy appears (rural electrification is a recent arrival here) there is an explosion of home appliance buying -- TVs, PCs, air conditioners, toasters, home entertainment centers, etc. BUT, it's important to note that these people are only now acquiring what an average entry-level environmental studies teacher or employee of an environment organization in the US already has and has known all of his or her life.

Brazil tends to take an indirect approach to the population issue, defining it instead as a series of health issues ranging from controlling sexually transmitted diseases to reducing the number of butchered abortions. They give away 100s of millions of condoms, even in high schools and even creating special rain forest brands made of natural latex -- yes, Chico Mendes Condoms (see: Condoms for Conservation ) But it's economic development that actually reduces the birthrate.

Yes, womens' rights are essential. And, yes, cheaper or more available energy increases consumption and triggers lots of economic activity. Development, consumption, cheap energy and reduced population travel together.

Recently the World Social Forum met in Amazônia, in Belem where 100,000 people from all over the world gathered as a counter-event to the World Economic Forum at Davos. One of the main poster issues there was the preservation of the Amazon forest and its indigenous people.

Brazil's President Lula also appeared and declared that the Amazon does not exist as a sanctuary for the world and he noted that the 20 million people who live here want material development like everyone else.

Can the developed world pay a price that can actually dissuade countries like Brazil to NOT follow the pattern well-established in the developed economies of cutting down the forest and exhausting nature's resources? Brazil has half of it's forests intact and another 30% in a fragmented state. The US has less than 10% of its primary forests standing and almost all of it is fragments.

Everywhere I go in Brazil people ask why the US and foreigners are so concerned about preserving the Amazon forest? The motives are definitely distrusted.

How would you have me answer their questions? Yes, womens' rights is not a side issue but sustainability is THE issue.

STORIES FROM ACRE

[Editor's Note: Yep, I'm getting younger but I'm not yet into bike-riding. For sure, I'm always fishing for stories, especially ones that convey the flavor of Acre This one was written last December by Foster Brown who conducts research and teaches about sustainability issues at the Federal University of Acre. He graciously contributed this story and accompanying photos for publication in VisionShare.]


Getting younger, riding a bicycle
17 December 2008
by Foster Brown


José Cruz Neto is a 86-year old former rubber tapper from Brasiléia, Acre who gets on his bike and travels 120 km (72 miles) round trip to visit friends for lunch. During our last visit he mentioned that his goal in August 2008 was to go to Ibéria, Peru, 60 km beyond Assis Brasil, which in itself would be a 110 km jaunt, one-way.

These last few months, I hadn't been able to stop by Seu José's general store, so only on 17 December 2008 was I able to catch up on his travels.



As usual, I had set out with a simple goal in mind – hearing the story about his trip - and learned more than I imagined.

On a hot, bright 17 December in Brasileia, the cool and relatively dark Neto Cruz Store provided shade and balm for the eyes. In the back of the store sat Seu José, writing his accounts long-hand in ink. He recognized me immediately, and we began chatting about the current financial crisis ("I never believed using credit, so I have no debts; other shop-owners, however, are having serious problems”).

Seu José's general store

Before supermarkets and shopping centers became the temples of modern consumerism, there existed general stores where it was possible to buy just about anything, as long as you weren't too specific. Seu José has just a store - one room where it is possible to find propellers for a boat, pans for the kitchen, cloth for sewing, and literature suspended by a string.

The story of the Cruz Neto Store begins in the early 1940s. I had a chance to videotape his story and the following is a synopsis of what Seu José told me.

During World War II, Seu José was drafted from his home town in Ceará, a state in Brazil's impoverished northeast and given a choice: go to Europe or to become a rubber soldier in the Amazon. He chose the latter and ended up in Acre in 1943. He tapped rubber for two years until the end of the war and then had the choice during demobilization to return to Ceará or to stay in Acre. Seu José wanted to see more of Acre and became a policeman. Two years later he had an altercation with a colleague and was discharged from the police force. He noted that the colleague was later thrown out of the police and the captain asked Seu José to come back, but he refused.

Seu José began working for local commercial sellers, most of whom were either Sirio-Lebanese or Japanese. These local businessmen liked Seu José and would ask him to take care of their shops when they travelled. They encouraged him to become a shop-owner, but Seu José didn't have the capital at that time, so he started working on a boat, selling food-stuffs and buying rubber and animal pelts. After about two years he had had enough of being a river man and decided to run a store, something that he has been doing now for about 60 years.

A bookstore within a general store

What I noticed first in Seu José's store was the Cordel Literature, appropriately stretched out along a string. These booklets have a long history, originating in Brazil's northeast and treat a variety of topics; typically they have a woodcut design for the title page.
The first title exhibits the phonetic spelling of someone hearing, rather than reading about the Iraq War: "War Debates between Buxe and Sadam Russem."



And then comes a common theme in Brazilian culture: sex, particularly adulterous sex. In Brazil and apparently in other countries, a cuckolded husband is said to be 'wearing a horn or horns'. The titles sound like a cross between self-help and true confessions: "The Cuckolding That Made Me Better"; "The Cuckold That Married the Other Man."



Seu José was a little nonplussed by the titles, but gave a shrug and said, well, that's Cordel Literature.

The general in general store

Two women entered the store, looking for a special type of kerosene lamp. Seu José lamented that he didn't have any left and added that they were probably not being manufactured anymore; the rural electrification program was making such lamps superfluous.

I asked Seu José if I could take a set of pictures of his store. He concurred and proceeded to tell me about his stocks. We were interrupted by two boys who entered looking for a pandeiro, a Brazilian tambourine typically used for Carnival music. Seu José had two types in stock, but the boys decided that they wanted a different style and left without buying.

Seu José continued with his tour. Besides the pandeiros, he sells guitars, propellers, and fuel containers. For those needing a drum, he has those for sale, too.



Along a central table he has pots, pans, water filters, as well as a squeezer for sugar cane. Crow bars, chains, and a vice complement the kitchenware.



Finally, along the east wall, Seu José keeps his bolts of fabric, next to the brooms



After the tour, we continued our discussion about the financial crisis. Seu Jose was sure that it will impact Brazil and affect his business, he didn't believe the pundits who considered that Brazil would be relatively immune.

Biking as medicine

My wife, Vera, had taken up bicycling recently, something that she had longed to do since her childhood. She knew of Seu José from the previous Innocence and wanted to meet him. I called her on my cell phone; she and Seu José then spoke about their passion for bicycling. For Seu José, bicycling is his health and the reason why he takes no medication, even at 86 years-old.

The trip to Ibéria

I then remembered why I had come to visit: to find out about his trip to Ibéria, Peru. Well, he admitted, he didn't make it to Ibéria. In previous trips to Assis Brasil, Seu José had made covered the 110 km in 6 to 6.5 hours. This time he took 7 hours, but he had a half-hour break for water. The hills to Assis Brasil are notorious, yet he went up them using a single-gear Caloi bicycle. He said he would stop going if he needed to walk his bike up the hills.

So why, then, didn't he go on to Ibéria, a mere 60 km away? Well, it had to do with the hassle of changing money. He had heard that in Iberia, Peruvians don't accept reals, the Brazilian currency, and he would have to buy some Peruvian soles beforehand. He wasn't sure how many soles he would need, and if he had extra then he would have to change them back into reals. All that effort didn't seem to be worth the trip to Iberia, so he and his partner decided to stop in Assis Brasil.

So, as usual, I went to talk with Seu José about one topic and left enriched with other perspectives. While general stores may be a vanishing breed, at least one is still in fine shape on the Brazilian-Bolivian border; now I know how to do one-stop shopping for a boat propeller and a guitar. Cordel literature stretched out on a string provides information in the western Amazon about the sexual adventures of British royalty. Medical prescriptions can be substituted with long-distance biking.

I didn't ask Seu José about his next trip, that will be the topic of another visit, but I'm sure that I will learn most about what I least expect, such as the debate between Bush and Hussein.

Utilities Turn Their Customers Green, With Envy



A desire to keep up with neighbors is spurring conservation. (Photo: Max Whittaker for The New York Times)


YES, indeed! The way to change behavior is to work with folks as they are and not as an idealized consciousness-changed human. I liked this one a lot, so here it is lifted directly from the NY TIMES

By LESLIE KAUFMAN
A frowny face is not what most electric customers expect to see on their utility statements, but Greg Dyer got one.

He earned it, the utility said, by using a lot more energy than his neighbors.

“I have four daughters; none of my neighbors has that many children,” said Mr. Dyer, 49, a lawyer who lives in Sacramento. He wrote back to the utility and gave it his own rating: four frowny faces.

Two other Sacramento residents, however, Paul Geisert and his wife, Mynga Futrell, were feeling good. They got one smiley face on their statement for energy efficiency and saw the promise of getting another.

“Our report card will quickly get better,” Mr. Geisert wrote in an e-mail message to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

The district had been trying for years to prod customers into using less energy with tactics like rebates for energy-saving appliances. But the traditional approaches were not meeting the energy reduction goals set by the nonprofit utility’s board.

So, in a move that has proved surprisingly effective, the district decided to tap into a time-honored American passion: keeping up with the neighbors.

Last April, it began sending out statements to 35,000 randomly selected customers, rating them on their energy use compared with that of neighbors in 100 homes of similar size that used the same heating fuel. The customers were also compared with the 20 neighbors who were especially efficient in saving energy.

Customers who scored high earned two smiley faces on their statements. “Good” conservation got a single smiley face. Customers like Mr. Dyer, whose energy use put him in the “below average” category, got frowns, but the utility stopped using them after a few customers got upset.

When the Sacramento utility conducted its first assessment of the program after six months, it found that customers who received the personalized report reduced energy use by 2 percent more than those who got standard statements — an improvement that Alexandra Crawford, a spokeswoman for the utility, said was very encouraging.

The approach has now been picked up by utilities in 10 major metropolitan areas eager to reap rewards through increased efficiencies, including Chicago and Seattle, according to Positive Energy, the software company that conceived of the reports and contracts to produce them. Following Sacramento’s lead, they award smiley faces only.

“This is the next wave,” said Todd Starnes, a residential energy efficiency manager with Puget Sound Energy, which started a pilot program in suburban Seattle with 40,000 customers in September.

The utility thinks behavior modification could be as effective in promoting conservation as trying to get customers to install new appliances is, Mr. Starnes said, and maybe more so.

Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist at Arizona State University, studies how to get Americans — even those who did not care about the environment — to lower energy consumption. And while there are many ways, Dr. Cialdini said, few are as effective as comparing people with their peers.

In a 2004 experiment, he and a colleague left different messages on doorknobs in a middle-class neighborhood north of San Diego. One type urged the residents to conserve energy to save the earth for future generations; another emphasized financial savings. But the only kind of message to have any significant effect, Dr. Cialdini said, was one that said neighbors had already taken steps to curb their energy use.

“It is fundamental and primitive,” said Dr. Cialdini, who owns a stake in Positive Energy. “The mere perception of the normal behavior of those around us is very powerful.”

Ms. Crawford, of the Sacramento district, said that many customers expressed gratitude for the feedback. For example, Tamara Kaestner, 36, who lives with her husband in nearby Folsom, Calif., said that since receiving her first personalized statement, she had bought a new energy-efficient washer and dryer, put her lights on timers and unplugged her kegerator — a cooler for draft beer. Her monthly electricity consumption is now on a par with that of her neighbors, Ms. Kaestner said.

Colleges have been using rivalry between themselves and even between dormitories to reduce energy use for over a decade, and they are refining their techniques.

At Central College in Pella, Iowa, students in a new green dorm can go to the school’s Web site to find out how much power their suite is using and compare it with that of other suites.

“It gets pretty intense,” said Michael Lubberden, director of facilities planning and management for the college. “The students even go off campus to charge their cellphones.”

Competition among homeowners is still rare, but is becoming more widespread. In Massachusetts, the BrainShift Foundation, a nonprofit that uses games to raise environmental awareness, recruited towns to compete in a reality series, called “Energy Smackdown,” which is shown on a local cable station.

At the start of this year’s season, 10 families from Cambridge, Medford and Arlington formed teams and competed against one another in conservation categories that included waste, heating fuel, electricity and food. Patty Nolan, 51, who lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children, agreed to participate because, she said, although family members thought of themselves as “environmentally conscious,” they knew they could be doing more.

But her motives shifted after eight months of trash weigh-ins and comparative meter readings.

“At the beginning, the competition wasn’t what interested me,” Ms. Nolan said, “but then when we lost a challenge to Arlington by one pound of carbon, I realized I really wanted to win.”

Though keeping two cars, Ms. Nolan said, the family is now much more conscious about everyday choices. They use bicycles more often, they have cut down on eating beef (raising cows requires more energy than raising vegetables), and they argue about whether airplane travel is really necessary.

“It really blows your monthly carbon budget,” Ms. Nolan explained.

Donald Kelley, executive director of the BrainShift Foundation, said the conservation outcomes of the competition had been far greater than he had predicted, with households reducing consumption up to 66 percent.

“As Americans, we are good at entertainment and competition,” Mr. Kelley said. “It’s why on ‘American Idol’ they get 40 million voters. It’s the part of this culture that people really understand, and we should be harnessing it.”

"ONE LAST CHANCE TO SAVE HUMANKIND"



(Image: Eamonn McCabe / Camera Press)

James Lovelock, the originator of the gaia thesis, thinks humanity has only one remaining option to halt climate change and save ourselves -- BIOCHAR.

[Reprinted from NEW SCIENTIST magazine]

With his 90th birthday in July, a trip into space scheduled for later in the year and a new book out next month, 2009 promises to be an exciting time for James Lovelock. But the originator of the Gaia theory, which describes Earth as a self-regulating planet, has a stark view of the future of humanity. He tells Gaia Vince we have one last chance to save ourselves - and it has nothing to do with nuclear power

Your work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led eventually to a global CFC ban that saved us from ozone-layer depletion. Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change?

Not a hope in hell. Most of the "green" stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It's not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it'll make a lot of money for a lot of people and postpone the moment of reckoning. I am not against renewable energy, but to spoil all the decent countryside in the UK with wind farms is driving me mad. It's absolutely unnecessary, and it takes 2500 square kilometres to produce a gigawatt - that's an awful lot of countryside.

What about work to sequester carbon dioxide?

That is a waste of time. It's a crazy idea - and dangerous. It would take so long and use so much energy that it will not be done.

Do you still advocate nuclear power as a solution to climate change?

It is a way for the UK to solve its energy problems, but it is not a global cure for climate change. It is too late for emissions reduction measures.

So are we doomed?

There is one way we could save ourselves and that is through the massive burial of charcoal. It would mean farmers turning all their agricultural waste - which contains carbon that the plants have spent the summer sequestering - into non-biodegradable charcoal, and burying it in the soil. Then you can start shifting really hefty quantities of carbon out of the system and pull the CO2 down quite fast.

Would it make enough of a difference?

Yes. The biosphere pumps out 550 gigatonnes of carbon yearly; we put in only 30 gigatonnes. Ninety-nine per cent of the carbon that is fixed by plants is released back into the atmosphere within a year or so by consumers like bacteria, nematodes and worms. What we can do is cheat those consumers by getting farmers to burn their crop waste at very low oxygen levels to turn it into charcoal, which the farmer then ploughs into the field. A little CO2 is released but the bulk of it gets converted to carbon. You get a few per cent of biofuel as a by-product of the combustion process, which the farmer can sell. This scheme would need no subsidy: the farmer would make a profit. This is the one thing we can do that will make a difference, but I bet they won't do it.

Do you think we will survive?

I'm an optimistic pessimist. I think it's wrong to assume we'll survive 2 °C of warming: there are already too many people on Earth. At 4 °C we could not survive with even one-tenth of our current population. The reason is we would not find enough food, unless we synthesised it. Because of this, the cull during this century is going to be huge, up to 90 per cent. The number of people remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less. It has happened before: between the ice ages there were bottlenecks when there were only 2000 people left. It's happening again.

I don't think humans react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what's coming up. Kyoto was 11 years ago. Virtually nothing's been done except endless talk and meetings.
I don't think we can react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what's coming up

It's a depressing outlook.

Not necessarily. I don't think 9 billion is better than 1 billion. I see humans as rather like the first photosynthesisers, which when they first appeared on the planet caused enormous damage by releasing oxygen - a nasty, poisonous gas. It took a long time, but it turned out in the end to be of enormous benefit. I look on humans in much the same light. For the first time in its 3.5 billion years of existence, the planet has an intelligent, communicating species that can consider the whole system and even do things about it. They are not yet bright enough, they have still to evolve quite a way, but they could become a very positive contributor to planetary welfare.

How much biodiversity will be left after this climatic apocalypse?

We have the example of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum event 55 million years ago. About the same amount of CO2 was put into the atmosphere as we are putting in and temperatures rocketed by about 5 °C over about 20,000 years. The world became largely desert. The polar regions were tropical and most life on the planet had the time to move north and survive. When the planet cooled they moved back again. So there doesn't have to be a massive extinction. It's already moving: if you live in the countryside as I do you can see the changes, even in the UK.

If you were younger, would you be fearful?

No, I have been through this kind of emotional thing before. It reminds me of when I was 19 and the second world war broke out. We were very frightened but almost everyone was so much happier. We're much better equipped to deal with that kind of thing than long periods of peace. It's not all bad when things get rough. I'll be 90 in July, I'm a lot closer to death than you, but I'm not worried. I'm looking forward to being 100.

Are you looking forward to your trip into space this year?

Very much. I've got my camera ready!

Do you have to do any special training?

I have to go in the centrifuge to see if I can stand the g-forces. I don't anticipate a problem because I spent a lot of my scientific life on ships out on rough oceans and I have never been even slightly seasick so I don't think I'm likely to be space sick. They gave me an expensive thorium-201 heart test and then put me on a bicycle. My heart was performing like an average 20 year old, they said.

I bet your wife is nervous.

No, she's cheering me on. And it's not because I'm heavily insured, because I'm not.
Profile

James Lovelock is a British chemist, inventor and environmentalist. He is best known for formulating the controversial Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s, which states that organisms interact with and regulate Earth's surface and atmosphere. Later this year he will travel to space as Richard Branson's guest aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. His latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia, is published by Basic Books in February.

LOST CITIES OF THE AMAZON

The National Geographic Video telling the El Dorado and terra preta story that has inspired the biochar movement and the dream of solving some of the world's great problems SIMULTANEOUSLY is now online.



The vision that large concentrated (urban?) populations might live in harmony with the earth and actually contribute to the abundance of nature may turn out to be Brazil's greatest gift to the world. Please check it out.

NOTE: The thumbnails that appear in the video box are the episodes of the documentary. You just click through them.

AN HISTORIC WEEK

[UPDATE 26 January 2009: OOOPS! This post continued with an announcement that Santo Daime had been made legitimate in the USA. It seems that Brazilian enthusiasm was prematurely ahead of an actual decision from the judge. YES! Things do look very promising. NO! A final report has not been issued by the judge. FOR SURE, all prayers for a good outcome will be appreciated.]



Yes, indeed!!! The USA has a very special new president and the Santo Daime religion has been made legitmate. I watched the inauguration news reports (dominating Brazilian TV) with Padrinho Luíz Mendes in the boonies of Amazônia. He turned to me and said, "Congratulations Lou. I feel very grateful for this. It is the beginning of a new era." The doors to the free center of the heart seem to be opening in many ways. Here in Brazil, we are all very grateful.


[Previous report from Brazil removed due to inaccuracies.]

A MOST IMPORTANT DAY

[UPDATE: I've been informed that, in honor of the inauguration of our new president, the court hearing on the future legal status of the Santo Daime in the US will be conducted tomorrow January 21st. Thanks for your prayers.]

On this January 20th, 2009 Barack Obama has been inaugurated as 44th President and the future of the Santo Daime in the US is being determined in a Federal Court in Oregon. Both will face many future challenges.

Coincidentally, today is also the Day of the Christian martyr Saint Sebastian who, according to legend, suffered the arrows of his ememies and survived. It seems a perfect day to offer prayers for the future of both messengers of light that are being received in America.

Viva Barack Obama!

Viva Santo Daime!