Based on the latest information from Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Robert Waldrop and Linda Graves report:

Wheat Crisis Looming

World wheat production is declining, this year world consumption (594 million tons) will exceed production (581 million tons), drawing down existing world wheat stocks to 147 million tons. This is the fourth straight year that world wheat storages have contracted. Note that the annual carryover, now down to 147 million tons, amounts to about 3 months world consumption.

Argentina’s wheat production has declined 2.5 million tons “because of ongoing problems with planting the crop. Macro economic disruptions have caused a sharp drop in the exchange rate, providing an incentive to grow low cost export crops like wheat, but the lack of credit to finance production is compounded BY A REPORTED SHORTAGE OF DIESEL FUEL, severely limiting wheat plantings. This month, forecast area dropped 1 million hectares. . . “

“Projected world wheat use is down 2 million tons this month to 594 million. Lower wheat consumption is forecast for India, Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine, and several others largely due to reduced production. . . World wheat stocks are expected to contract for the fourth consecutive year, with 2002/03 ending stocks of 147 million tons, 13.5 million less than beginning stocks. However, most of the decline in wheat stocks is concentrated in China, down 17 million, and the United States, down almost 7 million. Meanwhile in India, wheat stocks are expected to increase 5 million tons, while in the EU stocks are expected to expand 4 million, and in the former Soviet Union stocks are forecast up 3 million. The wheat stocks drop in China has been dramatic and sustained over several years, with estimated wheat stocks dropping from over 71 million tons in 1999/2000 to less than 21 million projected for 2002/03. However, wheat supplies in China appear to remain ample because internal prices have remained relatively low. This has led to a 1-million ton reduction in China´s forecast 2002/03 imports to 2 million.”

Working Together

Timothy Wilken

Yesterday, I explained that it is time! Our human problems are reaching a level that may soon find our society in freefall.

Its up to us regular and ordinary people. We can only rely on ourselves. We need individuals of integrity to join with us to build a new model of society that depends on co-Operation and abundance. And, by abundance I am referring to an abundance of integrity, intelligence  and responsibility. Then we can begin restructuring our society in ways that will lead to a relative abundance even within the finite world we inhabit.

Synergy means working together–creating together as in Co-Creation–laboring together as in Co-Laboration–acting together as in Co-Action and operating together as in Co-Operation. The goal of synergic union is to accomplish a larger or more difficult task by working together than can be accomplished by working separately.

We invite individuals of integrity to join us in solving those problems presently threatening our human society. We are seeking those humans committed to co-Creating a world where I win, you win, others win and the Earth wins, win-win-win-win.

If we wish to make the Earth safe for ourselves and our children, we must solve our problems. But today´s problems are much too large to be solved by any one individual, no matter how talented or brilliant he or she might be. We need a community of minds whose mission is to solve humanity´s big problems through co-Creation, co-Laboration, co-Action and co-Operation. It is a complete waste of time to expect big government, big business, or big religion to help us. They are the problem. They are invested in a model of society that depends on separation and scarcity. We need individuals of integrity to join with us to build a new model of society that generates co-Operation and abundance.

Working together, we humans can solve our problems. We can organize a synergic thinktank to focus on those problems. We can use a system of ìOpen co-Laboration” modeled after the “Open Source Software Community” used to create Linux. This is well described by Eric Steven Raymond in his seminal paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

This website will act as a virtual meeting place to  co-Ordinate a growing group of Co-Laborators who will join together in proposing, defining, and refining solution candidates created to address various aspects of the problems facing humanity.

The commUnity of minds will seek Synergic Solutions .

Synergic means win-win-win-win. I win, you win, others win and Earth wins. And, Solutions are the compliments to problems. The plural term Solutions was chosen because there will never be any one solution to the large problems we seek to solve. There will be many small solutions that will work together to form a whole solution that is much larger than the sum of the parts.

All decisions in the Synergic Solutions projects will be made using Synergic Consensus. This is an advanced method of decision making beyond democracy.

Our developing solutions candidates can be viewed by the public, but the public cannot post to this site until they apply and demonstrate they can make helpful contributions. Anyone may apply to join the development group by simply proposing a way to make a developing solution candidate work better, or identifying a problem with a developing solution candidate, or repairing an already identified problem. In other words, help us help you.

To join us as a Synergic Solutions co-Laborator simply make a suggestion as to how we can improve a solution candidate. Your suggestions will be reviewed by a Synergic Solutions co-Ordinator. If your suggestions improve our solution candidates, they will be incorporated into our developing models. Suggestions that are inappropriate and do not help the project will be screened out. Synergic Solutions is a Manila Site and co-Laborators and co-Ordinators will be able to access it using their web browsers or by using the new tool Radio Userland.

The quality and power of our developing solutions candidates will grow as the best suggestions are incorporated into our model solutions. Any ìbugs” in these solution candidates will be fixed or removed. When no more improvements can be found and all bugs have been repaired, the solution candidate will mature to graduate status. At that point it will be promoted from the Candidate list to the ACTION list.

Solutions on the ACTION list will be made completely available to the public, and the public will be encouraged to begin using those solutions immediately. The solutions will be released as TrustWare and protected by TrustMark. This will open up a revenue stream for the project which will benefit Synergic Solutions, the development teams, our users, humanity and the Earth. Again, win-win-win-win.

With your help, we can develop viable solutions to some of the largest problems challenging our species. As we post our solutions on the internet, humanity will beat a path to our door. What better way to attract individuals of integrity than by solving those problems that threaten everyone on the planet and for which no one else has an answer.