. . .
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Valley of the Moon™
Private Eco Community Project
(VotM)
Chiriquí Province, Panama Highlands
Executive Summary
Further Information:
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
Index
© 2011 – rev 02.16.11 / 4.16.11
TRUSTEES
Maj. Gen. Albert N Stubblebine III (US Army, Ret.) Trustee and President
Rima E Laibow, MD, Trustee and Medical Director
releyes@gmail.com
Ralph Fucetola JD, Trustee and Counsel
ralph.fucetola@usa.net
Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Community
International Decade of Nutrition
www.InternationalDecadeofNutrition.org
Natural Solutions Center & Restaurant – Volcan, Panama
www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com
The Chiriquí Times
www.ChiriquiTimes.com
I.TABLE OF CONTENTS (INDEX)
0. Trustees
1. Table of Content; Project Summary
II. Vision and Purpose; Three Phase Index
III. Mission and Implementation
IV. Concept
V. Project Sites and Foci
VI. Seed Enterprises and Joint Ventures (JVs)
VII. Natural Solutions Volunteers & Conservation Corps
VIII. Rationale for the Valley of the Moon
IX. Further Information
The Three Phase Eco Community Development — P3
VotM Coffee Finca — Natural Solutions Center — Eco Community
The Mission of the Natural Solutions Foundation — D5
Discover, Develop, Document, Demonstrate, Disseminate
Discover, Develop, Document, Demonstrate and Disseminate natural solutions to the challenges facing natural health and clean, unadulterated food coupled with achieving and maintaining a healthy self, community and world.
The Objective of the Natural Solutions Foundation — S4
Sustainable, Safe, Shared, Secure
Our long-term objective is to establish a national, regional and global training system to reclaim the production of clean, unadulterated food and natural health strategies while creating a sustainable community offering diverse opportunities and services and providing educational opportunities for all aspects of this way of living and manifesting healthy values and options.
The Natural Solutions Foundation (NSF) is an international NGO (Non Governmental Organization) founded in 2004. NSF is focused on finding and disseminating comprehensive health and social solutions to global problems which compromise both health and freedom, including the primary importance of access to clean, unadulterated food within the context of functional social systems. We are a not for profit 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization in the United States and are active and registered in several countries, including Panama, which hosts our Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project and Community.
The Mission of the Foundation is to discover, develop, document, demonstrate and disseminate natural solutions to the impediment surrounding health and food coupled with achieving and maintaining a healthy self, community and world.
Since its founding, the Natural Solutions Foundation has pursued a vigorous program on many fronts, including natural solutions to significant social problems centering around access and human rights focusing on food, information and technology dissemination and the resultant increased personal and community wellness.
The International Decade of Nutrition is an expression and deepening of an alliance among Health Conscious Nations expressed through international cooperation at Codex Alimentarius (the United Nations’ ‘World Food Code’) and the creation of demonstration BeyondOrganic™, Bio Dynamic, Zero Emissions – BO-BD-ZE™ , ecologically sound communities and training programs. Central to the program are facilities which allow farmers to learn how to use, and then to share high impact, low technology natural solutions which permit economically and environmentally sustainable, chemical free farming.
The Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project opened the magnificent Natural Solutions Center, Volcan, Panama, housing the Valley of the Moon™ BeyondOrganic™ Restaurant and Café, the only chemical free restaurant in Central America and the Natural Solutions Center Advanced Wellness Facility (the initial site of the Dr. Rima Institute) along with our four planned (two built) greenhouses, indoor and outdoor seminar and teaching program and meditation cove.
NSF has formed a strategic alliance with the Songhai Foundation, in Porto Nuveau, Benin, West Africa. Songhai Center is Fr. Godfrey Nzamajo’s UN recognized “Center of Excellence” and an outstanding example of high output, low tech, zero toxic input farming. Some of our environmentally sustainable, yield increasing technologies are currently being tested there through a collaborative effort. Other high yield, sustainable techniques come from the US and elsewhere. Some are innovative but supported by science while others are conventional, but unfamiliar to farmers.
Index
The Panama Natural Solutions Foundation has established the Valley of the Moon™ Eco Community in the bountiful, beautiful, temperate Highlands of Chiriquí Province, Panama. This Eco Demonstration Project currently is producing Valley of the Moon BeyondOrganic™, BioDynamic, Zero Emission Coffee from the Valley of the Moon™ Coffee Farm. This coffee commands high-end premium prices in the US and Panama because of its outstanding, clean and robust taste.
Valley of the Moon Coffee is our first Friendly Food Certified™ food: Friendly to the Workers, Friendly to the Environment and Friendly to the Consumer! Discussions with the Government of Panama are underway to make “Friendly Food Certified: the national Panamanian certification program as a step to internationalizing this way of assuring consumers that their health, and their values, are supported by Friendly Food Certified™ purchases.
The intent of the Foundation is to marshal the intellectual and financial resources necessary to establish BeyondOrganic™, BioDynamic, Zero Emission demonstration and teaching farm facilities in the Panama Highlands, with satellite classes in the lowlands of Panama as well and in Benin, Africa.. We have two properties in Panama and a third in process (working in close cooperation with MITA, the Panamanian government organics program), while in Benin we have a cooperative relationship with Fr. Godfrey’s UN Center of Excellence Songhai Foundation Community.
Vision: Three Phases Make The Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project Achievable
Phase Index:
Phase I (Coffee Finca)
Phase II: The Center in Volcan
Phase II-1: The Center out of Volcan
Phase III – Farm, Farm School and Residential Community
Web Page Index
Phase I
The acquisition of the initial agricultural property to demonstrate natural solutions; this was accomplished with the purchase and rehabilitation of the 20+ hectare (49 acre) Coffee Finca (Farm), with its 20 acres of all natural coffee which contributes several thousand bags of all natural, chemical free coffee to the Foundation’s annual fund raising program; this phase continues with the development of the site as a tourist attraction. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq_iifPb_Lw&feature=player_embedded
Phase II
The acquisition and development of the 2+ acre Headquarters Finca in temperate, lovely, unspoiled Volcan, with its teaching greenhouses, headquarters building and the Valley of the Moon Natural Solutions Center facility which houses the Valley of the Moon™ BeyondOrganic™ Internet Restaurant and Café and restaurant, teaching kitchen, seminar facility and the Dr. Rima Institute for Advanced wellness.
Dr. Rima and the Center medical staff, including Panamanian physicians and specialists, are currently seeing clients at the Headquarters Finca just outside downtown Volcan. This facility, although just built, is already too small for the rapid development of Medical Tourism in the Panama Highlands. The Trustees have identified an ideal property, slightly further out of town which would be excellent for an expanded Dr. Rima Institute. The Foundation is seeking Joint Venture, Angel Financing and other funding for this Phase.
This Facility is at a Prime Location with commanding views for 10,000 ft2 medical center on a minimum of 2 landscaped Heactaria providing drug-free Medical Techniques and Treatments including Dr. Rima’s HCG Diet (see: www.DrRima.net) and:
- Detoxification under Medical Supervision
- Intensive Nutrition (including IV Nutrition)
- Chelation and Other Intravenous Nutrition Services
- Leading Edge Prescriptive Frequency and Energy Treatments
- Prescriptive Body Composition and Weight Loss Programs from 14 to 46 days
- Prescriptive Rejuvenation and Anti Aging Protocols
- Stem Cell Therapies
- NeuroBioFeedback/Physiological Feedback
- Ozone Therapy
- Frequency Therapies
- Bodywork Therapies including Lymphatic and other forms of massage
Panama’s new legal definition of a Free Trade Zone allows facilities like this one to function in a new and unique way providing leading edge treatment services to people seeking quality medical care in a safe, caring and sophisticated environment. BeyondOrganic™ gourmet food provided on a prescriptive basis to support health and healing, medical supervision by world-renowned doctors and Advanced Health Care specialists, preservative-free, First World supplies and services make Valley of the Moon’s Natural Solutions Center a project which can change lives as it sets a new standard for excellence in drug free health care.
Among the facilities identified as potential sites for the Natural Solutions Center’s expansion is a remarkable, and remarkably beautiful site where 360 degree panoramic views make healing a breathtaking – and life giving – experience.
Phase III
a.The acquisition and development of a 100 acre or larger main community site housing with the essential balance of food, farming, community and the environment which is essential to any healthy community or nation.
b.BeyondOrganic™ Farm and Farm School
c.Advanced Wellness Facility
d.Seminar Center
e.Performing Arts Center
f.Recreational Center
g.Residential Area
i.Private Homes
ii.Condo-type accommodations
…and Purpose
Index
The Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Project (VotM) seeks to provide integrated options for healthy living, each facet of which stands alone and can be transmitted and, as the need requires, transmuted, by those employing these advanced and ancient, learned – and rediscovered – skills and knowledge.
The primary premise of the Valley of the Moon is that we can reclaim the production of clean, unadulterated food by the introduction of best practices in a teaching environment centered around full sustainability – agricultural, health, environmental, economic and cultural and do so with the Songhai Triad, “Passion, Perfection and Profitability”.*
To accomplish this multi-layered and complex goal in a concrete, practical and transmissible fashion, many sub-projects are needed, calling upon the wisdom and capacities of local and international experts. Farmers know farming, but may have forgotten how to farm without harming the environment. Permaculture experts can contribute to land management. Indigenous and local herbal lore, combined with advanced, non-toxic strategies for wellness and preventive health information can uplift the level of collective and individual well-being. Preventive medicine strategies may range from nutritional alterations in local diets to understanding the nutraceutical value of food combinations and herbs.
VotM envisions a fertile melding of advanced and ancient wisdom in each sector of community activity, creating a partnership and mutual learning environment for all participants in the context of a toxin-free environment, healing, learning and farming system.
* Fr. Godfrey Nzamajo, O.D., Ph. D, Founder and Director, Songhai Foundation, Benin Africa http://www.songhai.org/songhai_en/
Index
Mission: The Natural Solutions Foundation in Panama (NSF-P) has been established exclusively for charitable, educational, literary and scientific research purposes, with the express intent of creating an Eco Demonstration Project and Educational Program in the beautiful, bountiful, temperate highlands of Panama.
NSF-P is a sister Foundation to the Natural Solutions Foundation (US), a humanitarian tax exempt NGO whose mission is “To discover, develop, demonstrate, document and disseminate Natural Solutions to the problems facing us and threatening our health and freedom, achieving and maintaining a healthy self, community and world.” In accordance with its Panama Escritura (foundational documents), NSF-P “is constituted with the purpose to promote, develop and execute projects with charitable purposes in Panama and in other countries around the world.”
To further the purposes of the Foundations, we have also established a commercial enterprise in Panama, the Natural Solutions Corporation (NSC), to receive funds for land and other development purposes, acting under the provision of the Escritura that permits NSF-P to establish such enterprises.
In keeping with this purpose, NSF-P has created the Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Project (VotM) in the Chiriquí Highlands. VotM is a demonstration Seed Community with diverse activities serving a common purpose:
Index
– A BeyondOrganic™, BioDynamic, Zero Emissions (BODY-ZE™) farm and farm school providing:
1. A complete and affordable food supply for the members of the community and the surrounding areas of Panama. Through collaborative arrangements with other farmers who follow our methods, a food supply can be created for Panama and international trade.
2. A “BeyondOrganic™, BioDynamic, Zero Emissions” (BODY-ZE™)* Farm and Farm School demonstrating and disseminating best practices and techniques both in commercial farming and Intensive Urban Agriculture (IUA) applications.
IUA allows non-farmers to provide sustainable, health-promoting foods for themselves and their families all year long, regardless of their living situations.
The VotM Educational Center for local, regional and international farmers will create and share knowledge of advanced BODY-ZE™ farming techniques, helping local farming communities achieve the economic and social potential and increase their stability. This will help to sustain the health of their farming and social structures in the face of growing pressures to industrialize and degrade the food supply.
For the initial stages of the VotM see: Food Freedom eJournal – http://www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org and the Natural Solutions Center – www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com .
– An open atmosphere of information exchange, cooperation and creative problem solving, tolerant and accepting of new ideas.
– An active and on-going collaboration and networking with Panama’s Civil, Educational and Political Institutions City of Knowledge (Ciudad Sabor) and its affiliates to enhance information exchange efficient transmission of best practices into and out of the VotM Eco Demonstration Project. As part of our outreach to the community, we have established The Chiriquí Times™, a newspaper and web site for all of Chiriquí Provincea newspaper serving all of Chiriquí Province and its main towns of David, Volcan and Boquete, and incorporating The Bajareque tourist paper published since 2005 and the Chirqui-Libre Volcan newspapera.
The Chiriquí Times
Index
– The Dr. Rima Institute at the Valley of the Moon – www.DrRima.net – Advanced Health, Wellness & Seminar Center serving multiple purposes:
1. Providing natural and advanced health services and education for the local and indigenous communities at subsidized cost to promote wellness and preventive health strategies.
2. Training of professionals and lay persons in nutrition and a full spectrum of other natural health strategies, advanced health recovery techniques and options which they can then disseminate to their communities and peers.
3. Providing wellness seminars and webinars in all areas of Advanced Healthcare.
4. Providing clinical test, study and trial facilities for the natural products industry through Natural Clinical Trials – http://www.NaturalClinicalTrials.net
5. Establishing a world-class Health and Wellness Facility as a Health Destination to which residents of the Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Community, the wider community, Panama, the region and the global community may come for wellness services and education, beneficial natural therapies and advanced healthcare treatment. Since several of our participants are world-renowned health practitioners, this goal is realistic. Bringing in Practitioners In Residence will broaden and deepen these options.
– A net-energy producing, low-resource consumption, energy-independent community using Zero Emissions Farming and other accessible technology to meet and exceed its own needs. Techniques to apply off-grid energy options will be shared with the local and wider communities.
Index
-An Arts and Education Center where
1. Creative activity can be woven into the life of the local and larger communities.
2. Arts education can be offered to the local community and those who come for these activities.
3. Seminars and trainings on a wide range of topics can be offered to local and distant learners both through travel to the Valley of the Moon™ facility and through distance learning via webinars and similar strategies.
– A BeyondOrganic, BioDynamic Restaurant, Internet Café and Teaching Kitchen facility to share nutritional abundance and options with interested eaters and learners.
See the Grand Opening Videos and developing program: www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com.
– A Nature Preserve, Recreation and Wilderness Area holding land in trust for future generations.
– A hotel and eco tourism facility where seminar participants, medical and wellness tourism guests and those enjoying the beauties of the environment (and the BeyondOrganic BioDynamic cuisine) can enjoy their time at the VotM.
– A Residential community in which VotM full-time participants will reside
– An educational system for the children of residents and those in the local community who choose to have their children attend
– A local economy to allow both VotM residents and those in the local community who wish to participate in it a means of stabilizing their economic situation avoiding the need to expend Balboa for local products, goods and services
– Different agricultural pursuits require different locales. A program by which farmers can lease land to the VotM in order to create Farm Schools on their property, allowing diversified agricultural production and training, land reclamation and habitat restoration is integral to the VotM project.
– A source of positive influence on local, regional and global practice and policy in health, food, arts and community
*Industrial pressures continue to erode and degrade organic food standards for both production and inclusion of non-organic items. For example, in the United States, USDA Certified Organic products may contain 10% or more genetically modified (GMOs) material while still claiming USDA Organic status. The short and long term safety of transgenic organisms, or GMOs) has never been established. Those independent studies which have been carried out clearly demonstrate serious dangers in environmental, infertility, cancer and other threats. Numerous countries have banned GMOs from their food supply. Panamanian law prevents their use because plants and animals derived from biotechnology (i.e., GMOs) violate the Precautionary Principle. Nevertheless, many transgenic organisms have been registered by the Panamanian Government with UPOV (Geneva) and GMOs are available for use in Panama.
BeyondOrganic BioDynamic standards exceed Organic Certification and Codex Alimentarius Organic standards by a significant margin. Food production following these standards will offer achievable increases in food quality, crop quantity and community health.
Index
Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Project is an activity of the Natural Solutions Foundation’s International Decade of Nutrition (IDN). The central concept of IDN lies in the belief that a healthy food supply is essential to a healthy community, in both the local and wider sense and is fully achievable in the context of intact communities of producers and consumers using best practices (which are, by definition, toxin free).
Therefore, in order to demonstrate and disseminate techniques which can provide a healthy food supply, with all of its attendant social and health benefits, immediate and delayed, the IDN initiated the creation of a “Seed Community”. Following a worldwide search for the optimal environment in which to site this community, led by the Foundation’s President, Maj. Gen. Albert N. Stubblebine, III (USA, Ret), considering multiple factors, it became clear that the Chiriquí Highlands provide the optimal environment for this project for a multitude of reasons including:
Climate/Year Round Growing Season
Soil Fertility
Geopolitical Stability
Stable Civilian Population
Infrastructure
Geologic Characteristics
Economic Stability
Accessibility of Local and Indigenous Populations
Familiarity With Presence of Strangers
Absence of similar programs
Favorable legal climate
After an extensive site search, locations for various activities were identified and are currently either functioning or being developed. Sites include a Shade Gown Beyond Organic BioDynamic coffee finca (Santa Clara), a Seminar Center, Restaurant and Medical Center(Volcan), a cattle ranch (Caizan) and a complex community whose site is currently under consideration.
In addition, two agricultural projects are underway in Benin, Africa, in cooperation with the world-renowned Songhai Community.
Technical innovations look forward and backward: In each of its projects, the IDN combines leading edge technologies & traditional methods to enhance:
Crop Production
Nutrient Density
Economic sustainability
Community Sustainability
Farmer Health
Consumer Health
Environmental Health
Sustainable, Culturally Sensitive Hospitality and Tourism Facilities
Participation by Compatible Individuals and Families is encouraged.
The Foundation offers several levels of participation. The Escritura establishing the Panama Foundation provides that it may (1) issue Beneficial Interest Certificates (BICs) and (2) engage in commercial enterprises that benefit its Mission.
In keeping with that legal authority, the Foundation seeks funding several ways:
[1] BICs – Two types: Founders BICs and Participant/Supporter BICs
[a] Founder BIC – Participation: $75,000 [One per family; valuation subject to change.]
(i) Right to buildable lot on community (trust) property, when purchased; you own your own house.
(ii) Right to Banco National prime rate simple interest on participation
(iii) Right to purchase from community enterprises at co-op rates
(iv) Right to participate in community governance.
[b] Participant/Supporter BIC: same as above, not including (i), but with one half point higher interest.
[2] Joint Ventures.
[3] Angel Loans; IRA, 401, Trust, Church or other participations.
[4] We will also have a very limited number of approximately one acre “fee simple” lots cut out of the trust property for purchase by persons who want to “own” their own land and house. This land will be subject to environmental and community easements subjecting the property to the community controls envisioned for the trust property. These parcels are expected to be $150,000 per acre.
Index
Some functions are best housed on the same site, while others are most successfully placed on varied sites. For that reason, VotM is operating, or is planning to operate, at several sites.
[1] The Valley of the Moon™ Coffee Finca is located in Santa Clara. Coffee production areas: This 20 hectare (45 acre) piece has 10 prime hectares of land planted with prized specialty All Natural coffees grown over 1200 m (approximately 4000 ft) producing 9 containers of roast coffee produced under the Valley of the Moon™ label by the renowned Hartmann family. Additional coffee areas will be planted as terrain and conditions allow.
Four thousand feet above sea level, the premium Strictly Hard Bean coffee grown on the VotM finca is produced in a shaded area known for its prime coffee. However, the presence of destructive fungi such as ‘ojo de gallo’ (Micenea triticolor) has made it impossible for farmers to avoid the use of chemicals. Although they may use “Green Stripe” or so-called organic fungicides, the fact remains that true BeyondOrganic coffee culture is impossible without additional technology.
Coffee workers, processors and drinkers all suffer ill effects from the use of such fungicides. Our finca is an educational site with safe, effective and non toxic all-natural anti fungals, fertilizers and soil amendments replacing chemical ones.
We anticipate a Valley of the Moon™ coffee culture classroom setting on the fina along with a production facility for the totally natural product which has been devised for fungal control. This VotM coffee culture project is already underway with our first crop of VotM coffee now in the cups of our supporters.
[2] The Headquarters, Hospitality, Intensive Agriculture Training Area and Seminar Center is located in Volcan. A .78 Hectaria parcel of land with two existing houses, two greenhouses, warehouse and planned associated structures intended to accommodate an 18-person B&B hotel, seminar facility, NSF-P headquarters (including administration, communications, reception/hospitality) and an Intensive Urban Agriculture (IAU) food production training area. A professional kitchen specifically designed for teaching purposes will facilitate both outstanding food service and culinary education for health and sustainability. Education and employment opportunities for local personnel are part of the program. Managerial skills will be fostered and taught so that personnel become empowered to develop their own enterprises after association with the VotM project.
This is the location of the Dr. Rima Institute & BeyondOrganic™ Restautrant, Teaching Kitchen and Internet Café: www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com.
Training areas for intensive agriculture, including sustainable small animal culture will allow school children and others to learn the simple and effective techniques of growing their own food in very small spaces (1.25 mx1.25 m for a year’s vegetables for a family of 4) without the input of any synthetic chemicals. Seminars on herbal medicine, food storage, nutrition, preventive medicine, community resource sharing, permaculture and other “tools of sustainability” will be held for both local and international participants.
[3] Cattle and Self Renewing Soil Systems are under development in Caizan. Land use within the context of a large farm will allow a Cattle Ranching program using novel techniques, such as farm-scale sprouting and natural parasite control, to increase the number of head per hectare while increase, not degrading the quality of life, and production, of the cattle. This will assist cattle farmers in increasing output, decreasing cost and increasing quality of their products in a BeyondOrganic BioDynamic context.
Index
[4] Expanding the Community…
Renewable soil systems, like the Amazonian Terra Preta system, will be explored and developed. Once perfected, they will be taught to farmers allowing a self-renewing soil amendment which will benefit their profits and their crops.
Natural Health Centers are under development and will be sited in Volcan, Portrerillos and El Banco. Participants in the VotM project include numerous experienced health professionals whose natural approaches to health and wellness, plus preventive strategies, meld well with indigenous and local herbal and other health traditions. An easily reached facility will be available for local access in Portrerillos Arriba itself while facilities on the site of the community itself will provide additional health options.
Providing the same services as the community facility, the local access facility will be subsidized to allow affordability for low-income communities, including indigenous people as well as middle class clients. The Integrated Project Site may be located in El Banco where a fully developed BeyondOrganic BioDynamic Zero Emissions farm and farm school will share the local with hotel, housing, food service, performance and arts center, seminar, wellness facility and recreational areas. This integrated community will serve as a hub for the VotM project and will consist of an initial 20 Hectares which can be expanded as needed.
NSF-P will hold the land in common, in Trust, as a land-lease program while the various uses of the land support and sustain a community with diverse functions, all of which are focused around teaching and dissemination. All aspects of the community will be designed to serve as demonstrations of sustainable, reproducible and transmissible solutions to the problems facing communities all over the world.
Undeveloped, protected forest and water-shed areas will be maintained and extended. We are working with another international NGO to plant large areas of fruit and nut trees with the goal of providing education for farmers on how to develop those crops using totally natural techniques.
The Project will be based on a land trust model: individual lots will not be sold, but leased with a perpetually renewable lease, assignable to heirs and others, and saleable with right of first refusal going to the community. Residential participants will own their own dwellings and will have the right to a voice in community governance.
The Panamanian Foundation currently owns both the Coffee Finca and the Headquarters. We are seeking additional funding to secure an all natural 100+ acre parcel for further community development.
Through a program of Seed Enterprises or Joint Ventures (JVs) between NSF-P/NSC and entrepreneurs, programs designed to provide the necessary skills for business development, community cooperation and mentoring, VotM will facilitate the development of a diversity of enterprises, both large and small.
Distribution programs for products and produce will be developed with local input and participation, ownership and direction.
Entrepreneurs may be either local or non-local participants. All JVs must further the aims, goals and programs of NSF-P and VotM.
Managerial and other skills will be shared and taught as needed to encourage autonomy within community for as many people as possible.
Index
Cooperators and JV partners will participate in the financial rewards of the VotM successes.
Micro-credit will be offered to assist start up ventures and the replication of micro credit will be taught so that members of other communities can take these skills home to their own environments.
Market development and distribution skills, essential for the success of any business, will be shared with local and non-local learners.
A local and/or barter “currency” will be developed with the active input of area residents to assist in stabilizing the economy and strengthening local commerce without loss of “hard currency” capacity for products and services which do not require it.
1. The Dr. Rima Institute at the Valley of the Moon — Wellness Center and Product Lines: earns fees from provision of leading edge health services, guest housing for visitors coming for Eco tourism, health center and spa services, seminars and training programs, novel and innovative products and the income derived from people who come to experience the community. Associated commercial activities, such as “Valley of the Moon™” Organic Coffee, freeze dried herbs or healing lotions would be profit centers associated with this for-profit Corporation. VotM will sponsor seminars about off-the-grid, Beyond Organic™ living and wellness options for local and out of area learners. This facility is expected to provide at least a dozen jobs for Panamanians. The Natural Clinical Trials program is another Joint Venture that will use the Wellness Center facility: www.NaturalClinicalTrials.net as does the Beyond Organic™ Valley of the Moon Restaurant: www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com .
2. Beyond Organic™ Farm and Schools –will provide instruction and food for our community and the larger community as well since a significant food surplus is anticipated. This facility is expected to provide at least a dozen jobs for Panamanians.
3. Community Infrastructure/Construction – All building will employ the most architecturally and environmentally sustainable techniques to provide modes for other communities as well as an environment which meets our requirements for living lightly on the earth while enhancing it. This activity is expected to provide several dozen jobs for Panamanians.
Building techniques will be shared with local personnel and support for their use in other projects will be provided.
Local workers will be trained and employed whenever possible. Skills will be taught as needed to allow these workers to apply what they learn at VotM in other settings.
We endorse the Songhai Center (Benin, Africa) principals of Passion, Perfection and Profitability. You can see more about this Zero Emissions community at http://youtube.com/naturalsolutions where we have posted a four-part, forty-minute video of this astounding community’s successes.
Conservation Corps Internships
Index
Natural Solutions Foundation welcomes volunteers and always has work for self-supporting volunteers. Please contact us in advance if you are considering volunteering. Contact nsfmarketplace@gmail.com with “Volunteer” in the subject line. When funding is available, the Conservation Corps Internships will offer young people (and some not-so-young-people) from Panama and elsewhere the opportunity to work in the VotM™ and surrounding community, on development projects, in return for room and board. www.NatSol.org
Parents may wish to earmark donations to support a child’s participation. Initially the internship program will be conducted from the Farm School Building which will include a dormitory and other needed facilities. Seasonal and annual internships will be considered.
Index
The Natural Solutions Foundation believes that the synergy between our international efforts to promote Natural Solutions to pressing social issues and the special characteristics of the Valley of the Moon™ Eco Demonstration Project is strong and mutually productive. Panamanians and North Americans have a long history of creating joint projects and enterprises that have had a significant impact on the world. Bringing best practices through the VotM will significantly benefit Panama and Panamanians while strengthening our joint efforts a leadership center for similar enterprises elsewhere. Panama is already rapidly emerging as a financial center. Why should it not emerge as a health and sustainability center as well?
VotM has the capacity “discover, develop, demonstrate, document and disseminate” techniques and tools which increase quality of life and environmental stewardship from food production to community sustainability, personal health and cultural integrity as its central thrust. Through best practices, local empowerment and vigorous intellectual and practical cross fertilization, local and larger personal and community life is enhanced. At the same time, through distance learning and other techniques, mentoring and other innovative strategies, our advances can be manifested globally. We have a unique ability to foster communications and interfaces for the advances and training VotM can bring to this country and the Internet community.
VotM has chosen to site its landmark project in Chiriqui because of its unique combination of characteristics. Panama, too, offers unique factors for a project of this magnitude and type. The country has a long history as a cross-roads of transportation and commerce, with sophisticated legal, banking and educational sectors.
The Foundation is devoted to bringing best practices to essential functions of life and community. We are dedicated to increasing knowledge and capacity at the local and larger community level and both are principle driven to enhance capacity while retaining cultural cohesiveness in an environmentally sound context.
Natural Solutions Foundation – US, International Decade of Nutrition and Natural Solutions Foundation – Panama all share a deep determination to foster integrated health at the deepest level. This raises awareness, practice and health – so that, in short, choices can be made which embody health freedom by people and organizations at various levels of social complexity, from the individual to the nation-state.
Another cornerstone principle upon which our activities rest is collaboration and the development of “Deep Democracy” in which people make their own choices both personally and communally. This is only possible in the context of knowledge, empowerment and enhanced capacity. Our green community is developing a self-governing Charter to allow the widest possible participation in decision making.
Institutional collaboration is essential to develop and spread wisdom and experience. We incorporate as a foundational principle the cross-fertilization of effort to enhance efficiency and efficacy.
Our community of influence is broad and varied. Our participants, full and part time, come from a diverse background, and from all over the world. We believe that their passion and dedication, skill, academic and professional attainments make it possible for VotM to attract staff and students of outstanding abilities.
VotM is a complex and emerging project whose contours and capacities are evolving. For that reason, we incorporate significant flexibility and fluidity in our planning and operation.
With a sustained vision, and a sense of necessary malleability in its execution, we look forward to the fertility of input from many sources, some anticipated, and some which are bound to be serendipitous. This is part of the thrill of creativity – the paint on the canvas goes where the painter did not expect it to, and both canvas and painter – and the community — are the richer for it.
Index
Dr. rima on IRA, 401, Trust Fund Protection
http://tinyurl.com/4v95t37
The Valley of the Moon Community
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
The International Decade of Nutrition
www.InternationalDecadeofNutrition.org
The Food Freedom eJournal –
www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org
The Dr. Rima Institute –
www.DrRima.net
Natural Clinical Trials Network –
www.NaturalClinicalTrials.net
Valley of the Moon Coffee –
www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org
Global Health Freedom –
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Natural Solutions Center & BeyondOrganic™ Restaurant –
www.MyValleyoftheMoon.com
Global Food Freedom –
www.GlobalFoodFreedom.org
The Chiriquí Times –
www.ChiriquiTimes.com
NSF Panama Forum –
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NSF-Panama/
Donations: http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=189
Index