Genetic Engineering Is Not Just More of the Same
by Donella Meadows
— March 25, 1999 —
Genetic engineering is nothing new. People have been messing with genes since the first farmers selected the biggest wild grass seeds and began to breed what we now call grain.
So say many widely respected scientists. It’s no big deal, they say, to snip out code from a flounder and paste it into a tomato. [...]
Monsanto Gets Pie in the Face
by Donella Meadows
— March 18, 1999 —
Poor Monsanto.
To my knowledge only one other company — Microsoft — has managed to be so hated that its CEO — Bill Gates — has been hit in the face by a cream pie. The pie that hit Monsanto’s CEO Bob Shapiro at an environmental forum last fall was made of tofu, in protest [...]
Two Possible Futures for Farming and Food
By Donella Meadows
–September 18, 1997–
I have just visited two farms in Europe, both of which claim to demonstrate the future of agriculture — though they are about as different as two farms could be.
Babolna, in northwest Hungary, covers 60,000 acres in the flat, fertile Danube basin. Established in 1789 by Emperor Jozsef II, Babolna became famous for its Arabian horses, [...]
Is a Bioengineered Potato Organic?
By Donella Meadows
–July 31, 1997–
It’s tempting for someone who has grown some carrots any old way to slap the label “organic” on them and get a higher price. Whenever there’s real value around, someone will come up with a counterfeit.
So farmers who raise their vegetables with the care that the word “organic” implies have been working on certification programs with [...]
From Dump to Garden: Burlington’s Intervale
By Donella Meadows
–July 24, 1997–
The Intervale, the green floodplain where the Winooski River winds through Burlington, Vermont, was once the site of flourishing farms. Green Mountain Boy Ethan Allen had a homestead there, and long before him the Abenaki Indians cultivated the fertile soil. But as the city grew, the valley degenerated into a weedy urban wasteland, literally on the [...]
