A Truly Sophisticated Economy Would Pursue More Than One Goal
by Elizabeth Sawin
— March 1, 2002 —
I have a young friend who, I think, will never eat another banana without knowing a great deal about its history.
On a trip to Belize, Hannah and other homeschooled teenagers saw monkeys, the rainforest, and Mayan villages. But the memory that seems to stand out the most vividly is of a banana plantation.
The workers [...]
Closing the Barn Door on POPs
by Donella Meadows
— December 14, 2000 —
However environmentally permissive a Republican-controlled United States may be, other parts of the world are pioneering attitudes, technologies, and laws that could carry us safely through the 21st Century. As this week’s happy example, I offer the new global agreement on POPs, plus Sweden’s even better policy on the same topic.
POPs is the hot [...]
Why Bother With Organic Flowers?
By Donella Meadows
–November 11, 1999–
Thank goodness for the agribusiness folks. The more they mess about with transplanted genes and toxic chemicals and irradiation, the better the market for local, fresh, organic, un-messed-about-with foods. When it comes to things we’re going to put into our mouths, things that are literally going to become us, we consumers are cautious, and rightly so.
But [...]
Two Mindsets, Two Visions of Sustainable Agriculture
by Donella Meadows
— July 29, 1999 —
“I guess you must be in favor of pesticides,” concluded a Monsanto public relations guy, after I objected to his company’s genetically engineered potato.
“I guess it’s OK with you if people starve,” said a botanist I deeply respect, with whom I have carried out a fervent argument about genetic engineering.
Accusations like these astonish me. [...]
CSA Farms Can Help Our Health, Our Land, and Our Farmers
By Donella Meadows
–April 16, 1998–
On average, 65 cents out of every dollar you spend for food at the supermarket go for packaging, delivery and marketing. Thirty cents go to chemical companies that make fertilizers, pesticides and genetically altered organisms. That leaves five cents for the farmer.
If you wonder why farms are failing (over 20,000 a year go under in the [...]
