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 [...]
More Justice for Chemicals Than for Presidents
By Donella Meadows
–February 19, 1997–
In this country not only do we hold people innocent until proven guilty, we do the same for chemicals. Their behavior may be suspect, they may be found regularly at the scenes of crimes, they may fail their lab tests, but still we let them go free — indeed we multiply, spread, and circulate them — [...]
How Do We Keep Pesticides Out of Our Foods, if the Government Doesn’t?
By Donella Meadows
–October 10, 1996–
“Have you ever known a pesticide to kill anyone?” a neighbor asked me the other day. She’s a good farmer. She uses pesticides lightly, only when she really needs them. I pick apples at her place, because on my own, where I use no pesticides, I do fine with every crop except apples.
No, I had to [...]
The New Food Safety Law — A Bit Better, But Only a Bit
By Donella Meadows
–October 3, 1996–
If you are a purist who would just as soon not have any harmful chemicals in your food, you will not feel protected by the new “Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.” If you’re a political realist, though, you might say, “Well, heck, it’s better than the law we had before. It’s probably the best we’re [...]
Farewell to the Delaney Amendment
By Donella Meadows
–September 26, 1996–
Over centuries we have written innumerable laws to protect ourselves from each other’s foolishness, negligence, incompetence, or evil. Few of those laws forbid anything absolutely. Murder we can get away with, in self-defense or insanity. We can build on floodplains, if we really want to. The law is strict about robbing banks, but there are plenty [...]
