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 [...]
Dear Folks: September 29,1996
Good morning, Dear Folks! Sorry for the bounciness in the fonts — I’m a morning person, and this is a lovely one, so I feel bouncy. The sun is cutting through a bank of black clouds. We had a gentle half-inch rain last night; to help refill the pond and brook from the August drought. The storm came from the south [...]
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 [...]
Only the Rich and Powerful are Allowed to Endanger Species
By Donella Meadows
–September 25, 1996–
Endangered plants and animals contribute neither hard nor soft money to political campaigns. People who care about nature are more numerous but less focused than people who want to log, mine, dam, drain, spray, pave or otherwise impose their will upon the few remaining patches of undisturbed nature. So you can imagine what the latest rewrite [...]
Waiting for the Frost
By Donella Meadows
–September 19, 1996–
The sun rises in a new place every morning now. Its first beam hits the garden at a southerly angle. It’s equinox time, and Old Sol is distancing himself quickly, every day lower in the sky. Since June we’ve lost four hours of light; we’ll lose another four by December.
This brief moment between summer and autumn [...]
