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Moving In
by Elizabeth Sawin
— August 1, 2002 —
At 9:30 at night the phone rings. It is my neighbor Lorie. “Would you mind stepping out onto your porch for a minute?” I think I know what this is about. Up the hill on Tom and Lorie’s porch there are candles burning on tables covered with the scattered remains of dinner. Children are [...]
Farming Nature in Holland
by Marleen van den Top, Anton Stortelder, and Hal Hamilton
— July 19, 2002 —
We can glimpse one future for agriculture by taking a trip to the land of tulips and Gouda cheese.
Holland is one of the densest populated agricultural countries in the world, and the Dutch people place a premium on nature. They created a government fund to support what [...]
We Can’t Afford to “Wait and See” on Climate Change
by Andrew Jones
— July 19, 2002 —
Recent Bush administration statements on climate change just do not add up. Our president and his advisers keep talking about climate as though we can wait for overwhelming signs of trouble and then switch our course in time, but the climate system is notoriously slow to respond to our policies. The Bush administration talks [...]
Up is not Down, Black is not White
by Elizabeth Sawin
— July 1, 2002 —
Once kings claimed that their power came directly from God. Once lawmakers decreed that slaves were not human beings. Once men said that women could not think clearly and therefore should not vote.
But black is not white just because the powerful say so.
We no longer view kings as divine or the descendants of slaves [...]
Farming Can Be Both High-Yield and Sustainable
by Hal Hamilton
— June 17, 2002 —
Dennis Avery is the leading challenger of sustainable agriculture, and he sets up “high-yield” agriculture as its opposite. Why can’t high-yield agriculture also be sustainable?
Unfortunately, Avery seems less interested in exploring the future of farming than in selling industrial agriculture. He claims that industrial methods are the best way to preserve nature and feed [...]
