TIMELINE - Global Community · Timeline Email Edition November/December 1999 ... The Edible Schoolyard Donella Meadows: ... because the results accurately reflect

TimelineEmail Edition

November/December 1999 - No. 48

A Publication of the Foundation for Global Community

http://www.globalcommunity.org

[email protected]

Phone: (650) 328 7756 Fax: (650) 328 7785

In this Issue:

Mac Lawrence: What the People WantMac Lawrence: But, Can We Be Adequately Informed?

Michael Abkin: How Wise Are We?Alice Waters: The Edible Schoolyard

Donella Meadows: Organic Agriculture WorksEdge Course TrainingBlips on the Timeline

Fuel for Thought, a book review by Joe KresseThe New Pioneers by Thomas Petzinger

Donella Meadows: 2000

1999 Foundation for Global Community

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What the People Want consuming job, but worth it, Kay says,because the results accurately reflectwhat the public thinks.

by Mac LawrenceAt the end of ten years of polling,covering 61 public issues, Kayconcluded: “This massive projectproduced overwhelming evidence thatthe legislation and policy choices mostsupported by American citizens arestable, consistent, pragmatic, principledand, on issue after issue, startlingly atodds with the views of national leaders.”Some of these conclusions surprised andimpressed Kay himself, who said theyturned him from “a pretty good elitist”into a “deep populist.”

We vote them into office to represent us.We even call them “Representatives.”But do our elected government officialsdo what we want? Or know what wewant? Or even care what we want?

Alan Kay, a wealthy, retiredbusinessman, felt that most polls did notaccurately reflect the American public’sopinion on significant public issues. Healso believed that the country would bebetter off if its leaders knew what thepeople thought and wanted. So Kaydecided to spend his own money—millions, in fact—extensively pollingpeople for their views on a wide array ofsubjects from military spending to U.S.policy in Central America, from healthcare to the welfare system. Kay reportshis findings in a 400-page, self-publishedbook, Locating Consensus forDemocracy: A Ten-Year U.S.Experiment.

That was hardly the response of ourcountry’s leaders, reports Kay.“Gingrich, Bush, Gephardt, Gore,Clinton, Perot, and virtually all ofCongress and the mainstream newsmedia, just turned away. They did notwant to know that the reasonablepreference of supermajorities (67+%) ofAmericans differs from the desires of oneor another special interest that officialsacross the political spectrum routinelyenact into law.”Getting accurate information, it turns

out, is fraught with complexities andnuances. The pollster must be neutral onthe subject, so Kay included Democratsand Republicans for polls on politicalmatters. Questions needed carefulwording, so Kay tried variations, oftenwith slight word changes. To give theperson answering the questions adequatebackground information, Kay included inthe questions arguments pro and con. Hemade sure that people who answered“don’t know” were questioned further tobring the “DKs” to a minimum (don’ttrust any survey with 10 percent DKs, headvises). It’s an expensive, time-

Kay had hoped that his “high-quality,bipartisan, in-depth, large-sampletelephone surveys” would be seen bylawmakers as an improvement over thetypical surveys politicians now do whichtoo often are used to sell a certain courseof action rather find out what the peoplewant. We all receive such surveys in ourincoming mail containing questions likethe one Kay uses in his book as anextreme example: “Do you agree withSenator Foghorn that vicious criminalsshould serve their full sentences and not

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be released from prison after servingonly a few months to continue rapingand murdering innocent children playingin school yards?” Hardly the kind ofquestion that invites a thoughtfulresponse on a complex subject.

process to produce timely democraticconsensus on policies and legislation, butacknowledges that whatever the process,it must have the approval of two keygroups. One is the public; the other is“the elites who study this kind ofproblem or whose careers are enmeshedin it, including political scientists,scholars, elected officials, and editorialwriters. Without their approval, theprocess might never be consideredseriously. Without the approval of thegeneral population, democracy is lost.”

Kay’s long-range plan was to foster theidea of a Congressional Office of PublicOpinion Research and Assessment(COPORA), using his already completedpolls as a model. His data indicated wide-spread support for the idea by the public,but during several years of talking withmembers of Congress and their aides, hisCOPORA idea got less than 4 percentsupport from senators and members ofthe House.

At the end of his book, Kay quotes thenoted pollster George Gallup, Jr.“Listening to the public is a healthyexercise. Public opinion is certainly notinfallible, but when the people haveenough information about alternativepolicies and the reasons behind each,they usually have the good sense to pickthe best. In any event, where people feelthat their important interests are at stake,they will insist on the right to participatein policy decisions. It is extremelyimportant that our foreign and domesticpolicy leaders understand this necessity,take pains to inform people accurately,and give due weight to their views. Thismay add to the difficulty of policymaking, but in no other way can weachieve wisdom and steadiness in thepolicies of the nation.”

Kay describes his interactions withCongress, as “poignant, quixotic, sad,amusing, frustrating, and sometimessurprisingly different from one to thenext. It led to a clearer understanding ofwhere Congress is, how it arrived at thiscondition, and what is going on now.”He learned a lot about how Congressworks, how much time individualCongress members spend on long-termissues (the urgent takes priority over theimportant), how they make votingdecisions (is it how they personally feel?or what they believe their constituentswant? or in line with the special interestswho fund their campaigns? or to showtheir independence?), and how they seethemselves (allocators of funds ratherthan adjudicators).

Though Congressional reaction wasdisappointing, Kay says he learnedenough from the experience to beguardedly optimistic that “people can stillturn our democracy around and save it.”He believes COPORA is the right

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But—Can We BeAdequately Informed?

what images and messages will resonatewith target audiences.”

Public Relations (PR) firms, Staubersays, are numerous, secretive, influential,politically connected, and have virtuallylimitless budgets. He reports that one,Burson-Marsteller, has a PR staff of2100 in more than 30 countries, andclaims a quarter of a billion dollars in netfees from its clients, which include notonly many Fortune 500 companies, butgovernments as well. Stauber quotesBurson-Marsteller as saying: “The role ofcommunications is to manageperceptions which motivate behaviorsthat create business results.”

by Mac Lawrence

Alan Kay states the case (see page 1)that a well-informed citizenry will makethe right decisions. But how wellinformed are we? What are our sourcesof information? How do we know whatwe hear, read, and see is not influenced,perhaps even fabricated, by someonewho is biased?

An article in The Sun, titled “War onTruth: The Secret Battle for theAmerican Mind,” paints an ominouspicture of where much of our informationcomes from. The article begins with aquote from Australian academic AlexCarey: “The 20th century has beencharacterized by three developments ofgreat political importance: the growth ofdemocracy, the growth of corporatepower, and the growth of corporatepropaganda as a means of protectingcorporate power against democracy.”

How do PR firms do it? Half of what weread about corporations, Stauber notes,actually originates from a PR firm. “Ifyou’re a lazy journalist, editor, or newsdirector, it’s easy to simply regurgitatethe dozens of press releases and storiesthat come in every day for free from thePR people, many of them formerreporters who cultivate relationships withthe press, and control the press’ accessto key corporate people.”

The remainder of the article is aninterview with John Stauber, editor ofthe journal PR Watch and author ofToxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies,Damn Lies, and the Public RelationsIndustry. Stauber claims that virtuallyeverything we read, see, and hear on theissues we care about is managed bycorporate spin artists. “In order toconfuse the public and manipulateopinion and policy to their advantage,”Stauber says, “corporations spendbillions of dollars a year, hiring publicrelations firms to cultivate the press,discredit their critics, spy on and co-optcitizens’ groups, and use polls to find out

Though admitting that much of whatpublic relations people do is helpful,Stauber worries that “public relations hasbecome a huge, powerful, hiddenmedium available only to wealthyindividuals, big corporations,governments, and government agenciesbecause of its high cost. And the purposeof these campaigns is not to facilitatedemocracy or promote social good, butto increase power and profitability for theclients paying the bills.”

In the interview conducted by DerrickJensen, an editor with The Sun, Stauber

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explains how PR firms use scientists tomake their messages believable, how theyuse polls to market products likecigarettes and come up with productnames the public doesn’t find offensive(like substituting the name “bovinesomatotropin” for the scary term “bovinegrowth hormone”), and how theycooperate with reporters on the basis ofwhether the reporter’s stories arefavorable or unfavorable to their clients.Stauber describes divide-and-conquerstrategies for defeating social-changemovements, such as hiring and payinglarge fees to “so-called activists” to workagainst the public interest, and the use ofphony research for such objectives asproving that cigarette smoking doesn’tcause cancer. He points to industry-funded groups with misleading nameslike the Global Climate Coalition which,he says, claims global warming is a myth;the Workplace Health & Safety Councilwhich opposes regulations aimed atstrengthening worker safeguards; and theNational Wetlands Coalition composedmainly of oil drillers, developers, andnatural gas companies. “Managing theoutrage is more important than managingthe hazard” is the single most importantrule of public relations, Stauber says.

Of course, not every bit of informationwe get comes from those who are tryingto “control and regiment the masses.”But it makes sense that everything weread, hear, or see has some bias to it,however slight, because it is originatedor processed by some individual or somegroup. So, what to conclude fromStauber’s message? Continue to takethings with a grain of salt, look behindthe scenes, and read the morningnewspaper with care.

We Call Ourselves Sapiens,Wise—But Are We?by Michael Abkin

I had come home from work recently andwas going through the mail when I cameacross a newsletter reporting that threeparticipants at the 1998 State of theWorld Forum, which I attended, had metviolent deaths.

I remembered having read the newsreports soon after it happened:

Stauber includes other quotes, such asthis one from Edward Bernays, the manwho is reported to have coined the termpublic relations: “If we understand themechanisms and motives of the groupmind, it is now possible to control andregiment the masses according to ourwill without them knowing it.” Bernayscalled this process the “engineering ofconsent,” describing its practitioners as“an invisible government which is thetrue ruling power of our country."

Three Americans kidnapped andmurdered in the jungles of Venezuela,near the Colombian border. Theleader of the Colombian guerrillassaid it was a mistake, that his menwere not authorized to take thosepeople, that the kidnappers panickedas one captive was dying of a spiderbite—and so killed them all. Amistake.

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But I must have merely scanned thearticle at the time. Didn’t even registerthe victims’ names. Probably just cluckedmy tongue, muttered something like,“Geez, not again. Will it ever end?” andwent on to other stories.

led me to see similar patterns in ourresponse to seemingly unrelatedissues—patterns that suggest some of theanswers to these questions lie rightbefore our eyes. Or rather behind them,inside our heads, as we have learnedfrom recent scientific discoveries aboutthe evolution of the brain.This time the names registered: Terence

Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, andLahe’ena’e Gay. THE AMYGDALA AND THE

NEOCORTEXThe world went gray. Lahe Gay (ofHawaiian, Mohawk, and Scottishdescent) was leader of Pacific CulturalConservancy International, whosemission is to preserve human culturesand communities, particularly indigenousones, that are in danger of extinction.She and her companions were inColombia on that very mission.

Deep within our brains resides one of itssmallest and most primitive parts, onethat saves our skins when we arethreatened by sudden, violent attack froma lion, shark, mugger, or other natural orunnatural predator. The amygdala, as it iscalled because of its almond shape,evolved with the first mammals, about200 million years ago, as part of thebrain’s limbic system. It serves as amemory bank of emotions andcorresponding responses—reactive,reflexive emotions, from craving and lustto fear and anger.

I had sat at the same lunch table withLahe at the Forum. We were in the samediscussion groups. She electrified nearly200 people gathered from all over theworld when, beginning with a chant, sheshared simple Native American wisdomabout how to bring diverse points ofview together into an effective dialogue.This wisdom was much needed, for atthat point the session was in danger ofdissolving into separate agendas. We alllistened to her passionate plea and tookheed—and thus she salvaged themeeting. At the close of the three-daygathering, her hair brushed my cheek aswe hugged farewell.

Later, about 100 million years ago, theneocortex began to emerge. Theneocortex gives us our ability to analyze,evaluate, innovate, and choose. Thesemore advanced functions, however, taketime, time we may not have when facedwith imminent danger. The moreprimitive amygdala, on the other hand,has the ability to short circuit pathwaysthrough the neocortex and reflexivelytrigger evasive or combative responses.

I have never before known someone whomet a violent end. The inevitablequestions: Why? Why her? Why anyone?Why the violence?

When confronted by a charging bull orautomobile, a split-second amygdalaresponse can enhance the chances forsurvival. But in the more subtly nuancedcrises of our neocortex-created socialsystems, such gut responses can cause us

The emotions and thoughts about thisand subsequent events in the world have

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more harm than good. For example, alltoo often, our responses to suchscourges as terrorism, drugs, disease,and pests are overwhelmingly reactiverather than proactive, and weightedtoward interdiction rather thanprevention. It’s the primitive “fight orflight” response. Even our metaphors aremilitaristic and defensive: War on drugs!Combat terrorism! Fight disease!Exterminate pests!

as there are people who choose to carryout acts of terrorism, they will find a wayto circumvent the systems we put inplace to protect us. We will forever haveto invest billions upon billions to stay onestep ahead of, or more likely behind, theterrorists. The only way to eradicateterrorism is not to stop terrorists but tostop people from feeling the need tobecome terrorists. How much are wespending on that?

It’s not that I don’t believe there is evil inthe world. I do, but I don’t believe thatevil is inevitable. That is, terrorists areborn, but they are not born terrorists.Whether in Beirut, Rwanda, OklahomaCity, the Balkans, or Littleton, babies donot come equipped with trench coats, skimasks, camouflage fatigues, swastikas,or semi-automatic weapons. Babies arenot born disaffected, alienated, angry,desperate. What turns babies intoterrorists? What gives them the strengthof will to coldly lash out at their fellowhuman beings, whether for political endsor merely out of blind rage andfrustration?

CASE 1: TERRORISM

The lion’s share of our anti-terrorismresources goes to interdiction, a police ormilitary response. It’s easy; it’s what weknow how to do; it satisfies our primalsurvival instincts.

Consider security screening systems.Billions are spent developing anddeploying “Star Wars” technologies andincreasingly restricting the basicfreedoms of all to stop the few fromintroducing weapons and explosivesinto airplanes, public buildings, orclassrooms. Our airports, governmentoffices, concert halls, and even ourschools are becoming fortifiedbunkers—often with their own policedepartments (yes, schools, too).

If we can answer these questions, maybethen we will learn a new response, andstore that in our quick-reactionamygdala. And we can because we have.It’s called prevention. Children in schoolare learning and practicing emotionalintelligence and conflict resolution.Informal personal dialogues are takingplace between peoples of warring nationsand tribes. We know from experiencethat prevention works and is even costeffective in the long run. And therein liesthe hope.

Where will it stop? When will we realizethe futility of the primitive response andhow much it is costing us, not only indollars but in the very liberties it isintended to protect? As well as it workedfor us in the wild, maybe it just doesn’twork in modern human systems.

In the short run, such measures may benecessary and even to some extenteffective. In the long run, however, theyare doomed to failure. Because as long

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CASE 2: DRUGSOf course, some diseases are seriouslyendangering, and such treatment isnecessary in the short term. But, from alarger perspective, what would happen ifwe spent a billion or two on wellnessprograms, on research into mind-bodyfeedback loops, on holistic medicine, onenhancing the strength and vitality of thenatural systems of our bodies? Indeed,there is statistical evidence thatapproaches such as these work and arecost effective, as health insurers areincreasingly acknowledging. And thereinlies the hope. Our neocortex knows theseresponses work, but we continue to actout of our amygdala, which is still in thedark.

We can continue forever spendingbillions to burn down the forests andfarms of Colombia, send the Coast Guardand Navy out to patrol our coastalwaters, and build more and more jails tohouse drug dealers and users. But theproblem will not go away. Not that way.As long as someone wants drugs, therewill be someone to supply them. Ournational experiment with prohibition ofalcohol didn’t work. In fact, it did muchto foster organized crime in this country.

Users and pushers will find a way to gettogether. No doubt about it. Yet, if noone wanted drugs, suppliers would findanother line of work. Just a billion or twoon counseling and drug treatmentprograms can go a long way toeliminating the demand. We know fromexperience that these programs work andare even cost effective. Look atAlcoholics Anonymous, Synanon, andthe anti-tobacco label warnings and adcampaigns. And therein lies the hope.

AND SO ON

We try to exterminate agricultural“pests” (our name for them; they weren’tcreated thus) with poisons that end uppoisoning our environment and us,while they merrily go about evolvingresistances. We already know in whatdirection the hope lies: organic farming,biointensive agriculture, and the like.Will we choose to go there?

CASE 3: DISEASE

Bacteria are part of our world, and ourbodies have evolved mechanisms to livewith them naturally in a win-win,symbiotic cohabitation. Actually, we arepart of their world—after all, they aremuch more numerous and were the firstlife forms to emerge on Earth.

We try to stop illegal immigration byputting up walls at our borders, chasingdesperate people across the desert, anddenying innocent children health care andeducation, thus setting them up fordisaffection, alienation, anger, moredespair.

Know-it-all newcomers that we are, andnot trusting our natural systems, wespend billions in our research labs anddrug companies developing antibiotics to“protect” us. But the bacteria, time andtime again, laugh at our hubris, mutate,and render our billions impotent.

The list goes on and on.

Terrorists, drug dealers, bacteria, pests,illegal immigrants. Killing them orputting up barriers cannot possiblysucceed as the sole or even primary

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strategy—whether in an American highschool, the California desert, a geneticsresearch laboratory, or a South Americanjungle.

The Living Earth. In an interview for theprogram, Waters talked about the EdibleSchoolyard.

How did the Edible Schoolyard comeabout?It’s not as if there were no successful

models out there. I’ve cited a few here.And they don’t all require expensivegovernment programs. In fact, thecompassionate, more thoughtfulapproaches often require fewerresources. And it’s not a choice of eitherinterdiction or prevention. Any realsolution has to be both. So far, though,our response has been primarily theprimitive, militaristic one. It’s time to usethe rest of our brain. It’s time to live upto the name we have givenourselves—and truly be wise.

I pass by Martin Luther King Jr. MiddleSchool every day on my way to ChezPanisse, usually very early in the morningand very late at night. I had theimpression that it was an abandonedschool, and I mentioned this somewhere.As a result, the principal invited me tovisit the school.

He wondered if I might want to helpmake a garden there. He took me on alittle tour, and I realized that it wasn’tjust a garden that was a possibility. Therewas an abandoned cafeteria space thathadn’t been used for 17 years—the kidsate at a fast food concession stand at theback of the schoolyard. When I went intothis old room, it felt like a fantasticrestaurant site! It was built in 1921 andstill had all of the old cabinets and bigtables. I thought if we just cleaned it upand painted it, we could make it into aplace for the kids to cook.

Michael Abkin is a systems analyst and avolunteer at the Foundation for GlobalCommunity.

The Edible Schoolyard

There are a lot of schools with gardens,and a lot of schools that cook food, but Iwanted to put them together. I think it’snot just important to have a garden, butto grow the food, to cook the food, andto eat the food together—that is thetransformational experience. I wantedkids to really understand the relationshipof the earth to the table. It took Mr.Smith, the principal, about nine monthsto figure out how to convince the rest ofthe staff that this was a good idea. Butthen he called me back, and the idea ofthe Edible Schoolyard was born.

An interview with Alice Waters

Alice Waters is an internationally knownchef, author, and proprietor of ChezPanisse restaurant in Berkeley, California.She designed an Edible Schoolyard programat a local middle school that involveschildren in planting, gardening, harvesting,cooking, and eating together. Her goal is toinstill a sense of the vital relationship offood to their lives, while teaching respectfor each other and the planet. She isfeatured in the Foundation for GlobalCommunity’s latest television program,

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they are learning something veryThe first summer, the kids came and Ibrought the lunches. I thought, “I have tobring them something they’ll all like. I’llmake my own little handmade burritosand tortillas and beans.” I brought thatdown, and also some peaches—and theydidn’t want it! They wanted the tacosthat they were familiar with. The peachhad fuzz on it, and they wouldn’t touchit. I was really shocked by that. By theend of that summer, they were eating thebitter lettuces out of the garden. I learnedthat when kids get involved with theplanting, the growing of the food, andthe preparing of it, then they have adesire to eat it. I’m very excited aboutthe results of the program so far.

profound. They’re learning how to takecare of the land for their future. They’relearning how to feed themselves. They’relearning how to cook, a skill that they’llhave for their whole lives. And they’relearning how to have pleasure at thetable, how to communicate, how to bepart of the group and express their ideas.Now I want to be number one!

“Fast food” is the antithesis of whatyou’re talking about.

Yes. Fast food is on the other side ofthis. We’re trying to go into the slow-food movement—like they have in Italy.In Italy they have a slow-foodmovement, with a little snail as theirlogo. It’s about making time toappreciate what you have around you.

How do the classes work?

We continue to work on the integrationof the curriculum. The science and mathteachers bring their kids out in the gardento teach them in that environment. Wehave a garden teacher who is there full-time, and usually one or two interns thathelp in the garden, so the classes canbreak down into small groups. It worksvery successfully. The same thinghappens in the kitchen. They coordinatewhat they’re serving with what the kidsare learning in the classroom—in history,for example. It’s a different avenue, onethat I think is so accessible and appealingto the kids. It brings them into thesubject in a very sensual way.

What is your long-term goal?

I have a very big vision about what canhappen with this program. I see it as amodel for a national curriculum.Actually, it should be an internationalcurriculum, because things are breakingdown in countries all around the world.Kids don’t understand the relationship offood to culture and food to agriculture.That’s what we’re trying to teach, justlike you learn how to read and write anddo arithmetic. You need to learn how totake care of the land. You need to learnhow to cook, to feed yourself, and youneed to learn how to communicate at thetable—because that’s where our cultureis passed on.

I was extremely pleased when theyevaluated all the courses at King schoollast year. The students choose their topten of about forty different courses, andwe came in number three, after field tripsand gym! This is incredibly encouraging.They think it’s fun—and at the same time

I think the big change is only going tohappen when people are educated aboutthese principles. That’s why the EdibleSchoolyard program is so important to

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me. We have to begin at the beginning,with very little kids. This should be aprogram that starts in pre-school andgoes all the way through the universities.The choices that you make about foodaffect not only the quality of your ownlife, but the future of the planet.

I started Chez Panisse about 27 yearsago and it was really meant to be just aneighborhood cafe. I wanted a place, alittle small restaurant like the ones I hadknown in France. I wanted my friends tocome over every night for dinner. I neverimagined it would grow into what it has.

When did you first begin to think aboutthese principles?

Because we had a menu that changedevery night, I think I was propelled morequickly into this understanding ofingredients. I had to find something everyday and I was really searching. And thenwe hired a cook who knew a lot offarmers and she became our first forager.That’s a position that’s terribly importantbecause it’s a person who goes out andtalks to the farmers. We’re looking forpeople who care about food in the sameway—people who have a certain honestyand integrity about what they’re doing.That’s really what this is about.

I went to France when I was 19, andlived there for a year, going to school. Infact, I learned some profound thingsabout life that changed my whole way ofthinking. It was a kind of sensualawakening. I would go walking throughthe farmer’s market in the morning,smelling things, and looking at thebeautiful fruits and vegetables, andwatching people shopping and theirwhole engagement with food—and Iloved it. How they took an hour, maybetwo hours, for lunch. In the afternoon,people would be sitting in the cafes. Andat dinner, you’d find a little restaurantand you’d gather with friends at thetable. I felt the French really understoodsomething very important about life.

Farmers markets are our greatest hopefor the future, because they don’t justchange the way you eat, they change theway you live your life. When I go there, Iknow that this guy has gotten up veryearly in the morning and he picked allthese things for my pleasure and for mygood health. I can talk with him. I have abond with him. He relies on me, and Irely on him. A sense of communitycomes from that. I’m always excited togo to a farmers market. I just can’t waitto see whether I can find something thatI’ve never had before.

The ritual of eating?

Yes. Food brings people together. It’snot about how fancy it is. It can be alittle bowl of soup or a cup of tea.There’s just something about the purityof it, and the care that’s taken in thepreparation. When you’re offering tosomebody else, you’re expressing yourlove for them, your care about them. It’svery satisfying to the person who givesit, and it’s very satisfying to the personwho receives it.

Earlier you used the term“transformational experience.”

When I talk about a transformationalexperience, I mean that eating canchange your state of mind. It connectsyou with all of nature, you discover a

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new-found respect and appreciation.When you feel that way about it, itchanges your relationship to the peoplein your life as well, because you seethe people who are growing this food foryou, who are giving you this life force, ina different way. You realize howimportant that is, and how important theyare to your life. And that’s the beginningof a sense of community, a sense offamily.

“I guess it’s OK with you if peoplestarve,” said a botanist I deeply respect,with whom I’ve carried out a ferventargument about genetic engineering.

Accusations like these astonish me. I’man organic farmer. I’m not in favor ofpesticides. I’ve spent decades workingto end hunger; it is not OK with me thatanyone starves. I believe that my twoaccusers and I are working towardexactly the same goal—feeding everyonewithout wrecking the environment. Wewould all label that goal “sustainableagriculture.” But we must be makingradically different assumptions aboutwhat that goal looks like and how to getthere from here.

We’re meant to connect and tocommunicate in that way, and everythingin the society is going away from that.The reason that I got involved with thisproject at the school was because I wasworried about what was happening outthere in the world. I’m worried about ourkids. I’m worried about the violence. I’mworried about the way the cities are, theway people live, the lonely lives theylive—it seems brutal to me, and goingmore and more in that direction. TheEdible Schoolyard program is an effortto bring the children back into somethingthat is real and part of their everyday life.

The idea that if I oppose geneticengineering, I must favor pesticides,arises from an assumption that those arethe only two choices. If they were, Iwould probably agree that it’s better tofool with genomes than to spray poisonsover the countryside. But I see otherchoices. Plant many kinds of crops androtate them, instead of one or two cropsyear after year, which make a perfectbreeding ground for pests. Build upecosystems above ground and in the soilso natural enemies rise and fall with thepests, searching and destroying with aspecificity and safety and elegance thatneither chemicals nor engineering canmatch.

Organic Agriculture Works:Come See for Yourself

These are pest-control methods basednot on chemistry or genetics, but onecology. They work. I know. I use them.I know dozens of organic farmers whouse them. Small scale and large.Northeast, South, Midwest, West.Apples, lettuce, potatoes, strawberries,broccoli, rice, soybeans, wheat, corn.

by Donella Meadows

I guess you must be in favor ofpesticides,” concluded a Monsanto publicrelations guy, after I objected to hiscompany’s genetically engineered potato.

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Imagine what yields could be if evenThe claim that we need geneticengineering to feed the hungry must bebased on two assumptions: first thatmore food will actually go to hungrypeople; second that genetic engineeringis the only way to raise more food. Iassume, to the contrary, that more foodwill not help those who can’t afford tobuy or grow it, especially if it comesfrom expensive, patented, designer seed.

one-tenth as much research effort wereput into organic farming as has been putinto chemicals or genetics.

When I show this evidence to proponentsof high-tech farming, when I offer to takethem to see organic farms, when I pointout that hunger could be ended bysharing food or technologies that raiseoutput without poisoning the earth orinvading the genome, I don’t think myargument even reaches their auditorynerves, much less their brains. That kindof extreme failure even to hear anargument, much less process it, alerts methat this is not a rational discussion. It isa worldview difference, a paradigm gap,a disagreement about morals and valuesand identities and fundamentalassumptions about the way the worldworks.

Furthermore, more food is not needed.We already grow enough to nourisheveryone. If just one-third of the grainfed to animals went to humans instead,we would not have 24,000 deaths perday due to hunger. Or if 40 percent post-harvest loss rates in poor countries werereduced. Or if we shared theembarrassing crop surpluses of NorthAmerica and Europe. Or if we created aneconomy where everyone had money tobuy food or land to grow it—whichwould solve a lot of other problems, too.

I assume the world works by the laws ofecology and economics and humannature. Ecology says that monoculturesbreed pests; that chemicals upset soilecosystems and kill off natural predators;that crops with pesticide in every cell willinduce pest resistance; that animals andplants should be grown in closeproximity so manure can go back to thesoil; and that we haven’t the slightestidea what the ecological or evolutionaryconsequences of genetic engineering willbe.

Where, when, or if more food is needed,there are ways to produce it that don’trequire biotech or chemicals. Folks withan industrial ag mindset assume thatorganic agriculture would cut yields. Notonly is there no evidence for thatassumption, there are numerous studiesto the contrary. One of the latestappeared in Nature last year; its summaryopens like this: “In comparison withconventional, high-intensity agriculturalmethods, ‘organic’ alternatives canimprove soil fertility and have fewerdetrimental effects on the environment.These alternatives can also produceequivalent crop yields to conventionalmethods.”

Economics says you can never have asustainable market if you producesomething consumers fear and you hidecritical information about how it wasproduced and what it contains. Becauseindustrial agriculture has violated thatlaw and lost the trust of consumers, themarket for organic produce is growing in

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America and Europe by 20 to 30 percentper year, even with a price premium; itnow totals more than $9 billion.

Donella H. Meadows, a systems analyst,author, director of the SustainabilityInstitute, and adjunct professor ofenvironmental studies at DartmouthCollege, writes a syndicated article eachweek to “present a global view, a connectedview, a long-term view, an environmentaland compassionate view.” Meadows can bereached at Sustainablilty Institute, Box 174,Hartland Four Corners, VT 05049.

Human nature says that the more actualproducers can own and shape andcontrol land and inputs and seeds andknowledge, the more inventive, adaptive,and equitable agriculture will be.

Acceptance of those laws shapes myvision of sustainable agriculture. I picturehealthy ecosystems and healthy humanbeings working together in thriving,close-knit communities. Farms are small,owner-operated, with what Wes Jacksoncalls a “high eyes-to-acres ratio,” whichmeans they are well managed and high-yielding. Farmers make more use ofknowledge and people than of chemicalsand seeds they can’t breed forthemselves. Animals are raised on allfarms; there are good reasons whyecosystems don’t concentrate all theplants in one place and all the animals inanother.

More People Trained for theEdge

If you’re interested in experiencing theFoundation for Global Community’s“Living on the Edge of Evolution”program, chances improved this summerthat one may be offered near you by oneof 30 newly trained facilitators.

Held at the Foundation’s seminar site inBen Lomond, California, at sessions inJune and August, the training consistedof a condensed Edge program (usually aseries of two-hour meetings for eightweeks), together with facilitator training.The Edge program examines the culturewe live in in the context of theevolutionary story, and how to bringabout an appropriate “integral” culturefor the coming decades.

Food is grown everywhere—in cities, insuburbs. The distance from producer toconsumer is short, there are fewer super-markets, more farmers markets, lesspackaging, more freshness. The principleof one of my favorite organic farmerspermeates the system: “I’m not growingfood, I’m growing health.”

To those who do not believe such avision is possible, I can only say, itexists, it’s alive and well and growing,it’s even more profitable than theindustrial vision, the food tastes better,the work is more pleasurable. I live inthis vision. I have friends all over theworld who live in it. Come see.

This was the second year of the Edgetraining program. In 1998, 47 peoplefrom seven states and Canada met in BenLomond to train as facilitators, resultingin a number of Edge programs beingoffered. This year, 15 of last year’sattendees returned to Ben Lomond to

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experience and learn to facilitate thesecond program in the Foundation series.Titled the “Identity Seminar,” it exploresthe personal dimension of issues raised inthe Edge program, including the subjectsof love, resistance, authority,forgiveness, and working in community.

excursion. For about $40, a Bremenresident buys a smart card that allows adriver to make reservations and to gainaccess to the vehicles, with a choice often models from subcompacts to vans.The cars recognize the smart cardthrough a transponder field on thewindshield that opens the doors; uponreturn, a swipe of the card across thewindshield locks the doors and transmitstrip information for billing. Rates arecheaper than rental agencies’ because thecity picks up costs such as wear andtear, taxes, insurance, gasoline, andcleaning. Similar programs are plannedin Switzerland, Austria, Denmark,Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

To learn more about where Living on theEdge of Evolution programs are beingoffered, or if you have completed theEdge program and want to know moreabout the Identity Seminar, pleasecontact Amy Beare or Joe Kresse at theFoundation’s offices in Palo Alto.

More Teachers

A growing number of college students,including those from elite liberal artscolleges, now say they want to beschool-teachers. Just over 10 percent ofall freshmen say they want to teach inelementary or secondary school,according to a survey by the CooperativeInstitutional Research Program at theUniversity of California at Los Angeles.Interest in teaching, they say, is beingfueled by students’ search for meaningfulwork, concern about the plight of at-riskchildren, and a response to the nationalcall for teachers with degrees inacademic subjects as well as ineducation. The UCLA survey polled300,000 freshman at over 600 U.S.colleges and universities.

Blips on the Timeline

The term “blip” is often used to describe apoint of light on a radar screen. Gatheredwith the assistance of Research DirectorJackie Mathes, here are some recent blipswhich indicate positive changes toward aglobal community.

Auto Alternative

For the past nine years, Bremen,Germany, has been encouraging its550,000 inhabitants to abandon carownership through a car-sharing schemethat allows them to rent a vehicle quicklyand at low cost. Officials believe thecombination of car-sharing, bicycle use,and public transport has enabled onethird of Bremen’s households to dispensewith their automobiles. The cars can berented at 37 locations around the city fora short shopping trip or a weekend

Saving Farms Sustainably

In the 1980s, Sharard Phatak, of CoffeeCounty, Georgia, was troubled asthousands of family farms failed. Farmershave little control over market prices

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and the cost of seeds, chemicals, fuel,and equipment. Cost-cutting is the onlyanswer, Phatak decided, and at theUniversity of Georgia’s Coastal PlainExperiment Station, he began promotingan inexpensive way to farm that is alsoenvironmentally friendly. Instead offertilizer, farmers rely on cover cropssuch as crimson clover, rye, and winterwheat to supply nitrogen to the soil;instead of plowing and harrowing, theypractice no-till farming, planting newcrops amid the stubble of cover crops orprevious crops; instead of relyingexclusively on insecticides, they rely onbeneficial insects and microorganisms inthe soil. Coffee County’s extensiondirector, Rick Reed, was skeptical, butfelt he had an obligation to assist farmerswho were interested in sustainableagriculture. Now the County leads thestate with 40,000 acres of crops grownwith such techniques. Reed predicts 30to 50 percent of Georgia’s crops will begrown this way within ten years.

SUGGESTIONS INVITED

Thanks to Chris Weil for sending "AutoAlternative." We are always on the lookoutfor interesting subjects for Blips on theTimeline. Readers are invited to send articlesor clippings indicating positive change toJackie Mathes at the Foundation. If we useyour suggestion, we’ll automatically extendyour subscription for a year.

Fuel for Thought

by Joe Kresse

The title of Thom Hartmann's book TheLast Hours of Ancient Sunlight is ametaphor for the impending end ofancient sunlight, in the form of oil, coal,and natural gas, to power our life-styles.For most of human history, we lived offcurrent sunlight in a hunting andgathering existence. This usage becamemore sophisticated when we adoptedherding and agriculture. But it was notuntil about 900 years ago that wediscovered coal and began to use storedsunlight as an energy source.

Drug-free Hens

The company that supplies 3 to 5 millionchickens to Britons every week, a thirdof the nation’s quota, has stoppedfeeding them antibiotics. The GrampianCountry Food Group of Aberdeen madethe decision after conducting a 6-monthexperiment on 1.5 million chickenswhich showed the birds grew just aswell without drugs. Grampian hopes theban will ease fears about antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” emerging on farms.“We think the public will appreciate ourefforts," said Philip Hopley ofGrampian’s agriculture division.

The subtitle of Hartmann's book,"Waking Up to Personal and GlobalTransformation," points out that we haveto change our ways. With the cheapenergy prices of today (gasoline is thecheapest it has ever been when prices areadjusted for inflation, costing less thanbottled water), we tend to forget thatstored sunlight is a finite resource. But atcurrent rates of usage, Hartmannestimates that there is less than 50 yearsof oil left in the ground.

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However, the author has a larger point inmind, the use of ancient sunlight beingonly one example of our seeming inabilityto see the crisis nature of our currentsituation: “In the 24 hours since this timeyesterday, over 200,000 acres ofrainforest have been destroyed in ourworld. Fully 13 million tons of toxicchemicals have been released into ourenvironment. Over 45,000 people havedied of starvation, 38,000 of themchildren. More than 130 plant or animalspecies have been driven to extinction bythe actions of humans—the last timethere was such a rapid loss of specieswas when the dinosaurs vanished. Andall this just since yesterday.” In otherwords, we are destroying ourselves andour life support system.

offered to solve the world’s crises areimpractical is because they are based onthe same worldview that caused theproblems. Nothing but changing our wayof seeing and understanding the worldcan produce real, meaningful, and lastingchange—and that change in perspectivewill then naturally lead us to begin tocontrol our population, save our forests,recreate community, and reduce ourwasteful consumption.

4. The solutions to this crisis are neithernew nor radical. In fact, they represent away of viewing the world that hassustained and nurtured humanity forthousands of years. Many indigenouspeople did not overpopulate or destroytheir world, even though in most casesthey had access to far more resourcesthan they used. Neither does the fossilrecord show that they led rude anddesperate lives, as is so often depicted inthe media. Many of them livedsustainably, seeing the sacredness of theworld and the presence of the Creatorand divinity in all things, and generallyled fulfilling lives with far more leisuretime than working-class citizens of theindustrialized world will ever enjoy.Their consciousness and lifestyle kepttheir culture and people alive a hundredtimes longer than the United States hasexisted, and continues to sustain millionsof them worldwide. Indigenous peoplestill have important lessons to teach us,although we “civilized” peoples areliterally exterminating them, and,therefore, face the terrible risk of losingtheir knowledge as we take their lands,languages, and lives.

Hartmann argues that current debatesabout whether we are in a crisis and whatthe nature of that crisis is overlook fourbasic realities:

1. The present dilemmas and dangers arenot caused by recent changes such as theimpact of modern technology. They arethe predictable result of the way humanshave been living since the first city-stateswere established 7,000 years ago.

2. We are made of sunlight. All livingthings are made up of the food they eat,and food has sunlight as its sole sourceof energy. How we marshal this mostfundamental resource is a reflection ofhow we see ourselves in relationship tothe rest of the natural world.

3. Our problems derive not from ourtechnology, our diet, violence in themedia, or any other one thing we do.They arise out of our culture—our viewof the world. The reason most solutions

Contrasting “older culture” (indigenous)worldviews with “younger culture”(modern society) views, Hartmann says:

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“Older cultures believe that we are partof the world. We are made of the sameflesh as other animals. We eat the sameplants. We share the same air, water, soil,and food with every other life form onthe planet. We are born into life by thesame means as other mammals, and whenwe die we, like they, become part of thesoil which will nourish futuregenerations. They also hold that it is ourdestiny to cooperate with the rest ofcreation. Every life-form has its specialpurpose in the grand eco-system, and allare to be respected. Each animal andplant has its own unique intelligence andspirit. We are permitted to compete withother plants and animals, but we may notwantonly destroy them. All life isabsolutely as sacred as human life.Although hunting and killing for food arepart of nature’s order, when we do so itmust be done with respect andthankfulness.

stories about colonizing space, we tellourselves many stories which expressthat we deserve to be the designatedrulers of everything we can see, from theseas to the moon and beyond. Somepeople try to soften this by saying thatwhen Man was given dominion of theEarth, it meant he was givenresponsibility for taking care of it, butfew people in our culture behave as ifthey believe this.”

The cultural stories that have been usedto justify our current behavior fall intotwo groups: “get yours before anyoneelse can,” and “the world is going to endanyway, so grab what you can now.”These are profoundly disconnectedstories; disconnected from others, fromnature, and from life itself.

In the final part of the book, Hartmannaddresses what we can do to begin toshift the dominant destructive worldviewto a more connected one, offeringspecific suggestions which range fromthe personal to the larger, more systemic:

“On the other hand, younger culturesbelieve that we are not an integral part ofthe world. The Earth (and all of the plantand animal life on it) is somethingdifferent from us. We call that differentstuff ‘nature’ and ‘wilderness;’ we callourselves ‘mankind,’ ‘humankind,’ and‘civilization.’ We are very clear in ourvision of the difference between us andthe rest of life on the planet—we areseparate from it, superior to it, and a lawunto ourselves. When we wantsomething, it’s there for us to take, andwe don’t have to answer to anyone else.We also believe it is our destiny tosubdue and rule the rest of creation.From the Bible’s command to establish‘dominion’ over the Earth and itsinhabitants, to the Americangovernment’s acted-out doctrine ofManifest Destiny, to our science-fiction

PERSONAL

• Keep up with the new sciences ofquantum physics and complexity andchaos theory, which are revealing avastly different world from what wethought and are now beginning toaddress consciousness.

• Practice small acts of anonymousmercy.

• Reconnect directly with Source.

• Touch the sacred by rememberingmoments of presence and by practicing

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being totally present to the moment youare experiencing.

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight:Waking Up to Personal and GlobalTransformation by Thom Hartmann

• Create awareness that there is divinityeverywhere.

Mythical Books, Northfield, VT, 1998.$12.95• Develop a meditation practice.

• Learn the secret of having “enough.”

• Look into the face of the Divine bylooking into the face of other livingthings.

Business Comes to Life• Turn off the TV.

by Mac Lawrence• Form an intentional community, basedon deep principles of connection. and Joe Kresse

SYSTEMIC You’d hardly expect the Wall StreetJournal to publish an article criticizingthe way most American businesses arerun, but there it was recently—and onthe front page of its Marketplace section:“A New Model for the Nature ofBusiness: It’s Alive!”

• Reinvent our daily life and rituals toremind ourselves of our inter-connectedness.

• Change the focus of technology bylimiting the use of oil to things for whichit cannot be replaced, by learning to live“off the grid” and by conserving.

Written by Thomas Petzinger, a 20-yearveteran reporter and former bureau chieffor the Journal, the article used materialfrom his book, The New Pioneers: TheMen and Women Who are Transformingthe Workplace and Marketplace, to talkabout a revolution that is reshaping theface of business. A lot of what used towork, doesn’t any longer, Petzinger says.

• Respect other tribes, other cultures.

• Renounce war against any living thing.

• Re-empower women.

• Tell the New Story—the story of allof us, the story of our unfoldingUniverse.

One new reality: The world is toocomplex and moves too fast for ten-yearplans, or five-year plans, or even one-year plans. Better to know basically whatyour company is all about, and be fast onyour feet. Take advantage ofopportunities that fit you as they emerge.Look for niches that open up.

As Hartmann says in his introduction,this is ultimately a hopeful book, one thatpresents the belief and some evidencethat “we can really make it to the otherside.”

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movements of objects, anything thatFactories should run with machine-likeprecision, right? Wrong, Petzinger says,and cites as one example Rowe Furnitureof Salem, Virginia, where CharlenePedrolie became manufacturing manager.Realizing that today’s customers demandsofas built just the way they want them,and want them now, not four monthsfrom now, Pedrolie rethought how Rowemade sofas. She tore apart the assemblyline and sent gluers, staplers, andseamstresses madly scurrying to build thesofas as they saw fit. Result: confusion atfirst, then creative pandemonium withhuge increases in productivity andquality.

could be seen or felt.

But Newton’s laws work only within anarrow range, and the world turned toEinstein’s concepts of relativity, andmore recently to chaos and complexitytheories. Now businesses are beginningto realize that they, too, areuncontrollable by the old methods ofcommand and control, conformity andcompliance, do what you’re told anddon’t ask questions. All the brains arenot in the boardroom.

The chapter called “Nobody’s as Smartas Everybody” explores this issue indetail. Petzinger writes: “Freed to dotheir best work and free to test it againstothers, the people in a group become asingle, intelligent being, much as billionsof neurons become a single brain ormillions of intelligent citizens become asingle nation. Although the people at thetop might discover what’s good for anorganization, contrary to centuries ofreceived wisdom, they will neverdiscover what’s best.”

What Rowe Furniture did is model itsbusiness on how living systems work.

Living systems use resources aseconomically as possible, Petzingerwrites. "People are gifted with theinstinct to innovate, collaborate, andeconomize; through countless localactions, whether in corporations,communities, or entrepreneurialconfederations, they create global orderwithout central control.” But for people in an organization to act

as a force for economizing, knowledgeexchange, and self-organization, theyneed boundaries. Otherwise, chaos willprevail. How can there be boundarieswithout reverting to the old commandand control model? Here Petzinger givesexamples of how companies defined“minimum critical specifications” thatenabled both freedom and constraint.These “min specs” are the same kind asthe simple rules complexity theoristsdiscovered that allow complex behaviorssuch as the flocking of birds or theschooling of fish.

Petzinger had been writing about rule-breaking business success stories for fouryears, traveling to 100 cities in 30 states,before he realized that these unusualstories began to seem more and more likethe norm. “Everywhere I turned,” hesays, “people were succeeding inbusiness by doing exactly the opposite ofwhat business had long counted asconventional.” Business, as well as mostsocietal institutions, has been modeled onNewton’s view that a few simple lawscould predict everything—tides,

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One example: Monarch Marking’s newowners realized their manufacturingoperation was hopelessly obsolete. Tofully involve the workforce indiscovering and making the neededchanges, they developed these rules:Participation in the new exchange ofknowledge would be compulsory, notvoluntary. Second, teams could onlyform to improve measurable problems.Third, teams not only had to come upwith their own solution to a problem,they had to implement it as well,including convincing other departmentsor vendors also to change, if necessary.And finally, no project could last morethan 30 days. “Those were the only rules.Anyone could create a team,management or labor. Anything andeverything in the plant was fair game forreview—so long as it could be measured.A team could come up with any solutionat all—so long as it was willing to carryit out on the shop floor. Managementforswore any and all veto rights. Therewere no limits on spending.” In additionto Monarch’s operating incomesubsequently hitting an all-time high, “anew culture emerged spontaneouslywithin the work-force—a culture that didnot permit but insisted on brain work.”

sense of social responsibility; a deeprespect for the contribution of eachperson;.integrity and candor.’ It swore to‘an obsession with serving ourcustomers.’ This was intended as bloodoath: Everyone coming to work in thenew business would have to sign thedocument—with some formality, using aspecial pen. That document served as thehard half of a paradox—the zone oforder, if you will. The other side wouldbe as loose as anyone from a bigcompany could imagine. They called ittheir ‘organically adaptive structure.’These values and the adaptive structureprovided a sufficient basis to enable thegroup to pick a product, design it, andthen figure out how to make itsuccessfully. It also allowed them toramp up production from one-at-a-timeto a line.”

Petzinger concludes: “While the oldorder persists, the new order is risingquickly and is poised to overtakeit—haltingly in some places, unevenly inothers, but inexorably in every corner ofthe economy. How can I be so sure thatthe Newtonian model is giving way tothe natural one? Two reasons. For one,the marketplace leaves companies withno choice. In an era when change arriveswithout warning and threatens toeradicate entire companies and industriesovernight, organizations can survive onlyby engaging the eyes, ears, minds, andemotions of all individuals and byencouraging them to act on theirknowledge and beliefs. Second and farmore importantly, the new, moreenlightened way of business will persistbecause it hews more closely to what weare as humans.”

Another way to create freedom andcoherence is through a strong set ofvalues. “Says business theorist WilliamFrederick, ‘the component that permitschange within constrained limits is thecorporation’s values system.’ ”

In a division of Lucent Technologies, agroup “decided to build a new businesson what it called a core set ofunswerving principles, which were setforth on a single sheet of paper: ‘We livewith speed, innovation, quality; a strong

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The New Pioneers: during the years 2000 and 2001, to lookThe Men and Women Who AreTransforming the Workplace andMarketplace by Thomas Petzinger, Jr.

backward and learn, to look forward andplan. The opportunity is to tune out thehype and bring up the wisdom of oursouls."Simon & Schuster New York, NY, 1999.

$25.00

TIMELINE (ISSN 1061-2734) is publishedbimonthly by the Foundation for GlobalCommunity 222 High Street

2000Palo Alto, CA 94301-1097

by Donella MeadowsManaging Editors: Kay Hays,Mac Lawrence, Sandra MardigianBefore the next issue of Timeline

appears, we will have crossed over intothe next millennium. Noting theinevitability of capacity crowds ofrevelers at the world’s hot party spots,60-minute specials reviewing the historyof the last thousand years, talking headsspeculating on the next thousand, thehawking of collectables like medallionsand t-shirts, Donella Meadows has somethoughts that put the event inperspective.

Editorial Board: Jim Burch, Joe Kresse,Jackie MathesArt Director (print edition): Sue LyttleDesktop Publishing: Diane GordonElectronic Edition: Gilles d'Aymery

A print edition of Timeline withphotographs and artwork is available fora subscription price of $10 per year (sixissues). This is pretty much what it costsus to produce and mail Timeline sinceour writers are all volunteers and wehave no editorial expenses. But we dohave overhead costs for our building,computers, etc. So if you feel Timelineand the other work our Foundation doesare valuable and you want to help keepus going, please consider making a tax-free donation to Foundation for GlobalCommunity. Be sure to indicate that it isfor Timeline E-mail Edition -- otherwiseour subscription people willautomatically send you the printededition, and the whole idea of savingnatural resources is down the tubes.Thanks!

"What an opportunity to glance up fromour humdrum lives and take a good, longlook at where we’ve been and wherewe’re going. What a fine thing to thinkand talk together with a thousand-yearperspective. What a chance to seeourselves in the great sweep of history,to be humbled by the thought of all thegenerations that went before, and to takeresponsibility for the generations tocome. The more I think about it, themore I see that the opportunity here isfor all of us to choose our own momentsto mark the millennium—not fleetingNew Year’s Eves, but long moments

Palo Alto, CaliforniaNovember 19, 1999

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TIMELINE - Global Community · Timeline Email Edition November/December 1999 ... The Edible Schoolyard Donella Meadows: ... because the results accurately reflect