Issue 196 • September/October 1999

Welcome

Welcome • Satish Kumar

Feature Articles

THE SEED BARONS • Andrew Simms

Seed companies are using poverty as an excuse to impose control on world food.

THE MYTH OF PROGRESS • John Gray

If we redesign nature to fit human wishes, we risk making it a mirror of our limitations.

RICH IN THINGS, POOR IN TIME • Wolfgang Sachs

Poverty of time degrades the wealth of goods.

FRONTYARD AND BACKYARD OF DEVELOPMENT • Kamla Chowdhry

The Frontyard is filled with people of power and the Backyard embodies the rural realities of India

YOUNG AWAKENING • Yuill Herbet & Aishwarya Ratan

Visions and concerns.

Readings

POISONOUS PLASTICS • Jeffrey Kluger

Some clingwraps may be carrying toxic chemicals.

ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD • Masoumeh Ebtekar

Consumerism is a culture of living without responsibility.

THE NUCLEAR COST • Stephen Schwartz

Nuclear weapons are a useless burden

Population

CONVIVIAL COMMUNITIES • David Skrbina

Optimum population has two factors: people and land; both must be considered together.

Economy

IS THERE ENOUGH MONEY? • Peter Lang

Let us free money from the banks.

Science

TELL ME WHAT YOU EAT • Nicols Fox

Is science the answer to safe food?

Frontline

ORGANIC REVOLUTION • Helen Browning & Sophie Poklewski Koziell

The land is not ours. We should leave the land in good heart.

COMMUNITY COMPOSTING • Nicky Scott

Working with people

EMPOWERING AWARDS • Stewart Kemp

Celebrating those who are working for a nuclear-free future.

Timeless Wisdom

THE LAND ETHIC • Donella Meadows

The profound insight of Aldo Leopold has stood the test of time.

A PHILOSOPHER OF WHOLENESS • Tseard Zoethout

The philosophy of Spinoza is rooted in the realization of wholeness and harmony.

CELTIC ECOLOGY • Thomas Rain Crowe

The Druids were "the wise ones of the oak".

The Arts

ANIMAL SPIRIT • Louise Cullen & Alex Woodcock

Images are doorways to heightened perception of the world.

POWER OF WILD • Philip Vann

The paintings of Shafique Uddin evoke an intimate kinship between all creatures.

Regulars

The Occasional Didymus • John Moat

Good News For Gaia • Lorna Howarth

Business Diary • David Boyle

Letter from Key West • Rosalind Brackenbury

Poetry • Wendell Berry & Linda France

Letter from America • Jay Walljasper

Letters to the Editors

Recipes • Dana Spowers

Reviews

LEARNING FROM THE EARTH • Mary Tasker

Ecological Education in Action, and Sustainable Development - First Annual Report

SANE ECONOMY • Paul Ekins

Beyond the Dependency Culture, and Transforming Economic Life

LOCAL HEROES • Rukmini Sekhar

Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi

HUNGRY GHOSTS • Ian Cotton

The Economic Horror

ELEGANT ESSAYS • Lindsay Clarke

Wormholes

POETRY OF SURVIVAL • John Fowles

extract from Wormholes

COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE • Brigitte Norland

Coast, and Countryside

ENCHANTING BEAUTY • John Lane

Five Centuries of Sienese Painting

RING OF POWER • Frances Hutchinson

Defending Middle-Earth, and Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age

In case you missed it • Victoria Bawtree

The McDonaldization of Society, an McDonaldization Revisited

Books in brief • Clive Adams

Arch, and Honest Labelling

Books in brief • Ron Skinner

Local Food for Local People

US book roundup • Kirkpatrick Sale

Off the Map, Elements of Refusal and Technology as Magic