Feeding the world

Spanner in the works - Edward Goldsmith interviews Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer who risked everything to challenge GM giant Monsanto.

Do we need small farms? - this talk was broadcast at various dates during December 2003 on the World Business Report programme of the BBC World Service, as part of a series of six talks by Edward Goldsmith.

How to feed people under a regime of climate change - Modern agriculture is not only highly vulnerable to climate change, it is also a major cause of climate change due to its emissions of greenhouse gases and its damaging effects on soil and freshwater resources. A combination of traditional agricultural knowledge and techniques, combined with newly emerging sustainable technologies, may hold the answers we need. Published in World Affairs Journal, winter 2003. Reprinted in Surviving the Century - facing climate chaos and other global challenges, edited by Herbert Girardet (Earthscan, May 2007).

How can we survive? - 30 years ago in 1972, as the first Envrionment Summit took place in Stockholm, The Ecologist published A Blueprint for Survival. So why, on the eve of the Johannesburg Summit and in the face of mounting environmental crises, has nothing changed? Published in The Ecologist Vol. 32 No. 7, September 2002.

Killing off small farms in Brazil - Jose Lutzenberger tells Teddy Goldsmith about the regulatory obstacles he faces on his organic farm in Rio Grande do Sul. Published in The Ecologist Report, June 2001.

Traditional agriculture in Sri Lanka - EG interviews Mudyanse Tennekoon. "Farmer Tennekoon is a prophet, a prophet of traditional rural life in Sri Lanka. He is also a farmer and lives in a small village in the Kurenegala district of the island. In recent years he has become quite well known among those people who recognise the destructiveness and counter-productiveness of the modern system of intensive agriculture which the international institutions - FAO and the Word Bank in particular - are imposing on Sri Lanka."

Global warming will make traditional climatic knowledge irrelevant. Tribal peoples have an unparallelled understanding of their environment, which is key to the sustainable agriculture and lifestyles which they have pursued for generations. But with climate change, weather patterns and ecosystems face disruption. Could traditional tribal knowledge, of such huge potential value for sustainable living, be made obsolete by global warming?

My fears about GM food crops In this introduction to "The Monsanto Files", The Ecologist's special issue on Monsanto, Edward Goldsmith engages with the problems of corporate control of the food chain as well as the potential health issues associated with genetic modification. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 5, September / October 1998.

The lessons of traditional irrigation - "Modern irrigation schemes in tropical areas are, almost without exception, social, ecological and economic disasters. They necessarily lead to the flooding of vast areas of forest and agricultural land, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the spreading of waterborne diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis ...". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 3, May-June 1998.

Development as colonialism - this important essay exposes modern-day 'development' as colonialism repackaged and ferociously applied through transnational corporations, compliant local elites and global institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF - and backed by the threat of military force. It was published in The Ecologist Vol. 27 No. 2, March / April 1997, and as Chapter 1 of The Case Against the Global Economy by Edward Goldsmith and Jerry Mander (Earthscan 2001).

Cynicism, food and power - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 26 No. 6, November / December 1996, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "As the peasant movement Via Campesina has pointed out, 'Food Sovereignty can only be achieved through solidarity and the political will to implement alternatives.' Acting together to create such political will offers the best hope of ensuring that the 400 million people written off by the World Food Summit do not starve. "

Development and colonialism - in this important essay Edward Goldsmith explores why development, whether described as 'sustainable', 'ecological', 'appropriate' or otherwise, will only deepen the poverty and misery of poor tropical nations. Published in Ecoscript No. 35, June 1993.

FAO's plan to feed the world - Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard critique the FAO's main policy document, World Agriculture: Toward 2000, and the whole model of capital-intensive, industrialised, export-oriented agriculture which it promotes. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 21 No. 2, March-April 1991.

FAO's projections for livestock - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is envisaging huge increases in livestock numbers and meat production worldwide. But nowhere does it stop to ask, what the impacts will be on the environment, or on the rural poor. Written with Patrick McCully. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 21 No. 2, March / April 1991.

New Lamps for Old - Edward Goldsmith, Publisher of The Ecologist, talks with Satish Kumar, Director Of Schumacher College (video version, hosted by video.google). The interview was published by Schumacher College as a video in the Schumacher Series, produced by Phil Shepherd in 1991.We also have a New Lamps for Old transcript on the website.

New Lamps for Old - transcript. Edward Goldsmith, Publisher of The Ecologist, talks with Satish Kumar, Director Of Schumacher College. The interview was published by Schumacher College as a video in the Schumacher Series, produced by Phil Shepherd in 1991. A video version of New Lamps for Old is also available.

Scotland's white revolution - a review of The Highland Clearances by John Prebble. Penguin, London 1969, reprinted 1989. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 19 No. 3, May / June 1989.

Tropical forests: a plan for action - "deforestation spells cultural death for the millions of tribal peoples who depend on the forests for their livelihood. It threatens to condemn to extinction 50 to 90 percent of the world's species of plants, animals and insects ... ". Editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 17 No. 4/5, 1987.

The costs of modernisation - "There is a direct, historical link between the increasingly serious environmental problems we are experiencing today and the 'modernisation' of our economic activities ... ". Co-authored by Nicholas Hildyard, co-editor of The Ecologist this article is the Introduction to Green Britain or Industrial Wasteland (Polity Press, 1986).

Dam starvation - editorial article from The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984 (co-written with Nicholas Hildyard). This article examines why politicians' promises that superdams will produce plenty for all turn, all to literally, to dust, poverty and hunger.

Agricultural development: changing directions - a review of Environmental Management in Tropical Agriculture, by Robert J. A. Goodland, Catherine Watson and George Ledec. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6 1984. Major changes in agricultural practice "will be politically difficult and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, they appear inevitable if large-scale disaster is to be avoided."

A question of climate - a review of Climate and Development, edited by Asit K Biswas, Natural Resources and the Environment Series. An agronomical analysis of why tropical countries cannot follow the agro-industrial model of the developed North. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984.

Sedimentation: the way of all dams - Published as Chapter 16 of The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams: Volume 1. Overview. Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1984. By Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard.

Management and maintenance - perennial problems Published as Chapter 12 of The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams: Volume 1. Overview. Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1984. By Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard.

Salting the earth: the problem of salinisation - Published as Chapter 11 of The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams: Volume 1. Overview. Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1984. By Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard.

Man-made famines - a review of The Geography of Famine, by William A. Dando. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 10, December 1980.

Under control? - Do the laws regulating pesticide use in Britain really protect our health and environment? Far from it. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 3, March 1980.

Pesticides create pests - Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 3, March 1980. "Natural selection assures that the fittest survive ... Those that have become the fittest and will now become selected to the exclusion of all others, are those that have developed resistance to the pesticide used... "

Mellanby versus theory and fact - The attack on Professor Kenneth Mellanby, which began in "What makes Kenny run?", continues. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 5, September / October 1978.

What makes Kenny run? - a critique of Professor Kenneth Mellanby, with his response. "A man of distinction, erudition and considerable personal charm ... he has a big reputation in the academic world and passes for an ardent environmentalist." Yet he is here portrayed as a cynical, self-interested collaborator in global ecocide. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 3, May / June 1978.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part Three - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part Two - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part One - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

Planning for starvation - Editorial article, The Ecologist Vol. 7 No. 2, March 1977. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

Letter to the directors of FAO - The FAO is pursuing with zeal its aim to increase African meat and livestock production through the mass spraying of insecticide, intended to eradicate the tsetse fly. The most probable outcome is famine and the decimation of Africa's wildlife. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 6, July 1976.

The fall of the Roman empire - in this powerful essay, Edward Goldsmith concludes that internal moral and political decay and unsustainable agriculture underlie the fall of the Roman Empire, while the Barbarian invasions were merely the coup de grace. The comparisons with our own society and misguided sense of permanence are unsettling. It was published as Chapter 1 of The Great U-Turn, also published in The Ecologist, July 1975, and Le Sauvage (France), April 1976.

A Blueprint for Survival was published in January 1972, occupying all of The Ecologist Vol. 2 No.1, in advance of the world's first ever Environment Summit in Stockholm. So great was demand for the Blueprint that its was subsequently republished in paperback by Penguin books. It was written by Edward Goldsmith, Robert Allen and others.

What of Britain′s future? - this prescient article was originally published as the concluding chapter of Can Britain Survive?, published by Tom Stacey, London, 1971, and Sphere Books, London, 1971 (paperback). The book is a selection of articles from The Ecologist, together with original papers and articles from other periodicals, collected and edited by Edward Goldsmith while Editor of The Ecologist. The article was reprinted two years later in The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 11, November 1973, with the following introductory paragraphs.