Donella Meadows Archives

What Can One Person Do?

by Elizabeth R. Sawin – June 13, 2007 – Climate change, fisheries crashes, toxic pollution, endangered species. Sometimes it’s enough to make you throw up your hands in despair. “I’m just one person, what difference can I make? What could I do?” Well, actually one person – one ordinary person – can do quite a lot if she sets her mind to it. [...]

The Christmas Tree Industry is One More Reason To Address Climate Change

by Andrew Jones – November 27, 2004 – One of my family’s favorite things to do this time of year is to journey into the mountains near Leicester to fell a Fraser fir at the farm of Anthony and Kay Cole. I met the Coles through their 5-year-old son Eli, who went to preschool with our daughter, Annabelle. If you have bought [...]

Sustainable Agriculture for Midsized Farms

by Hal Hamilton – August 2003 – How can sustainable agriculture gain greater traction, particularly for midrange farmers? Although small farms, particularly those around metropolitan regions, are enjoying resurgence in recent years, the midrange of agriculture is stuck in conventional commodity production. These midrange farms are usually too big to market products directly to consumers and too small to compete in commodity markets. In [...]

Community and Sustainability – A Powerful Combination

by Elizabeth Sawin – May 1, 2003 – Some years ago, I was part of a group that set out to create a community where we could experiment with sustainable living. One of our first steps was to write down a list of guiding principles. At the top of our list were Community and Sustainability. (The others, if you are curious, were [...]

Why Are Agricultural Trade Disputes Trapped in Biotechnology?

by Hal Hamilton – March 1, 2003 – The weed-killer Roundup and “Roundup-Ready” biotech crops have become dominant features of U.S. crop farming as well as the subject of trade disputes with the rest of the world. Do we really want our negotiators promoting the products of a few chemical companies? Shouldn’t they be promoting a wider range of solutions for agriculture [...]

About DMI

Since its founding in 1996 by environmental leader Donella Meadows, our Institute has been at the forefront of sustainability thinking and training. Our initiatives have addressed economic, environmental, and social challenges from a range of angles and at many levels. In everything we do, the disciplines of systems thinking and organizational learning inform and shape our work. It is this focus on whole-system analysis, combined with careful listening, truth telling, and visioning, that make the Donella Meadows Institute unique among sustainability organizations.  Read More

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