Posted on Sat, May. 13, 2006

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Sold and sold out on organic

The folks at Earthbound Farm can't be thrilled with the less-than-enthusiastic critique of the company's societal contributions in a story about the organic movement in this week's edition of The New Yorker.

The company, which germinated from a two-and-a-half-acre patch of organic bliss in Carmel Valley, is the leading producer of organic produce and this year is expected to generate $450 million in revenue.

Its original farm stand, still located on Carmel Valley Road, "is as much an icon of California's entrepreneurial roots as the Hewlett-Packard garage in downtown Palo Alto," wrote Steven Shapin, a Harvard University teacher of science history who wrote the article for The New Yorker.

Shapin's conclusion is that the successes of companies such as Earthbound and Whole Foods, rooted in pure capitalism, are anathema to the original organic ethos. In summary, Shapin said, the organic movement has sold out.

Warming the heart: Who says those wacky guys and gals at Halliburton don't have a sense of humor?

The company that has become a byword for All That Is Evil showed up at the Catastrophic Loss conference in Florida this week with its own approach to solving the problem of surviving global warming: the SurvivaBall.

An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible, trumpeted a press release from the company that specializes in disasters -- cleaning them up or generating them, depending on one's point of view.

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Halliburton representative Fred Wolf. "This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change."

The unthinkable alternative proposed by scientists, Wolf noted, is that humans reduce carbon emissions by 70 percent. "Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits," Wolf said.

Corporate survivor: Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three SurvivaBall mock-ups -- huge inflatable orbs that include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient gathering capacities, onboard medical facilities and "a daunting defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," Wolf said.