FROM READERS.

Why You and Me, But Not Them?

I am writing regarding the question you asked in your Note "Formative Moments" (March/April), "What makes people care deeply ... about the long-term health of the planet?" What gave me my consciousness and commitment? I'd like to acknowledge some of the people who will never know the impact their actions or writing had on my life:

-- The student who on a university campus in France handed me a leaflet on the effects of automobile use. I can still remember the layout of that page: text on the left side, graphics on the right. That day, upon reading about toxic emissions from internal combustion engines and the toll of highway accidents, I made up my mind that I would never own a car. Thirty years later, I still haven't.

-- Marguerite Yourcenar, author of a book titled in English The Abyss. In it, a single paragraph turned me into a vegetarian. The hero reflects at one point that there is little difference between killing an animal and killing a person, a thought also expressed by Leonardo da Vinci. For some reason, this idea resonated in me, and I announced to my mother at lunch that from then on I would do without meat.

I was 18 when I made these two decisions that shaped my life. Other decisions (whom I would live with what work I would do, and where) flowed from them.

I also recall: reading in a 1976 National Geographic that now arid Sicily was once covered with lush forests, which 2,000 years ago the Romans turned into masts for warships; learning some time later that Iraq had also been very green before ill-thought agricultural practices turned it into a desert; and learning of the similar fate of Ethiopia. In light of these past events, I can't help wondering what fate is to befall green British Columbia, given the recently accelerating spread of old growth clearcutting in the province.

A book I just love is Stuff: The Secret Life of Everyday Things, by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning (Northwest Environmental Watch, 1997). I bought several copies and gave them to people around me, thinking: if this information doesn't change their consciousness, and consequently their behavior, nothing will. Well, the strongest reaction I got was, "It made me pause." Just pause. And life went on as usual for these people who had the book in their hands.

What this has me wondering is, why did some specific information have an impact on you and me, but not on everyone who was exposed to the same message? Are our values innate or are they acquired? What is it that makes us ready to change and commit? And can that readiness be instilled in people?

MARY ROULLEAU

Victoria, British Columbia Canada

A Call For Labeling All Genetically Engineered Foods

As a consumer, I have become increasingly disturbed by the confusing reports concerning genetically engineered foods that occasionally appear in the press. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently being taken to court by its own scientists, who are claiming that their findings are being ignored. Their lawsuit would compel the FDA to withdraw these new...