Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

A third scenario concerns me. Some say with world will end in a sandy wasteland.

Terminator technology has hit our food production. Crops and cattle.

Clearcutting our forests for development or newsprint destroys habitat for many species. It also creates flood conditions.

I am afraid that corporate greed and lack of long range planning will destroy the global supply of food, protective shade of tree canopy and herbal healing plants.

And us.

Civilization as we know and love to talk about it.

I have come to care about each of you so it is important to me to share my deep concern with you.

Our fields are not healthy places. Our meat sources are tainted.

Our open space is compromised.

Europeans are wisely avoiding engineered beef and plant materials - but are being pressured to fold.

Americans, meantime, are blindly raising, planting and eating food that can not only spell personal health disaster but also create global tragedy.

Maybe most of you have not even noted the many small articles in news and naturalist magazines for several years, or interviews on NPR, but evidence emerges that we are in imminent danger.

This is a three edged sword of Damocles. The giant Monsanto seeks to control seed stock of corn, rice and soy and has created crops which cannot reseed for a second or continued crop. Fresh seed must be bought for each planting. This is especially dire for remote and small farmers who have no cash, and are accustomed to save seed each year -- in effect breeding what works best for their climate and land.

Corn is especially a problem. I grew up in farm country -- in NJ where small farms are adjacent. Corn pollenizes over a large area -- pollen from corn blows in a cloud over territory far beyond land boundaries. When first hybrids -- a shorter stalk -- were introduced, neighbors were furious when their crops also produced shorter stalks.

This new genetic trait means that farmers who conservatively choose to avoid purchase and planting of treated corn may nevertheless have their crops destroyed by being contaminated with pollen from Killer corn -- which means that they will have to buy new seed the next year. In Iowa, where corn is livelihood, problems have already arisen.

Another potential disaster is for (you) carnivores. Beef cattle are beginning to succumb to the diseases feed-based antibiotics now barely control. We have come to rely on only one dominant species, a wholesale herd. And we are killing them with medical kindness. Widespread death and disease or genetic mutation meaning calves will not survive to breeding maturity is the likely next step.

We currently graze cattle for human beef consumption on acres which could produce sustainable agriculture of varied crops with minimal pesticide and fertilizer. They don't get enough to eat grazing so we supplement with sawdust mixed with antibiotics which fills their stomachs but shouldn’t fill ours.

We deplete topsoil over expansive areas for machine farmed corn and wheat which could be grown to better, safer advantage on small farms where hedgerows would encourage birds and snakes to feed on insects and rats.

We are in too big a hurry for crop rotation which would create natural fertilization.

We destroy old growth forests which have special characteristics of microbial interdependence about which we know little except that that very interdependence is a sign of healthy response to earth’s climate and fertility variations.

In our urge to control, in the name of progress, we may eliminate the chance to learn from an ancient pattern of success.

I earnestly implore you to take notice, perhaps to make small changes in your own lives to help avoid this dual potential catastrophe.

• Grow some of your food in pots at home.
• Use your food scraps to create a natural fertilizer through composting.