Jeremy Rifkin quotes

Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, and public speaker. His work focuses on the impact of science and technology on the economy, society, and the environment. He is widely recognized for his influential books on the future of energy, the third industrial revolution, and the shift toward a sustainable society. Here are 58 of his quotes:

We are already producing enough food to feed the world. We already have technology in place that allows us to produce more than we can find a market for.

Jeremy Rifkin

The 10 largest antitrust law firms in the United States have gone into the federal courts charging Monsanto with creating a global conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws, to control the global market in seeds.

Jeremy Rifkin

We were making the first step out of the age of chemistry and physics, and into the age of biology.

Jeremy Rifkin

In this country, the health concerns and the environmental concerns are as deep as in Europe. All the surveys show that. But here, we didn't have the cultural dimension. This is a fast-food culture.

Jeremy Rifkin

Can we reach biosphere consciousness and global empathy in time to avert planetary collapse?

Jeremy Rifkin

The electronic media introduced this idea to the larger audience very, very quickly. We spent years and years and years meeting with activists all over Europe to lay the groundwork for a political response, as we did here.

Jeremy Rifkin

The American public is not aware that there might be potential allergenic and toxic reactions. With regular food, at least people know which foods they have an allergy to.

Jeremy Rifkin

Many of the genetically modified foods will be safe, I'm sure. Will most of them be safe? Nobody knows.

Jeremy Rifkin

The industry's not stupid. The industry knows that if those foods are labeled 'genetically engineered', the public will shy away and won't take them.

Jeremy Rifkin

Back in 1983, the United States government approved the release of the first genetically modified organism. In this case, it was a bacteria that prevents frost on food crops.

Jeremy Rifkin

The position I took at the time was that we hadn't really examined any of the potential environmental consequences of introducing genetically modified organisms.

Jeremy Rifkin

I wanted to make sure that this be the first scientific and technology revolution in history in which the public thoroughly discussed all the potential benefits and all the potential harms, in advance of the technology coming online and running its course.

Jeremy Rifkin

You can eliminate, for example, a Brazil nut gene if you know that it will create an allergenic effect.

Jeremy Rifkin

The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.

Jeremy Rifkin

Europe will not accept genetically modified foods. It doesn't make any difference in the final analysis what Brussels does, what Washington does, or what the World Trade Organization does.

Jeremy Rifkin

It may be that everything the life science companies are telling us will turn out to be right, and there's no problem here whatsoever. That defies logic.

Jeremy Rifkin

They're now turning those seeds into intellectual property, so they have a virtual lock on the seeds upon which we all depend for our food and survival.

Jeremy Rifkin

Basic income is not a utopia, it's a practical business plan for the next step of the human journey.

Jeremy Rifkin

Being both entrepreneurial and social is no longer an oxymoron, but rather a tautology.

Jeremy Rifkin

We're finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the projections are right, it's going to be a big one: the ecological collapse of the planet.

Jeremy Rifkin

Generations of human beings were transformed into machines in the relentless pursuit of material wealth: We lived to work.

Jeremy Rifkin

When we seed millions of acres of land with these plants, what happens to foraging birds, to insects, to microbes, to the other animals, when they come in contact and digest plants that are producing materials ranging from plastics to vaccines to pharmaceutical products?

Jeremy Rifkin