Against the Grain

ON New Year’s Eve, Catherine Ives spotted fire trucks and police cars streaking toward the central campus of Michigan State University. As she and her husband got closer to the hubbub, she said, “That looks like where we work.” The couple had been planning to visit some friends, but they headed instead to MSU’s agriculture building. “Is that smoke?” asked Ives. Indeed it was. Her office was in flames. She would spend the rest of the night at home, calling her staff to tell them they had nowhere to report for work on Monday morning.

Three weeks later, in Portland, Ore., Craig Rosebraugh received an anonymous phone call. A member of the Earth Liberation Front was on the line, taking credit for the blaze, which school officials now say did more than $ 1 million worth of damage. The saboteurs asked Rosebraugh to publicize a statement for them, as he had done several times before: “ELF struck back at one of the many threats to the natural world,” namely, “research concerning genetically engineered sweet potatoes, corn, and other crop vegetables.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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ON New Year’s Eve, Catherine Ives spotted fire trucks and police cars streaking toward the central campus of Michigan State University. As she and her husband got closer to the hubbub, she said, “That looks like where we work.” The couple had been planning to visit some friends, but they headed instead to MSU’s agriculture building. “Is that smoke?” asked Ives. Indeed it was. Her office was in flames. She would spend the rest of the night at home, calling her staff to tell them they had nowhere to report for work on Monday morning.

Three weeks later, in Portland, Ore., Craig Rosebraugh received an anonymous phone call. A member of the Earth Liberation Front was on the line, taking credit for the blaze, which school officials now say did more than $ 1 million worth of damage. The saboteurs asked Rosebraugh to publicize a statement for them, as he had done several times before: “ELF struck back at one of the many threats to the natural world,” namely, “research concerning genetically engineered sweet potatoes, corn, and other crop vegetables.”

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.