On My Mind

Among the books on my bedstand is "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life," by Barbara Kingsolver. You may disagree, but I admire a woman who's known as one of the top 100 people screwing up America (seriously, search for it on Amazon). And she's done it not liking the war and supporting efforts to produce food differently in this country. And she's done it with a book that's as genuine and lyrical as any of her fictional works. In addition, her oldest daughter Camille provides recipes they developed while going "back to the land" for a year in the Appalachian mountains, and her husband Steven provides truly startling sidebar information about the food industry.

I'd like to be as lyrical as Kingsolver. But I think if I attempted to tell you about this book, I'd sound preachy. I think it may be quite impossible to detail the growing case against corporate farms without introducing an opportunity for endless arguments about whether or not the "go green" camp or the "organic" camp is the savior of the universe or just another empty promise, already subverted by advertisers for another quick buck following the burst of the dot com and real estate bubbles.

Is going green the next bubble? Quite possibly.

But you know, this year I've resolved to be a bit less jaded. I think the cynicism that protects us from disappointment on one hand can substitute for action on the other. It gives us permission not to change. And there is a growing sickness in our environment. The chemicals we use on land filter down to our oceans. We've got some healing to do. We have a responsibility to do that.

Preachy? Quite possibly. So instead of regurgitating parts of the book I found most informative, I'll encourage you to get the book yourself and tell me what you think. I'm going to preach to myself, with the small changes I think I can manage in my own community, under my own steam and within my own budget. Maybe as a result of reading the book, you will be compelled to do the same.

--Laura