Food for Thought

Kasey Cox

From bumper stickers and news headlines, from the aisles of the supermarket to the presidential candidates’ promises of the last decade, several buzzwords keep jumping out at us – organic, local, sustainability, outsourcing, biotechnology, global warming, recession, environmentalism, terrorism. From Baptists to Wiccans, from staunch Republican to loud liberal, there are books being written from every religious and political perspective, strangely overlapping in their focus on the same concerns: how to stretch the dwindling supply of natural resources to feed, house, clothe, and care for the people of this planet; as well as how to care for the planet itself, if for no other reason than that it will continue to sustain us.

Indeed, the shelves of libraries and bookstores are near-bursting with new titles addressing these issues: their explanations and possible resolutions are more linked than we ever thought possible. Some of the books are reprints, as many of the ideas we’re discussing now come to us from the soil of our history, like the homesteading stories from Helen and Scott Nearing, beginning in the Great Depression, whose writings greatly influenced the “back-to-the-land” movement of the 1970’s. Wendell Berry began publishing his books during the ‘70’s, and continues to write and speak today about rural areas, being rooted in a place, community support and identity, sustainability, and agriculture. America has tried communes and co-ops over many decades, with varying degrees of success, met with varying degrees of suspicion. “Deep ecology” became a spiritual as well as political movement of the 1990’s. And the 1990’s gave birth to the celebration of “Earth Day” – at first just one day in a calendar too full of “Month of Orthodontic Health Awareness”-type designations, now a celebration whose size and influence has grown exponentially.

Before you dismiss these ideas as the stuff of aging hippies, young idealists, treehugger granola eaters, or doomsday criers, have a look at a few of the hundreds of books available to you at present. If you don’t know a CAFO from the NCER, here’s a suggested reading list and hopefully helpful reading order.

First and foremost, I suggest Bill McKibben’s 2007 book, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, just recently released in paperback. If no other book in this article intrigues you or informs you, this book should. Critics from both sides of the fence – any fence – as well as scholars and business people and commentators from every discipline are insisting on the same sentiment as one book critic, from The Oregonian newspaper: Deep Economy should be required reading. When I mentioned this book to a friend of mine recently – college radical and environmentalist turned Yuppie dad and commuter – he asked me if I was confusing this book with the title work of the deep ecology movement of twenty years ago, Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered by Bill Devall and George Sessions. No, I answered, although McKibben credits them as the source for the key phrase of his book.

So what’s different about what McKibben has to say? Mostly, it’s the way the issues are fleshed out, but not dumbed down, for someone – such as myself – who avoided economics and political science classes like the plague. McKibben is able to give a history of economic thought and business practices, especially in the United States, showing how our driving belief and subsequent behavior has always been based around the fact that MORE is BETTER. We practiced efficiency with religious fervor. McKibben allows that this is a normal and necessary attitude, not just for humans, but for all living things who cannot be certain they will have enough food or shelter to survive.

At some point, however, we as a people – especially in the “First World” or most developed countries – have passed the tipping point: we are using our resources faster than we can replenish them. As we continue in our frenetic pace, the difference between the haves and the have-nots, not just between the poor of India and the poor of the U.S., but between the U.S. and the entire world, is becoming a chasm. More interestingly, today’s Americans, who have more – more stuff, more comfort, more food, more space – than at any other time in human history, report themselves as less happy and less satisfied than their grandparents or great-great-grandparents. They report their happiness levels in tests that stand up to scientific validity, a subject about which many other books have been written of late.

Weaving in references to hundreds of studies that made my hair stand on end, Deep Economy shows how we got to the impending crisis and what all the different camps have to say about that. Instead of finding this information disheartening or overwhelming, I found myself strangely hopeful. My head didn’t swim and my heart didn’t drown in the myriad of information McKibben presents. I felt informed and empowered. Ultimately, McKibben’s point is that, no matter who we are, or what we believe, or what job we do, we all have to eat. And we should be concerned about where our food is coming from and how it will continue to get to us.

Thus, McKibben’s book serves as a crystal clear, user-friendly guide to the wealth of other books and news out there now on food, agriculture, the new seed vault in the Arctic, health, the environment, and local communities’ sustainability. From Deep Economy, I would suggest moving next to The Sustainability Revolution: Portrait of a Paradigm Shift by Andres Edwards and David Orr. (Don’t worry about the complex title; this is “sustainability for dummies” without insulting your intelligence.) Next, try Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food. It’s still only in hardcover, but worth the price. Michael Pollan has become the new guru of the crossroads of science and food, with his string of recent bestsellers, including The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

If these books have whetted your appetite (har har har) and you feel ready to move on to more specific programs amongst these topics, or more complex philosophies, try any or all of the following: Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds by Claire Hope Cummings; McWorld vs. Jihad: How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the World by Benjamin Barber (from 1996, with a few dated references, but still amazingly relevant); the catchingly-titled Everything I Want to Do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin; or my new favorite, just in time for gardening season, Food, Not Lawns by Heather Coburn Flores.

The key is to let yourself be educated, not intimidated. Certainly, I encourage you to inquire about these books at your local library or favorite independent bookstore. When you feel overwhelmed by the news or the price of gas, think Rosa Parks. Look at all the examples Bill McKibben gives of how small steps ARE making a difference. Check out your local farmers’ markets, plant a small square foot garden in your yard, co-op a garden with a neighbor, ask your candidates what they’re supporting in the world of agriculture. The bumper stickers are true: “local” IS the new “organic”. See what you can do.


Fresh ideas, or full of fertilizer? Let Hobo know: how does your garden grow? He promises not to be too contrary. And he wants to let Farmer Brown and the cows know that leaving them was nothing personal. See Hobo dancing with cows, in Hobo: The Musical! Soon opening on Broadway.