This is how big corporations and agri-business operate. It's always about the bottom line and stock values, never about what is best for the environment and long term agricultural sustainability.
WB -259 (Quantity v. Form... Feminism, the Body, and the Machine)...
What's the difference between a whole life and a long life? Is our culture confused about that? 220
Have you achieved "ripeness"? Do you have any role-models who have? 223
What do you think of Wendell's remarks on the failures and futility of the civil rights, women's, and environmental movements? 229-30
Are we a nation of fantasists? 232
Does writing with a computer (or even just electrical lighting) make you complicit in "the rape of nature"? 234
Do you know anyone who does not own a TV set? 235
If "most electrical power comes from strip-mined coal" [still more than half, according to my research], are we in too big a hurry to electrify everything (as Paul Hawken urges)? 240
Should we expect women to exert a "civilizing influence" on the workplace? 248
Is "industrial education" now mostly a form of "baby-sitting and career preparation"? 251
Do "educated people" now know more about sports than history?
Is writing "of the body"? Is writing with computers "flirting with a radical separation of mind and body"? 257
The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.Neil deGrasse Tyson
...The cosmic perspective flows from fundamental knowledge. But it’s more than just what you know. It’s also about having the wisdom and insight to apply that knowledge to assessing our place in the universe. And its attributes are clear:The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it’s not solely the province of the scientist. The cosmic perspective belongs to everyone.
The cosmic perspective is humble.
The cosmic perspective is spiritual—even redemptive—but not religious.
The cosmic perspective enables us to grasp, in the same thought, the large and the small.
The cosmic perspective opens our minds to extraordinary ideas but does not leave them so open that our brains spill out, making us susceptible to believing anything we’re told.
The cosmic perspective opens our eyes to the universe, not as a benevolent cradle designed to nurture life but as a cold, lonely, hazardous place.
The cosmic perspective shows Earth to be a mote, but a precious mote and, for the moment, the only home we have.
The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae but also celebrates the laws of physics that shape them.
The cosmic perspective enables us to see beyond our circumstances, allowing us to transcend the primal search for food, shelter, and sex.
The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, where there is no air, a flag will not wave—an indication that perhaps flag waving and space exploration do not mix.
The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.
At least once a week, if not once a day, we might each ponder what cosmic truths lie undiscovered before us, perhaps awaiting the arrival of a clever thinker, an ingenious experiment, or an innovative space mission to reveal them. We might further ponder how those discoveries may one day transform life on Earth.
Absent such curiosity, we are no different from the provincial farmer who expresses no need to venture beyond the county line, because his forty acres meet all his needs. Yet if all our predecessors had felt that way, the farmer would instead be a cave dweller, chasing down his dinner with a stick and a rock.
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore—in part because it’s fun to do. But there’s a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their “low contracted prejudices.” And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment—until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace the cosmic perspective.
An excerpt from Neil's upcoming book 'Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization.' Should we live forever? What happens to us after we die? What is the statistical probability of being alive? Taking a cosmic perspective on civilization not only helps us understand where we are but shows us the path forward.
Long day ahead, Curriculum Committee meeting at 8:30, regular classes 'til 5:45, the MALA Experience class 6-9, all book-ended by the usual long commute. Better get in the right frame of mind...
In Environmental Ethics today I'll reiterate my concern that the two generic mindsets Wendell describes (in Two Minds) in mutual opposition, Rational and Sentimental, are better represented not as opponents but as dual aspects of the singularly inclusive mind we're going to have to develop if we're to think and act rationally, humanely, and sustainably about life--all life, not just ours and not just now--on Earth... (continues)
Tens of millions of people across
the United States have been enduring heat wave after heat wave this summer, in what
feels like an unrelenting succession of humid days and scorching temperatures.
While there’s no denying that extreme heat and humidity can be physically
uncomfortable, research suggests that
such conditions can be trying on your psychological well-being, too.
Heat waves in the U.S., wildfires in
Europe, floods in Asia: This summer has shown how the climate crisis has made
extreme weather a part of everyday life.
Some of the worst recent damage has
taken place in Pakistan. Floods have submerged more than a third of the country
and killed at least 1,300 people.
Scientists can’t say yet with
certainty that climate change caused the flooding, but experts told me that it
was most likely a contributor. As The Times explained, climate change is making severe floods
likelier and more intense. “These off-the-charts events are going to happen
more often, and this is just one of those examples,” said Jennifer Francis, a
senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
The floods followed a brutal heat
wave in Pakistan earlier this year that led to temperatures above 120 degrees
Fahrenheit. Scientists have already concluded that global warming made that
heat wave much likelier.
With the 9/11 anniversary coming soon, what do you think it should have taught us about what WB calls the cultural landscape? Have we learned anything valuable from it?
WB offers strip mining as an example of disregard for the cultural landscape that leads directly to destruction of the physical landscape. What other examples come to mind? 178
COMMENT?: "The dominant faith of the world in our time is rationality." 179
WB distinguishes Rational Mind from Sympathetic Mind. 180ff. Does he mean Rationalist and Empiricist? Does he neglect to distinguish Rationalism from rationalism? Is Rationality as he characterizes it a caricature? (Or a description of Vulcans?)
Do the "optimists of scientific rationalism, which is scornful of limits" (183) sound more like the relatively marginal techno-utopians and trans-humanists who want to live forever?
Can we properly balance our "creatureliness" (184) with scientific inquisitiveness, and thus achieve a Rational AND Sympathetic Mind?
Do you see significant similarities between WB's worldview and Buddhism? 187
In light of the "implicit contradiction between tall buildings and airplances," how can we manage the contradiction, still fly, and still have tall buildings? 192
Is there no "good use of destructive power"? 193
Are rationality and spirituality compatible? 197
Is the idea of "nature preserves" anti-environmental? 198
Is WB a Luddite? Are country people generally? 201
"The idiocy of rural life" was not originated by The New Republic, but by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto: "The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. " COMMENT?
COMMENT?: "The real names of global warming are 'waste' and 'greed'..." 207
COMMENT?: "The world-ending fire of industrial fundamentalism may already be burning in our furnaces and engines..."208
COMMENT?: "For those who reject heaven, hell is everywhere..." 211 (My comment: you coulda fooled me.)
What do you think of "community economy" and the "sharing of fate"? Is it socialism? 214
Frank Drake, who pointed a radio telescope at a pair of stars in 1960 hoping to find alien civilizations and thus kindled a continuing endeavor called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, died on Friday at his home in Aptos, Calif. He was 92...
Investments in battery factories, solar panel manufacturing and mining will help the Biden administration meet targets for reducing greenhouse gases...
How does climate change exacerbate other global challenges? Join us remotely or in person for our climate event series, with an upcoming gathering in New York in September... nyt
First day of classes today and there's a full house for "Peter Singer's Ethics: A Critical Assessment", which Singer "expect[s]...to be the last time [he] teach[es] a graduate class at @Princeton". pic.twitter.com/7HJ3Jh2d8U
Michael Pollan's Times Magazine essay that foreshadowed Omnivore's Dilemma...
The first time I opened Peter Singer's ''Animal Liberation,'' I was dining alone at the Palm, trying to enjoy a rib-eye steak cooked medium-rare. If this sounds like a good recipe for cognitive dissonance (if not indigestion), that was sort of the idea. Preposterous as it might seem, to supporters of animal rights, what I was doing was tantamount to reading ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' on a plantation in the Deep South in 1852.
Singer and the swelling ranks of his followers ask us to imagine a future in which people will look back on my meal, and this steakhouse, as relics of an equally backward age. Eating animals, wearing animals, experimenting on animals, killing animals for sport: all these practices, so resolutely normal to us, will be seen as the barbarities they are, and we will come to view ''speciesism'' -- a neologism I had encountered before only in jokes -- as a form of discrimination as indefensible as racism or anti-Semitism.
Even in 1975, when ''Animal Liberation'' was first published, Singer, an Australian philosopher now teaching at Princeton, was confident that he had the wind of history at his back. The recent civil rights past was prologue, as one liberation movement followed on the heels of another. Slowly but surely, the white man's circle of moral consideration was expanded to admit first blacks, then women, then homosexuals. In each case, a group once thought to be so different from the prevailing ''we'' as to be undeserving of civil rights was, after a struggle, admitted to the club. Now it was animals' turn.
That animal liberation is the logical next step in the forward march of moral progress is no longer the fringe idea it was back in 1975. A growing and increasingly influential movement of philosophers, ethicists, law professors and activists are convinced that the great moral struggle of our time will be for the rights of animals…
Agricultural pests that devour key food crops
are advancing northwards in the US and becoming more widespread as the climate
hots up, new research warns.
The corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) is considered to be among the most common
farm pests in the US, ravaging crops such as maize, cotton, soya and other
vegetables. It spends winter underground and is not known to survive in states
beyond a latitude of 40 degrees north (which runs from northern California
through the midwest to New Jersey), but that is changing as soils warm and it
spreads to new areas, according to research led by North Carolina State
University.
The report follows research from the University of Washington in 2018 that
found 2C (3.6F) of warming would boost the number and appetite of insects
globally, causing them to destroy 50% more wheat and 30% more maize than they
do now. Rising heat stress is already affecting yields, with harvests of staple crops
in Europe down this year as a result of heatwaves and drought.
Pest invasions have serious implications for
food security. “As the climate changes, the overwintering zones are likely to
shift northward,” said the co-author Anders Huseth, an entomologist at North
Carolina State University. “This is the canary in the coalmine for agricultural
pests.
InEnvironmental Ethics todayWendell notes the rapid historical decline of farmers in the U.S., whose numbers in the last half of the 20th century dropped by more than half. Fewer and fewer of us have direct personal memories of farm life. That's dreadful, if living close to the land that feeds the nation and the world, and thus learning to know and love it, are conditions of a healthy food ecology and sound environmental sensibility... (continues)
#NotT00Late is a project to invite newcomers to the climate movement, as well as provide climate facts and encouragement for people who are already engaged but weary. We believe that the truths about the science, the justice-centered solutions, the growing strength of the climate movement and its achievements can help. They can assuage the sorrow and despair, and they can help people see why it's worth doing the work the climate crisis demands of us... https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/
Why the
hügelkultur trend is gaining fans and could transform backyard vegetable
growing
Homegrown veggies
could soon be raised on a mound of earth, if new interest in the old-fashioned
hügelkultur method of gardening catches on
The latest trend in growing veggies, coming from California –
one of the US states suffering from unprecedented drought – is hügelkultur, or
‘mound culture’.
It’s a method of cultivation that utilizes
almost every scrap of waste and retains water at the same time, so no wonder
this is a garden trend that's becoming popular with those
interested in sustainable gardening.
But just what is it about this gardening method that makes it so
accessible to anyone, no matter where they live?
WHAT
IS THE HÜGELKULTUR TREND AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Hügelkultur is German for ‘hill-mound’ or ‘hill culture’. The
idea was pioneered by Austrian permaculture expert Sepp Holzer in the 1960s and
1970s and the hugkultur movement is now finding new fans in the USA.
PLAY SOUND
With vegetable growing on the up in the US – 35 per
cent of US household now raise their own crops – gardeners are looking for new
ways to raise their crops whilst saving precious water. The bonus of
hügelkultur is that it’s highly moisture-retaining.
In hügelkultur, a mound of wood,
trunks, branches, wood chips and straw is built up on the soil, or on a log or
tree slice. Alternatively, a raised garden bed, trough or wooden enclosure may be
used. Natural waste such as plant clippings, grass cuttings and kitchen
peelings are added to contribute to the mix, rather like a compost heap.
This organic matter is allowed to rot down over time to create a
warm and moist self-sufficient ecosystem that needs minimum water and even creates
its own liquid.
When the hügelkultur mound is ready –
typically after around three years - it provides a welcoming nutrient-rich
environment for all kinds of kitchen garden crops, including potatoes, swedes,
turnips and carrots.
Deep in winter, as wind, rain and biting cold
make Victoria's western districts a bleak place for farmers and livestock,
David Fenton feels like Australia's luckiest farmer.
"I possibly live on the best farm in the
world. It's a great place to wake up in the morning and a great place in the
evening," he said.
"Every day, there's something new."
David owns Lanark, a 700-hectare prime
lamb-grazing property at Branxholme.
A third of Lanark is covered with built wetlands
and several hundred thousand trees planted for stock-shelter, wildlife
habitat and forestry.
"I love the word
environmentally sustainable," David said.
"They're probably my two favourite words,
and we've been that now for at least the last 12 to 14 years."
SEP 6 WB -176 (The Agrarian Standard... A Few Words for Motherhood)
Are you alarmed at the rapid historical decline of farmers in the U.S.? 132
Do you have personal memories of farm life, personally or via family? (I recall riding as a child with my late Uncle on his huge combine, on the ancestral family farm in Montgomery County, MO. I now know no one who farms.)
Can we be "a healthy people in a healthy land" if we remain literally and emotionally detached from hands-on agriculture, not knowing or particularly caring where our supermarket commodities come from or how they got to us?
Do you think patronizing large grocery chains like Kroger and Publix necessarily implicates us in supporting "bad [industrial] agriculture"?
Have you ever participated in CSA? If not, do you intend to?
Do you agree that industrial agriculture "cannot use the land without abusing it"? 133
Why do we have such a hard time appreciating and representing "locality"? 134
"The industrial mind is an organizational mind" -- what's wrong with that?
Is violence inherent in the (industrial agriculture) system? 135
What does "stewardship" mean to you?
Is the "market value" of land irrelevant, from an environmental standpoint? 138
What is the true source of "abundance"? 139
What does it mean to be "landed"? 140 Can an urban apartment-dweller be landed?
Is anything "inevitable"?
What would or could you do if forced by war or some other cataclysm to "live from [your] home landscapes"? 141
Is it wrong for a few powerful people to own and control the land? 142
What does it mean to you to acknowledge that "eating is an agricultural act"? 143f.
Do you feel obliged to follow any "food rules"? (See Michael Pollan, below)
Please post your thoughts and questions, especially on "labor saving," "getting along with nature," and "motherhood"...
The Wendell Berry Sentence That Inspired Michael Pollan's Food Obsession
For Pollan, "eating is an agricultural act" offers more insight into how food relates to the world than Thoreau or Emerson's words ever could.
Perhaps more than any living writer, Michael Pollan has convinced America that food is a story—and that there's pleasure, health, and good conscience in untangling farm-to-fork narratives. For many, books like The Omnivore's Dilemma have been a gateway to more mindful eating, a path to heightened curiosity about farming and the natural world, a road to the conviction that we really are what we eat.
But what got Michael Pollan thinking about food? In a recent interview by phone, Pollan explained his transformation from Harper's editor to a writer about gardens—and from there corn fields, supply chains, and food rules. When I asked him if a particular text has guided the ethos of his work, he pointed to a line from Wendell Berry's short manifesto, "The Pleasures of Eating," that urges us to be curious and make connections... (continues)
That's the diagnosis delivered by food author Michael Pollan in a lecture given last week to an overflow crowd of CDC scientists.
As part of an effort to bring new ideas to the national debate on food issues, the CDC invited Pollan -- a harsh critic of U.S. food policies -- to address CDC researchers and to meet with leaders of the federal agency.
"The French paradox is that they have better heart health than we do despite being a cheese-eating, wine-swilling, fois-gras-gobbling people," Pollan said. "The American paradox is we are a people who worry unreasonably about dietary health yet have the worst diet in the world."
In various parts of the world, Pollan noted, necessity has forced human beings to adapt to all kinds of diets.
"The Masai subsist on cattle blood and meat and milk and little else. Native Americans subsist on beans and maize. And the Inuit in Greenland subsist on whale blubber and a little bit of lichen," he said. "The irony is, the one diet we have invented for ourselves -- the Western diet -- is the one that makes us sick."
Snowballing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the U.S. can be traced to our unhealthy diet. So how do we change?
7 Words & 7 Rules for Eating
Pollan says everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
Probably the first two words are most important. "Eat food" means to eat real food -- vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and, yes, fish and meat -- and to avoid what Pollan calls "edible food-like substances."
Here's how:
1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.
… It's been 16 years since Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" debuted. During that time, the truth he warned about — our planet's spiral toward a new climate reality, fueled by human activity and significantly less hospitable to human existence — has become only more inconvenient, urgent, and dire.
Drought in the western U.S. Severe heat waves across Europe. Unusually heavy flooding in Kentucky and elsewhere. Scientists say these kinds of dramatic weather patterns will become more frequent as climate change progresses. We hear about 100-year storms or even 1,000-year floods, terms that are meant to indicate rarity. But it is increasingly clear such events are no longer anomalous. A horrific tragedy is currently playing out in Pakistan, where immense flooding is causing widespread destruction and mass death.
The warming climate, as Gore warned us, will result in greater hardship and instability. It is a cruel injustice that the countries that contributed the least to greenhouse gas proliferation tend to be the poorest and will suffer the most.
On a more optimistic note, the recent climate bill passed by Congress represents exactly the kind of concrete action for which Gore has long advocated. Start somewhere. In the case of this legislation, that "somewhere" is quite significant, according to climate experts. Once you've started, keep going. Change the direction. Chart a new path forward toward carbon neutrality.
The climate is a grave and unending concern. It should dictate our policy choices and define our national security. Gore saw this clearly. His warnings will cry out from the history books to future generations. "Why were they not heeded?" they will ask in disbelief.
But it wasn't only the climate that has had me thinking of Gore. There is also the matter of the clear and present dangers our institutions and democratic order are facing…
2.The flooding, which United Nations
Secretary-General António Guterres called "a monsoon on steroids," is the latest
climate-driven catastrophe faced by Pakistan. Earlier this year, the months
between March and May saw record-breaking highs in temperature and a prolonged
drought that human-caused climate change made 30 times more likely to occur,
as reported by World Weather Attribution.
3.Now, the effects of climate change and global
warming are once again on display, and this time, it's on a massive scale.
4.According to Vox, more than 1,130 people have been killed during Pakistan's
monsoon season, which started in early June, and the flooding has affected 33
million people and counting.
5.Homes and buildings have been ripped away by
roaring tides.
Without everyone seated at the table,
feeding, clothing, and fueling a world of 7 billion will be impossible. Creating
a sense of belonging falls to farmers and ranchers.
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 revealed many
unspoken truths about society in the United States — truths that many
marginalized peoples have long known. The pandemic caused us to look inward and
re-evaluate our place and sense of belonging. A sense of disconnectedness and
social isolation was common for many, which often led to an environment of
disempowerment, a feeling new to most.
Among these realizations was a great reconciliation concerning
our understanding of work; it seems that we are moving beyond our traditional
understanding of “work.”
Even in rural Oklahoma where speaking openly about
emotions has not been the generational norm, today’s farmers and ranchers are
increasingly willing to explore what their involvement in agriculture means to
them. While the generational commitment to maintaining a legacy is a popular
motivating force, the personal emotional fulfillment derived from growing and
nurturing food and fiber for the world is becoming expressed more openly.
Without a doubt, there is an underlying commitment to
individualism and self-reliance in agriculture and the rural way of life. This
commitment is both a romanticized accolade to
our lifestyle we wear with pride and also the unfortunate downfall of far too
many. And yet despite our independence, our reliance on community is
fundamental to the survival of agriculture and our role within; without
consumers, our products are valueless. Without good neighbors, strong fences,
and generous friends to fall back on, agriculture would be nearly impossible.
New policies aim to
increase amount of wheat grown
Sept. 1, 2022
Scott McFetridge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DES MOINES, Iowa – There is only so much farmland in the United States, so when
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted worries that people would go hungry as
wheat remained stuck in blockaded ports, there was little U.S. farmers could do
to meet the new demand.
• But that may be changing.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture instituted new policies to encourage
American farmers to begin growing two crops on one piece of land, one after the
other, a practice known as double-cropping. By changing insurance rules to
lessen the risk of growing two crops, the USDA hopes to significantly increase
the amount of wheat that U.S. farmers could grow every year, lessening the
reliance on big wheat producers like Ukraine and Russia and eliminating bottlenecks.
The idea is an intriguing development from the
Ukraine war that hasn’t received widespread attention. As fall approaches, it’s
unclear how many farmers will actually try the new system, but some who already
grow two crops say it’s something farmers should consider.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Illinois
farmer Jeff O’Connor, who has doublecropped for years and hosted President Joe
Biden at an event in May to promote efforts to increase food production. “How
successful it will be, I don’t know.”...
The
USDA didn’t mention climate change, but the agency and other experts have long
said warming temperatures will spur farmers to rethink what they grow and how...The USDA didn’t respond to a request for
details about how many farmers the agency hopes will begin double-cropping or
how much U.S. production could increase. Farmers
who double-crop often have smaller crops, but two smaller crops would still be
significantly larger than an individual crop.
A study published in August
by the University of Illinois and Ohio State University found that was
certainly the case this year, as high wheat prices resulted in double-cropped
land in southern Illinois bringing a projected $251 per acre return for
wheat and soybeans, which is $81 higher than a stand-alone soybean crop.
