Michael Pollan’s new book is called IN DEFENSE OF FOOD. In it, he disparages something he calls “The Western Diet”. This “Western Diet” is made up, not of food, but of “foodlike substances” sold in supermarkets. Michael wants to get us back to eating real food.
Hello Michael? Hello? What is this “Western” nonsense?
Has Europe been [...]
All the parents of teenaged girls I know in California have daughters in crisis. Several are in treatment for drugs, alcohol, mental health and/or eating disorders. One started cutting. Another has a pending felony charge, related to things she did on meth. These are not the daughters of people struggling against appalling conditions in the [...]
An anthropologist friend of mine told me a set of interesting facts last night in a California hot tub.
First of all, if girls and boys live together before the age of about 6, they will tend not to be sexually attracted to each other. Kibbutz children, for example, raised communally, do not tend to marry [...]
Plant guilds are formed when we intentionally grow plants that are mutually beneficial to each other near one another. This is also sometimes called a “community of plants”. Companion planting is also related to this practice. This is both an excellent theory to follow when creating permaculture garden spaces, and also when working to organize [...]
Water use and conservation is quickly becoming one of the world’s more pressing issues. The majority of North American society remains unaware of some of the simplest practices that can assist in avoiding the predicted water crisis. One age old technique, now considered an essential part of Permaculture design, is that of creating swales and [...]
There’s an ongoing dilemma faced by many of the ecologically minded city dwellers I know. While many of them feel a strong desire to be living in ways that are aligned with their environmental activism, this seems practically impossible to achieve in an urban setting.However, there is also a feeling that urban centers are where [...]
Greywater is water that is drained from sinks, washing machines and showers/bathtubs. Greywater contains lots of nitrates and phosphates from household products as well as the expected hair and skin particles, but is still safe for use in irrigation as both nitrogen and phosphate are important nutrients for plant growth. However, when greywater is allowed [...]
The praxis(practice and theory combined) of Permaculture brings with it a fundamental awareness that each element within a system effects, and thus potentially supports, every other element. It follows that to change any element in a system will have an effect on the other elements,resulting in a change in the entire system. What do these [...]
If you’re an amateur of fine cheese and organic dairy products Tilamook county Oregon may seem a fine and familiar place.Unfortunately, when it comes to other types of local foods the pickings are extremely slim, so to speak.Despite a 10 month growing season and incredibly fertile soils there is not a single certified organic producer [...]
In Urbana, Illinois, they’re building houses that reduce energy consumption (and therefore energy costs) by as much as 80%.
Primarily heated by passive solar gain and the retention of heat naturally generated by the people and electrical equipment inside, these super-insulated, virtually air-tight buildings can run literally on the energy it takes to power a typical [...]
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