EarthLight Resources

• Page 2 About this issue Susan Kleihauer, guest editor, asks us to consider the nature of our connection with food. If you've read no further, think now about how food relates you to your planet.

• Page 3 Mad Cow Cover-up The USDA mandate both to promote agricultural products and to protect public health may work at cross purposes. How can we encourage responsible governmental decisions and accurate media reports on health and environment issues without acting overly paranoid?

• Page 3 The Greening of Cuba Pray for Cuba! What else can you do?

• Pages 3-4 Alice Waters Which of your childhood memories center around meals? Where do you find good, seasonal, organic food? What are you doing to encourage children in gardening?

• Page 5 Reclaiming Eating as Sacred Relationship Jeremy Rifkin asserts that human history be understood in the context of the history of food. Can you recall some vital links between history and food? How do you acknowledge your sacred relationship to the food you eat? Are graces said or silences observed only for certain meals? How can our dietary choices affect genetic diversity?

• Pages 6-7 Rediscovering Food In what ways have you discovered the propensity of our society to "let its satisfactions be minimal, perfunctory, and fast?" How well have you followed Wendell Berry's suggestions for eating responsibly? How can we reconcile eating with the fullest pleasure with the sacredness of communion? [For more on this read the next article.]

• Pages 8-9 Feed the Soul from the Sacred Earth How do you envision a sacred agriculture in a not too distant future? "Let the contemplatives return to the land." Where are they?

• Page 9 Turning the Compost What lessons have you had occasion to learn from working with compost?

• Pages 10-11 Land, Community, and Love What are your assumptions about the roles of agriculture and civilization? How do they connect? What advantages does Wes Jackson see in small rural farming communities? Can you see others? What prejudices do we harbor against city folks or country folks? What does the word "sustainable" mean in today's world as well as for future generations?

• Pages 12-13 Earth Saint, Edward Abbey In what ways do you live "on the very verge of things, on the edge of the abyss?" Have you acted as if all people are siblings? Can you embrace the concept that "all living things on earth are kindred?" How can this belief change how we act toward animals and plants? If humanity is the voice of the earth, what is earth saying? Humanity has subjugated nature. Abbey suggests that subjugation responds to the needs of industry, not of humanity. What do you think? Is there a better verb than subjugate for how we interact or should interact with nature?

• Page 14 Black Beans Sue Spirit's guide to growing and enjoying black beans connects these activities to international events. What connections does her article evoke for you? What foods do you grow, or have you grown? Have you raised animals for food?

• Page 15 Voluntary Simplicity What are some of the values that Mary Gamble sees in what others might consider the inconveniences of poverty? Have you ever felt shamed by your attainment of or lack of worldly success? Have you ever contributed to shaming someone who was "not making it?" How do you approach personal relationships that reach across vast economic differences?

• Page 16 San Domenico School How does the environmental studies program at San Domenico School compare with the Outdoor Education programs at your community's schools? What are you doing to encourage schools to integrate environmental studies programs into the curriculum and to offer gardening or farming education?

• Page 17 Community Supported Agriculture Have you had the opportunity to buy into a farm and share its produce? Do you offer shares in your farming to landless folks? Have you participated in a community garden? Do you shop or sell your produce at a farmer's market?

• Pages 18-21 Reviews Which of the books reviewed or sources cited have you already seen? Which two are you most drawn to study? Why?

• Pages 22-23 Letters If you read the summer issue, on earth literacy, you'll love this section! EarthLightinvites your correspondence.

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Page last updated on 5/5/98 by Tom Farley of Spontaneous Combustion