The Green Foodprint

Posted on April 20, 2012 by

Everything you could want to know about the environmental impact of your food choices is gathered here in a well-organized and reader-friendly format. You can dip into it anywhere and learn something. Each topic ends with “What You Can Do” suggestions, so the book is not an intellectual exercise so much as a guidebook for step-by-step action.  The author has a passion for the truth, and doesn’t try to hide unpleasant facts; for example, that the “free-range” label on eggs often does not mean that the hens ever walk on a natural landscape or experience less crowding than their more typically-raised sisters. Continue reading →

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Ninety-Five: Meeting America’s Farmed Animals

Posted on March 30, 2012 by

Ninety-Five: Meeting America’s Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs, edited and published by No Voice Unheard.  2010.

This spacious, clear, compassionate book about rescued farmed animals offers three experiences you may not get from actually visiting a sanctuary where these animals are kept: a chance to look them in the eyes for an extended period of time, to see examples of every animal Americans commonly eat, and to visit them even in the midst of a city. The large photographs allow you extended closeup eye-to-eye contact, whereas if face-to-face the animal might be farther away, would move about, perhaps turn away.  And most sanctuaries would have most but possibly not all of these: chickens, turkeys, pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, and rabbits. Plus, unlike a rare visit to a sanctuary, by opening the book you can see the animals again anytime and anywhere you want.

Among the sanctuaries and authors featured is Colorado’s own Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary, with written contributions from Michele and Chris Alley-Grubb and Joanna Lucas, all of Peaceful Prairie. The short essays on the animals’ behavior are thoughtful and sensitive, but to me the main reason to pick up this book is its photographs: to see, really see, these living animals that remain invisible to most people who encounter them only after they’ve been slaughtered, dismembered and served up on a plate. No other book I know is as effective in allowing the reader to make that connection.

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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Posted on March 18, 2012 by

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker.  Viking, 2011.

I can’t stop telling people about this amazing landmark study of societal progress concerning violent behavior! Everyone I’ve talked to is cheered by the news that the 20th century was not the most violent; that with occasional exceptions, humans have been making solid progress in reducing violence; and that our treatment of “out-groups” of a different race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or even species, has grown increasingly respectful. The author writes clearly and enlivens his descriptions of countless psychological studies, numerous graphs and, in the beginning chapters, grisly depictions of torture, with just the right amount of anecdotal passages to keep the reader engaged throughout its nearly 700 pages. For example, you’ve got to love that the concept of deterrence is explained using lyrics from the old Jim Croce song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.” Continue reading →

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The Spirit’s Pilgrimage

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

The Spirit’s Pilgrimage, by Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade).  Great Ocean Publishers, 1960.

Mirabehn was a British-born close associate of Mohandas Gandhi, working with him from 1925 until the end of his life. She was not just a secretary or assistant, but a diplomatic adviser and project manager. On occasion she was even sent by Gandhi to represent him in negotiations with British officials. She stayed on in India until 1959, continuing her work to improve the lives of the poor.
As a young adult, she had been told by a mentor that Gandhi was “another Christ,” and from then on her mind was made up to go and work for him. Her dedication was rock-solid, as it required her to face a much harder life than she would have had at home in England: stressful political situations and imprisonment, extremely hot humid climate, poor sanitation, typhoid and repeated bouts of malaria, living in mud huts with scorpions and ticks, hard daily physical labor, language and cultural barriers, etc. She was tough, too–after all this, she lived to be nearly 90! This is her story in her own words, told as though the reader was sitting in front of her, and builds a solid on-the-ground foundation under other more philosophical commentaries about Gandhi and his work.

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The 100 Thing Challenge

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul, by Dave Bruno.  Harper, 2010.

Dave Bruno, a fairly average guy, decides to set himself the challenge of living for a year with only 100 things for his personal use. He spends a year reducing his possessions down to that number, and setting the rules of how he will proceed. I really liked that the guy was thinking and blogging about this, honestly trying to stop buying stuff that leads to clutter and no additional happiness, followed his plan for a year and wrote a book about it. He stopped going to malls and doesn’t own a TV. His wife and three daughters are OK with him doing the challenge although they don’t set themselves the same challenge. By the end of the challenge year, he seems to have changed in ways that will last. Continue reading →

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EcoMind

Posted on January 4, 2012 by

EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want, by Frances Moore Lappe. Nation Books, 2011.

Scientists are telling us a lot of depressing news these days about climate change, species extinction, overpopulation, and dwindling resources. In addition, we have unrestrained corporate power, vast wealth disparity, and workers in crisis. It can seem hard to stay hopeful and engaged–until, that is, you encounter Lappe’, who has taken on the role of cheerleader to show us positive efforts currently underway. Continue reading →

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Beyond Religion

Posted on December 23, 2011 by

Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.

I agree with the Dalai Lama that only if the world’s people succeed in finding common ground Beyond Religion is there a chance of working together for any kind of a sane future. I wondered what he was going to suggest, and found myself reading with interest. He describes compassion–the foundation of secular ethics–in detail, what it is and isn’t (e.g. it isn’t meekness). He shows why the practice of compassion and restraint is necessary for a sustainable environment, stable governments, as well as personal well-being, and why such efforts must be undertaken outside of religion to succeed globally. Continue reading →

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Plenitude

Posted on November 20, 2011 by

Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, by Juliet Schor. Penguin Press, 2010.

Schor begins by documenting why our current lifestyles are unsustainable, then presents information on various innovations and solutions to move us in a more planet-friendly direction. A few ideas were new to me, such as fab labs and wall gardens, but I’d mostly heard it before. Schor sees the society of the future as being more satisfying than today’s business-as-usual. She’s upbeat, downplaying what I anticipate will be a tremendous social upheaval in moving from present consumption levels to part-time incomes, self-provisioning and sharing. People love their electronic toys and cheap airfares, and will resist change. It’s a positive direction, though, and will be mandatory, so we need to start thinking about it.

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Whitewash

Posted on September 5, 2011 by

Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth About Cow’s Milk and Your Health, by Joseph Keon. New Society, 2010

Keon gives us a comprehensive look at what the dairy industry is NOT telling us. By analyzing numerous studies, he chips away at, and ultimately demolishes, all the reasons we’ve been given to drink milk, and instead shows how hazardous it is. For adult humans to “nurse” from another species is pretty bizarre at the outset, when you view it objectively. The author’s stated purpose in writing the book is to show that instead of supporting bone health, dairy products actually undermine it. Countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are those with the highest consumption of dairy. Continue reading →

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Just Food

Posted on August 4, 2011 by

Just Food: How Locavores Are Endangering the Future of Food and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, by James E. McWilliams. Little, Brown, 2009.

Want to get a lively discussion going among people who care about food sustainability? This book will do it!

The author hits the ground running with a spot-on sendup of the locavore mania, and not a moment too soon. Then we get chapters on organics and GM food, which I’m still digesting (pardon the pun). I’d thought it was clear that organics should be embraced and GM foods opposed, but here are considerations that were new to me. The uncompromising chapter on livestock had me cheering “You tell ‘em!” and wondering if the author is also a vegan. Not yet, we find out: he tells us he’s given up eating land animals, but still looks favorably on aquaculture, as detailed in the following chapter. (Later note: McWilliams is now a vegan advocate. Follow his blog Eating Plants.) Continue reading →

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