Now on ScienceBlogs: HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
It is a really simple idea - things that can't go on the way they have been, usually don't. Sooner or later things that have no future just stop. We all know intellectually that we can't all live and consume like middle class Americans, that our kids are going to have a harder time because of our way of life, that Empires end and ecological disasters cause things to come to hard stops. We know it, but we don't KNOW it. This blog is about coming to KNOW, and figuring out where we go from here. I'm a science writer, teacher, environmental activist and small farmer who is trying to put her lifestyle where her mouth is, and live in a way with a future. When not writing books, serving on the board of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, I run my farm with my husband, where we raise dairy goats, herbs, pastured poultry, heirloom vegetable plants, children and havoc.
April 30, 2010
Category: Economy
Blankfein's message is that Goldman is good for the economy, that ultimately, Goldman and its ilk are here to serve us and make our lives better. His presentation is reasonable, calm, and sleazy - but he's definitely hoping you'll believe it.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:51 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 29, 2010
Category: chickens
If you are anywhere near the Massachusetts North Shore, you could come on up on Saturday between 10 and 2 to Beverly. Say howdy, hang out, talk poultry, see the fanciest and newly expanded chicken coop in town and...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 12:01 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: deep water drilling
It is easy to cry "Drill, baby, drill" and harder to live with the real world consequences of our consumption - increasingly hard.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:18 AM • 30 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 28, 2010
Category: seeds
What frustrated him was not the lack of profit, but that even the seed companies he tried to pass it on to (and by the end he was offering it up for free) in the 1980s and early 1990s didn't see the value in a corn that responded better to conditions of organic production rather than conventional - it seemed like too small a niche market.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:06 AM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 26, 2010
Category: earth day
Now population is a real issue, but this is a compelling example of how the rhetoric of environmentalism is being co-opted for other purposes. Among FAIR's claims to fame were its ties to the Pioneer Institute, a racist eugenicist organization.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:26 AM • 78 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: food preservation
Canning is a fairly new technique, developed for Napoleon's army in the early 19th century, we've had canning for less than two centuries. On the other hand, human beings have been putting food by as long as there have been human beings.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:09 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 22, 2010
Category: education of a farmer
Starting our CSA (aka "Community Supported Agriculture") was a risk. I knew that I could grow vegetables, and more than we could eat - I'd proved that the previous year. I knew also that I could find some people who...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 4:13 PM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: earth day
Perhaps my two previous screeds about Earth Day were unfair. After all, this could be the next major shopping holiday, with a lead in that rivals Christmas. Check out the New York Times for a sense of the range of...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 11:40 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: earth day
Most people will say that in fact, we've made enormous progress on the environment. Look at the wild turkeys! Look at the results of the clean water act! Per capita, we're emitting fewer pollutants! It is true...and they are wrong.
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:18 AM • 72 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 21, 2010
I bloody hate Earth Day. No offense to those of you who love it, and I know there are some awesome Earth Day programs out there, but by the time we get there, I'm spending my days hiding under the...
Posted by Sharon Astyk at 8:39 AM • 51 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front
A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil
Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation
