Comments Martha Hagood has made

A big yuck to Mary Jane Butters

I am really put off by the supposedly green Ms. Butters, who calls her catalog of dried organic food powder a "magazine" and her New York business manager a "literary agent." Just about the most ridiculous attempt to co-opt environmentalism for a green-tinted consumerism that I have ever seen. Yuck, yuck, yuck.On A quick read on green lifestyle magazines posted 1 year, 5 months ago 13 Responses

Let's hear it for Barbara Damrosch

B.D. issued the ultimate challenge to the post-consumer gardener, one I have been trying to meet ever since. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like, "You know, once you own good tools and understand something about seed saving, you can actually garden year after year without spending anything at all."
She's my favorite crunchy role model. Above challenge was issued in 2004 or 2005, I think. I don't think she really meant for people to go all radical non-consumerist, just chill out on the unnecessary garden-related gadgets, but it really made an impression on me.On A bright trend for dark times: kitchen gardening posted 1 year, 7 months ago 26 Responses

we need models like this

Ok, good. Keep it coming. My partners and I can grow, and shill, and talk to other growers, but to get something like this going we need models. Thanks.On To make local food more accessible, time to revive mid-sized farms posted 1 year, 7 months ago 10 Responses

Segregation on buses and elsewhere

Whew.

As one who is commited to public transport, I know that in the cities I've lived in there have been a lot of social barriers to public transport. Some have clearly had to do with race, but most are about class, it seems to me. I've wondered if we shouldn't just have a two-tier, separate but unequal, public transport system in cities to roughly correspond to the way it works in the bus vs. train case, or ground vs air. Go ahead, be a status-obsessed, race-queasy snob, but please pollute the earth less while you're about it. Trouble is, I don't want to see money diverted from the systems that serve lower income riders. Some time back, there was a thread on here about the appeal of trolleys over buses. Fine. Whatever works.
Now, as for Mr. Stevenson's concerns, of course we don't want anyone barred from full and enthusiastic use of the bus. But I don't think that's happening. In our houses, men and women share facilities that are segregated by sex in the public sphere. If we have to add some Mexico City buses to that list, I can live with it.On Mexico City encourages transit ridership with women-only buses posted 1 year, 10 months ago 8 Responses

Ride bus. Learn to cook. Make compost.

Eat greens. Ride a bike. Waste not.On Here's your chance to be the Pollan of climate change posted 1 year, 10 months ago 94 Responses

Damn straight.

It's good to read this today, especially after struggling through the reams of pointless screed and denial that threaten to make the NYTimes dot earth comments worthless. A mark in the win column. (Or choose your sports metaphor.)On Fast Food Nation author regales organic-farmer audience posted 1 year, 10 months ago 6 Responses

Boycott GMO's? Boycott conventional meat and dairy

And anything made with soybean oil. Is corn oil made from GMO corn these days? Then cut that out, too. You have to cook your own food, so you can control your ingredients. I don't think there's any other way.

Will enough people do that to have any kind of economic impact?  If not, the courts have opened the door to major change before. About 100 years ago, a combination of popular muckraking journalists and savvy politicians pushed back against monopolistic companies -- the Beef Trust, Standard Oil, insurance companies, financial institutions -- and it made for real change. We could do worse than look to the Progressive Era for strategies. On Monsanto's latest court triumph cloaks massive market power posted 1 year, 10 months ago 18 Responses

But what about wild bees?

Thanks for "faunication," that's wonderful.
But my question is, Are the free-range, non-boxed bees out there being affected by the hive disorders to the same extent? Or does anyone know? Has anyone tried to measure this?On Why bees and pigs are not machines posted 1 year, 11 months ago 12 Responses

Cheerier news

I think the best I've felt in months was the day my design history students (having recently seen McDonough & Braungart's "Next Industrial Revolution") presented their research projects, including repurposed bicycle furniture, cardboard disaster housing, and recycle-in-place garden benches. A wonderful young woman soldiered through an explanation of purified waste water and the role of worm compost in that process. I'm not sure she had it quite right, but the subject is definitely on the table!
As for good news, I try to make my own by remaking my own life support systems along green lines, keeping climate change and direct action part of most of my relationships, calling my Senators... I'd like to do more. Some days I just read and learn, some days I pick up garbage, and I never miss a chance to vote. Over time, I'm hoping to refocus my professional life along more activist lines as well. One foot, then the next foot.On High drama leads to compromise at climate conference posted 1 year, 11 months ago 18 Responses

Because it moves the bubble

An extreme position, if expressed in a moderate tone of voice, causes the MSM to recalculate the middle-point (the bubble on the level) that represents "balance."On Fossil-friendly biz groups send letter to Senate requesting reversal of Supreme Court decision posted 1 year, 11 months ago 3 Responses

A topic I welcome

I appreciate this article very much. As one who lives off of the produce aisle at the supermarket during the winter, I have often wondered about the back-story of the food. What about vegetables that aren't implicated in the crimes of the fast food robber barons? Is kale virtuous? Sweet potatoes?On How corporate control of produce markets squeezes workers, farmers, and consumers posted 2 years ago 5 Responses