The Tattered Cover is an iconic bookstore in downtown Denver, so it was entirely appropriate, and thrilling, that my first official bookstore booksigning event be there. Rather than tell you about it through text, my husband Alan videotaped the entire thing so you can be there with us! Enjoy
Thanksgiving tends to make me emotional and mushy about how much I appreciate the people and the circumstances in my life. Since Thanksgiving 2010, the Aquaponic Gardening book has been one of my central themes, so I guess it is only natural to focus my gratitude this year on those who really helped to make it happen. Continue Reading →
By any account, American agriculture is a tremendous success story. The problem is that this success is precariously balanced on a set of three crumbling ‘pillars’ whose degradation could reverse this course and put us on the path to less, rather than more food production and security.
Much has changed about American agriculture – and enabled vast increases in productivity and profitability – since the Great Dustbowl that inspired the iconic American Gothic painting. In fact, according to Cornell University, in the 25-year period between 1950 and 1975, while “… the acreage in farming dropped by 6 percent and the hours of farm labor decreased by 60 percent, farm production per hour of on-farm labor practically tripled, and total farm output increased by more than half.” New forms of farm mechanization drove less need for labor and greater existing farm hand productivity. The discovery of DDT and other effective pesticides increased the amount of saleable crops per harvest. The use of chemical fertilizers doubled between 1940 and 1944.
Sounds great, so what is the problem? Continue Reading →
