Category: opinion

Urban Farm article

 

bigfoot-apricotsGreg Peterson’s Urban Farm U has just published my piece on Peter Bigfoot as “urban farming pioneer” on its blog, here.

Greg started farming in Phoenix forty years ago, and in 1991, when he discovered permaculture, converted his home’s 1/3 acre to an entirely edible landscape. Greg is an energetic proponent of permaculture and urban farming in Phoenix. (more…)

Slow Fashion October – week 1

FAI’ve been following the Fringe Association blog for years, where Karen Templer writes about knitting, sewing, and fashion from a conscious base of values: sustainability, beauty, craftsmanship, and ethics. She’s certainly helped me develop my knitting skills and interests, but she’s also led me to think more deeply about my choices in the clothes that I purchase, make, and wear. Now she’s organizing Slow Fashion October:

“to celebrate not only our own makes (although definitely that!) but clothes that have been made for us by others; worn over the course of years or decades; handed down or rescued from thrift shops or attics; mended; handcrafted in the small studios of slow fashion designers and/or from ethical fabrics; and so on. I want it to be about responsible and sustainable fashion in all its splendor, in other words. An opportunity to discuss and explore the wide range of topics that are at the core of slow fashion.”

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Self-interest, love, and war

We must guard against the siren song of self-interest if we are to live in a fair and equitable society.” – Here On Earth, p. 14

With due respect to Flannery, unfortunately this is just the kind of thinking that’s causing many of our problems. We don’t need to AVOID self-interest, we need to RETHINK our self-interest.

We need to see that in reality our self-interest is consistent and in harmony with the good of the community, others, and the environment.

I don’t mean this the way Ayn Rand would. Please let me explain. (more…)