Moving In
by Elizabeth Sawin
— August 1, 2002 —
At 9:30 at night the phone rings. It is my neighbor Lorie. “Would you mind stepping out onto your porch for a minute?” I think I know what this is about. Up the hill on Tom and Lorie’s porch there are candles burning on tables covered with the scattered remains of dinner. Children are [...]
If We Want Farmers, We’ll Have to Pay
by Hal Hamilton
— April 1, 2002 —
We all know that farming is both important and endangered. It doesn’t have to be endangered.
From our farm in Hartland, VT we sell vegetables, “Ascutney Mountain Cheese” from the milk of our small herd of Jerseys, and maple syrup. The vegetable operation employs 3-4 people full time in the summer; the dairy and cheese [...]
I’m Dreaming of A Solar Powered Christmas
by Elizabeth Sawin
— November 30, 2001 —
This Christmas season, we’re bombing Afghanistan, and perhaps contributing to mass starvation there. We stand apart from the rest of the world on climate change, ignoring the melting ice at the North Pole and the rising global temperature. The killing and bombing and starving are bad enough, but we’re not just at war with [...]
Dear Folks: January 27, 2001
Dear Folks,
I’m starting this letter late Saturday afternoon, with the last, tragic act of Aida playing live from the Met on the radio. Such calm, ethereal love music, sung by two people who have just been entombed together. Opera is either a real hoot, or a real soul-searer, depending on how deep you let it get into you. My guard [...]
Le Monde n’est pas une Marchandise. Moi Non Plus. (The World is not For Sale. Me Neither.)
By Hal Hamilton and Donella Meadows
–July 13, 2000–
Jose Bove milks 250 sheep in the Larzac region of France, a rocky, windswept place where you would think no farmer could produce anything. But Bove turns sheep milk into one of the gastronomical treasures of the world, Roquefort cheese. Bove is a leader of the local Roquefort producers association and of the [...]
