Republished with permission from the January issue of the Ester Republic.

This January marks the third calendar year that I’ve written the column for the ER, and though I have often mentioned or drawn upon the writings of others, I have never come right out and provided a legitimate, start-to-finish book review. It always seems a bit pedantic when a columnist chooses to write a book review solely for the sake of, well, writing a review. Book reviews should be transparent, authorless, written only for one of two reasons: either for the purpose of making more people aware of a work that might change the way they think about the world, even if just a very small piece of it (like the one I review below), or to provide a counter-perspective on a work that, if left unchallenged, might do real damage through misinformation (think Michael Crichton’s State of Fear). Of course, inescapable are the assumptions by the writer that 1) people care what they think and 2) they are qualified to identify books that should be suggested and books that should be challenged. But, I figure if you are reading this column, then you have already admitted a marginal interested in my opinion, and that being the case, I imagine you will allow me some liberty on number 2.

Where our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine, by Gary Paul Nabhan, is the gift I wish to share with you this month. (more…)

The role of the volunteer is not to be underestimated, and in the case of the Tanana Valley Watershed Association and other similar partnerships in Alaska, where I am focusing my research as part of my graduate studies in environmental policy, volunteers are an integral piece of a healthy watershed. Watershed partnerships are informal governing networks comprised of multiple stakeholders within an ecosystem basin.  Often these stakeholders have competing interests, but work as a body to make consensus-based decisions on things like which scientific research needs should be pursued or a plan for restoring a watershed or which issues require greater regulatory oversight. Participation in watershed partnerships is not mandatory.  The theoretical incentive is the desire to maintain a healthy ecosystem, one that can continue to provide jobs, services, clean water and a high quality of life for all.

Okay.  Tweed-wearing, pipe-smoking academic definitions aside, this seems a relevant topic as last week we were all called to serve by our new president. (more…)

From the December 2008 issue of the Ester Republic.

A few Sundays back I attended one of the four or five farmers’ markets that serve the Tucson area. I was struck by the appearance of vegetable starts on many vendors’ tables, in November! I did not notice the strangeness of this right away; at first I merely browsed through the tomatoes, squash, peppers, and eggplant—all varieties that one might expect in the Southwest—and lamented not having a garden of my own to tend during this sabbatical. It was not until later, when I saw a sign advertising special pricing on pre-order lamb for Thanksgiving, that the right side of my brain turned on and alerted me to the incongruity. People grow their gardens here in winter! How fascinating, how different, how beautiful!

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From the November 2008 issue of the Ester Republic.

Walking across the border from San Luis, Sonora, Mexico into San Luis, Arizona, United States, returning from my last trip to La Cienega de Santa Clara, I noticed a sign that read “No Transport of Agricultural Products.” I tried to take a picture, but apparently no photos are allowed of the border crossing—breech of national security. That the border agent asked me nothing about myself other than whether or not I had any agricultural products on ‘my person’ apparently wasn’t a breech of national security, however. As he asked me this I thought back to the miles of agricultural fields that line both sides of the main road that runs south from San Luis to the Gulf of Santa Clara, at the top of the Sea of Cortez. Fields as full of onions and maize and lettuce as they are of hard workers, workers who leave their homes as early as 2 AM for the chance of work. I looked past the custom’s agent and through the glass wall behind him, into a waiting room full of men and women applying for work papers that would most likely be denied. Apparently ‘No Transport of Agricultural Products’ should be taken to mean agricultural workers too.

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