A recent hubbub in the Fairbanks city council about banning the much-loved pass-time of dumpster diving has got me thinking about self reliance: about the economics of self reliance, its relationship to environmental stewardship and sustainability, and of obstacles like this silly ban that governments and businesses so frequently put in the way of achieving it. If there has been one unifying theme behind the articles of my column Outpost Agriculture, it is the importance of building self reliance back into our communities. In this three-part series that our editor has so graciously offered to publish, I will explore the concept of self reliance, not just to define it but to justify it as a strategy that everyone can participate in for making positive impacts on their communities and local environments. The pursuit of self reliance is an inalienable right of every person and community. We need to come to understand that, and learn to recognize the many obstacles that both we and other people have placed in its way, so that we may discard them and change our lives for the better. (more…)

“Reducing this nation’s dependence on foreign oil” is nearly as common a political platitude as my other favorites “crossing the aisle” and “fighting the war on terror.” But the politics of energy are of particular interest to me, not surprisingly because of their relationship to food. This column, however, is neither about eating local nor farming practices that can eliminate chemical fertilizers as strategies for reducing the oil addiction (at least not explicitly). Instead, I want to spend some time speaking out against the most popular oil alternative: ethanol. (more…)

Of the many insights for conservation and sustainability initiatives found in the work of ecologists, perhaps the most valuable is not a particular concept or principle, but the guidance provided by the discipline itself for a new way of thinking about how we interact with the natural world. The principles of ecology share in a philosophy of interconnectedness that weighs the form and function of a system together, capturing both inner dynamics as well as the phenomena that emerge from the system’s operation as a whole. To think ecologically, guided by its principles and examples, offers a great many benefits to people as we decide to how best interact with the world. Aldo Leopold called this “thinking like a mountain.” By revealing complexity and interconnectedness within and between places, ecological thinking forces us to assume that same level of complexity and interconnectedness in the outcomes of our behavior. Thinking ecologically also suggests a set of goals, such as diversity and resilience, by which managed ecosystems can thrive and persist over time. And perhaps most importantly, thinking in this way insists that people admit their residence within ecosystems, contrary to the too-long-held human vs. nature dichotomy, transforming conquerors of nature into potential managers of and entrenched participants in ecosystems. (more…)

Reprinted with permission from the November issue of the Ester Republic.

As we walked through the front door of my almost-in-law’s home, my then-still-fiancée and I were greeted with crisis. “Theas no moah fresh sablefish, only frozen,” I heard my caterer proclaim as a cordless phone was thrust into my hand. I recognized his Cape Cod accent right away. The development was a disappointment, to be sure, but probably not a crisis. Sablefish is delicious, cheap, and responsibly fished under a community-based system of management. Frozen wouldn’t be as tasty, and would be harder for the chef to work with, but purchasing the frozen sablefish for the event, I mused, would be the ultimate display of commitment to supporting a local, responsible food resource.

My caterer, however, had a different idea. Remember the Tyson pen? “Frozen will taste horrible,” he proclaimed – “You want Barramundi. Its cheap, tastes like Chilean sea bass, and tops all the ‘sustainability’ lists.” Sigh. “No,” I responded, “we’re not going with a farmed fish.” I asked him to find out what other options were available from local waters and get back to me.

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