Trolling for reader comments and opinions to use in our next book

Hello everybody
I've mentioned in earlier posts that Sara Kate and I are working on a book about green consumer choices. Like Veggie Revolution, this book will be full of short interviews and "student voice" sections. These will be brief quotes from anybody and everybody of all ages about the subjects in the book. Right now, we're looking for comments on topics related to green choices in transportation and housing.

For example, here are two that we have on the subject of living without a car, for the new book:


"I don't have a car because I don't have my license. It's just never been convenient to get it. Ideally, I'd like to live somewhere with good public transportation, and never need a car. I guess I should get my license, so I could help drive on road trips, or drive friends' cars occasionally, but I don't really want a car of my own. Even if I could afford it, I don't want the responsibility. Or the guilt!
"Not having a car isn't too difficult. In Washington DC, it was really easy; I took the bus and metro everywhere. And in my hometown, which is a very small town, I rode my bike everywhere. It was actually good for me; I rode my bike a lot more in high school than I would have if I'd had a car. What's tough is living in a mid-sized city like Greensboro. It's not too hard to catch a ride to school with a friend, but Greensboro's public transportation system is pretty mediocre. Actually, it's awful. If I want to do anything on my own, like go to a concert nobody else wants to go to, I'm out of luck."
- Emily, age 23

"I just bought a used Honda. Originally I'd hoped to get a diesel vehicle, and either make my own biodiesel or convert it to run on greasel. But I couldn't find a reliable diesel car anywhere! They all had something weird about them, and I needed a car right away, so I could get to work. Maybe I can still do biodiesel later in life, but for now it just wasn't practical. I wouldn't want to pay to get a crappy car converted and then have to get it replaced anyway.
"It was pretty easy for me to learn about the options, at least. I know all about how to make biodiesel now, and if I wanted to have a biodiesel or greasel car, I'm sure I could do it. Obviously it would be a lot easier if we had more resources, if there were more people doing it... but what's going to make these alternative options take precedence over gasoline is those people who get out there first and do it on their own. For those first people it's hard, and there's not much support or information or resources, but it sets a precedent. It gets people talking. It shows that people are paying attention, and that we care about this stuff. We are so dependent on gasoline and finite resources... the end seems like a long way off, but it's not. So yeah, it takes some research, but look how much I know now!
"I also want to get a bike, for going short distances. Although this just isn't a biker's world, unfortunately. It's dangerous! I thought about riding Emily's bike to work when I worked just down the street, but Battleground Avneue? It's a three-lane channel of death. I'd be taking my life in my hands daily. Even with protective gear on, I wouldn't feel safe."
- Ashley, age 22

If anybody would like to send us a paragraph or two or three on any of the following topics, we would love to have them. The working title of the book is The Power of Your Pocketbook: How Americans' Consumer Choices Shape the Future of the Planet. The deadline is June, the book will be out from Fulcrum in spring of 07. If you would like to contribute, we can use your first name, first and last name, or it can be anonymous. It's up to you.

Here are the subjects we need comments on:

Have you ever had to rely on mass transportation for your daily stuff - shopping, getting to work, and so on? any comments on that, good or bad?

Have you ever lived anywhere where you didn't have a car and had to walk or bike everywhere? was that a problem?

Have you lived or traveled in another country that is less reliant on cars? What is/was that like?

Do you have any personal experience with alternatives to gasoline-powered cars (hybrids, cars using biodiesel, straight vegetable oil, etc.)? What was that like? Good and bad

Have you lived in any of these situations? Please describe impressions:

passive solar house

off the grid

strawbale house

rammed earth house

recycled house (an older house relocated to a new lot)

a home that shared walls and green space with neighbors (the greenest use of space - combats urban sprawl)

Is either local or organic food a priority for you? Which is more important to you and why?

Have you lived or traveled anywhere where you saw specific results of globalization, or saw impoverished women working for pennies a day in sweatshops, or other examples of American corporations exploiting workers in developing nations? any anecdote or image appreciated, or a tirade. Either one.

Or if you would like to comment on something I didn't specifically ask, but is related, feel free. The gist of what we're getting at, in the sections on transportation and housing, is how Americans use more than our share of resources and energy by relying heavily on gas-guzzling cars, and and by heating and cooling our buildings inefficiently. Among other things.

If you want to write something, you can send it to me directly at treeduck@earthlink.net. I'll need a way to contact you in case we have a question.

Thanks a lot!
Sally

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IN MOTION BIKE TOUR

Readers and friends:

I got this notice via email yesterday, from Mark Retzlaff of the Portland Peace and Justice Center. Sounds like an interesting bike program. His email is mark@portlandpeace.org.

Sally

Hello,

I wanted to drop you an e-mail about a really great project I'm
involved with, that you may want to cover on your weblog. It
is a community service on a bike program, exploring sustainability,
intentional communities and organic farms. Our website is
www.portlandpeace.org

Please let me know if you can cover this, and if you have any
questions!

-Mark Retzlaff

.........................................
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IN MOTION BIKE TOUR - www.portlandpeace.org
.......................................................................
Bike hundreds of miles. Meet incredible people. Participate in
amazing service projects. Stay on organic farms and work to promote
sustainable food growth practices. Study and work with Native American
communities. Live with the land and camp under the stars.
Change your world, one mile at a time.
.......................................................................
web: www.portlandpeace.org phone: 503-239-8426
.......................................................................
WE ARE GIVING ONE OF OUR TOURS AWAY -- VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO WIN!
.......................................................................

This summer, you can take an extraordinary journey. Tune up your bike,
pack your bags, and join fellow riders from all over the world for an
incredible excursion across Oregon, utilizing the most sustainable
method of transportation available: your own bike.

* Study and apply the philosophies of permaculture, alternative
building, appropriate technology and sustainable energy.

* Spend time with Native American communities, work with salmon
restoration and indigenous building practices.

* Gain a deeper understanding of how organic food is grown, and
distributed.

* Explore some of the most beautiful places in Oregon while learning
about natural history, deep ecology, and environmental ethics.

* Observe local economics projects and grassroots democracy struggles
in places through which you travel.

* Participate in a traveling community of cyclists coming from all
over North America with a variety of backgrounds but with a shared
longing for a better world.

* Discover consensus decision-making and use it to make collective
decisions within your community.

* Learn about nutrition, health and fitness through long-distance
cycling.

Visit our website for more information and to enter to win one of our
one-week tours! www.portlandpeace.org / 503-239-8426

.......................................................................
web: www.portlandpeace.org phone: 503-239-8426
.......................................................................
WE ARE GIVING ONE OF OUR TOURS AWAY -- VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO WIN!

Greasel or Straight Veg: Cars that Smell Like Tacos and Doughnuts

Thursday night Sara Kate and I met some folks from the Very Vegetarian Society of Winston Salem, at our Earth Fare presentation in Greensboro (NC). They have a well-done and useful newsletter, with recipes and articles on nutrition, and a webpage at www.veryvegetarian.ws. They told us about the North American Vegetarian Society, www.navs-online.org, and the annual Summerfest organized by NAVS. They go every year and love it. Sounds interesting.

We interviewed a couple of people from Chapel Hill the next day, for the new book. We're working on the section now on eco-friendly cars. Talked to a woman named Kim who bought a conversion kit for her diesel Subaru so that her car can now burn vegetable oil as fuel, instead of the petroleum diesel most Subarus use. Now that she has the conversion kit on her engine, Kim could buy vegetable oil from the grocery as a fuel for her car, but that would be very expensive. So she, and a growing number of other grass-roots environmentalists, are filling their tanks with used vegetable oil that is discarded by restaurants. It's called greasel or "straight veg" by those who use it.

The cool thing about greasel is that it's free and guilt-free. It's a subversive, non-taxable, non-polluting fuel that's not dependent on our Middle East affairs to keep the supply flowing. Greasel is a true do-it-yourself fuel that frustrates the government and industry folks who want to get in on the action in some way. I like the recycling aspect; Kim is re-using oil that will otherwise be thrown away. She picks up her used oil from a restaurant in Carrboro - they save it for her. It's a Mexican restaurant, so her car smells like tacos and burritos when she drives. If she got her oil from a doughnut place, then her car would smell like doughnuts. Could be worse!

Greasel, also called "straight veg," is not the same thing as biodiesel. Biodiesel is a vegetable oil that has been chemically altered, so that a conversion kit is not necessary for your car. You save money on the conversion kit, which can be pricey, but the downside is that biodiesel is not as easy to find as straight vegetable oil. I've been told that there are only about six biodiesel stations in North Carolina. Not sure if that's true. Plus, biodiesel is expensive - more than $3 per gallon. In some places, owners of diesel cars are pooling their resources and forming coops to make their own biodiesel, or bring it in from somewhere else.

But before you get too excited - remember that to use either greasel or biodiesel, the car must have a diesel engine. Since only 3% of new American cars are diesel, that cuts out most of us.

We're also learning about ethanol as a biofuel for gasoline engines. Cars can be modified to use a fuel that's 85% ethanol, which cuts way down on harmful tailpipe emissions and greenhouse gases. But more on that later.

Biofuels and Mr. Bush

I've been reading more today about green cars. Eco-friendly cars, that is. Getting ready to interview a couple of people about biofuels and alternative car technologies for the book we're working on now, The Power of Your Pocketbook: How Americans' Spending Habits Shape our Future.

It's interesting that Bush gave lip service in his state of the union address on Jan 31 to our energy dilemma. He seems to want to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, and to increase spending somewhat on renewable and sustainable sources of energy for cars.

Yet the amount he proposes to spend is a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed. If the federal government can't commit to research, development and especially putting new development into practice, then industry won't commit either.

Bush says he supports the use of waste plant matter, such as switchgrass and wood chips, to make ethanol for gasoline engines. That would be great if he really meant it. But the Department of Energy is only funding a pilot project, and has no plans to convert switchgrass or any other plant waste into ethanol on a commercial scale.

Daniel Kammen, director of the Institute of the Environment, says that a car can be converted to use ethanol with only $100. He says the demand is there, if the supply of ethanol was ready. But it's not.

Greasel is popular here in North Carolina, at least in the Triangle area, as an alternative biofuel for cars. But greasel can only be used in a vehicle that has a diesel engine. Biodiesel is another fuel option for diesel engines. Greasel is straight vegetable oil; biodiesel is vegetable oil that has been modified chemically. The nice thing about greasel is that it can be free. Using it requires first of all buying a conversion kit for your diesel engine. But after that, many greasel users get their vegetable oil from fast food restaurants that are throwing it away. Biodiesel, on the other hand, does not require the conversion kit but can be costly and hard to find.

At any rate, as I mentioned, both greasel and biodiesel are usable only in diesel engines. And very few American cars have diesel engines. So....back to ethanol, for a widespread biofuel solution. For now.

As Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club points out, the most effective thing Bush could do right now is to mandate that all new cars get better gas mileage. He could do that right now. Certainly we have the technology to make all cars get 35 or 40 miles per gallon. So, if Bush really means what he's saying, then why doesn't he do that? Why? I don't know the answer to that. I suppose he's protecting automakers' financial interests. Everything boils down to supporting big business for Mr. Bush. But I don't see the connection exactly. If someone would like to explain it to me, I'd like to hear it. Who is it that would suffer and complain if new legislation made all cars get better gas mileage?

Georgia Organics in the land of 1.75 billion chickens

What's happening with the alternative food movement in Georgia, and especially Athens, home of the University of Georgia.....

I just talked to a woman who works for Georgia Organics, an organization in Georgia that supports organic farmers and farmers who use sustainable practices but may not be certified organic. Sara Kate and I will be at Earth Fare in Athens Georgia (home of University of Georgia) on February 6 from 4:00 to 7:00 and at UGA's Great American Meatout on March 20, sponsored by Speak Out for Species (see www.uga.edu/sos for details later about our presentation).

But anyway, the person at Georgia Organics told me that Georgia doesn't have nearly as many hogs as North Carolina, but has more chickens than any state in the US - 1.75 billion broilers every year. Whoa, is that right? That's what she said. She said corporate chicken farms are particularly numerous around Athens, and that their waste drains into the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the Oconee River, which I've rafted with my family. Beautiful wilderness areas. She said in Georgia there is a law that keeps chicken farmers who raise fewer than 20,000 birds per year from marketing their birds to the public. So that knocks out small farmers who might raise a few chickens at pasture, unless they want to take a risk and sell the birds on the sly to their neighbors. All the chicken in Georgia has to be produced by factory farms owned by corporations like Tyson, Goldkist, Perdue, etc. That's bad. I'm a vegetarian, but I do believe that for folks who eat meat, it's so much better for the animals and for the environment to buy pasture-raised animal products. Rather than products from animals raised in misery, crammed into stinking crowded dark warehouse-like buildings. We describe our visits to such miserable places in Veggie Revolution.

In the Athens area, Farm 255 is a restaurant that uses locally grown produce. Full Moon Farm is one farm that provides produce to that restaurant; they also offer CSAs to consumers. A CSA is a yearly agreement, where the consumer pays the farm a yearly amount, and the farm delivers a box of produce to that consumer every week. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

Athens also has a coop for consumers who want local and/or organic produce: http://locallygrowncoop.com. The contact person fo the coop is Eric at 706 245 9774. Another person in Athens told me that Athens has a coop called Daily Groceries Coop.

Georgia Organics is offering a sustainable ag conference on Feb 10 and 11. They're working on a brochure to go out this spring that will be a statewide guide to sustainable producers who market their food to their local communities. Visit their website www.georgiaorganics.org to find out how to get the brochure or to learn more about the conference.

I just found out today about the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. Need to do some research about that.

If you have more tips about the movement for a healthy, humane, and environmentally sound food system in the Georgia area, please post comments or email us. We want to be ready for our Georgia visits in March and April. We'd love to come to your community too and talk about factory farming, and the alternative food movement. It's gaining steam! Email us at treeduck@earthlink.net.
Sally

Now, What's in that Pet Food?

Sara Kate and I have been doing research for our new book about the power we have as informed consumers. When we buy selectively, we are making a conscious choice about which corporations to fund and which corporations will shape the future of the planet. Sara Kate and I are trying to make more deliberate choices ourselves, as consumers. We're trying to find out what all these corporations are up to.

Does anybody have any leads or links to info about pet food or pet treats? About Greenies?

I met somebody the other day who used to work for Purina. He told me that Purina no longer exists, it was broken up and went to Nestle, which now does all the pet chow, and Cargill, which now does all the industrial chow. Both companies kept the Purina label though because it's so familiar and popular. Both the pet chow and the industrial chow for farmed animals are composed largely of slaughterhouse waste ("meat by-products"). Does everybody know that? I've sort of lost my perspective, after hearing a variety of people expound on the topic. By-products include heads, organs, feet, fat, skin, chicken poop, "feather meal," bone meal, etc.
My friend said that, in the hog-chow industry, they say of pigs that "the only thing wasted is the squeal."

Are there pet foods, pet treats out there that don't include that glop? Although - really, is the glop all that bad? I understand that it is illegal now to use the carcasses of animals that dropped dead on their own, without being killed. In case they were sick.

A farmer I talked to who raises beef cattle at pasture told me, yes the slaughterhouse by-product glop is that bad. Because it contains all the pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones that were fed to those animals. He said that's why cancer rates are so high in dogs. It is true that my two dogs both died of cancer...
Need to investigate this further.

Sally

Internationalist Bookstore in Chapel Hill - a bookstore that supports grassroots efforts

Last Wednesday, Jan 25, Sara Kate and I did a presentation on our book Veggie Revolution at the Internationalist Bookstore in Chapel Hill, NC. I want to put in a plug for the Internationalist. They (Biff in particular) did a great job of publicizing the event and we had a great turnout. It was the liveliest audience we've had. I expected, being a college town (UNC), that a lot of the folks would be well-informed and opinionated about the meat industry and our American food system, and that was the case. We had lots of excellent questions about animal rights, veganism versus vegetarianism, where the alternative food movement is headed, and what we can do to keep it rolling.

I was amazed to find out just a couple of weeks ago that the Internationalist Bookstore is a nonprofit organization, and is staffed almost entirely by volunteers! It exists to support grassroots efforts at social reform - authors, organizations, and so on. This spring the Internationalist will be hosting a panel to discuss the sustainable agriculture movement, and Sara Kate and I hope to be part of that. The Chapel Hill area (actually nearby Pittsboro) seems to be a focal point for the sustainable ag movement. Pittsboro is home to the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, also the Rural Advancement Fund, the Rare Breeds Conservancy, and Central Carolina Community College, which has a thriving and innovative academic program in sustainable agriculture. It's an energizing community - lots of local organic farmers and farms using sustainable methods in the area. Exciting things are happening there.

Family Seeks Other Families for Vegetarian Potlucks

Our family is interested in starting a group for vegetarian families with children in the Charlotte area. We envision potluck dinners and cookouts for various holidays to start with. We could do more than that as we get together and organize. You can e-mail us at tikvah@bellsouth.net.

Scott and Miriam

Community Gardens

A caller on our Charlotte Talks radio show mentioned community gardens here in Charlotte. Here's some more information about that.

The gardens are offered by Parks and Rec, and 10x10 foot plots can be rented for $3 a month or $25 a year. They feature improved soil, and some have a water supply on site. There are a number of locations, including:
- Little Sugar Creek Greenway
- Baxter Street Park
- Huntingtowne Farms Park
- McAlpine Creek Community Park
- Ramsey Creek Park
- Reedy Creek Park
- Winget Park

For more information, check out www.parkandrec.com or call 704-336-3854.

Mecklenburg Vegetarian Association (MVA)

At our EarthFare signing today, we met two very nice women from the MVA, or Mecklenburg Vegetarian Association. They explained that the group has changed format because few people were coming to meetings. Now, they meet the first and third Sunday of each month at 2 PM, at various vegetarian-friendly restaurants in the area. Sounds like fun!

Their handout says, "Good food and stimulating conversations are always on the menu. Non-vegetarians are welcome! For more information, email myyear@aol.com, or telephone (704) 399-3018."

The third Sunday of January will be the 15th. Does anyone know if/where there will be a meal?

-Sara Kate

Charlotte Vegetarians

We've done a number of book signings this week. At every one, people have asked us if there's a vegetarian group in Charlotte. There isn't, that we know of, but there should be! If you're interested in getting together with other vegetarians in the area, post your name and contact info as a comment on this post!

Sara Kate

January 11 We have now found out that there is a vegetarian club in Charlotte - see the post after this one.
Sally

Charlotte-area Local Providers of Sustainably-raised Food

A Few Charlotte-area Providers of Pesticide-free Produce, and Pasture-raised Animal Products

New Town Farms
Sammy and Melinda Koenigsberg
Sell pesticide-free produce, poultry and eggs.
Sell at the Matthews Farmers Market, from the farm, and by delivery.
newtownfarms@alltel.net 704 843-5182.

Marianne Battistone, Poplar Ridge Farm
An Organic Community Supported Agricultural Farm. Established in 1995. Family owned and managed
Member of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
PoplarRidgeFarm@att.net 704-843-5744

New Moon Farm Organics in Mt. Ulla, NC, next to Lake Norman and Mooresville NC. We are a certified organic farm and we specialize in heirloom and open pollinated varieties. We have veggies, fruits (strawberries mostly) herbs and flowers. We sell what we grow at the farm and everything is organic. Our website is www.newmoonfarmorganic.com and there will be information about our CSA there. We’ll be doing an on-farm stand this year, and the Charlotte Regional Farmer's Market on Saturdays.

Mary Roberts
Windcrest Farm / 518 Greenfield Drive / Monroe, NC 28112
h: 704.764.7746 c: 704.320.8682 Visit our farm at www.windcrestorganics.com
We offer not only produce, but 35 varieties of heirloom tomato, pepper and herb plants for those who would like to grow their own.

Grateful Growers Farm in Denver, NC
Natalie Veres and Cassie Parsons
Naturally grown produce, pasture-raised pork, chicken and eggs
www.ggfarm.com info@ggfarm.com
828 234-5182

Philip and Sheila Brooks and their son.
Sell pastured beef raised on their farm.
peacefulmeadows@juno.com
704 233-4902 (home) 704 506-7826 (cell)

Matthews Farmers Market www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com A producer-only market with vegetables grown within a 50-mile radius of the market.

For more information:

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
cfsa@carolinafarmstewards.org
www.carolinafarmstewards.org
919 542-2402 (Pittsboro)
803 779-1124, emile@carolinafarmstewards.org for South Carolina

Charlotte- area natural food stores
Earth Fare 704 926-1201, Berrybrook Farms 704 334-6528, Talley’s Green Grocer 704 334-9200

www.eatwild.com, www.localharvest.org

If you would like to be added to this list, please leave a comment on the blog after this posting. Or email us at treeduck@earthlink.net.

Charlotte Observer column

Posted on Sun, Dec. 25, 2005

READING LIFE EDITOR

They believe in virtues of vegetables

JERI KRENTZ

What does the clucking of 100,000 chickens sound like?

Sally Kneidel can tell us.

In the summer of 2004, she and her daughter, Sara Kate Kneidel, set out to write a book about vegetarian recipes and nutrition. Sally, who lives in Charlotte, has a doctorate in biology from UNC Chapel Hill. Sara Kate, 22, was a student at Guilford College.

Both vegetarians, they wanted to share recipes and facts -- but they also wanted to compile in one volume "all the possible reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet."

So they started visiting farms and asking questions.

They toured a hog mega-farm where Sally says sows were pinned in tiny stalls, a chicken farm with birds packed tight and an egg factory with more than a million hens.

Their discoveries are part of a new book, "Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and a Healthy Planet" (Fulcrum, $16.95).

The `real culprits'

Their book discusses pollution, global warming, land use and hunger.It describes factory farms and details the benefits of raising livestock in pastures.

Sally calls it "a thorough piece of local muckraking on the subject of factory farming and the American diet."

"We were told by many people when we started the book that we would never get into any factory farms," she told me. "Yet we did get into four, and were even allowed to take pictures. We balanced this with visits and interviews at four small, humane and environmentally responsible farms in the area. The farm visits changed my life, to put it bluntly."

At first, Sally said, they thought farmers were responsible for what was happening on factory farms.

But then they came to believe that factory farmers "are just pawns in a system they did little to create. The real culprits are the corporations whose ads tell us we need animal products at every meal."

The last part of the book talks about staying healthy without meat, negotiating a vegetarian diet with your family and learning to cook vegetarian.

Eating less meat

Sally told me she hopes the book outlines how our food choices affect larger issues.

As long as customers buy cheap food that's produced on factory farms, she says, someone will continue to sell it to them.

And she hopes it helps readers decide to eat less meat -- or give it up entirely. "Every individual meal matters," she says.

Sara Kate agrees. "Each time you choose vegetarian, organic or local food, you are taking a stand for change."

The Kneidels will be at several area book signings in December and January, including one at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 4345 Barclay Downs Drive.

For information, go to http://veggierevolution.blogspot.com.

Jeri

Krentz

---

Jeri Krentz: (704) 358-5234; jkrentz@charlotteobserver.com

Upcoming Radio Shows and Book Signings for Veggie Revolution

Charlotte Book Signings

December 28, 7:00 to 9:00 pm, Joseph Beth Booksellers at Southpark Mall. 704 602-9830

January 5, 7:30 to 8:30 pm, Barnes & Noble, Arboretum 704 341-9365

January 6, 7:00 - 8:00 pm, Borders at Colony and Sharon 704 365-6261

January 7, Noon - 2:00, Books a Million, Cotswold Mall. 704 364-4035

January 8, Noon - 1:00, Earth Fare. 704 926-1201

January 21, 12:00 - 2:00 signing. 4:00 - 5:00 lecture. Earth Fare. 704 926-1201


Book Signings Outside Charlotte

January 25, 7:00 - 8:30, Internationalist Bookstore, Franklin Street in Chapel Hill


February 7, 12:00 - 3:00, Earth Fare in Athens, Georgia


February 9, 6:30 - 8:30, Earth Fare in Greensboro, NC

Radio Interviews

WFAE, Charlotte Public Radio, "Charlotte Talks," January 6, 9:00 - 10:00.

WUNC, NC Public Radio, "The State of Things," January 27, 12:00 - 1:00

Another Bus Crash; Barbary Apes

Hi there,

So we're in Chefchaouen now. We finally made it out of Marrakesh, praise Allah! That place was like a pit of quicksand. When I was no longer too wretched to travel, Nicci was blighted and we still couldn't leave. But after 3 days of saying au revoir to our friends we finally fled to the bus station. We were planning to go to the Sahara but don't have time now. :-( We would never make it to Tanger by next weekend. So we decided on the modest goal of starting north right away; which proved wise because we only made it as far as Casablabca that day. But we learned a few things:

1) Do not follow the men who descend on you in swarms outside the bus station. They will charge you 10dh each for showing you a bathroom you could have found yourself and for buying a -dh bottle of water you could have bought yourself and hustling you into a bus you're not sure you want to take that leaves "immediately"

2) "immediately" means "in half an hour" and a four hour bus ride actually lasts 8 hours

3) Third class buses have frequent problems with things like starting and running. If this happens; all the men will get off and give the bus a rollstart each time it stops (on purpose or otherwise). Be ready to run alongside the bus and leap on as the engine catches and it rolls into the street

4) Third class buses like to hit cars. We know this because we got in another wreck, the 2nd out of 5 buses we've been on. This time it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time because no one died and eventually we got picked up by another bus where I stood in my aisle with my backpack on the rest of the way to Casa.

But now we are safely in Chefchaouen and it is beautiful and tomorrow we are hiring a guide to take us to see Barbary Apes (N'shallah). It is our consolation for having to replace the desert portion of our trip with diarrhea. I really hope we see them!! But I am trying not to get my hopes up.

Just so you know, we are going to be here til Saturday, then taking a bus to Tanger and a ferry to Algeciras.

Adios
Sara Kate

Nice Post about Veggie Revolution with pics

The website vegetarianwomen.com has put a description of Veggie Revolution and a couple of pics on their website. To see it, go to their home page and scroll down to the green band that says New and Noteworthy. That's the post about our book. Here's the link: vegetarianwomen.com

Sustainable Ag Movement Gaining Steam

Picture of Sammy Koenigsberg of New Town Farms in Waxhaw, NC. Sammy is featured in Veggie Revolution.

Last night I went to my first meeting of folks in the Charlotte area who are interested or working in sustainable farming. It was a big turnout, really exciting! Most of the folks were organic farmers or farmers using sustainable, eco-friendly methods, or farmer wannabes. Tony Kleese and Amy from the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association were there and led the meeting. (Their number, in Pittsboro, is 919 542-2402.)

The general consensus was that the market in Charlotte for organic food and for CSAs is just beginning to pop. A CSA (stands for community-supported agriculture) is a small farm with local customers who sign on for a year, and pick up a bag of the farmer's produce every week. Most of the CSAs at the meeting said they have a waiting list of customers who want to participate.

Part of the reason for the surging interest in organic and eco-friendly, pesticide-free food here is the recent location of Johnson & Wales University to downtown Charlotte. It's a major cooking school and is having a big impact on the food community around here. They're very strong supporters of local, seasonal, organic food and the people who produce it.

We talked about distribution problems, and how to connect organic-minded consumers with the growing number of producers. So many people in Charlotte and the surrounding area are interested in local and organic food but can't find it. Although we do have a new Earth Fare natural foods supermarket, as well as Talley's Green Grocer and Berrybrook Farms Natural Foods. Soon we'll have a second Earth Fare and a Whole Foods Market.

A lot of the farmer wannabes at the meeting said they want to grow organic produce in the city, to make distribution within the city easier. We talked about a future where consumers can buy organically grown food on every street corner in the city. Availability is key, and we need to work on that. The producers are here and growing in number, so are the consumers. The possibilities are endless! Yay!!! It gives me hope for the future.

Sara Kate Drinks Tea in Marrakech, Survives Bus Crash; Hotel Proprietor Mops Up

Dec 1
Hello to all from Morocco.

My main difficulty right now is from this Arabic keyboard. The logistics of using it defy description. I would have better luck typing with my nose. For example to type the word 'am' I type the keys that on a normal keyboard are q and ; but on this computer they say Arabic symbols plus w and colon; but written over w and colon in permanent marker it says z and m. meanwhile the m key is where b should be but has w written over it in marker yet really makes a comma. AIIEE!!

The last three days have been some of the most challenging, exhausting, and amazing of my entire life. The main idea of the revelation I am having here is that the world is bigger than I thought. Before there were two worlds in my mind and you can divide them however you want, US and Latin America or first world and third world or English and Spanish, but now I see there is this whole other world and whole other way of doing things. Of course I knew this before but now I really KNOW it. And yet it still won't sink in. We continue on with our silly American agendas. Example, today we needed to buy Catherine a pair of pants. Ok we thought, we'll go to the pants store, be back in an hour max. Of course, two hours later we were still drinking tea, looking at the pants man's photos of his entire extended family, politely declining offers to come to his house to eat supper and meet his family, (only because we have another engagement) and explaining to him yet again why we haven't married our fiances yet. He called two friends on the phone just so we would talk to them and say hello. He is giving us some CDs of a 'movie' he made about Essaouira (which with any luck we will be able to watch together soon), and when I spoke to him in Arabic he kissed my hand.

Such is life here. It blows the mind. Every day we set out with a plan and end up drinking tea in shoe stores instead. Cultures are clashing in my brain.
Love
SK

Dec 3
Hi all,
So, we are in Agadir right now. We came here to go to the national park, which was quite an experience. Our plan was to leave Essaouira yesterday morning, so we packed up and went to say goodbye to our friends, but somehow we ended up drinking tea again and missed our bus. We just sat there and watched the clock tick away, and what to do? We decided we didn't need that bus anyway. When we finally got to the bus station we had to wait an hour, so we ate some slop in a bowl in the street (20 cents) and then had some perplexing multilingual conversation with some guys inside. Our bus finally came at 5:00 and when we got on there was barf on the floor and Nicci stepped in it. It was really beautiful out the window, though, until it got dark and we got in a wreck. We totally mashed this guys truck and ripped the front off our bus. I saw his body lolling over the steering wheel and I thought he was dead, but then it turned out he wasn't. Everyone was shouting in Arabic and drivers coming the other way were getting out and pushing their cars through the dirt to go around. Nicci and I went and peed behind a bush with some goats. But this is what I mean about everyone being nice here: we had no idea what to do, but two guys helped us rescue our bags from the bus and offered to share their taxi with us the rest of the way to Agadir. We took them up on it. Of course after about 10 minutes we passed a little village and had to stop and... you guessed it, drink tea. You may see why I am stqrting to understqnd the phrase N'shallah, which they say after every third word. I'll see you tomorrow, N'shallah. I'd like to eat supper now, N'shallah. We want to go downtown; N'shallah. It means god willing. Evidently, Allah was not willing for us to ride that bus yesterday. Allah wants us to drink tea.

Anyway we got to Agadir just fine and declined their repeated offers to stay with their family and eat a tagine. Instead we went a cheap little hotel mostly inhabited by Lord of the Rings guys with purple robes with pointy hoods and bare feet. I have this sort of conversation every time i set foot ourside our room (this is a verbatim example):

me: Ssalam malakum.

man: malakum assalam.

me: Labas, onta?

man: Labas, hamdullah. Onti?

me. Labas. Um, est-ce que je pourr--

man: Pardon me, you are american?

me: yes.

man: Oh! What country you from?

me: Uh... the United States?

man: Oh. Is that near Portugal?

me: Uh... not really. It's near Canada.

man: Oh, I know a lady with eyes like you from Columbus, she learn me English and Frisbee! And my cousin drive taxi in Alabama City.

me: Er, that's nice. So could I--

man: Pardon me, you are fuming?

me: Um, what?

man: Are you liking to smoke one cigarette.

me: Oh. Um, no thanks. La shukran. I really just need a blanket for the bed.

man: what?

me: Est-ce que il y a une coverture pour le lit!!! S'il vous plait! 'Afak!

man: Mmm, yes. Are you liking Michael Jordan?

etc.

You can see why it's hard to get anything done here. Sometimes we just give in and drink tea. Although today we actually did make it to the national park, so perhaps you have an idea now of what an accomplishment that is!

We are going to Marrakesh tomorrow.
Love
SK

Dec 5
Howdy
So we are in Marrakech now. We haven' seen much of it yet because we only got here last night, and today we have been occupied with taking our clothes to "le pressing" and ourselves to the hammam (bathhouse). We smell feo.
Love
SK

Dec 10
Good morning
I think I'm going to go soon because I'm still feeling a little sick. We are currently still in Marrakesh. In fact, you could say we are stuck here, thanks to N'shallah and stomach parasites. Meaning, we were planning to leave several days ago but Allah didn't want us to, so the night before we were supposed to leave I was suddenly blighted with a dreadful affliction that left me sweating, fainting, crapping, and barfing while squatting over the shitter for hours at a time. Suffice it to say, whatever misdeeds I have committed in this life or the previous, I have now atoned for. And then some. But at least I am in the land of Niceness; my first ralphing bout left me standing on the terrace halfway between our room and the bathroom, sobbing piteously because I felt so miserable and I'd barfed all over the bathroom and had to clean it up but there was nothing to clean it up with because Morocco does not believe in toilet paper. I resolved to use my sock, because I'd already barfed on it anyway and what's to lose? So I began hobbling back towards the bathroom in my pjs, one sock on, one sock in my hand, my face streaming with all kinds of snot and ooze. Of course at just this moment the hotel proprietor, a round little man in his nightcap, came doddering up the stairs to see what all the commotion was. (It was the middle of the night.) "I'm sorry," I wailed in incomprehensible French, "I'm sick in my stomach!" Instantly I was enveloped in an astonishingly soft and cushy hug, barf and sock and all. "There there," he crooned as I did not know fat little men could croon, "you get back to bed." "But the bathroom," I wept, "it is very... badly. I must clean it." I brandished my sock for emphasis.

But he wouldn't hear of it. He sent me packing back to bed just like a mama bear, and when I was back in the bathroom an hour later, I saw that he had neatly removed all traces of my spewed spinach and eppglant. And for the next day, every time Catherine and Nicci set foot downstairs, he inquired anxiously after my health and reminded them fervently that, N'shallah, I would be well again soon. Nice people, indeed.

So that's my story about now. Let's just say that being back in my own house and bed in the States won't be entirely unwelcome.
Love
SK

The Real Matrix, or What to Do Today

Today is December 7.
I don't know what to do today. I still need to nail down dates for booksignings and other events for Veggie Revolution, for when Sara Kate is back from Morocco in two weeks. But that means making phone calls and leaving messages, and all that. Sometimes I have the energy for that and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I get in a mood where I can just keep plowing ahead, no matter what. Getting answering machines or "he's not here" doesn't discourage me, I just call the next number on the list.

But this is the kind of day where, if I had some woods outside, I would go walk in the woods. Even though it's cold as hell.

Maybe what's dragging on me is that I watched The Matrix this morning because one of my friends is very interested in it. I watched it years ago but I didn't really understand it before. This morning I couldn't quite finish it, I had to go take the car to get fixed. While I was tooling around in the cold house getting ready to go out, the movie was in my mind and in my mood. The house felt unfamiliar and unpleasant to me, like walking into a strange hotel room. A part of me had the perspective that my house and civilization in general is the Matrix, or a matrix of a different kind. I was able to view my whole street, my city, as an artificial construct that someone has created - an artificial reality that we have created that separates us from our original environment, which was nature.

I live in this cramped and cluttered house, insulated from the outdoors and all the struggles of the birds and squirrels and chipmunks to survive in this cold (that's all the remnants of wildlife left in my yard). We humans have built this whole world that allows us to live completely removed from nature. Completely removed. Maybe not as completely as the humans in the movie were, but still quite apart. We don't have to experience the weather, we turn on the tap to get our water, we buy our food at the grocery. For the meateaters among us, someone else raises these artificially bred animals and kills them for us. We are so detached from the natural world. What I really mean of course is, I feel so detached from nature. The part of the movie that really resonated with me is this: we have been removed so long from our predecessors' intimacy with nature and wildlife, we're not really conscious of being severed from it. It seems normal and inevitable now to operate in a world that is cut off from the natural world in almost every way.

I mean, this is no great revelation, anyone would probably arrive at the same conclusion if questioned and pressed. But I felt it so keenly this morning. Maybe something else that made me feel it is this book I'm reading called The Trees by Conrad Richter. It's about a pioneer family living completely self-suffienctly in the woods in the late 1700s. It's a very well-written portrait of pioneer life. It's made me aware of how dependent I am on the human community around me. A community that does a lot of things I don't like, or approve of, but yet, because I am so dependent, I participate. For example, using the car and burning gas in my furnace. At least I don't eat animal products any more.

I don't know. I don't want to be part of the matrix of modern civilization. I want to do more to step out of it. Changing my diet was a first step. Writing the book Veggie Revolution was a piece of resistance I suppose. What now? I want a place to live that uses fewer resources, that's more green, more energy efficient. I need some woods and wildlife around me. Although I know that living in multi-family housing close to the place we work is really the most land-efficient and energy-efficient and sustainable choice. I need to rethink some of the choices we made years ago when we bought this house - this house that separates me from the outdoors. I'm thinking about my friends Jim and Kathleen's passive solar house. The floor of their house is only an inch or two above ground level. It really has a strong psychological effect of making the indoors and outdoors seem continuous.

In his book An Unnatural Order, Jim Mason writes about the development of our destructive Western attitude toward nature, which he calls "dominionism." He's right on the money. That word about sums it up. We feel as a species that we are entitled to have dominion over all other living things, to use and abuse nature and animals as we wish. Although we're destroying our planet and all of our non-human companions in the process.

As the evil Mr. Smith said in The Matrix, humans are different from most living things in that we completely take over an area, then we move on to the next area, spreading everywhere and destroying nature as we go. He asked Morpheus: What is the only other living thing that behaves the same way? Morpheus didn't answer. Mr. Smith supplied the answer: viruses.

That's not entirely true. Lots of introduced species spread like crazy in their new environment, like kudzu or honeysuckle, or cane toads in Australia. Because the predators that evolved with them are missing.

But anyway. The human race has made a mess, no doubt about that. And with Mr. Bush in office, the darkness is spreading. But we can choose how much we want to participate. We can back out. We can try to remember from whence we came and have mercy on other living things and their habitats. We can try to make constructive choices in the future. Which reminds me of why I'm working on the next book, about how we can stop supporting the corporations that are trashing the planet.

Okay, now I know what to do today. Put away the "phone calls to make" folder and get out the "Power of Your Pocketbook" folder. Make some coffee. Get to work.

Booksigning in Chapel Hill December 10

I'll be at Weaver Street Market in Chapel Hill NC this Saturday (Dec 10) signing books. There's an announcement about the book, Veggie Revolution, in their online newsletter this week. Click on this link, and then when you get to the newsletter, scroll down to see the book.

I wish Sara Kate could be there but she's still in Morocco.