The definition of a weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted. That’s all. This means that what is and is not a weed varies across time and place. In fact, a plant may simultaneously be considered a weed and not a weed by two different people (or even two competing opinions in one person’s mind!) observing it at the same time and in the same place. A lot of my time these days is spent weeding, so I have plenty of opportunities  […]

I want to diverge from the blog prompt. In the Q&A after Eric Holt-Gimenez’s talk at the UVM Food Summit, he mentioned the importance of confronting sexism and racism implicit in the environmental movement, and especially the food movement. This comment was one of two during the day that earned immediate applause from the audience (the other being a proposal that higher education should be free). I want to use this as a jumping-off point to bring up an issue that is inextricable from food  […]

“Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts.” As others have written, the tension in this sentence makes it really rich for interrogation. I’m really interested in the way Berry elicits joy in his readers even as he presents cold hard facts – we’ve seen this in several of his pieces, both in the poem and in the collection of essays. I also am interested in one line preceding this one: “Expect the end of the world. Laugh.” For me, both of these lines speak  […]