I visited home in Philadelphia this weekend and stopped by my sledding hill, also known as Tommy’s Hill. I made a video last time. This time I’ll just show pictures for quick scanning with commentary in the comments. First the most jarring image as a preview, can you see the “word” McDelivery? Someone had McDonald’s delivered, then littered the packaging. Consider getting McDonald’s delivered. What rock bottom of self-respect has[…] Keep reading →

Hosting a successful podcast on sustainability, I get a lot of requests or suggestions to bring on as guests people who sell more things, claiming they reduce waste relative to something more wasteful: compostable straws, jewelry from ocean plastic, clothes you can trace to the cotton farm, etc. Selling more isn’t selling less. If you make a polluting system more efficient, you pollute more efficiently, even if you make your[…] Keep reading →

People say they want to travel to explore different cultures and cuisines, but their behavior says otherwise. If people want to travel for cuisine and culture, why do so many tourist places have McDonald’s and Starbucks in them? Why do tourist sites look increasingly similar if people want difference? People say they travel to explore new tastes and cuisines. If so, why don’t people buy radishes when in season? The[…] Keep reading →

When farmers grow for CSAs (where buyers like me pick up a weekly drop-off direct from the farm), they grow for specific people. They’re motivated to grow for flavor and quantity most, it seems, as a customer who keeps buying from his CSA because the flavor is out of this world and the quantity for the price is high. When farmers grow for a farmers market, they grow for the[…] Keep reading →

You’ve probably read things like Until the last century, people were at more risk from malnutrition or starvation than they were from obesity. This lopsided pressure may have shaped humans to be more prone to store fat than to lose it. The ability to store extra calories as fat during times of plenty could help someone stay healthy and fertile when food was scarce. I’m no anthropologist, but I’ve concluded[…] Keep reading →

I indulged in posting a first draft of something I feel important to share, probably overly bitter or snarky. Acting against the mainstream always makes life difficult, though differently for choosing different directions. I chose to act sustainably and to lead others to. Here are the challenges acting in this direction create. You can read into it as much as you like, but mostly it’s a rough sketch of something[…] Keep reading →

Readers have asked me to post more on preparing food. As you know, one of my biggest motivations is accessibility. I try to promote what anyone can do and to show how to do it. My sister asked me for pictures of my fermentations in action. I happen to have a few going, so took pictures of them. I thought making a video would help show what to expect. Before[…] Keep reading →