Currently reading

While at K's, I borrowed her copy of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz. The writing is a little rough in places, but it's quite an interesting read so far. Some of the groups and movements Katz covers definitely seem to be on the fringes of food movements, but they're doing great work - from creating seed-saving networks, underground raw milk dispensaries, to entire illegal local markets for products like bread, unpasteurized juice, yogurt, etc. I've also learned that Italy - bastion of Slow Food as a lifestyle before it was a movement - has been subjected to heavy government regulation for many traditional products (like much-discussed maggoty casu marzu cheese, but also other less-spectacular foods) since it joined the EU.

I'm only about halfway through the book, but it's definitely encouraging my desire to move somewhere I can have a garden. Part of me wants to move to Detroit, where widespread urban gardening is a positive upside to the devastating depopulation of its city center. Katz mentions Detroit, but I first read about the movement in the July issue of Harper's - here's a link to the article.