Essays

A journey down the Mississippi River shows that our search for authenticity recedes forever. Like the horizon at the end of the mind, it is always just around the bend in the river.

”If it could be established, a fearlessly edited press is one of the crying necessities of the hour. Such a journal, edited in the midst of such conditions as exist in the South, can better give the facts, than out of it, or than the press dispatches will do. True, such a one might have to be on the hop, skip and jump but the seed planted even though the sower might not tarry to watch its growth, can never die. At present only one side of the atrocities against a defenceless people is given, and with all the smoothing over is a bad enough showing.”

The Common Reader’s inaugural essay by Lafcadio Hearn, one of the most acclaimed journalists of the 19th century. Born 1850 in Lefkada, Greece, Hearn became most famous for his writings about Japan. Before that, however, he was a well-known New Orleans journalist.

Carver’s significance should not solely be accounted for by his creation of multiple new uses for agricultural crops. In a nation today roiled by debates over genetically modified organisms (GMO food crops), Carver’s “old fashioned” methods of composting, kitchen gardens, and conscious eating seem simultaneously quaint and prescient. He should rightly be lauded him as an avatar of responsible land stewardship and healthy eating.

The concept of GMOs as a “category” of food to be embraced or rejected, in whole or in part, is silly from a science point of view. The term “GMOs” is both meaningless and misleading. GM is a process. Each GM crop is unique.

People who say flatly that “GMOs are safe” are themselves being unscientific. A GMO is not a GMO is not a GMO. Each one needs to be tested; the safety of one does not show the safety of another, given that each genetic combination is different.

The developed world’s obsession with obesity has been ingrained in our culture for centuries. There was never a chance of modern America, or any other modern society, escaping it.

Rather than the elite not being held responsible for their actions because we are so consumed with self-loathing, it might be that fat people do get blamed for problems that have nothing to do with their bodies. This process of deflecting responsibility certainly has a long history.

Intervention is only the first step in addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity. Multi-sector approaches, including the healthcare system, schools, community organizations, and policy, must be developed to support obesity prevention and intervention services that can be tailored to individual needs and delivered across the lifespan.

In a world where entire stock market indices can be built on castles of sand, where war can break out any moment, or your child’s happiness can turn on a dime into dread despair, stores such as Whole Foods make us small masters of our own destiny.