Trump’s Pro-Hunger Agenda
Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporations and Anti-Hunger 
Groups (MIT Press, 2017), always has an unorthodox take on the days’ events. As we’ve watched the whole Trump-initiated food stamp debacle unfold – leaving 42 million of America’s most vulnerable people in a heightened state of food insecurity – it’s natural to take sides and simplify the problem. We see a cruel President use political leverage against Democrats by withholding Congressionally approved funds to feed SNAP recipients during the government shutdown; we see Democrats, emergency food providers, and just about every other sentient being scream at him for starving the poor. But behind what is certainly a black and white/good versus evil clash is also a more nuanced explanation of how our hard driving, take no prisoners economic system tolerates a level of desperation that necessitates the nation’s SNAP program. That’s why I’ve come to enjoy Mr. Fisher’s work over the years. He looks past the easy assumptions and takes on the underlying systemic causes and failures of the American economic behemoth. Give his new article a thoughtful read. You’re likely to see things a little bit differently. Read it here: Trump’s Pro-Hunger Agenda and the Cruel Logic of Capitalism | The MIT Press Reader
Save 30% on My New Book!
If you are reading this blog on the day it’s posted (11/24), I should warn you that you only have 31 shopping days left until Christmas! Does that realization send a hot bolt of fear through your internal organs? Do you feel a smothering blanket of anxiety descend on you? Worry no more; The Road to a Hunger-Free America: Selected Writings of Mark Winne is now available directly from the publisher at 30% off the list price. After all, nothing says “you are a special person in my life” like the gift of good literature. Even if holiday shopping isn’t worrisome, and you’ve been meaning to buy a copy all along, you’re in luck! The sale was just announced, so this is one of those times when procrastination pays off. But don’t delay any further! This offer is only available until December 7th. Here’s the link to low-cost enlightenment: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/9798765132340
All Creatures Small and Smaller
I can remember becoming an enthusiastic amateur soil scientist in my late 20s. 
My interest was spurred by an effort to dramatically expand the number of community gardens where I was working in Hartford, Connecticut. Given the abysmal selection of decent, even safe growing spaces among some rather terrifying-looking vacant lots, we had to draw on a special biological alchemy to create semi-natural mediums capable of producing edible crops. With diligent research, neighborhood sweat equity, and hundreds of cubic yards of composted leaf mulch, we finally succeeded in creating enough “growable” space for a couple of hundred families.
As my personal interest in gardening grew over the years – I’ve counted 15 community and backyard gardens in my lifetime start-up list – so has my love for soil. The sensual high point of every gardening year takes place in early spring when I plunge my hands into a garden bed and cradle a cool, crumbly bowl. Inhaling it deeply, I now have enough years under my belt that I can tell, with some accuracy, what ingredients are in the mix and what’s missing. While a few books, articles, and pamphlets have educated my olfactory faculties along the way, I still know there’s a pretty big gap between what I know and don’t know about the life of that soil. Thanks to a lovely, little book called What if Soil Microbes Mattered – Our Health Depends on Them, my knowledge gap has not only closed, but it has also become enlivened by an awareness of a life I cannot see.
Written by a former colleague of mine at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, Leo Horrigan, Microbes takes us on an underground tour of fungus, bacteria, and a “microscopic universe that is essential to plant health.” Not only is most of this life-giving activity out of sight, even when we turn the soil over with a spading fork, it’s also a busy subsurface city where millions of invisible particles move to and froe. (Get it for free: a PDF version of the book here and an audio version here.)
So, what’s the matter with the matter? Mr. Horrigan tells us that it has been estimated that between 30 and 50 percent of our soil’s carbon has been lost due to agriculture with most of it ending up in the atmosphere. “The Chemical Age of Agriculture has greatly harmed soil microbes—and therefore soil ecosystems. This damage has had a cascading effect on farms…and rural communities…. If agriculture became attuned to the needs and functions of soil microbes, this would open enormous possibilities for improved agronomic, ecologic and economic outcomes.”
Another way to put it: If we don’t learn to respect our dirt, we’re going to be in a world of hurt.
Befitting its tiny subjects, Microbes is a slim, some might say petite volume of 97 pages. Without sacrificing the science or the depth of its research (32 of those pages are citations), Mr. Horrigan presents a necessarily complex subject in a readable and accessible fashion. From fresh-faced high schoolers to decomposing gardeners like me, What If Microbes Mattered? will make us all better-informed stewards of the earth.