The Year that Changed the World
The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall
by Michael Meyer
Scribner, 2009

As Newsweek’s bureau chief in Germany, Michael Meyer was an eyewitness to the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the 20th anniversary of 1989, he pays tribute to the event in this memoir which documents the key players in the drama, from Czech president Vaclav Havel and the Hungarian despot Nicolae Ceasu?escu to Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Németh and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

“Nothing has ever been so freighted with symbolism, ideology, and history. The Wall was World War II, the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, the high tide of totalitarianism and communist dictatorship, the frontier of democracy. You could feel it, smell it, run your hands over it, look across it. On the one side, us. On the other, them.”

For those born too late to recall its significance, this book tells the story of the rise and fall of a Cold War icon. For the rest of us, its another opportunity to shake our heads in amazement. It really is gone, isn’t it?

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• Out of the Past: 1989

Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook
by Poppy Tooker
marketumbrella.org, 2009

New Orleans native Poppy Tooker, a prolific food writer, TV producer and local foods promoter, is an apt author for this cookbook with a story, the story being the 400-year market tradition of the Crescent City and the history of its namesake farmers market.

“During our thirteen year history, over one hundred different farmers and food producers have participated in one or more of the weekly markets. In this book we profile everyone currently selling at the market, and also include many whom we hope will return one day, after overcoming continued difficulties relating to the devastating storms of 2005,” Tooker explains.

Many of the vendor profiles are interspersed with recipes featuring the ingredients they produce. Over 125 recipes are included, ranging from appetizers like Cajun Caviar and soups such as Louisiana Oyster Chowder and salads like Fava Beans and Shrimp. Main dishes include Kale Jambalaya, Chiles Rellenos, Shrimp Creole and Wonder Hash. Recipes for side and sauces like Cucuzza Squash and Corn Macque Choux are featured along with Zucchini Bread and Sweet Potato Pecan Muffins as well as desserts, including Cushaw Pie, Cuccidati, and Pralines.

Both a history and a celebratory cookbook, this attractive volume offers an authentic taste of New Orleans by those who know its palate best.

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North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi
by Dr. Orson K. Miller Jr.
Falcon, 2006

Although nicely illustrated with color photos and densely packed with descriptions and identification keys, this field guide only covers some 600 out of several thousand North American mushroom species. It is not a definitive reference and should not be solely relied on for identifying edible wild mushrooms.

Dr. Orson K. Miller Jr, a prominent mycologist, cautions readers that there are no simple guidelines for distinguishing the edible from the poinsonous in mushrooms and “when in doubt, throw it out.” Yet, he also suggests that his guide, one of the most recently published, can be used to locate and identify edible wild mushrooms. “The only safe way to eat wild mushrooms is to learn to identify the edible species as well as the poisonous species,” he explains.

Unfortunately, accurate identification requires spore printing, which involves removing the fruiting body or picking the mushroom.

While most mushroom hunters pursue the edible and hallucinogenic species, this sturdy guide will appeal to anyone with an interest in mushroom identification, professional or otherwise, covering all the basics and providing up-to-date information. Common names of mushrooms species are rarely used, however, and the index is primarily based on scientific names.

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Mushrooms as Functional Foods
by Peter C. Cheung. Wiley-Interscience, 2008.

First introduced in Japan in the mid-1980s, the concept of “functional foods” suggests that foods are more than mere nutrients, but can have potent effects on the bodily functions of people who consume them. There is now worldwide interest in “food bioactives” that promote good health and disease prevention.

Functional foods from plants (oats, soy, flaxseed, broccoli, tomatoes, red wine, garlic) and animal sources (fish, dairy) have received considerable attention. Only recently have mushrooms become recognized for their anticancer, antiviral, immunopotentiating and hypocholesterolemic potential.

“Recently, many studies have found that edible mushrooms possess potent antioxidants,” editor Peter Cheung points out. “Results indicate that mushrooms can be used as a potential dietary source of phenolic antioxidants to enrich the endogenous antioxidant status of the human body.”

In six topical chapters, this comprehensive volume documents the nutritional value and health benefits of eating mushrooms, examines current methods of mushroom cultivation, and takes a careful look at the scientific evidence for anti-tumor actions in mushroom polysaccharides.

A useful reference for students, scientists, health care professionals, and food therapists, the book covers current trends in mushroom cultivation and research, including truffles, morels, and newly cultivated varieties.

A final chapter details regulatory issues regarding the use of mushrooms as functional foods and dietary supplements.

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The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey
by Janna Gur. Schocken, 2008.

Emerging from the remains of old Diaspora communities, Israel’s new gastronomic culture is infused with history and alive with the fresh expressions of contemporary chefs.

This impressive oversize volume presents enticing foods and dishes, brilliantly illustrated with photographs by Eilon Paz and described in rich detail by the author. Gur’s engaging text covers the basics of Israeli cuisine, from breakfast and breads to olive oil, cheese and wine. A back-of-the-book chapter on Special Ingredients covers many foodstuffs common to the Israeli larder.

The five main chapters present recipes that pertain to Salads etc. (Meze, Hummus, Tahini), The Street and the Market (Bourekas, Malabi, Bagels, Falafel), Simple Pleasures (Soups, Fish, Ptitim, Grill (Pargiyot, Kebab), Shabbat (Challah, Hamin, Chicken Soup), and Holidays (Passover, Shavout, Ramadan).

Culinary sidebars are included with instructions for flame-roasting eggplants, background information on gvina levana and gefilte fish and open-air markets.

The recipes are interesting without being complex, accessible to most home chefs with access to a good market, specialty foods store or online sources. The recipes are conveniently indexed both by main ingredients and alphabetically by title.

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Field Notes by Richard Quinney
Borderland Books, 2008

Reading the four essays and prologue in this volume of nature prose is like taking a stroll in the woods with a literary philosopher whose penchant for rural life informs every step and observation. These rambling conversations draw inspiration from the transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau and the naturalist Gilbert White in their respect for the lessons and wisdom that can be drawn from nature.

“Each life is a universe unto itself. A big bang. Sperm collides with egg. There you are,” Richard Quinney explains. “Then a lifetime of galaxies and stars and planets and asteroids flying and orbiting in a vast and expanding space. More dark matter than light. Shiva dancing. A great mystery. And a beautiful morning it is this day. I keep notes along the way. Now and then an accounting and some reflecting.”

Quinney’s Field Notes, illustrated with his black-and-white photographs of rural Wisconsin, combines the ethereal reflections of literature with the palpable realities of nature observation to produce a record of the scholar’s life at this point in time. “With pen in hand and camera at my side, traveling between town and country, I make my notes and live this day. One world at a time, here on earth.”

Death in the Marsh by Tom Harris.
Island Press, 1991

On certain dry plains and hillsides of the West, the Astragalus species of wildflower grows in abundance, spreading carpets of pea-shaped pink, purple or yellow blossoms across the arid landscape. The delicate colors and innocent-looking nature of the plants belie a deadly disposition.

Astragalus, more commonly known as “locoweed,” thrives on soils rich in selenium, an element toxic to people and animals in high doses. Locoweed absorbs selenium and passes it along to livestock that graze on its bushy leaves, causing the infamous “loco disease” that has decimated many herds.

Irrigation water also picks up selenium as it moves through soils rich in the element, which is what happened in California’s San Joaquin Valley in the 1980s when irrigation discharge emptied into the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge.

“Laced with dissolved salts and minerals, the tainted drainage was a lethal brew. Too saline to leave in the fields, it was being dumped into Kesterson as part of an experiment to convert pollution into providence,” writes Tom Harris in Death in the Marsh, his account of the disaster that followed in the mid-1980s.

Within a few short seasons wildlife biologists began to notice terrible changes in Kesterson’s wetland ecosystem. The marsh’s vegetation was dying back and fewer fish, birds and animals were being counted. The nests of waterfowl that once held chirping nestlings now yielded many stillborn embryos and, worst of all, chicks with hideous deformities like missing legs or wings, external stomachs, and twisted beaks.

Death in the Marsh details the nightmarish discoveries at Kesterson and traces the scientific search for the source of the problem with selenium, which has been alternately studied and ignored for nearly a half century.

The livestock die-offs that early-day ranchers in the West attributed to “alkali disease” may have been selenium poisonings, according to Harris.

“It wasn’t until the early 1930s that researchers began to pin down the evidence that it was not the mineral salts associated with the prairie’s ubiquitous alkali crust that were doing the poisoning, but selenium,” Harris explains.

As an environmental reporter for the Sacramento Bee, Harris covered the Kesterson story and led an investigative report on evidence of similar problems throughout the West. With fellow reporter Jim Morris, he surveyed other federal water projects in nine states in 1985 and found potentially dangerous levels of selenium at all of them, including Idaho’s Lake Lowell near Nampa.

Dave Carter of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service office in Kimberly, Idaho, said he knew of no reported toxicity problems with selenium in his state, but admitted that the potential exists.

“Wherever we have a lot of seepage water there is potential for selenium concentrations to build up,” he said.

More common in southern Idaho, with its extensive layers of lava formations, is selenium deficiency. Livestock, like humans, require small amounts of selenium in their diet to remain healthy. Without it, they may lose weight and hair.

“Selenium deficiency has caused, and continues to cause, a lot of economic loss in Idaho,” Carter pointed out.

For many years, livestock in Idaho were vaccinated with selenium to prevent deficiencies, he noted. Now selenium is commonly applied to alfalfa fields with fertilizer in small amounts, increasing the selenium content of crops.

Harris’ book suggests that human health can be endangered by inhaling the selenium dust in feed or fertilizer additives, eating plants and animals harboring excessively high levels of the substance, or drinking selenium-tainted water. He cites the example of Burns, Oregon, rancher Girard Perkins who wasted away and died from a mysterious disease in 1972-73. Selenium counts in the man’s organs were among the highest ever detected in a human, Harris reported.

How did Perkins get so much selenium in his body?

“One theory is that Perkins came across just one tainted batch of pothole water too many,” according to Harris. “Like the cowpokes of an earlier generation, when he was out on solitary range rides, checking his herd, he would quench his thirst by scooping his Stetson into one of the numerous ponds, creeks, or seeps that dot the undulating plains.”

According to Dr. Sandra Susten of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in Atlanta, Georgia, there have been no reports of populations in the U.S. suffering from selenium poisoning.

“There’s evidence, though, that some workers might be hypersensitive to selenium,” she said.

The symptoms of selenium poisoning are much the same as the symptoms for selenium deficiency: brittle hair, deformed nails, loss of feeling and control in arms and legs (in extreme cases).

Selenium, Harris’s book points out, is one of the least understood and least regulated of the toxic elements — five times more poisonous than arsenic. It underlies thousands of square miles of North America and affects the livestock that graze, the crops that grow, and the people that live on its surface. But few are aware of its presence or the dangers that it poses.

Death in the Marsh raises plenty of alarm, but offers few solutions. Selenium has helped shape the landscape of the West since at least the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. Animals have grazed upon its surface and people have dwelled near it since the last Ice Age. How did they survive its poison? Is it the massive federal water projects of this century that made selenium a threat? Or has tainted water always been a consequence of irrigation?

In his epilogue, Harris acknowledges the gloominess of his report. Selenium is so widespread in the West and its effects so poorly understood, he writes, that the chances for constructive change are daunting. Only a coordinated and well-funded program of research and intervention, Harris suggests, will reduce the threat to livestock, wildlife and human lives.

Copyright 1992 by Michael Hofferber
Outrider News Service

Saving Paradise
How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire
by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker

The classic crucifixion image of Jesus in agony on a cross, so ingrained in Christian consciousness as to be its dominant archetype, is a rather new expression (probably less than a millenia old) created for political reasons during the Dark Ages. It has largely supplanted images of Christ’s victory over death and a paradise on earth that filled the earliest Christian churches.

“It took Jesus a thousand years to die. Images of his corpse did not appear in churches until the tenth century,” write Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker in their book Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire.

During a five-year survey of early Christian art in the Mediterranean and throughout Europe, the authors looked for the earliest depictions of Jesus and found plenty of images suggesting rescue from danger, baptism, paradise, and victory over death.

The earliest “dead” Jesus they found was in a side chapel of the Cologne Cathedral in northern Germany. The Gero Cross, a crucifix sculpted from oak, dates from around 960-970.

“In Christianity’s second millenium the Crucifixion expelled paradise from earth. And Jesus died again.”

In their book, the authors detail how life-affirming forms of Christianity succumbed to a focus on redemptive violence during the second millenium, infecting the faith like a virus.

“We recover here a life-giving, life-affirming Christianity, rooted in an ancient Mesopotamian past, that has survived despite many attempts to repress or destroy it and despite theological shifts that have betrayed it. We offer our study of this world as paradise as a way to retrieve a faith that affirms the many ways that people love one another, themselves, and the earth.”

• Holidays: Easter

Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World
by Carolyn Merchant
Routledge, 2005

How we comprehend our world determines, to a large extent, how we interact with its features — soils, water, air, plants and animals. Logical positivism, handed down from Aristotle and Isaac Newton, is largely responsible for a mechanistic worldview that looks at nature as individual parts behaving according to recognizable laws and capable of being manipulated.

It is this way of thinking, so dominant in Western societies, that many environmentalists blame for a rapacious capitalism that depletes non-renewable resources, ravages ecosystems for profit, and pollutes indiscriminantly.

Only a switch in our mindsets, coupled with real social and political change, can truly transform our society from egocentrism and homocentrism (human-centered) to ecocentrism, shaping a sustainable world out of one that is endangered.

Marking the frontiers of this ethical transformation are the radical ecologists, the subject of environmental historian Carolyn Merchant’s detailed study of cutting-edge philosophies and movements. This includes radical thoughts in spiritual ecology, social ecology and deep ecology, and socio-political movements like The Greens, ecofeminism, bioregionalism and sustainable agriculture.

“Radical Ecology” offers a critical assessment of these alternative worldviews, outlining their fundamental principles and describing areas of disagreement and consensus.

Deep ecology, for instance, is founded on the principle of “biospheric equality,” according to Merchant, which “places humans on an equal level with all other living things in an organismic democracy.” Its worldview embraces complexity and local autonomy, and seeks to establish a new ecologically-based science.

“The new science is process oriented,” Merchant explains. “It draws on design with nature, rather than the imposition of form on nature. Biological and cultural diversity are desired ends.”

While other forms of radical ecology like Earth First! and spiritual ecofeminism share some of the same goals and principles, they are also at odds over specific actions and values. Deep ecologists who advocate population control have been accused of being overly rationalist and technist. Social ecologists have branded some of their attitudes racist and elitist.

Making sense of these multivarious belief systems and coalitions, and providing a conceptual framework on which to analyze their thought, is Merchant’s singular accomplishment. Like a TV channel guide to alternative programming, “Radical Ecology” offers a menu of ethical performances and a synopsis of their story line.

None of these radical movements are likely to make America’s epistemological prime time but, as Merchant points out, their ground-breaking effort may set the stage for genuine change:

“The visibility of radical environmental movements may make mainstream environmental goals more acceptable. Radical actions often raise public consciousness about issues enmeshed in bureaucratic technicalities. Changes triggered by radical actions may then come about through normal political processes.”

Copyright 2005 by Michael Hofferber

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