Vermont's expansion of the food stamp program is an important story, one that demonstrates an increasing shift in our society's relationship to its food. Vermont's policy change on food stamps is likely to be mirrored by other states, and this represents both a fundamental shift in the reality of American need and also, I think, the final stake in the heart of the industrial food system. From the Times Argus: The well-known Food Stamp program got a new updated name Friday, and Vermont Gov. James Douglas was on hand for the launch, standing in front of three tables of food …

Tom Vilsack is going to be secretary of agriculture, hmmm ... Let's see, ethanol proponent, enthusiastic supporter of GMOs and biotechnologies, and political debtor to agribusiness. Yup, it seems clear that Obama really took Michael Pollan's "Farmer in Chief" piece to heart. Short of actually appointing, say, Monsanto's chairman, it is hard to imagine a choice less likely to make real shifts in our food system. But of course, as Rod Dreher and Carolyn Baker point out, so far there's very little from the Obama administration that should make us feel secure that he will shift the status quo. Ultimately, …

I'm going to pretend that instead of a silly article diagnosing a pretend disease in The New York Times, I was given a chance to speak on the op-ed pages of the Times. Ignoring for a moment how unlikely that is, here's what I would have said. ----- Last weekend my family and I appeared in the New York Times as victims (or perhaps purveyors) of a new mental illness, "carborexia." Apparently this is the pathological inability to produce sufficient carbon, an environmental mania so extreme that it transforms ordinary lives into obsessive madness. The article began with the fact …

Today is World Food Day, and it's time to assess the prospects for the short- and long-term future of our food. As I write this, there are more than 100 million new starving people in the world since last year. As I write this people in Iceland, one of the world's richest nations, are wondering whether there will be any imported food coming into their country. As I write this, one out of every 11 Americans -- and as many as one in seven in states with high levels of poverty -- require food stamps to be able to eat. …

NASA's latest analysis of the intersection of peak oil and climate change argues that oil and natural gas alone probably won't get us to 450ppm. If we can constrain our use of coal fairly quickly, we probably can avoid the worst outcomes -- unless of course, the impact of reduced global dimming or methane from melting permafrost gets us. Still, it all sounds rather hopeful. What are the chances that we're going to constrain our use of coal, so that we can avoid this tipping point? So far, the world is engaged in a massive build-out of coal infrastructure, that …

John Feffer has a good article over at Asia Times Online. It points out the deep danger we're in -- how teetery both the world and America's food and energy systems are. It is well worth a read, particularly because of its clear articulation of the bind we're in -- the strategies we've used in the past to get out of disaster will only accelerate collapse in the long-term.. The tools we're using to get more food out of the ground take food from the future. The analogy that I've been using for some time is the comparison to the …

Peak oil is all over the place. The cover of the Wall Street Journal, CNN, you name it. The peak has tipped into the consciousness of the world. And those of us who were aware before are going to be fielding some questions. So it pays to have a response ready for the latecomers. It has occurred to me that there must be a simple way of explaining peak oil to everyone -- but most solutions have concentrated on creating a single simple method of explaining peak oil, when what is needed is a highly specialized approach, designed to help …

There's definitely a survivalist streak building in the environmental movement. Mainstream newspapers are starting to run stories about survivalism. There are quite a few people who hear that the energy peak or climate change is coming and believe that building up their stocks of ammo and heading for the hills is the way to go. I recognize, even if I do not share, that impulse: It is the impulse to protect your own, the panic you feel when you realize that your society, which on some level is supposed to protect you, hasn't planned ahead for this one. And so …

"How did you get there, Roo?" asked Piglet. "On Tigger's back!  And Tiggers can't climb downwards, because their tails get in the way, only upwards, and Tigger forgot about that when we started, and he's only just remembered.  So we've got to stay here for ever and ever -- unless we go higher.  What did you say, Tigger?  Oh, Tigger says if we go higher we shan't be able to see Piglet's house so well, so we're going to stop here." -- A.A. Milne, "The House At Pooh Corner" My kids were out climbing trees yesterday, supervised by Eric and …

So, I spent almost $2,000 today ... to fill up our oil tank. We heat primarily with wood, but we use oil as a backup system to keep the pipes from freezing and occasionally on days when we're going to be out for an extended period. Our hot water is also heated with oil. For whatever reason, most oil heat in the U.S. is in the Northeast, mostly in towns beyond gas lines like mine. I suspect today's purchase may well be the last tank of heating oil we ever buy. Unfortunately, that's not true for most Americans. Now, at …