CONTENTS
F RO N T L I N E
6 6 8
9
A FAIR TRADE FIRST CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION BEYOND WORDS RAINFOREST PROGRESS

No.251 November/December 2008
think deeply, live lightly

33 RAW VITALITY
LAURA VAN MARLE Discover the raw and vegan delights of living foods.
November/December 2008 No. 251 £4.95 US$9.75

34 BAKING REAL BREAD
ANDREW WHITLEY Use your loaf and bake your own!

FEASTING & FASTING

Connecting the Plate and the Planet
• IS NUTrITIoNISm bAD For oUr hEAlTh? • WhAT IF WE All TUrNED vEGAN? • ThE SPIrITUAl SIGNIFICANCE oF rAmADAN

PlUS
• hoW oNE FAmIly CoUlD PoPUlATE ThE EArTh IN 10 GENErATIoNS • AN INTErvIEW WITh bEN okrI

KEYNOTES
10 NATURAL RELIGION
COLIN TUDGE Where science meets spirituality.

36 PEOPLE’S FOOD
MARK DOWIE The wondrous variety of the common spud.

38 WHAT THEN SHOULD WE
EAT?
WILL TUTTLE Make an informed decision about what’s on your plate.

14 THE SILENCE OF THE
GREENS
DAVID NICHOLSON-LORD Why do environmentalists choose to ignore the problem of over-population?

40 FOOD SECURITY
JONATHON PORRITT Eat locally and seasonally: a simple solution to our growing food crisis.

Oranges, Seville, Spain
PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS CALDICOTT/AXIOM

FEASTING & FASTING
18 FOOD FOR THE SOUL
THOMAS MOORE Food has a profound capacity for meaning and conviviality.

T H E A RT S
42 POETRY
ANNA TRUSSLER & ALAN MUNTON The poems of Ronald Duncan.

REGULARS
2 WELCOME
SATISH KUMAR

21 IN THIS BOWL
MIRIAM DARLINGTON A poem from Miriam Darlington’s book Windfall.

44 AN INTIMATE OPERATION
ANDREW WINGFIELD “For us, you were a living link to another kind of place.”

52 RECIPES
DAPHNE LAMBERT

54 NATURE WRITERS
ROGER DEAKIN

22 JOY OF COOKING
MADHU SURI PRAKASH The kitchen is a place in the home where the juices flow.

46 THE SPACE BETWEEN
SUZY MURPHY Beauty lies in the places where there is seemingly nothing.

56 LETTER FROM AMERICA
LAIRD TOWNSEND

25 GOOD INTENTIONS
ZIAUDDIN SARDAR The cultural and spiritual significance of Ramadan.

48 POINTS OF ENCHANTMENT
SARAH FULFORD An engaging interview with a great writer of our time: Ben Okri.

58 IN THE FIELD
JULES PRETTY

60 LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

27 BREAKING BREAD
GIUSEPPE MASCOLI Baking home-made bread for the first Resurgence slow Sunday.

28 SALAMONGUNDI
JOHN MOAT The joys of a traditional North Devon Christmas Festival.

30 THE AGE OF NUTRITIONISM
MICHAEL POLLAN The bad science behind nutritionism

Kitchen in a village in Rajasthan near Jodhpur, India. PHOTOGRAPH:
CHRIS CALDICOTT/AXIOM

 Resurgence No. 51 November/December 008

REVIEWS
62 TOWARDS THE REAL
MARIAN VAN EYK McCAIN reviews Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives

IN OUR TIME

63 FUNDAMENTAL FAILINGS
PHILIP MARSDEN reviews Sea Change: Britain’s Costal Catastrophe

64 DECISIONS TO SUCCEED
MIGUEL MENDONÇA reviews Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

65 A PROGREESION OF
THOUGHTS
RASOUL SORKHABI reviews The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life

66 A GOOD LIFE REDEFINED
ROSIE PEARSON reviews Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?

Activists make their point near the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station

PHOTOGRAPH: MIKE RUSSELL

67 REIMAGINING THE WORLD
DAVID BOYLE reviews The Power of Unreasonable People

68 CLASSIFIED ADVERTS 70 DISPLAY ADVERTS 82 MEMBERS’ PAGE
I L L U S T R ATO R S
GILLIAN BLEASE illustrates for The Guardian. HUGH DUNFORD-WOOD is an artist and illustrator CLIFFORD HARPER is a working-class anarchist militant and illustrator who lives in south-east London. MATT KENYON illustrates for The Guardian. JAY LUTTMAN-JOHNSON is a lino-cut printmaker.

THE SUMMER OF 2008 saw many direct action campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the consequences of climate change and the UK government’s ‘business as usual’ attitude. 24-year-old MSc student Dan Glass ‘stuck himself ’ to Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently when Glass, who is a member of the climate action group, Plane Stupid, entered the PM’s official residence to receive the Sheila McKechnie award for his campaigning against airport expansion. He greeted Mr Brown, stuck himself to the Prime Minister’s sleeve and read messages from people whose villages will be bulldozed if Brown agrees to BAA’s expansion plans. Glass reminded the PM that “you can’t shake off climate change as you can shake off my arm – we are the last generation with the opportunity to adequately tackle climate change before it is too late – and we are not willing to wait for the politicians to catch up.” Meanwhile, six Greenpeace climate change activists have been cleared of causing £30,000 of criminal damage at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in a majority verdict that is expected to embarrass the government further and lead to more direct action protests against energy companies. The activists admitted trying to shut down the station by occupying the smokestack and painting the word ‘Gordon’ down the chimney, but argued that they were legally justified because they were trying to prevent climate change causing greater damage to property around the world. It was the first case in which preventing property damage caused by climate change had been used as part of a “lawful excuse” defence in court. It is now expected to be used more widely by environment groups.

FOR CONTACT INFORMATION FOR RESURGENCE OFFICES AND AGENTS, PLEASE SEE PAGE 83

www.resurgence.org
Web Exclusives Our ‘Feasting & Fasting’ feature continues online. In his article ‘Health Imperatives’ Satish Kumar suggests that the quality and quantity of food we produce should be in harmony. Otherwise we are merely feeding ourselves, not nourishing our bodies. Nick Jones looks at the resurgence of stone-milled flour in his article ‘Going with the Grain’ and Julia Ponsonby gives the fascinating history of, and a delicious recipe for, mince pies in her article ‘Christmas Cradles’. There is also a list of Recommended Reading giving information about many books on the subject of food, plus an array of book reviews not yet published in the magazine. www.resurgence.org/magazine/web-exclusives.html

Online Issues Browse through our online issues. PDF files of our current issue and many of our back issues (some now out of print) are available for download from our website at a special price. www.resurgence.org/magazine/previous-issues.html Slow Sunday Watch the latest podcast, discover inspiring recipe ideas and find out more about our next Slow Sunday initiative. www.resurgence.org/trust/slow-sunday.html Satish’s Blog For inspiring tales and anecdotes from Satish Kumar read his regular blog. www.resurgence.org/satish-kumar/blog.html

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