Wake Up America

The Time For Pretending Everything Is Normal Is Over

Midday in Dorneyville.

Last week the air was so bad on the East Coast that even sports games and parties were canceled. The lightning-sparked wildfires in Canada sent plumes of toxic smoke over all of us. We hadn’t had rain here in weeks and weeks, and everything was crispy and dry. Sure, we’ve seen pictures like this from California and Australia. But this was the first time it happened to us.

Then on Saturday, an oil tanker exploded under I-95 and a whole section of the multi-lane highway collapsed. Reader, you have to understand how catastrophic this is for drivers. The repairs are going to take months. Driving to work, to the airport, to the beach, to sporting events is going to be horrible. It was horrible before, too. (Even though that part of the highway was recently rebuilt!)

And did you hear about the millions of fish that washed up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas? It was caused by hypoxia, which is a lack of oxygen. Here’s what I wrote about hypoxia in my book Organic Manifesto:

“Agricultural chemicals currently account for approximately two-thirds of all water pollution. According to an article in the journal Science, marine “dead zones” — areas in which fish, plankton, crustaceans, and other ocean life cannot survive—have been doubling in size every 10 years since 1960. Sea life in these dead zones experiences hypoxia literally suffocating because the water is starved of oxygen.”

Since I wrote the book (published in 2010) things have only gotten worse. The rise in GMOs has enabled so many chemicals to be applied to crops that most people can’t even eat the foods without suffering horrible health consequences. But don’t just blame it on farmers. It’s anyone who buys a jug of Roundup at their local store or hires a lawn company to keep their lawn green. It’s the government and farm bureau for subsidizing the overgrowth of corn and soybeans to make ethanol and feedlot cows and pigs. It’s all of us eating cheap food (whether that’s by choice or because that’s all you can afford) and not caring who grows it or how. All this fixation on GMOs and Government subsidized fossil fuels have helped to raise the planetary temperature, which also increases hypoxia. It’s a highway to a burning hell of our own creation.

Here’s what I think about when I am alone in my car: Monsanto was bought by Bayer, which is based in Germany, home to most of the major chemical companies (which as I wrote about in Organic Manifesto were holdovers from WWII human extermination efforts). Most of these chemicals are banned in Germany and Europe! Could it be a eugenics strategy? (Let those stupid Americans (and other countries too) eat themselves to sterilization and death, for example.) I can no longer tolerate gluten. So many people have told me about how they can’t tolerate gluten except when they go to Europe. “I don’t live in Europe,” I tell them.

Here’s what I think about at least once a day: I’ve seen this movie before. It’s the seductive power of denial. I witnessed the end of the publishing industry. Up until the end at industry events leaders stood on stage and said “Publishing is not dead!” And I sat in closed-door offices where overly high-paid executives pushed me for higher wages and bonuses as revenues fell through the floor. Basically, publishing is now mostly truly dead. And the biggest book publisher, Bertelsmann, is owned by the Germans! Bertelsmann is so huge and profitable that they tried to buy Simon and Schuster (owned by Paramount, which is owned by National Amusements) and they were not allowed to because then they would have a monopoly on all publishing. Look, I love Germany and many Germans. I am half-German (from a long way back). But sometimes I wonder, who really won WWII? Bertelsmann is a private, family-owned company that I am sure has good intentions (full disclosure, Mrs. Peanuckle (me) is published by Penguin Random House, which is owned by Bertelsmann.) But if Americans think that businesses and capitalism are going to solve all our problems, we are totally fucked.

Wake up America! We need to organize for resilience and safety, not profits and efficiency. Efficiency and “lean” management are fragile and what got us here in the first place. We need to get up off the couch from watching garbage TV shows and start doing something to fix things. Small things and big things.

Here are some solutions I think about as I cook dinner:

Radical Rezoning - The more I learn about land development and building, the more I learn that a lot of local ordinances stand in the way of creating a better world. There are ordinances that separate commercial from residential development. There are ordinances that insist on lawns cut less than 6 inches high. There are ordinances that insist on parking spaces for new buildings. Fuck that. We need to start building small, walkable communities. Housing developments that have a little market to feed people. Small communities that integrate retail into it. No mall should be built without apartments attached. No apartments should be built without food availability integrated into it. No giant warehouses should be built without community resources to support the workers and drivers. Stop building for cars and start building for people.

High-Speed Trains - Germany has amazing trains. So does Japan. China. Australia. Traveling by train is a delight in those countries. In the US, car companies and oil and gas companies have held politicians by the balls to prevent high-speed rail. The I-95 highway collapse is on the main artery from Philadelphia to New York. There should have been high-speed rail there decades ago. (There is a train from Philly to NY but it’s not anything like the Shinkansen I rode in Japan 20 years ago!)

Ban lawn and garden chemicals - Readers, this one is on us. There is absolutely no need for them and now we are seeing the results of long-term use: the demise of our pollinator populations, the health issues associated with neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors, water pollution, and soil degradation. I have never used a chemical in my garden (except for the ones that sneak into my yard in the pots of plants I buy at the nursery). And every year I have a bountiful harvest that I preserve in my freezer. Plus my roses have been SPECTACULAR.

I mean, just look at these gorgeous beauties! They smell divine!

Ban agricultural chemicals - Farmers have been tricked by the ad slogan that they need to “feed the world.” But we need to feed the world for the future, not just for the next 5 years. There is now irrefutable science that shows that regenerative ORGANIC is the most profitable, productive, and healthy for everything and everyone. Look, farming is HARD. Especially in times of droughts and floods. Regenerative organic farming doesn’t prevent farming from being hard, but it does create the environment for future resilience. If you want to know more, check out the Rodale Institute. Fun fact, we did a strategic planning session five years ago and were asked to envision 50 years into the future. My group imagined a time when we would look at chemical farming in the same light as we look at slavery: morally, ethically, and socially wrong. Also illegal.

If we did just these 4 things, we would have to find things to stress about other than climate change. It’s a great opportunity for designing a new future and new means of living in balance and harmony on Earth. However, as a former (recovering) CEO, I know that moving people into awareness and action is exceedingly hard and sometimes impossible. That’s why, I think, sometimes nature creates a crisis for us because that’s when our best behavior shines through. That’s when we are forced to change. Even me! It took a stroke for me to change my diet to eliminate sugar, reduce my red meat and butter consumption, and radically reduce salt. And you know what? Not only is it not hard, but I feel better. It’s easier. And I save money. But that’s beside the point. Our challenge is to learn to change our behavior before it’s too late. Before we’ve reached a point of no return. Before nature forces us to change in ways that are deeply uncomfortable.

There is a concept in shamanism that “spirit” tries to communicate with us gently and playfully at first. But if we don’t pay attention and listen, the messages get louder and harder. Finally, if we still aren’t listening, we get a kick in the butt or a whack on the head.

Listen.

Pay attention.

Wake up.