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What I Stand for Is What I Stand On
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.From the ravages of the global economy to the great pleasures of growing a garden, Wendell Berry's powerful essays represent a heartfelt call for humankind to mend our broken relationship with the earth, and with each other.Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.
87 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 26, 2021
17 people are currently reading
721 people want to read
About the author
Wendell Berry
292 books4,876 followersWendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
February 27, 2022
The title resonates, and the underlying work delivers. Really powerful stuff, even if a little dated.
In the spirit of full disclosure, the content itself would merit 5 stars from this reader/reviewer, but the (slightly haphazard) repackaging (see below) without any effort to harmonize the whole is slightly disappointing (but understandable given the nature of the enterprise (again, see below)), so I'm downgrading the book (again, not the essays themselves) down to 4 stars....
I've got a fair number of pages dog-eared - great food for thought (and, frankly, I was pleased by how many ideas I expect to return to, rely on, share, cite, ... and continue to chew on and think about)....
Reviewer's quirky perspective: I've long considered myself (incredibly) lucky to have worked with the World Trade Organization (not only in Geneva, but, literally around the world) for many years. Frankly, it's been one of the most gratifying, eye-opening, and stimulating professional relationships/experiences of my career. Here, however, Berry crafts the most cogent, clear, and persuasive indictment of the global trading community I can recall.
This content assembled here was originally published elsewhere, at different times. Republished as a standalone here, this slender volume is installment 14 in the Penguin Green Ideas collection, which I'm finding well worth the investment ... and the minor hassle of acquiring it... Sadly, as my local independent bookstore confirmed, it is not available for sale (in the slipcase collection) in the U.S. What a shame! (Fortunately, thanks to our modern, global economy, it's not that difficult to order it from a UK supplier). Having passed the halfway point, and rapidly approaching the three-quarter turn, I'm ecstatic that I found and bought it. Well worth the effort, money, and time.
In the spirit of full disclosure, the content itself would merit 5 stars from this reader/reviewer, but the (slightly haphazard) repackaging (see below) without any effort to harmonize the whole is slightly disappointing (but understandable given the nature of the enterprise (again, see below)), so I'm downgrading the book (again, not the essays themselves) down to 4 stars....
I've got a fair number of pages dog-eared - great food for thought (and, frankly, I was pleased by how many ideas I expect to return to, rely on, share, cite, ... and continue to chew on and think about)....
Reviewer's quirky perspective: I've long considered myself (incredibly) lucky to have worked with the World Trade Organization (not only in Geneva, but, literally around the world) for many years. Frankly, it's been one of the most gratifying, eye-opening, and stimulating professional relationships/experiences of my career. Here, however, Berry crafts the most cogent, clear, and persuasive indictment of the global trading community I can recall.
This content assembled here was originally published elsewhere, at different times. Republished as a standalone here, this slender volume is installment 14 in the Penguin Green Ideas collection, which I'm finding well worth the investment ... and the minor hassle of acquiring it... Sadly, as my local independent bookstore confirmed, it is not available for sale (in the slipcase collection) in the U.S. What a shame! (Fortunately, thanks to our modern, global economy, it's not that difficult to order it from a UK supplier). Having passed the halfway point, and rapidly approaching the three-quarter turn, I'm ecstatic that I found and bought it. Well worth the effort, money, and time.
February 6, 2022
Eloquent and emotive essays on Environmentalism.
I found the last essay on the American economic system quite challenging to follow but produced much to think about.
I resonate with his ideas around starting activism with making your own garden and being part of the long and miraculous process of growing food. More needs to be done but this seems like an important place to start to view food not merely as something that can be purchased but rather a transaction with the earth itself.
I found the last essay on the American economic system quite challenging to follow but produced much to think about.
I resonate with his ideas around starting activism with making your own garden and being part of the long and miraculous process of growing food. More needs to be done but this seems like an important place to start to view food not merely as something that can be purchased but rather a transaction with the earth itself.
December 4, 2022
Incredibly insightful essays on our disconnect from nature and how our current economy is unsustainable. Although it is written with a bit of a religious angle here and there, this does not harm his arguments in the slightest. It is really interesting to see these words echo so true 50 years after the first essay was written. It is also so sad to see that so little progress has been made since then.
September 18, 2024
Wendell doesn't miss - HE DOES NOT MISS!!
May 31, 2022
Bit dated, agree with him about local food but not about his distrust of experts.
December 28, 2023
adored this! needed reminders
January 2, 2022
Read this all in one evening it was a great quick book. It's four essays he wrote between 1970 and 2000 so it's interesting what changes between those times. Also reading now in 2022 it's hard not to think helplessly how the same issues Berry wrote about 50 years ago are still prevalent and ever more pressing.
Really good primer how agriculture and food is tied into capitalism and institutionalised society. Berry is clear and personable and manages to advise actions for change without being preachy. He doesn't claim to be all knowing and clearly outlines his experience and context. Really liked his writing style and message - he remains hopeful and insightful.
Really good primer how agriculture and food is tied into capitalism and institutionalised society. Berry is clear and personable and manages to advise actions for change without being preachy. He doesn't claim to be all knowing and clearly outlines his experience and context. Really liked his writing style and message - he remains hopeful and insightful.
March 16, 2022
Penguin is killing with this Green Ideas series so far. This collection included four essays from 1970 to 2000: Think Little, The Pleasures of Eating, In Distrust of Movements, and The Total Economy. Wendell Berry has been on my reading list for a while and this collection of essays made me excited to pick up more from him.
I particularly loved his essay, 'Think Little'. Written in 1970, but really it could have been today. This is the first older piece of writing I've come across that's pointed out that we're terrible at follow-through.
'...it seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement and the Peace Movement, as popular causes in the electronic age, have partaken far too much of the nature of fads...they have been powered too much by impatience and guilt of conscience and short-term enthusiasm, and too little by an authentic social vision and long-term conviction and deliberation.'
A key theme threading through each of these essays is self-sufficiency and community. From what I understand, Berry seems to have spent most of his career talking about the importance of the local economy. And he does it really well. Like I'm already looking into starting a commune and joining a radical grassroots activism group (of course, one with a very unpopular and forgettable name that will always refuse to make any money).
'A crowd whose discontent has risen no higher than the level of slogans is only a crowd. But a crowd that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with.'
I also really appreciated the time Berry spent discussing individual choice. He dislikes the popular rhetoric that our personal choices don't make a difference, or it's all industry's fault, or the government's fault. When in reality this is a tired false dichotomy, 'I can't save the world by myself, so I won't do anything at all.' The answer is always to try to do the thing. Pick the best option available and push for government and industry to do the same in whatever way we're able.
'Communists and capitalists alike, 'liberal' capitalists and 'conservative' capitalists alike, have needed to replace religion with some form of determinism, so that they can say to their victims, 'I'm doing this because I can't do otherwise. It is not my fault. It is inevitable.'
I particularly loved his essay, 'Think Little'. Written in 1970, but really it could have been today. This is the first older piece of writing I've come across that's pointed out that we're terrible at follow-through.
'...it seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement and the Peace Movement, as popular causes in the electronic age, have partaken far too much of the nature of fads...they have been powered too much by impatience and guilt of conscience and short-term enthusiasm, and too little by an authentic social vision and long-term conviction and deliberation.'
A key theme threading through each of these essays is self-sufficiency and community. From what I understand, Berry seems to have spent most of his career talking about the importance of the local economy. And he does it really well. Like I'm already looking into starting a commune and joining a radical grassroots activism group (of course, one with a very unpopular and forgettable name that will always refuse to make any money).
'A crowd whose discontent has risen no higher than the level of slogans is only a crowd. But a crowd that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with.'
I also really appreciated the time Berry spent discussing individual choice. He dislikes the popular rhetoric that our personal choices don't make a difference, or it's all industry's fault, or the government's fault. When in reality this is a tired false dichotomy, 'I can't save the world by myself, so I won't do anything at all.' The answer is always to try to do the thing. Pick the best option available and push for government and industry to do the same in whatever way we're able.
'Communists and capitalists alike, 'liberal' capitalists and 'conservative' capitalists alike, have needed to replace religion with some form of determinism, so that they can say to their victims, 'I'm doing this because I can't do otherwise. It is not my fault. It is inevitable.'
March 20, 2023
Radicaal oneens met veel in dit boek. Hoe ik het lees, steunt Berry's visie op het kader van industrialisme (de methoden verwoesten het milieu, en die worden in zowel kapitalisme en communisme ongepast gebruikt), maar alle analyse die hieruit voortkomt geraakt niet verder dan veralgemeningen en komt nooit aan de fysieke grond. Veel kritiek is eigenlijk kritiek op een kapitalistische marktorganisatie, maar effectieve manieren om hier mee om te gaan worden vermeden uit angst voor Marxisten gelijk te geven. Organiseren is blijkbaar elitair, maar vragen dat iedereen zijn eigen moestuin aanlegt niet? Berry is (terecht) bezorgd om het milieu maar stuurt al zijn energie (en daarmee zijn analyses) het luchtledige in. Echt teleurstellend!
June 20, 2023
7 stars, highly recommend.
Fitting follow-up to airport conversation with Dad, after getting Tamish on his train. 2 hours home then bed. A Pancras pianist plays peacefully.
Fitting follow-up to airport conversation with Dad, after getting Tamish on his train. 2 hours home then bed. A Pancras pianist plays peacefully.
October 20, 2024
Powerful set of short essays about how our disconnection from the natural world, and specifically processes of food production, is entangled with the global economy. Berry argues for rebuilding local economies rooted in community, buying local food and learning more about the history (and modern systems) of land stewardship. "The Pleasures of Eating" in particular motivated me in my growing interest in gardening and trying to grow my own herbs and veg.
August 10, 2023
loved this! was good to learn more about the importance of local food and small farms to the health and sustenance of our communities. really want to volunteer on a farm now. berry is passionate and convincing without being degrading. he reminds me that caring for our earth is not a radical idea and should be taken seriously with practical steps.
February 15, 2023
Love this book, even more relevant today than ever. What an articulate, incisive essayist.
July 4, 2025
An interesting series of essays.
September 5, 2022
It was a little bit heavy and hard to read sometimes and to wrap my mind around it but it was some really interesting ideas and some really powerful quotes. Basically it very eloquently said that money makes the world go round and that’s fucked up, we have forgotten to care for people and to care for the land. We are so obsessed with consumption and the current economy drive all our issues and it’s stupid because the 'free market' is not actually free. It’s this ruthless competition where only one will win (which is what a competition is) and all of us just listen to that we just listen to it and follow it blindly and we don’t question how to live without this economy. We rely on so many people to do things for us - things that we could be doing ourselves but we don’t. The current economy dictates high-volume cheap products a farmer will go and sell his products whatever the economy dictate there is no competition so he makes up for it in volume - ripping the soil of nutrients. How messed up is it that agriculture is so tied up in capitalism?
He really tied this into agriculture and how we should move to more of a local economy rather than a global one. One where we care for our neighbours and the land and regain gratitude and exercise responsibility. Basically grow your own food babyyyyyy.
I also liked how he talked about it is a personal action to do this idea that it’s all governments and all corporations yes it is a lot of that 70% of the worlds corporations could use the fossil fuels but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make a difference and then we shouldn’t do anything at all because it does start you know with one person and the more that people do things the more there is this cool for change rather than just Rolling over and just giving up
I mean I didn’t agree like fully with some of his points in that we should just throw away with technology because technology can help a lot of people and that’s not to say that farmers should just be doing the Brokeback work themselves I think that’s a little bit unfair they can still be a connection to the land while using modern practices.
🌿🌱🌿Bulk quote dump 🌱🌿🌱
“without prosperous local economies the people have no power and the land no voice”
“ we have an environmental crisis because we have consented to an economy in which by eating drinking working resting travelling and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural the God-given world”
“ we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as environmental problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them”
“ our major economic practice in short is to delegate the practice to others”
“ France survived crisis after crisis because they were a nation of gardeners who in times of want turned with great skill to their own plots of ground”
“ we do not understand the earth in terms either of what it offers us all of what it requires of us and I think that is the rule that people inevitably destroy what they do not understand…. How model citizen who before puberty understand how to produce a baby but who at the age of 30 will not know how to produce a potato”
“ but to be fearful of the disease and yet on willing to pay for the cure is not just to be hypocritical it is to be doomed” Basically why do we participate in consuming so much if we are interested in the environment
"first they were civil rights then there was the war and now it’s the environment as causes they have been undertaken too much in ignorance they have been to simplified they have been powered too much by impatience and guilt of conscious and short-term enthusiasm and two little by an authentic social vision and long-term conviction and deliberation there is considerable danger that the environmental movement will have the same nature that it will be a public cause served by organisations that will self righteously criticise and condemn other organisations the mentality that exploits and destroys the natural environment is the same that abuses racial and economic minorities that imposes on young men and the tyranny of the military draft that makes war against peasants and women and children with the indifference of technology the mentality that destroys a watershed and then panics at the thread a flood is the same mentality that gives institutionalised insult to black people and then panics at the prospect of race riots we would be forced to believe that we could solve any of these problems without solving the other"
The title is based off a poem called below from 1980 and it’s basically saying that you know she respire holds up an angel with trumps and wings he’s in his element arm but it’s basically saying how I am a man and all my dawns cross the horizon and rise from underfoot what I stand for is what I stand on because this is where I belong on the ground every day I wake up and go to bed and I am on the land and I should stand up for it
He really tied this into agriculture and how we should move to more of a local economy rather than a global one. One where we care for our neighbours and the land and regain gratitude and exercise responsibility. Basically grow your own food babyyyyyy.
I also liked how he talked about it is a personal action to do this idea that it’s all governments and all corporations yes it is a lot of that 70% of the worlds corporations could use the fossil fuels but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make a difference and then we shouldn’t do anything at all because it does start you know with one person and the more that people do things the more there is this cool for change rather than just Rolling over and just giving up
I mean I didn’t agree like fully with some of his points in that we should just throw away with technology because technology can help a lot of people and that’s not to say that farmers should just be doing the Brokeback work themselves I think that’s a little bit unfair they can still be a connection to the land while using modern practices.
🌿🌱🌿Bulk quote dump 🌱🌿🌱
“without prosperous local economies the people have no power and the land no voice”
“ we have an environmental crisis because we have consented to an economy in which by eating drinking working resting travelling and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural the God-given world”
“ we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as environmental problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them”
“ our major economic practice in short is to delegate the practice to others”
“ France survived crisis after crisis because they were a nation of gardeners who in times of want turned with great skill to their own plots of ground”
“ we do not understand the earth in terms either of what it offers us all of what it requires of us and I think that is the rule that people inevitably destroy what they do not understand…. How model citizen who before puberty understand how to produce a baby but who at the age of 30 will not know how to produce a potato”
“ but to be fearful of the disease and yet on willing to pay for the cure is not just to be hypocritical it is to be doomed” Basically why do we participate in consuming so much if we are interested in the environment
"first they were civil rights then there was the war and now it’s the environment as causes they have been undertaken too much in ignorance they have been to simplified they have been powered too much by impatience and guilt of conscious and short-term enthusiasm and two little by an authentic social vision and long-term conviction and deliberation there is considerable danger that the environmental movement will have the same nature that it will be a public cause served by organisations that will self righteously criticise and condemn other organisations the mentality that exploits and destroys the natural environment is the same that abuses racial and economic minorities that imposes on young men and the tyranny of the military draft that makes war against peasants and women and children with the indifference of technology the mentality that destroys a watershed and then panics at the thread a flood is the same mentality that gives institutionalised insult to black people and then panics at the prospect of race riots we would be forced to believe that we could solve any of these problems without solving the other"
The title is based off a poem called below from 1980 and it’s basically saying that you know she respire holds up an angel with trumps and wings he’s in his element arm but it’s basically saying how I am a man and all my dawns cross the horizon and rise from underfoot what I stand for is what I stand on because this is where I belong on the ground every day I wake up and go to bed and I am on the land and I should stand up for it
November 9, 2025
Para vivir mas consciente y respetuosa con tu planeta, y tu comunidad <3
December 21, 2021
Concise description of the systemic situation we are in today and our responsibility as individuals.
Wendell Berry brings clarity to what we say we stand for and it’s actual meaning (or the excuses we makes), e.g., social movements, environmental crisis, food production, economy, etc. important observations, well explained and grounded.
A book to be read, share, offer, study and to translate to daily practice!
I found the last chapter a bit harder to follow, while the previous ones were straightforward.
Wendell Berry brings clarity to what we say we stand for and it’s actual meaning (or the excuses we makes), e.g., social movements, environmental crisis, food production, economy, etc. important observations, well explained and grounded.
A book to be read, share, offer, study and to translate to daily practice!
I found the last chapter a bit harder to follow, while the previous ones were straightforward.
December 16, 2021
Excellent a short but very worthwhile read. Consists of four essays on local economies and local solutions to help the environment. He penned the most recent of these, shockingly, in 2000. I spent lots of time thinking and engaging with this book despite the small page count.
June 4, 2025
Oh he ATE with this one!!!
I have some more complex thoughts about Think Little, which I found a bit confused and reductive. More on that in an update.
The Pleasures of Eating was clear and good, but In Distrust of Movements is excellent and The Total Economy straight nonstop FIRE.
Politically speaking I found Total Economy one of the most mic drop essays within the Green Ideas collection so far. It harks a lot back to the globalist critique of Hot Money, way back in book 2. It develops the localist arguments which I felt were set up against a bit of a straw man in Think Little, and focuses them into a blistering tirade against the wanton destruction of the so called Free Market, and the institutions, bureaucrats, politicians and governments of have gladly sold off their lands, citizens and democracies to the multinational monopolies.
Exploitation, long familiar in the foreign and domestic colonialism of modern nations, has now become the 'global economy', which is the property of a few supranational corporations.
A total economy is one in which everything - 'life forms', the 'right to pollute' - is 'private property' and has a price and is for sale...A total economy is an unrestrained taking of profits from the disintegration of nations, communities, households, landscapes and ecosystems. It licenses symbolic or artifical wealth to 'grow' by means of the destruction of the real wealth of all the world.
BOOM!!! TELL THEM WENDELL!!!
I have some more complex thoughts about Think Little, which I found a bit confused and reductive. More on that in an update.
The Pleasures of Eating was clear and good, but In Distrust of Movements is excellent and The Total Economy straight nonstop FIRE.
Politically speaking I found Total Economy one of the most mic drop essays within the Green Ideas collection so far. It harks a lot back to the globalist critique of Hot Money, way back in book 2. It develops the localist arguments which I felt were set up against a bit of a straw man in Think Little, and focuses them into a blistering tirade against the wanton destruction of the so called Free Market, and the institutions, bureaucrats, politicians and governments of have gladly sold off their lands, citizens and democracies to the multinational monopolies.
Exploitation, long familiar in the foreign and domestic colonialism of modern nations, has now become the 'global economy', which is the property of a few supranational corporations.
A total economy is one in which everything - 'life forms', the 'right to pollute' - is 'private property' and has a price and is for sale...A total economy is an unrestrained taking of profits from the disintegration of nations, communities, households, landscapes and ecosystems. It licenses symbolic or artifical wealth to 'grow' by means of the destruction of the real wealth of all the world.
BOOM!!! TELL THEM WENDELL!!!
December 14, 2024
This may have just rewired my brain. I am in awe of how comprehensive a philosophy is laid out in so few pages. Consider me converted, inspired, humbled.
August 25, 2025
Plain spoken and humble, Wendell Berry is an American original who represents the best of his country’s deep traditions of nonconformism and righteous fury arising from a sense of traduced common sense. As unadorned as they are devastating, these collected pieces don’t traffic in cornpone sentiment or folksy uplift. They are an urgent call to change the way we live. The saddest and most chilling thing about reading this collection essay by essay is that as the years go by—1970, 1989, 1998, 2000—we see Berry grow colder, flintier, and even starker in his confrontations with the sheer enormity of the task.
October 21, 2022
Above trees and rooftops
is the range of symbols:
banner, cross, and star;
air war, the mode of those
who live by symbols; the pure
abstraction of travel by air.
Here a spire holds up
an angel with trump and wings;
he's in his element.
Another lifts a hand
with forefinger pointing up
to admonish that all's not here.
All's not. But I aspire
downward. Flyers embrace
the air, and I'm a man
who needs something to hug.
All my dawns cross the horizon
and rise, from underfoot
What I stand for
is what I stand on.
is the range of symbols:
banner, cross, and star;
air war, the mode of those
who live by symbols; the pure
abstraction of travel by air.
Here a spire holds up
an angel with trump and wings;
he's in his element.
Another lifts a hand
with forefinger pointing up
to admonish that all's not here.
All's not. But I aspire
downward. Flyers embrace
the air, and I'm a man
who needs something to hug.
All my dawns cross the horizon
and rise, from underfoot
What I stand for
is what I stand on.
January 20, 2023
Loved this! I had heard of Wendell Berry several times when learning about environmentalism and the food sovereignty movement, but had not read anything of his. This was an excellent introduction to his ideas and left me wanting to find out more.
So much of the content of these essays is still extremely relevant today (the critique of ‘free’ markets & trade, the injustices of the global food & farming system, the need for a localised and democratic economy…). The language he uses to describe this all is incredibly accessible.
A *lot* of food for thought for such a short book!
So much of the content of these essays is still extremely relevant today (the critique of ‘free’ markets & trade, the injustices of the global food & farming system, the need for a localised and democratic economy…). The language he uses to describe this all is incredibly accessible.
A *lot* of food for thought for such a short book!
February 18, 2023
This is not a real review, just some thoughts I like to write down.
Das ist keine richtige Bewertung, nur ein paar Gedanken, die ich aufschreiben wollte.
Auch hier wieder mehrere Essays die dem selben Thema folgen und dadurch leicht repetitiv sind. Seine generelle kritische Haltung an Experten kann ich nicht teilen und nachvollziehen, seine angesprochnen Probleme von vor 50 Jahren existieren heute leider immer noch genauso resp. sind noch schlimmer geworden und es wäre natürlich schön, wenn sich alle lokal bemühe würden und sich wieder mehr mit der Natur verbunden fühlen würden.
Das ist keine richtige Bewertung, nur ein paar Gedanken, die ich aufschreiben wollte.
Auch hier wieder mehrere Essays die dem selben Thema folgen und dadurch leicht repetitiv sind. Seine generelle kritische Haltung an Experten kann ich nicht teilen und nachvollziehen, seine angesprochnen Probleme von vor 50 Jahren existieren heute leider immer noch genauso resp. sind noch schlimmer geworden und es wäre natürlich schön, wenn sich alle lokal bemühe würden und sich wieder mehr mit der Natur verbunden fühlen würden.
January 24, 2025
Shoutout to Ross for lending his copy to me.
In this collection of essays, Berry succinctly explains the sources of our economic, political, and ecological problems without oversimplifying them. He offers an optimistic remedy- rather than think big, we ought to think small. By analyzing our own lives, neighborhoods, and relationships with our land, food, and the economy and adjusting them to be more intentional and moral; we can effect change in a way no corporate or political bureaucrat or movement could ever hope to.
In this collection of essays, Berry succinctly explains the sources of our economic, political, and ecological problems without oversimplifying them. He offers an optimistic remedy- rather than think big, we ought to think small. By analyzing our own lives, neighborhoods, and relationships with our land, food, and the economy and adjusting them to be more intentional and moral; we can effect change in a way no corporate or political bureaucrat or movement could ever hope to.
February 7, 2023
Old-school environmentalism that's about doing something positive and reconnecting yourself to nature rather than supergluing yourself to a train or throwing soup at a painting.
Its quite inspiring but since he gets the same basic points across in each of the 4 articles here it feels a bit repetitive.
Ibteretingbhownkigtke his view changes over the 30 year span of these writings though: he's not one to move with the changing fads.
Its quite inspiring but since he gets the same basic points across in each of the 4 articles here it feels a bit repetitive.
Ibteretingbhownkigtke his view changes over the 30 year span of these writings though: he's not one to move with the changing fads.
March 6, 2024
A wonderful booklet on why we should go back to a world that is less dependent on global trade but focusing more on locality. It will mean we have to give up certain things we have taken for granted. It means building up communities. It means we have to be self-critical.
The booklet also has the essay "In Distrust of Movements" which is interesting in light of the current climate change movements.
So, a lovely read (and I guess it also helped it was read in and near a nature house).
The booklet also has the essay "In Distrust of Movements" which is interesting in light of the current climate change movements.
So, a lovely read (and I guess it also helped it was read in and near a nature house).
June 10, 2024
Gardening! Sharing meals! Trees! Ahhh!
I bought a mint plant because of this man.
I’m in Kentucky right now and its now “Wendell country” in my brain.
“Pleasures of eating” was a nice one. Confirmed why I love to cook for other people. I like how he mentions the importance of “appreciating every ingredient.” Wonderful mindset.
“Total economy” is still so relevant, especially thinking about globalization and all that jazz.
I bought a mint plant because of this man.
I’m in Kentucky right now and its now “Wendell country” in my brain.
“Pleasures of eating” was a nice one. Confirmed why I love to cook for other people. I like how he mentions the importance of “appreciating every ingredient.” Wonderful mindset.
“Total economy” is still so relevant, especially thinking about globalization and all that jazz.
December 20, 2021
A quick read of 4 essays, that have really made me think. I thoroughly recommend this and plan to make some changes to my lifestyle because of this book. The last essay on the Total Economy is amazing when you consider it in relation to covid and the price we have paid for the global economic model and the huge shortages we have all experienced over the last 18 months, as well as heart break.
August 8, 2023
A brief but very relevant book about how we could best protect our fragile food systems, land and society by reverting to a much more 'local first' attitude. Made me feel hugely guilty for all the terrible processed foods in my cupboard, in the best way. So much sense here, not that anyone important will implement it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews