Sunday, June 18, 2006

The Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition publishes a great cookbook that has a single flaw. It’s focused on seasonal eating. Now, from the point of view of a kohlrabi producer or a spinach maven, it makes sense to influence your customer base to enjoy what’s fresh when it’s fresh, and I have nothing against this concept generally. But it is particularly galling when one extends the logic. Fresh asparagus in the spring, crisp apples in the fall, tomatoes and zucchinis when summer is high – all this sounds delicious. It’s the winter time when we in Wisconsin might be expected to suffer. Seasonal variety from the root cellar frankly sucks. Salt cod and rutabagas only go so far toward providing that fresh variety we enjoyed during the growing season.

Extending the logic of eating locally grown and seasonal produce, one would have to feel sorry for the Floridians who might never enjoy an apple or a pear. Indeed, I’m not sure I’m ready to give up citrus. But eating locally grown foodstuffs is one way that we are enjoined to help offset the energy crisis.

Here’s the fact – the engineers had better get working on that so called energy crisis. I want to be able to enjoy 24 hour flood-lighting so intense that anybody dropping-in will be forced to wear shades any time of the day, and I want air-conditioning of polar quality for free forever without impacting the environment. So, again – let’s get the engineers working on that, okay? It’s more than the broken promise of flying automobiles that’s upsetting me here. Those clowns in the engineer boots have been so focused on extractive industries that they haven’t paid any attention to the easy stuff, like free non-polluting power for everyone everywhere. And their hippie opposite numbers in the food co-op biz play right into their hands by making people think they owe it to each other to eschew bananas and only eat lettuce in the spring, for god’s sake.

Get on with it Edison. Power to the peeps, okay? I want that first blimp-load of bananas here before fall.

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