The turning of the New Year inspires me to take stock of what I’m grateful for. Giving thanks for what’s working and what inspires me often lends some guidance for the year ahead.

I’ll take this opportunity to sing praises of the beloved plants at the heart of A Nourishing Harvest. Specifically, I’ll explore the workings of a rather heroic plant part when it comes to dealing with environmental contamination: the Casparian strip.

 In order for a health practitioner to do the job well, educating oneself about the health effects of environmental contamination is required. I'm grateful for Sandra Steingraber's book Living Downstream- a research-based yet personal exploration of the health effects of environmental contaminants.

Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that collapse the moment we examine them. 

-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (19)

Rachel Carson's story has been featured in several books I've picked up recently, including Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber and Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest. When I discovered that several friends hadn't heard of her, I felt moved to feature Rachel here. Though I'm not one to feel starstruck by a film actor or rock star, imagining what I might have said to Rachel Carson (if I'd had the opportunity before she passed) makes me feel a bit weak in the knees. Really, "Thank you!" is all there is to say for her brave and groundbreaking work for environmental sustainability and justice.