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If you are interested in reforming America’s food system, we highly recommend this new Guide. Informed input from concerned citizens is the only thing that will counter the powerful vested interests and bring us a fresh food/farm policy that serves public health, job creation, land stewardship and even national security.

Every five years, the U.S. Congress passes complex legislation called the Farm Bill. Primarily accountable for setting the budgets and work plans for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bill is the essential economic and policy engine that drives our food and farming system and provides nutritional assistance to tens of millions of Americans—many of them children. In recent years, more and more citizens are realizing just how much is at stake in this political chess game.

Originally published in 2007, Food Fight is Daniel Imhoff's highly acclaimed primer on the complex issues contained within the Farm Bill. Now in a newly updated and expanded edition, Imhoff looks ahead at this important issue, as the debate for 2012 is already underway. With the legislation due to be reauthorized in late 2012, Food Fight offers a critical resource that can help concerned citizens deconstruct this challenging bill, organize in their communities and press their elected representatives to serve the public good, rather than vested interests.

The Guide explains:

• The Farm Bill’s connection to the national obesity epidemic…
• The problems with subsidizing the expansion of corn-based ethanol…
• The myths of “cheap food”…
• Who wins and who loses from heavily subsidized industrial ag systems.

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"Our mail order methods meet many wants," wrote a poetic but anonymous copywriter on a page of the 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue. He had a gift for understatement. At its zenith from the 1880s to the 1940s, Montgomery Ward, like its cross-town Chicago rival, Sears, sold virtually everything the average American could think of or desire — and by mail. This was a revolution, and Ward's fired the first shot. To buy spittoons, books of gospel hymns, hat pins, rifles, wagons, violins, birdcages or portable bathtubs, purchases that used to require many separate trips to specialist merchants, suddenly all the American shopper had to do was lick a stamp. This unabridged facsimile of the retail giant's 1895 catalogue showcases some 25,000 items, from the necessities of life (flour, shirts) to products whose time has passed (ear trumpets). It is an important resource for antiquaries, students of Americana, writers of historical fiction, and anyone who wants to know how much his great-grandfather paid for his suspenders. It is a true record of an era.

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Imagine it's the end of the 19th century, and, with one catalog, you can buy everything from beds and tools to clothing and opium. (Yes, opium.) Not to mention ear trumpets, horse buggies and Bibles. The 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue is both a wonderfully fascinating collector's item and a valuable piece of American history. For every recognizable item included, there are plenty of others guaranteed to confuse or interest 21st century readers — like Bust Cream, or Food and Sweet Spirits of Nitre. What was once standard household fare is often strange and funny today. Look at what life was once like for the average American family. It's amazing to see that a Princely Shirt for Princely Men cost $0.95 or three for $2.75 or that a Complete Violin Outfit (with bow and case) cost only $2.00.

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Now you can get have historic catalogs of Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck & Co. for one low price! The set includes:

MONTGOMERY WARD & CO. CATALOGUE & BUYERS' GUIDE 1895

"Our mail order methods meet many wants," wrote a poetic but anonymous copywriter on a page of the 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue. He had a gift for understatement. At its zenith from the 1880s to the 1940s, Montgomery Ward, like its cross-town Chicago rival, Sears, sold virtually everything the average American could think of or desire — and by mail. This was a revolution, and Ward's fired the first shot. To buy spittoons, books of gospel hymns, hat pins, rifles, wagons, violins, birdcages, or portable bathtubs, purchases that used to require many separate trips to specialist merchants, suddenly all the American shopper had to do was lick a stamp. This unabridged facsimile of the retail giant's 1895 catalogue showcases some 25,000 items, from the necessities of life (flour, shirts) to products whose time has passed (ear trumpets). It is an important resource for antiquaries, students of Americana, writers of historical fiction, and anyone who wants to know how much his great-grandfather paid for his suspenders. It is a true record of an era.

1897 SEARS ROEBUCK & CO. CATALOGUE

Imagine it's the end of the nineteenth century, and, with one catalog, you can buy everything from beds and tools to clothing and opium. (Yes, opium.) Not to mention ear trumpets, horse buggies and Bibles. The 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue is both a wonderfully fascinating collector's item and a valuable piece of American history. For every recognizable item included, there are plenty of others guaranteed to confuse or interest 21st century readers — like Bust Cream or Food and Sweet Spirits of Nitre. What was once standard household fare is today a sometimes strange, often funny look at what life was once like for the average American family. It's amazing to see that a Princely Shirt for Princely Men cost $0.95 or three for $2.75 or that a Complete Violin Outfit (with bow and case) cost only $2.00.

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Mother Nature has shown her hand. Faced with climate change, dwindling resources and species extinctions, most Americans understand the fundamental steps necessary to solve our global crises — drive less, consume less, increase self-reliance, buy locally, eat locally, rebuild our local communities.

In essence, the great work we face requires rekindling the home fires.

Radical Homemakers is about men and women across the United States who focus on home and hearth as a political and ecological act, and who have centered their lives on family and community for personal fulfillment and cultural change. It explores what domesticity looks like in an era that has benefited from feminism, where domination and oppression are cast aside and where the choice to stay home is no longer equated with mind-numbing drudgery, economic insecurity or relentless servitude.

Radical homemakers nationwide speak about empowerment, transformation, happiness, and casting aside the pressures of a consumer culture to live in a world where money loses its power to relationships, independent thought and creativity. If you ever considered quitting a job to plant tomatoes, read to a child, pursue creative work, can green beans and heal the planet, this is your book.

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In Over the Rainbeau, Lisa Schwartz conveys the romance and challenges of her journey from tending a pair of goats to building a multifaceted sustainable farm in the New York City suburbs and becoming an award-winning cheese maker. This inspirational memoir comes to life with tantalizing original and chef-created recipes, aspirational how-tos and captivating photographs. The book is a seasonal journey of Lisa and the farm and is presented with beautiful seasonal color palettes. Each season contains memoirs written with beautiful accounts of life on the farm.

Over the Rainbeau contains 64 delicious recipes, with 15 recipes from renowned chefs including Dan Barber and Adam Kaye of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Michael Anthony of New York City's top rated Gramercy Tavern and Robert Weland of Poste Brasserie in Washington, D.C. The book's "One Steps" include Starting with Herbs, Homemade Yogurt and Composting to enable readers to take incremental steps to add sustainability to their lives.

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There’s never been a better time to “be prepared.” Matthew Stein’s comprehensive primer on sustainable living skills — from food and water to shelter and energy to first-aid and crisis-management skills — prepares you to embark on the path toward sustainability. But, unlike any other book, Stein not only shows you how to live “green” in seemingly stable times, but to live in the face of potential disasters, lasting days or years, coming in the form of social upheaval, economic meltdown or environmental catastrophe.

When Technology Fails covers the gamut. You’ll learn how to start a fire and keep warm if you’ve been left temporarily homeless, as well as the basics of installing a renewable energy system for your home or business. You’ll learn how to find and sterilize water in the face of utility failure, as well as practical information for dealing with water-quality issues even when the public tap water is still flowing. You’ll learn alternative techniques for healing equally suited to an era of profit-driven malpractice as to situations of social calamity. Each chapter offers the same approach, describing skills for self-reliance in good times and bad. Chapter subjects include: a survey of the risks to the status quo; supplies and preparation for short- and long-term emergencies; emergency measures for survival; water; food; shelter; clothing; first aid, low-tech medicine and healing; energy, heat and power; metalworking; utensils and storage; low-tech chemistry; and engineering, machines and materials.

Fully revised and expanded — the first edition was written pre-9/11 and pre-Katrina, when few Americans took the risk of social disruption seriously — When Technology Fails ends on a positive, proactive note with a new chapter on "Making the Shift to Sustainability," which offers practical suggestions for changing our world on personal, community and global levels.

About the author

Matthew Stein holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He is an engineer, author and building contractor. He has also worked as a schoolteacher, carpenter, and rock-climbing and ski instructor. As the owner of Aloha Aina Builders, Stein has built hurricane-resistant, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly homes. As a mechanical engineer and president of Stein Design, he has designed consumer water-filtration devices, commercial water-filtration systems, photovoltaic roofing panels, medical bacteriological filters, drinking fountains, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, portable fiberglass buildings, and automated assembly machinery for Applied Solar, Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, Plantronics, Duraflame, Haws and IGT. He currently resides with his wife, Josie, in the High Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe, Calif. For many years, Stein has pursued avid interests in renewable energy, alternative healing, sustainable growth and preventative medicine.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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In the Age of Scarcity now upon us, fresh water shortages are an increasingly serious global problem. With water restrictions emerging in many developed countries and water diversions for industrial, urban and environmental reasons stirring up oceans of controversy, there is a growing thirst for innovative approaches to reducing our water footprint.
Dry Run shows the best ways to manage scarce water resources and handle upcoming urban water crises. Featuring original interviews with more than 25 water researchers and industry experts, this book explains water issues and proposes solutions for homes, buildings, facilities and schools. Examining the vital linkages between water, energy use, urban development and climate change, Dry Run demonstrates best practices for achieving "net zero" water use in the built environment including:

• water conservation strategies for buildings, factories, cities and homes
• rainwater harvesting
• graywater reuse and water reclamation systems
• water efficiency retrofits
• onsite sewage treatment
• new water reuse and supply technologies.

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In response to the coming impact of peak oil, John Michael Greer helps us envision the transition from an industrial society to a sustainable ecotechnic world - not returning to the past, but creating a society that supports relatively advanced technology on a sustainable resource base.
Fusing human ecology and history, this book challenges assumptions held by mainstream and alternative thinkers about the evolution of human societies. Human societies, like ecosystems, evolve in complex and unpredictable ways, making it futile to try to impose rigid ideological forms on the patterns of evolutionary change. Instead, social change must explore many pathways over which we have no control. The troubling and exhilarating prospect of an open-ended future, he proposes, requires dissensus - a deliberate acceptance of radical diversity that widens the range of potential approaches to infinity.
Written in three parts, the book places the present crisis of the industrial world in its historical and ecological context in part one; part two explores the toolkit for Ecotechnic Age, and part three opens a door to the complexity of future visions.
For anyone concerned about peak oil and the future of the industrial society, this book provides a solid analysis of how we got to where we are, and a practical toolkit to prepare for the future.

About the author
John Michael Greer is a certified Master Conserver, an organic gardener, a scholar of ecological history, an internationally renowned blogger, and an award-winning Peak Oil author. He lives in Ashland, Oregon.

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Recently, thousands of North American schools have begun to take a critical look at their grounds and realize the enormous potential for transforming barren expanses of asphalt into a diversity of exciting natural spaces for learning and playing.

This compendium of articles from Green Teacher, North America's leading environmental education magazine, brings together the best strategies for school-ground renewal. Greening School Grounds provides an overview of the school grounds greening movement, complete project plans, and subject integration. From vegetable and butterfly gardens to an amphibian oasis and avian attractors, this comprehensive guide offers a trove of curriculum tie-ins, activities, and plans for educators, parents, and students.