Page 6 RAIN December 1976 is not enough to solve the ancient problems of the human spirit, and secondly, that the technologists who claim they can satisfy the condition that "No acts of God can be permitted" are guilty of hubris, the human sin of divine arrog;mce. In choosing our energy path we have today an opportunity-perhaps our last-to foster in our society a greater humility, one that springs from an appreciation of the essential frailty of the human design. Amory says it so well. Another one of his major arguments, seconded by Barry Commoner in his The Poverty of Power (Knopf, 1976),.is that we must now begin to match the thermodynamic quality of end-use energy needed with the renewable energy sources that most readily supply that level of energy quality. Lovins, Commoner and many more ·Americans daily are realizing that trying to heat one's home, office or industrial plant to 68°F. with electricity generated by burning uranium at 10,000°F. in a nuclear fission reactor is the thermodynamic equivalent of trying to cut butter with a chainsaw. If we, the people, through BPA, supply cheap money to power compa,nies with our government's (i.e. the public's) credit rating, the power plants should belong to us, the public. Despite their thermodynamic silliness, we ought to at least own the chainsaws we'll now be paying for on both ends! You shouldn't have to wait that long, but if you must, the third volume of'Amory Lovins' energy trilogy, Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace, will be available in January 1977 from Friends of the Earth, 529 Commercial Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. I{you can't wait, write to Bob Potter, Oak Ridge Associated Universties, P.O. Box 117, Oak Ridge, Amory will be in Austin, Texas on December 14-16, at the hearings by the President's Council on Environmental Quality on_the ERDA National Energy Plan. RAIN seconds David Brower's nomination of a Nobel Peace Prize for Amory Lovins and hopes anyone who talks with him will buy him·a battery for his calculator as a token of their appreciation. -Lee Johnson TN37830,andukhimhowmuchacopyofAmory's63~agi. ·-~·--~~-~~~~-~~~ . • u ~~~~- Oak Ridge address will cost you. AGRICULTURE Agriculture in the City, 1976, 74 pp., $2.75 from: Community Environmental Council 109 E. De La Guerra Santa Barbara, CA 93101 This book is a, cross between a how-to urban gardening manua1 and a description of the innovative El Mirasol gardening project that CEC had going until the land was sold. Both aspects are interesting and useful, although the image of all that sun in Santa Barbara makes my Oregon garden feel soggy. Now is the time to plan for community gardens if you don't already have one going and this book can give you some exciting ideas for what's possible in the middle of the city: bees, chickens, huge compost piles, classes and enough surplus veggies to generate some extra ' cash for the project. (LdeM) Farming, $2.00 from: Alternative Agriculture Resources Project Department of Applied Behavioral Science Universicy of California Davis, CA 95616 This is the first volume of a comprehensive Sourcebook for a Socially ~nd Ecologically Accountable Agriculture that has been in preparation for several years by Isao Fujimoto and,his cohorts at Davis. Contains good resources on · plant diseases, biological control of insects, farm equipment, soils and other aspects of farming. Other sections of the series will be on cooperatives, land, energy and appropriate technology, nutrition and networking. Judging by this first section, the series should be excellent. (TB) Country Women: A Handbook for the New Farmer, by Jeanne Tetrault and Sherry Thomas, 1976, 381 pp., $6.95 from: · Anchor Press/Doubleday 245 Park Ave. New York, NY 10017 Oooie! This is a beautiful book. It is a good, solid collection of how-to material for homesteading-finding.land, building, fencing, planting, harvesting, preserving, raising animals. The photographs leave little doubt that women can do even the heaviest labor when they want to. Yet the book is warm with, their experiences and graced with gentle drawings that give the heartening sense of women nurturing the land rather than the heroics that others go through to conquer it. It is put together by some of the same women who do a very fine magazine by the same name: Country Women, Box 51, Albina, CA 95410. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to inquire about price. (LdeM) ) California and Northwest Organic Journal ' P.O. Box 540-H Halcyon, CA 93420 $4.20/year for six issues. Sing~e issue 75¢. This is the journal of the California Organic Growers (membership $20/yr.) -a group certifying food products "grown without the use of herbicides, poisonous sprays or chemical fertilizers and processed without additiyes and preservatives." (That's a good definition of "organic" if you've been looking for one.) The "Northwest" in their title is small and feels like an afterthought, but the ads, how-to articles and bits of shared wisdom look to be useful for small California growers. (LdeM)
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