Page 14 RAIN October 1980 LAND Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, by Donald Worster, 1979, $14.95 from: Oxford University Press 200 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Tons of soil were swept up from the American plains and deposited as far away as Boston and Atlanta. Thousands of refugees were swept westward in the mass migration immortalized by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. The creation of the Dust Bowl has been ranked as one of the worst ecological blunders in history. Who blundered and why? . In a scholarly history with the flavor of a huqian interest story, Worster contends that it was "the inevitable outcome of a culture that deliberately, self-consciously set itself the task of dominating the land for all it was worth." In the dozen years before the winds came, a race to mechanize plains agriculture and cash in on expanding domestic and world markets led to plowing up millions of acres which had formerly been anchored by native grasses. Conservation measures were ignored and, when the drought set in, the land lay open to erosion. Some of the Dust Bowl's hard lessons about stewardship of the land were eventually recognized in the form of programs to establish shelterbelts of trees, restore grasslands, and utilize contour plowing. Butaccording to Worster, the lessons were not easily accepted by middle-class farmers and merchants who had always believed that progress was inevitable and nature malleable. Their characteristic response was to "shout down nature's message with a defense of the old assumptions." To an alarming degree, the message is still being shouted down (as recently as the mid '70s another, smaller Dust Bowl followed the plowing of several million acres of grassland to cash in on soaring grain prices), yet we continue to export our agricultural practices to the increasing numbers of the world's people who must scratch out a living in arid and semi-arid regions. In the context of world population crisis and probable unfavorable shifts in climate, the need for models of ecologically sound agricultur~l practice grows ever more crucial. It would be fitting, as Worster comments, if such models were to emerge on the site of the old Dust Bowl. - JF FOOD) Who Owns the Earth, by James Ridgeway, 1980, 154 pp., $8.95 from: Collier Books 866 Third Ave. New York, NY 10022 It is easy to take for granted the raw materials that serve our basic needs on a day-today basis. Easy, but not smart, since those materials are cords that bind us in consumer dependency to a few, very powerful controller/owners who have anything but our "basic needs" in mind. We have in our world economy the awesome phenomenon of vertically integrated corporations, which is to say, corporations which control virtually every aspect of an industry from produrtion to consumption. The grain industry is a good example. It is controlled internationally by five major companies. These firms often own the elevators to store the grain; the railroad cars (and directorships in railroads), trucking fleets, port facilities and steamship lines for transport; the feed-manufacturing, milling, baking and refining facilities for processingf the fertilizer, seed companies and the land it grows on; and ultimately the banks to finan~e and the insurance companies to back their interests. Wars are fought (the current Mideast strategy being a handy example), governments overthrown, and whole populations subjugated to protect those interests. Ridgeway' s new book details some of the specifics, cataloging numerous raw materials and commodities. It's the sort of consumer education you're not likely to acquire elsewhere. -CC The Wild Palate, Walter and Nancy Hall, 1980, $7.95 paperback, from: Rodale Press Emmaus, PA 18049 This is an interesting and unusual cookbook full of recipes for weeds and wild animals. It is not a field guide, for it offers no advice on how to find or catch anything, but if you happen to have some arrowgrass or a muskrat sitting around, this may be the only cookbook that can tell you how to cook it. It is not a book for vegetarians-most of the recipes include meat: crackpot beaver, simmered elk tongue, etc. The recipes are based on the culinary accomplishments of a reallife wilderness forager and trapper, Barnacle Parp, who is also somewhat of a chainsaw virtuoso (Barnacle Parp's Chain Saw Guide , Rodale Press, 1977.) As the subtitle indicates, this is a "serious wild foods cookbook" and it deserves a place on the shelf of your wilderness cabin beside Euell Gibbons. -Kristine Altucher Kristine works with the Gardening Program of Responsible Urban Neighborhood Technology, a Portland-based appropriate technology group. A Report on the Food System in Oregon: Recommendations for a State Food Policy, prepared by the Oregon Food Policy Project, 1980, from Nutrition Information Center 239 S.E. 13th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 This 250-page report is the outcome of a project initiated by the Oregon Food Coalition to establish a set of food principles that would ''enable a comprehensive, coordinated and equitable food policy to be adopted by the State of Oregon." Well researched and written, the handbook has the potential to be a powerful and effective organizing tool on both a community and legislative level. The report is divided into six sections: Nutritional Health of Oregonians (covering basic health questions and nutritional goals); Nutrition Programs in Oregon (food assistance, educational and self-help programs); Food Industry; Agricultural Production; and Environment and Energy. Each section is full of valuable information and concludes with a series of practical recommendations-the most significant aspect of the report. While the handbook is intended primarily for Oregonians, the information and example of this unique document may be broadly applied. For Oregonians-individuals, organizations and policymakers interested in food, land use and hunger issues-this report will be invaluable. Limited copies of this publication are currently available for sale. Prepaid orders will help assure future printings of this worthwhile resource. -LS
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