Its finals week at the University of Massachusetts and I seem to find myself having really interesting conversations with students.   Kind a funny…. now that we aren\’t rushing from one class to the next we are finding time to really talk with each other!  Oh well………

So a student shows up in my office asking the big question \”why bother?\”  You know,\”… why bother try to make a difference in this world when everything looks so bleak?\”  This student wanted to know how I maintain a sense of hope when we are facing \”the perfect storm\” of…. 1) climate change, 2)  peak oil, and 3) economic collapse.

Good question!

Rather than launching into my usual rap (which I stole from Michael Pollan\’s near-classic essay, \”Why Bother\”), I chose to tell him about a novel I had read recently.  Right up there with James Kunstler\’s World Made by Hand is a new \”novel about secrets, treachery and the arrival of peak oil\” (according to the book jacket).  Prelude by Kurt Cobb is a fast-paced adventure and espionage story set in the context of \”the end of oil\” and while a bit simplistic, the book keeps your attention.

One of my favorite scenes comes when Cassie Young, a rising star at a Washington, D.C. energy consulting firm asks her friend Victor Chernov, a former oil trader who helped her gain access to a secret report that proves global oil reserves are diminishing much more rapidly than anyone thought, \”so what do we do now that we know the truth about peak oil?\” It is a moment of despair, that many of us who are aware of the pending oil/climate crisis have felt from time to time.  And Victor\’s response………  grow a garden! It seems this former oil trader is learning to grow tomatoes at his Washington townhouse…..  hmmmmmmmm.

While not destined to become a classic, the appearance of mass market books like Prelude suggests that common culture is beginning to accept the fact that there seems to be a oil/climate crisis on the horizon…… and of course the economic crisis is with us now….. and yes, at least one of the solutions might be to grow food for myself, family and neighborhood.

Like Pollan, Kurt Cobb (who by the way is a well-respected columnist and founding member of  the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas – USA) seems to propose a simple and doable response to the crisis we seem afraid to face.  Cobb reminds us that \”fear trumps hope\” and finding a source of hope is a necessary first step toward developing real solutions to the problem.

I believe that if we can\’t imagine reasonable solutions to a crisis, then we are not going to look at the problem (which seems to be what most Americans are doing).  But denial of the problem is actually a quite reasonable response when you can\’t imagine a solution.   So yes, yes, yes, lets grow food.  Grow food everywhere! Grow food now.  Just grow food and teach others to grow food.

This is not to suggest that a few tomatoes will solve the global climate, energy and economic crises….but it is a place to begin to find hope.  And with hope….. anything is possible.

Following the story this very patient student asked me if I really believed \”the perfect storm\” was imminent.   So, I took a deep breath and launched into the \”do it anyway\” soliloquy.

You know….. that\’s the one that claims the quest for individual and community self-sufficiency is a better way to live, even if there was no crisis.   And if the perfect storm slams us sooner than anyone of us would hope….. well, then at least we have begun to take some steps to be better prepared.  So, yes…. lets learn to grow our own food.  According to Sharon Astyk, we need to become a \”nation of farmers,\” (with farmers described as anyone who grows food for themselves and others).  That might be anything from a single patio tomato to a family garden to a small farm.  And the rest of us need to learn to cook real food!

At this point, my student brightened up and almost shouted \”that\’s it! That\’s what Sharon Astyk calls the anyway theory.\”

And we both recalled reading with delight her \”theory of anyway\” which recently has given birth to one of those Astyk \”lets do it together\” projects that I so love.  If you have not heard about this yet, be sure to explore the \”Anyway Project.\”   But the point for me was that something came alive in my formerly despairing student.

Of course not everyone wants to grow tomatoes, but we all can do something.  I bake bread, make yogurt and raise worms (for my backyard chickens of course).  You pick your own sustainable thing to do!  Ride a bike to work, volunteer at the local soup kitchen, join a CSA, hang your clothes in the sun to dry, anything …… but do something – and do something fun!

I told the student that Barbara Kingsolver wrote in her book,  Small Wonder, …..people will join the sustainability movement because \”…our revolution will have dancing and excellent food.\”

At which point we both smiled – and hope restored, we laughed.

After he left, I did a quick search for more information on the book I just recommended (sort of) and found a lovely statement from Kurt Cobb who advised that if we are going to invite others to join the sustainability revolution, we need to be creative.  He suggested that \”….an alternative way of pressing your case is to do it in verse or in song or in the form of a play, a novel, a painting, or a stand-up comedy routine.\” Good advice!

Well, I can\’t sing or dance very well, but I can grow food.   And I can teach others to grow food.  What can you do? How will you contribute to the sustainability revolution?

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Here is a contribution to the sustainability revolution from a friend who makes videos about peak oil.  Check out Kriscan: Peak Oil Action and Adventure!

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And don\’t forget to keep dancing…..

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I’d appreciate it if you would share this post with your friends. If you are interested in a college program in Sustainable Food and Farming, check us out at UMass.  And for more ideas, videos and challenges along these lines, please join my Facebook Group; Just Food Now.   And go here for more of my World.edu posts.