Sandor Ellix Katz - The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside Americas Underground Food Movements

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved

The Revolution
Will Not Be
Microwaved

Inside Americas
Underground
Food Movements

Sandor
Ellix Katz

Chelsea Green Publishing
White River Junction,
Vermont

Copyright 2006 by Sandor Ellix Katz. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Editor: Ben Watson
Managing Editor: Marcy Brant
Project Editor: Collette Leonard
Copy Editor: Nancy Ringer
Proofreader: Collette Leonard
Designer: Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions
Design Assistant: Daria Hoak, Sterling Hill Productions

Printed in the United States
First printing, October 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 07 08 09 10 11

Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission, and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise on the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using soy-based inks, whenever possible. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources.

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved was printed on Natures Natural, a 50-percent post-consumer-waste recycled paper supplied by Maple-Vail.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Katz, Sandor Ellix, 1962-

The Revolution will not be microwaved : inside Americas underground food movements / Sandor Ellix Katz.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-60358-017-5

1. Food. 2. Food supplyUnited States. 3. Food habitsUnited States.
I. Title.

TX357.K38 2006

641.3dc22

2006026616

Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Post Office Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
(802) 295-6300
www.chelseagreen.com

To people everywhere practicing cultural survival by keeping food traditions alive.

Contents

T his book has been inspired by many people, starting with my father, who has always had a garden and a compost pile, and fed us vegetables like kohlrabi, celeriac, parsnips, and brussels sprouts. I thank him and all the other farmers, gardeners, and plant lovers in my lifethere are lots of you!for sharing your abundant bounties, plant medicine, and green fervor. I thank the animal tenders and beekeepers, and the ones with courage to slaughter. I thank the bakers, brewers, cheesemakers, miso makers, and sauerkraut makers. I thank the urban gardeners and the forest homesteaders. I thank the seed savers and skill sharers. I thank the dumpster divers, gleaners, and foragers. I thank the co-ops, farmers markets, and CSA farms. I thank the crusaders, protesters, and watchdogs. I thank the cooks, chefs, and kitchen magicians everywhere who find creative expression in keeping people well fed. I also thank the dishwashers and those who do the grimy tasks that keep the kitchens clean and safe. This book, and my life, are rich in inspiration.

For the title of this book, I thank Gil Scott-Heron, who wrote and performed the song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. For sharing their stories or recipes or pointing me toward helpful information as I worked on this book, I thank Buffy Aakaash, Etain Addey, Roberta Bailey, Allan Balliet, Peter Bane, Blue Bayer, Hector Black, Derrick Blaylock, Maggie Brown, Cailen Campbell, Jok Church, Christopher Cogswell, Frank Cook, Patrick Crouch, Cindy and Ed Curran, Shawn Dady, Michaela DeSoucey, Pattie Eakin, Murray Edelman, Alex and Max Edelstein, Krista Eikmann, Tanya Einhorn, Leif Forer, Morag Gamble, Kehben Grifter, Mike Hartman, Gabby Haze, David Holmgren, Ashley and Patrick Ironwood, Aresh Javadi, Barbara and Jim Joyner, Janell Kapoor, Jonathan Katz, Ann Tindell Keener, Bill Keener, Carol Kimmons, Greg King, Izzy Klatzker, Nance Klehm, Steve Koch, Albert Kregs, Gary Lawless, Tim Low, Lapis Luxury, Forrest Martin, Mark McAfee, Leroy Miller, Merril Mushroom, Alan Muskat, Richard Osborne, Jeff Poppen, Jessica Prentice, Nancy Ramsey, Lynn Razaitis, Markiss Sagee, Franklin Sanders, Mark Shipley, Tom Strong, Michael Szuberla, Brian Thomas, Michael Thompson, Antanas Vainius, MaxZine Weinstein, B. Whiting, Adam Wilson, Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, Valencia Wombone, Leppard Zeppard, and, from the realm of the strictly first name, Buck, Didi, Greg, Jordan, Junebug, Kokoe, Les, May, Natalie, Nettles, Orchid, River, Ruebix, Silverfang, Simmer, Socket, Spark, and Xtn. I thank Jai Sheronda for sharing his photographs. For allowing me to reproduce their graphics, I thank the Beehive Collective and Phil Howard of the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. I thank Anna Salzano for translating. I thank Neal, Garth, Mikee, and By the Way for sharing their offices. I thank Buffy, Jordan, Silverfang, Tanya, Meka, Janell, MaxZine, Merril, Nettles, Leopard, Alan, Anu Bonobo, and Ed for reading this manuscript as it evolved and offering me feedback. I thank Valencia for invaluable research assistance. I thank my editor Ben Watson and all the other wonderful folks at Chelsea Green, especially Margo Baldwin and Alice Blackmer, for their enthusiasm and unwavering encouragement.

For facilitating the explorations that took my life on the paths that led me to and through this book, I thank all my lovely fellow communards and co-stewards of Short Mountain Sanctuary: Boxer, Dazl, Goneaway, Hush, Jai Sheronda, snacktivist Kelly Bella, Lapis Luxury, Laurel Anne Honey Lamb, Leopard, Lucky, Markiss, River, Simmer, Soami, Socket, Valencia, and Weeder, along with the Idahoes and the rest of our ever-growing extended family, and all the amazing people who have been part of this special place through the years. Thank you for all your love and support.

I was inspired to write this book by two years of traveling around the United States and Australia talking to people about fermentation, following the publication of my previous book, WildFermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green, 2003). Mostly we discussed the incredible array of wonderful foods and drinks that result from the miraculous actions of microorganisms, but inevitably the conversation would stray into other realms of fermentation, specifically social ferment. The word ferment, along with the words fervor and fervent, comes from the Latin verb fervere, to boil. Just as fermenting liquids exhibit a bubbling action similar to boiling, so do excited people, filled with passion and unrestrained. Revolutionary ideas, as they spread and mutate, ferment the culture. Agitation of fermenting liquids stimulates the process and quickens fermentation, as evidenced by increased bubbling action. Agitation similarly stimulates social ferment.

The kinds of places I have visited to talk with groups and teach workshops have often been food co-ops, farmers markets, community spaces, and farms. Ive met people who are reclaiming their connection to food in many exciting and hopeful ways: folks dedicated to growing food using methods that build soil fertility and raising animals with compassion; gardeners and farmers reviving nearly abandoned seedsaving practices as a critical link in food independence; urban community gardeners creating green oases and bringing the cityscape back to earth; people organizing around themes of food justice, food security, and food sovereignty; scavengers who glean from orchards, fields, and dumpsters; caring folks who redistribute discarded food to hungry people; healers who use food as medicine; passionate advocates of whole, traditional, slow, and raw foods; people fueling cars with used deep-frying oilthe list goes on. The diverse activists I meet everywhere make me feel part of a broad movement to build alternatives to the dominant food system and transform the world one bite at a time.