Issue 234 • January/February 2006

Welcome

HANDS IN THE SOIL • Satish Kumar

Industrial agriculture removes people from the land and disconnects them from the very source of food upon which we all depend.

Feature Articles

REFORMING THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY • Chris Lloyd

The Common Agricultural Policy should be seen as a way forward for a total revisioning of our food production and distribution.

GREEN CARE • Jules Pretty

Working on the land is good for your health.

EARTH, WEALTH AND WELLBEING • Jonathon Porritt

Are capitalism and sustainability mutually exclusive? An edited extract from Capitalism as if the World Matters.

THE MARRIAGE OF LOVE AND REASON • Michael Edwards

How to develop a civil society where we can meet as strangers and not draw the knife.

A DAOIST RENAISSANCE • Anthony Alexander

Can China's ancient Dao philosophy help its current ecological crisis?

PRISONERS OF ADDICTION • Horatio Morpurgo

The reality of climate change makes no difference to our unabated oil exploration.

BEYOND THE QUICK FIX • Shaun Kadlec & Arthur Rhodes

Is there another way of helping the survivors of the Asian tsunami?

BAREFOOT HIKING • Rajesh Shah

Feel more grounded without shoes.

WALKING TESTIMONIES • Penny Priest

Walking together in Nature can be profoundly healing.

KILLING OUR PLANET • Robert Macfarlane

Four-wheel-drive vehicles damage and diminish our sense of place in the landscape.

MAKE VIOLENCE HISTORY • Diana Basterfield

Let us establish a Ministry for Peace, dedicated to reducing violence in all its forms.

REBIRTH OF THE SOUL • Deepak Chopra

Quantum physics, the greatest intellectual triumph of the 20th century, has made the spiritual worldview completely believable.

The Arts

RETURN TO THE LAND • Rebecca Hossack

The story of what happened to the Spinifex People, who live deep in the Australian desert, when nuclear testing came to their land.

LEARNING BY MAKING • Hilary Weir

At the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, in Egypt, villagers create woven tapestries of astonishing beauty.

LUMINOUS VISION • John Lane

A tribute to the visionary painter Samuel Palmer.

Frontline

JOINED-UP ECO-TOURISM • David Kelf

The Sustainable Axe Valley Enterprises (SAVE) Trail connects small-scale enterprises in East Devon, UK.

VISIONARY ACADEMY • Peter Abbs

The Center for the Fine Arts, on the Greek island of Paros, offers courses that focus on the whole person. An interview with the director, John Pack.

Regulars

A Sense of Place - CHILDHOOD DREAMS • Jane Goodall

Delighting in the colours, sights and scents of Africa. An extract from Plantworlds.

Poetry - CONTEMPORARY BUDDHIST POETRY • Peter Abbs

Poems by Grevel Lindop, Padmakara, Linda France and Rachael Boast from The Heart as Origami.

Visionaries - MOTHER JONES • Anita Roddick

The story of Mary Harris, once considered "the most dangerous woman in America".

Letter from America - WHAT KATRINA DID • Kirkpatrick Sale

The hurricane that devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005 exposed the true state of US politics.

Letter from America - A SLEEPING GIANT • Nicols Fox

Looking back on the year that woke America. The legacy of Hurricane Katrina.

Notes From The Underground - EPISODES OF FRENZY • David Nicholson-Lord

Bouts of cultural mass hysteria are engineered by an all-subsuming corporate agenda.

Perspectives

Malaria, Coca-Cola, shopping, corruption, chemicals, the tsunami, tourism, waste, energy-efficient light bulbs, water.

Letters to the Editors

In My Own Words - THE ENEMY OF NATURE • Joel Kovel

The Enemy of Nature by Joel Kovel

Reviews

GENIUS OF DIVERSITY • William Dalrymple

The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen

REACHING OUT • Rukmini Sekhar

Dharma and Development (ed.) Markarand Paranjape

TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS • Jordi Pigem

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

A PAEAN TO PLEASURE • Piers Moore Ede

In Praise of Slow by Carl Honoré

THE LAND AND ITS LOVERS • Kim Taplin

Landscape into Literature (ed.) Kay Dunbar

HOPE AND OPTIMISM • Mary Tasker

Ecological Literacy (eds) Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow and Informal Education by Tony Jeffs and Mark K. Smith

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER • Marian Van Eyk McCain

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

CELEBRATING CREATION • David Ehrenfeld

The Splendor of Creation by Ellen Bernstein

BOOKS IN BRIEF • Lorna Howarth & Sophie Poklewski Koziell

The Sustainability Revolution by Andres R. Edwards, The Distracted Centipede by Mina Semyon, Passionate Medicine (ed.) Robin Shohet, Crimes against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr,, Writing the World (eds) David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor

Web Exclusives

Article - ONE PLANET LIVING • Jonathan Dawson

An ecovillager visits BedZed - a model and demonstration centre for eco-construction and green lifestyles

Review - A CENTURY IN THE GARDEN • Ruth Gendler

The Wild Braid by Stanley Kunitz

Review - A MYTH OF PROGRESS • Jules Pretty

Outgrowing the Earth by Lester Brown

Review - AMBITIOUS ABODES • Nicholas Falk

Designing Your Natural Home by David Pearson

Review - ANSWERING THE UNANSWERABLE • Felicity Warner

What Happens When We Die by Dr Sam Parnia

Review - BEEN A BOY AGAIN • Philip Vann

Pigs must eat on Sundays by Ben Hartley

Review - THE LABOURERS' CHAMPION • Philip Conford

The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett by Richard Ingrams