Nature as measure The selected essays of Wes Jackson

Jackson, a well-known and admired advocate for sustainability especially as it relates to agriculture, has the rare ability to transform his convictions into captivating prose. His sentences are simple and yet express profound thoughts: "Soil is a living organism which is larger than the life it supports.But it is itself now dying." Very little is out of bounds in his essays, including reworking the tenets of Judo-Christian religion in "The Religious Dimension." Explaining how the U.S. is poised for significant change, he ruminates, it isn't the first time the country has experienced a major consciousness shift because "after all, change is the rule." Jackson fervently supports the American farmer and in "Falsehoods of Farming" attempts to defend the occupation itself. His examination of the World Trade Center-Pentagon attack in the context of our "consumptive culture" is sobering. If there is any criticism to make, it's that few of these essays are new, but have been repurposed from books originally published in 1987 and 1994. Jackson's thoughts are still as significant and profound as they were nearly 20 years ago, making it just as easy to relish his inspiring words in 2011. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.