TerrieMiller.com

I may be regretting giving kudos to the New York Times on their recent food issue. Because this past Sunday’s Completely Unplugged, Fully Green is essentially a hit piece on people, like author and blogger Sharon Astyk, who are striving to live a sustainable lifestyle.

The piece describes several people who are striving to reduce their ecological footprint, and then goes on to introduce terms like “energy anorexics” or “carborexic” that seem to equate this kind of life with eating disorders. The writer of the article consults a Manhattan psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Hirschowitz, for confirmation:

“The critical factor in determining whether something has reached the level of a disorder is if dysfunction is involved,” he said. “Is it getting in the way of your ability to do a good job at work? Is it taking precedence over everything else in your relationships?”

And we’re left to believe that this is a slam dunk, that these people are obviously dysfunctional. But this is where the discontinuity strikes me. Astyk’s lifestyle isn’t getting in the way of her work (in fact, it may BE her work).

As a reader of Astyk’s weblog, Casaubon’s Book: Sharon Astyk’s Ruminations on an Ambiguous Future, I followed the path to the NYT piece…from her posts describing the mad dash to prepare for the NYT photographer to the disappointment when the article finally appeared. It’s not a bad lesson to learn, I just wish we have to learn it through an example like this. They say that permaculture is on the bleeding edge of a 10,000 year-old idea. So when mainstream media comes knocking on your door, it might be good to consider if they’re knocking because the rest of your culture considers you fringe. Even if that culture is rapidly going down the composting toilet itself.

Astyk responds eloquently in what should be published as letter to the editor in next Sunday’s NYT: You Can Go Home Again: What I’d Like To Have Been Able to Say to New York Times Readers. Come on, NYT…let’s see this in print, too.