Citadels

Every now and then, we get to recognize that something is shifting.  This is the August 27th, 2012 cover of The New Yorker.  While there is no story in the magazine that corresponds to this cover (which is often the case with The New Yorker), it signified to me that the idea of the "Buffalo Commons" represents an ideal to those who are not living on the plains.  Ultimately, I think it represents support for the restoration of the plains as a grazing system that can support our lifestyles with an abundance of grass fed meats, while restoring the carbon sink function (and water follows carbon!) of the plains.

This cover also showed up the week before on The Economist.  In this issue, the economist talks about the changing understanding of microbes and the major role they play in our bodies.  The Economist asks if we might be missing some significant piece of knowledge about our bodies and lives.  Hurray -- Duh, YES!  Now, can the the literates in the world connect the restoration of the ecosystems (land and our bodies) with microbes?  By the way, we should all be thinking about our land and our bodies in the same way.  The land is part of the big digestive system that nourishes us.  As has been often repeated "all flesh is grass"