Celebrating Thanksgiving & What It Stands For
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11.23.06
Today is Turkey Day (or Tofurky Day, depending on your gastronomic persuasion) here in the States, where the holiday allows us a day to gather with family and friends, gorge on food and drink and pause for a moment to reflect on another year gone by. Sometime between carving the bird and slicing pumpkin pie, we'll recommend a read through Corby Kummer's op-ed in today's New York Times about the implications of global warming on America's native food culture. On a day that America celebrates its first harvest, his main point is that food production is being increasingly disrupted by climate change, and by and large, moving north: native foods often celebrated at Thanksgiving, like cranberries that were once famous in New England, for example, are shifting to Canada. Same for pumpkin for the pie and the string beans for the canned-onion-ring casserole, as opportunistic weeds and pests move into disrupted climate areas and wreak havoc with growing cycles and yields. Kummer argues (and we agree) that the day that we gather to give thanks might be a time to think again about how food is being grown where you live and what you can do about it. If we don't forget why the holiday was first celebrated and are willing to do something to keep it around, our local harvests will thanks us all. via ::NY Times
