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- ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL OF SPACESHIP EARTH
- We enter the twenty-first century facing several critical global management issues. Concerns about carbon dioxide emissions, petroleum depletion, the extinction of plant and animal species, a growing human population, loss of arable land, water rights, and increasing quantities of toxins in the environment top the list. Asleep at the Wheel of Spaceship Earth addresses these issues through five perspectives, climate, energy, community, global food resources, and economics, providing an overview and several in depth articles on each.
- REBUILDING THE LIFE OF THE SOIL: An Interview with Shepard Smith
- Shepard Smith of Soilsmith Services talks about his compost and compost tea business, how he makes his compost tea, and why good compost and compost tea are such valuable soil amendments.
- REVIEW OF PRAIRIE FIRE!
- "The Progressive Voice of the Great Plains," Prairie Fire Newspaper, out of Lincoln, Nebraska, has recently published a glowing review of Mud City Press editor Dan Armstrong's novel PRAIRIE FIRE. "Prairie Fire is an action-packed suspense story that is both great fun to read and, perhaps more importantly, a serious appraisal of American agriculture and the international grain market," writes reviewer Peter Eberhardt. "Rarely in any kind of book, fiction or not, do we get this kind of multi-layered overview of the lines of power, threading down from the board rooms of the corporate elite through the halls of Congress and the trading floors of the commodities markets, all the way down to the men and women who tend the land and feed the world." Read online review.
- REBUILDING OUR LOCAL FOOD SYSTEM: The Future of Agriculture in the Willamette Valley through the Lens of Food Security
- Food security in the Willamette Valley today is entirely dependent on the global food system, government response to catastrophic events, Hispanic farm labor, and petroleum-based fuels and farm inputs. Every aspect of this is suspect for one reason or another. The key to increasing our future food security is to create some measure of self-reliance. In the ideal, the future Willamette Valley agricultural model would be based on rebuilding our local food system and using sustainable farming practices to do it.
- RELOCALIZING EDEN
- A region's capacity to produce, process, and distribute some significant portion of its own food has always been a measure of social and economic stability, but as we face the unknowns of peak oil and climate change, securing local food resources will become one of our highest priorities. Oregon's Willamette Valley provides an excellent case-study for the relocalization to a food system.
- SOUND TRUTH & CORPORATE MYTH$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
- Now that oil is no longer gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico at 60,000 barrels a day, we might want to take pause and fully consider the clean-up. Frank Kaminski's excellent review of Riki Ott's SOUND TRUTH & CORPORATE MYTH$, an in depth look at the Valdez spill and the aftermath, helps put the Deepwater Horizon spill in proper perspective.
- THE SOUTHERN WILLAMETTE VALLEY BEAN AND GRAIN PROJECT (Project Report Seven: Spring Meetings, March, 2010)
- The Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project hosted two farmers meetings in March, one in Eugene and one in Tangent. These meeting were conducted to discuss the planting of spring field crops, experiences with beans and grains in the last two years, and progress toward increased food system infrastructure.
- THE SOUTHERN WILLAMETTE VALLEY BEAN AND GRAIN PROJECT (Index)
- We hear the slogan "eat local" over and over again, but what does it really mean? It's more than just eating fresher food. It's about preserving local food systems. It's about food security and common sense management of the pantry. Here in Oregon's Willamette Valley we have the agricultural potential to feed the valley residents twice over. And yet we grow rye grass and fescue for grass seed and ninety-five percent of what we eat in this fertile valley is imported. With the price of all fossil fuels on the rise, this makes no agricultural or economic sense at all. Harry MacCormack of Sunbow Farm in Corvallis, Oregon has conceived a plan to turn this around. The Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project is a step by step strategy to rebuild a local food system, using organic beans and grains as the foundation.
- THE LANE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS REPAIR PROJECT
- The Lane County Fairgrounds Repair Project has been working on a proposal to transform the Lane County Fairgrounds into a sustainable campus since March of 2008. The proposal is presented here as a conceptual plan and a set of design objectives. While the proposal is well-advanced and quite detailed, it remains a work in progress and a steadily evolving vision.
- USDA AGRICULTURAL PROJECTIONS TO 2018
- "This report provides longrun projections for the agricultural sector through 2018. Major forces and uncertainties affecting future agricultural markets are discussed, such as prospects for long-term global economic growth and population trends. Projections cover production and consumption for agricultural commodities, global agricultural trade and U.S. exports, commodity prices, and aggregate indicators of the sector, such as farm income and food prices."
- NO-TILL: The Quiet Revolution
- "The age-old practice of turning the soil before planting a new crop is a leading cause of farmland degradation. Many farmers are thus looking to make plowing a thing of the past." David R. Huggins and John P. Reganold explore conservation tillage in SCIENCE MAGAZINE.
- BIG MELT MEETS BIG EMPTY: RETHINKING THE IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND PEAK OIL
- This excellent article by Richard Heinberg provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship of climate change to peak oil and how various proposed plans to deal with one effect the other.
- THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY: THROUGH THE LENS OF PEAK OIL
- The price of a barrel of petroleum topped $145 in June of 2008, but dropped below $40 by the first week of 2009. Now as we enter the summer of 2010, it's back over $70. What does this volatility mean? It's the limits of growth beginning to show. We are witnessing the first tremors of economic adjustment. An age of extravagant waste is coming to an end. We are entering a period of economic recession directly connected to long-term natural resource mismanagement. What does this mean to those of us who live in Oregon's Willamette Valley? What can we do individually and collectively to prepare for the inevitable socio-economic changes? This portion of the Mud City Press website contains a collection of essays and articles that try to answer these questions.
- REVISITING THE LIMITS OF GROWTH: Could the Club of Rome have been correct, after all?
- This is an energy policy white paper written in October of 2000 by Matthew R. Simmons. In the next year, Simmons would be a member of the Bush-Cheney Energy Transition Advisory Committee and the Independent Task Force on Strategic Energy Policy. Let there be no doubt that peak oil was a critical part of all energy discussions in the Cheney-Bush White House and a central factor behind the invasion of Iraq. Video Clip: Matthew Simmons on CNBC 3/7/2008
- THE GREEN WHITE HOUSE
- Can you imagine a White House with solar panels, organic gardens, and passive heating and cooling? What if the White Houe went green? What if President Obama turned the White House into a model of sustainability, a demonstration of what all the rest of the world must do? Here's a drawing of what it might look like!
Table of Contents
- BUY A BOOK
- Mud City Press currently has three books for sale. These novels by Dan Armstrong represent the literary foundation of Mud City Press. We recommend buying a book as the best way to support this website. Click on title for synopsis. Note (R) rating for adult material.
- PRAIRIE FIRE: It's a few years from now, and the human and environmental costs of industrial farming have finally caught up with America's family farmers. Instead of throwing in the hoe, farmers across the Heartland rise up against the combine, threatening to burn their crops rather than continue the petrochemical assault on the land. AVAILABLE NOW from this website for $20.00 plus shipping or for $25.95 at iUniverse and Amazon.com.
- PUDDLE OF LOVE: At times comic, at times desperately serious, this psycho-thriller pushes the edge with a haunting grope into human sexuality. No holds barred pulp fiction with a dark Freudian twist. (R) AVAILABLE NOW from this webiste for $20.00 plus shipping or for $23.95 at iUniverse or Amazon.com.
- TAMING THE DRAGON: When a warm winter cuts deeply into the Himalayan snowpack, water shortages stress all of Asia; but in no place is the situation more problematic than at China's Three Gorges Dam. AVAILABLE NOW from this website for $11.00 plus shipping or for $13.95 at iUniverse and Amazon.com.
- MUD BLOG
- Mud City Press adds more hot air to the blogosphere. Current blog: LOOKING FOR A MASTER PLAN FOR THE LANE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS.
- SHORT STORIES
- In-house writer Dan Armstrong offers readers five pieces of short fiction.
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Our literary editor takes a look at books old and new, hoping to inspire a read or offer a new perspective.
- THE WORK OF WILLIAM H. KÖTKE
- Mud City Press provides access to the visionary work of William H. Kötke, including reviews of his books and several of his most recent articles.
- CATHERINE AUSTIN FITTS
- Mud City Press offers five of Ms. Fitts best articles, including our interview with this financial visionary, THE REAL DEAL ABOUT ENRON.
- MUD CITY PRESS ARCHIVES
- Mud City Press's online magazine maintains an archive of past articles, stories, book reviews, and blogs.
- CONTACT MUD CITY PRESS
- Send us an e-mail. Pat us on the back. Straighten us out. Tells us your thoughts.
- WHAT OUR READERS ARE SAYING
- Read comments by our readers. Try their suggested reading. Visit webistes they recommend.
- SPECIAL THANKS TO MARK HENSON AND SACRED LIGHT STUDIOS
- Mud City Press has included six excellent paintings by Mark to enhance the ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL OF SPACESHIP EARTH section of this website.
- SPECIAL THANKS TO MARTINA HOFFMAN
- Mud City Press has used four of Martina's visionary paintings to illustrate THE FORTUNE TELLER'S FORTUNE, a short story by Dan Armstrong
Many of the essays, stories, and reviews at Mud City Press are formated as ADOBE PDF files. If you don't have ADOBE's Acrobat Reader on your computer, you may download their free software at the ADOBE website.
