Green lifestyles and ethical consumption have become increasingly popular strategies in moving toward environmentally-friendly societies and combating global poverty. Where previously environmentalists saw excess consumption as central to the problem, green consumerism now places consumption at the heart of the solution. However, ethical and sustainable consumption are also important forms of central to the creation and maintenance of class distinction. Green Consumption scrutinizes the emergent phenomenon of what this book terms eco-chic: a combination of lifestyle politics, environmentalism, spirituality, beauty and health. Eco-chic connects ethical, sustainable and elite consumption. It is increasingly part of the identity kit of certain sections of society, who seek to combine taste and style with care for personal wellness and the environment. This book deals with eco-chic as a set of activities, an ideological framework and a popular marketing strategy, offering a critical examination of its manifestations in both the global North and South. The diverse case studies presented in this book range from Basque sheep cheese production and Ghanaian Afro-chic hairstyles to Asian tropical spa culture and Dutch fair-trade jewellery initiatives. The authors assess the ways in which eco-chic, with its apparent paradox of consumption and idealism, can make a genuine contribution to solving some of the most pressing problems of our time.

A Passion To Teach: Fifty-Eight Years of Humorous, Weird, and Engaging Tales is mostly a series of stories about the author’s desire to be a teacher, working his way through college with terrible jobs, and teaching for fourteen years in three different high schools before entering resident graduate school pursuing a Ph.D. in genetics. The graduate school episode took place with a wife and five young children and required unbelievable financial craftiness. Much of the book also deals with teaching at the college level following the doctorate degree in genetics, along with chairing a biology department, conducting research, and engaging in scientific communication. Most of the stories are about humorous events; however, a few others are more serious situations. The last three chapters offer personal opinions, viewpoints, and biases regarding pedagogy along with more of the ever presence of fun events and the throes of teaching.

Summer is ending, the grain has been cut, and Jimmy Carlson and his family wait nervously for the arrival of the threshing machine. When it rumbles onto the farm, the whole neighborhood gathers for a long day of spreading shocks, loading, pitching, threshing, and, of course, the threshing feast. But as Jimmy’s family and neighbors work hard to bring in the Carlsons’ precious grain, a few of the boys do some troublemaking of their own. Like the other books in the Farm Country Series, A Farm Country Harvest celebrates the joys and challenges of 1950s farm life. The children’s story, illustrated by Robert Williams, complements two photographic essays celebrating harvest traditions of the past and their preservation by today’s old-time enthusiasts. Readers of all ages can share in the fascination of images capturing harvest work in the 1800s and 1900s, collected by Nancy A. Fredrickson from museums and private collections, and accompanied by Gordon W. Fredrickson’s family stories and interviews with others who have threshing in their blood. A unique celebration of harvest time in farm life, this book draws generations together in a volume sure to become a treasured family heirloom.