“…who’s running the ship, what are their values, what kind of stresses do they put on people and society the way they do it. I mean, we look at it now, what are the stresses that are happening to people, who’s making the rules?”—Harriet Fasenfest, author of The Householder’s Guide to the Universe

For those who have paid attention in recent years to the steady decline of our American political system, it may often feel like an exercise akin to the resurfacing of kitchen countertops. Rather than digging deep into the cabinetry structure and design of our rotting economic and political system, we elegantly apply 1/16th inch solutions over the deeper underlying problems that plague our society.

As Harriet Fasenfest writes in her book about becoming, as she calls it, “a food grower, gleaner, forager, and preserver”:

“What my hands in the soil adventure provided was the no-kidding truth that it is the natural world, not market forces, that really calls the shots. Ask anyone who grows food, farms the land, watches the sky, listens to the wind, and feels the soil, and he or she will tell you what we city slickers refuse to understand: if the earth is sick, we all will be sick, and no amount of market manipulation will change that”

In this video, Harriet Fasenfest explains how her love of food gardening, of cooking, and her early exposure to social issues evolved into her own brand of political consciousness that actively guides her present life.

Householding is the glue that binds her political and economic philosophies to food.