A friend of mine, Joan Ifland, draws strong parallels between how the tobacco industry conducted its business for decades, and how the food industry is conducting itself today.

Let's talk about the American diet, for a moment. I don't mean, what Americans eat. I mean, what do most Americans mean when they "go on a diet?"

Almost always, they're saying that they're embarking on a new path for a short period of time, with the intention of going back to how things were as soon as possible.

In this case, sustainability isn't a question, it is part of the definition: I am going to do something that I have no intention of sustaining.

I have some sympathy for you, my readers, who must be wondering, wtf? If not for the reduced level of posting, then for the apparent veering away from what seemed to be the blog's theme of energy efficiency, green-building issues, etc.

I’m writing en route from Boston to Seattle, where I’ll be living for about a month, attempting to keep (well, return to) a regular work schedule while participating in a family member’s effort to regain health. As departures from routine often do, I’ve encountered a couple of surprises during the journey. The first one isn’t so surprising, actually, given the prevalence of overweight in America; for those of you keeping score, the estimate is 145 million American adults, two out of every three of us.

Note: This is also posted at fisherblue.com/blog.

"Why are the missiles called peace keepers, when they're aimed to kill?"

You probably recognize the Tracy Chapman lyric, from her song "Why?" and it arises in my mind this morning in response to the announcement by Kraft Foods that it will use the Smart Choices nutrition guidelines to determine which foods it will advertise to 6- to 11-year-olds.

On the face of it, the move suggests vision and leadership, and perhaps those are accurate impressions. Really, they could be — look at Wal Mart, which has legitimately gone from corporate scourge to corporate not-bad guy. But no one alive in today's world should accept anything — except my pearls, of course — without looking a little further, and these are some of the points apparent:

NESEA's 2009 Green Buildings Open House will return the first Saturday in October, which falls on the 3d this year, and I highly recommend it. Last year, G. and I went out to western Mass. and toured five or six great places, and then had the chance to follow up with a couple of other places on a second trip. A lot is happening out there.

Wolfgang Feist, founder of the Passivhaus Institut in Germany and co-originator of the Passive House concept, will be the featured speaker at a second annual gathering of Passive House building enthusiasts around Greater Boston.  

Paul Eldrenkamp, the Newton-based builder and building-efficiency leader who helped bring about the first gathering last year, said time, place, and registration fee have not been set, but the site will be near Boston, he says. The fee will pay for Feist's travel expenses.

I have noted before the division of outdoor love that occurred in my birth family: For three kids, we got three doses, but all three somehow went to my brother, Rich, who has walked the Appalachian Trail by himself (yes, Georgia to Maine), gone to Outward Board and National Outdoor Leadership School, taken a graduate degree in forestry, and accomplished many more similar feats.

As I write, he's in Maine, kayaking with a friend for a week, and last week, he was biking the Erie Canal with his wife.

I'm sitting in a Starbucks, typing, and wishing they'd turn down the air conditioning.

Jim Wilson, the fourth-generation farmer at the helm of Wilson Farms in Lexington, likes to note the distinction between good farmers and good businessmen, and listening to him during a 90-minute tour last week, it's clear he claims membership in both cohorts. Considering the thriving concerns his family operates both in Lexington and in southern New Hampshire, there should be no argument, either. 

I have a stack of cards at home that, purportedly, will stop a lot of my junk e-mail, if I just fill out, address, and stamp each of them. I don't have enough confidence that if I go to that trouble, I will have a marked effect on the amount of junk mail created, addressed, and posted in my name, to have gone to the trouble.

Here's a guy who went to more trouble than I did.