I wrote previously in response to Ted Kyle’s “three tribes of obesity” post, in which I reacted to the world as he described it, but I needed to return from another angle. In case you missed it, he identified the trio as Healthies, Quants, and Buttouts.

Writing on ConscienHealth, Ted Kyle talks about the three tribes of obesity, whom he labels the Healthies, the Quants, and the Buttouts.

It’s not hard to see where the sympathies of Kyle, chairman of the Obesity Action Coalition, lie, from his choice of descriptors: In his paragraph on the Heathies, he writes:

Welcome to another installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask brief questions of interesting people, and request brief answers in return. Today’s participant is listed eighth on GreenBiz’s Twitter Index, which is testament to his formidable combination of smarts and charisma. I once went to a networking group on his suggestion. When I sat down at a table with others and they asked how I’d learned of the group, I said simply, “Asheen,” to which the whole table chorused, “Of course!” Please remember: “10 words” is an ethic, not a limit, so please, no counting! Besides, if you think it’s so easy, let’s see you do it.

Name Asheen Phansey
Fahn-SAY? I’ve been saying it wrong. Yes, it means “One who farms jackfruit.” And my first name means “tireless.”
In what languages? "Phansey is Marathi. Asheen is Sanskrit."
Born when, where: "Oct. 15, 1980, 12:23 a.m., Charleston, S.C."
Anything unusual about the circumstances? “The most unusual thing, if you know me at all, was that I was born on time. I think it was the last time."
Resides: Burlington, Mass.
Family situation: "Married, with two kids that I chase around. 1 1/2 and 4."
First world event you recall being aware of The first event that I really understood and affected me was the Exxon Valdez spill. [March 24, 1989] I can’t remember if that was before or after the first Persian Gulf War. [Aug. 2, 1990]

Video of the Antares rocket explosion, taken from a private plane:

I’ve said many times, probably more than a couple of times in this blog, “Who is this guy?” referring to myself. For the first third (?) of my life, I was a sullen, cynical couch animal, whose only blazed trail was the triangle connecting refrigerator, television, and misshapen seat on the sofa.

That guy could never have envisioned this one, the one who glowingly quotes the Georgian farmer featured in a film by Maryn McKenna on The Plate, National Geographic’s food-focused website:

“In my mind, monocultures are the hallmark of what’s wrong in agriculture today. I learned in college physics that nature abhors a vacuum. I learned out here that what nature really abhors is a monoculture. Nature loves the symbiosis of many different species — microbial, plant, animal — all living together, one benefitting from the other.” ~ Farmer Will Harris, White Oak Pastures

Exactly! (Just to be clear, he knew it first, and I’m celebrating his words.)

I would add just a little perspective implied in his comments: Harris implies that what nature “thinks” is important, which is a point I make at the podium. By what evidence? Nature has been sustaining life on earth for 3.8 billion years. Humans arose out of nature, and are a subset of nature, just live all the other lives, and as such, should be trying to fit in, instead of trying to subvert the realm we sprang from.

Welcome to another installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and request brief answers from them in return. Today’s participant is the co-producer, co-director, and writer of “Carb Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat,”  a film that came out Oct. 1. We spoke on Oct. 3, and you can find a video version of our conversation here. Please remember: “10 words” is an intention, not a limit, so please, no counting. If you think it’s easy, let’s see you do it.

Name Lathe Poland
Born when, where Carson City Nev., winter 1973
Where do yo live now? Fairfield County, Conn.
Occupation Filmmaker
Family composition "Married 17 years with amazing wife, just the two of us."
An early formative experience “Learning [in junior high school] that food could trigger migraines for me had a pretty big impact on my view on nutrition.”
Your first paying job “You’re going to love this one. I dotted chocolates at a chocolate factory [pause] which actually connects to the previous answer I gave you."
Wisdom you retain from that experience "Find work that you actually love to do."

I used to be a good blogger. I’d seek out original content, to go with the echo-chamber stuff (“Well, I also think that so-and-so is wrong when she says…”), and I’d be consistent. Anymore, not as much.

When I heard about the first food-addiction conference sponsored by a medical institution, it seemed so far off, but finally related activities open today.

This is straight from the press release:

Newfoundland NJ - (October 15, 2014) - AmpleHarvest.org, the nationwide program that enables tens of millions of home and community gardeners to donate excess garden produce to a nearby food pantry announces that more than 7,000 food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, food closets, food shelves and food cupboards are now "visible" to nearby growers eager to donate their excess harvest.

One of the tenets of this blog is that nature is, or should be, the unquestioned authority for life on earth — 3.8 billion years of survival street cred! — and I’m always seeking to highlight individuals and groups whose actions seem to agree.

Hence, my delight to share news of Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming, a high-level conference being conducted by the group Biodiversity for a Livable Climate over three days next month at Tufts University near Boston.

The conference lists over two dozen speakers, including Seth Itzkan, William Moomaw, and Hugh McLaughlin, as well as Jim Laurie and John E. Carroll, both of whom I’ve featured previously in these pages (here and here, respectively).

It’s difficult (or brave, or foolhardy), therefore, to generalize what their outlook is, but with that acknowledgement, here goes: An ideal place for sequestering carbon is in our soils, which not only removes it from the upper atmosphere but dramatically restores or enriches ecosystems while improving agriculture on those soils where it is practiced.