From the Stacks: September 1, 2006

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Utne receives some 1,200 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, and zines. Add in hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, and it's a flood of media that lines the walls of our library and piles high on our desks. All the ideas, people, and stories inspire lively daily chatter, but they can't all fit into our bimonthly magazine. So we share the gems here in our weekly editions of 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the freshest highlights of the independent and alternative media.

Health-food guru Alice Waters, founder of Berkeley's eminent Chez Panisse restaurant, guides the food-focused Sept. 11 issue of the Nation. In the magazine's first food-centric issue, big-name contributors including Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Jim Hightower, and Winona LaDuke parse the problems in the world's food system. The essays paint a disturbing picture of the ways in which agribusiness and federal policy restrict our diets and dictate cultural attitudes toward food. Also on the menu: more detailed discussions of food activism, farming, Wal-Mart's organic move, and school lunches. -- Danielle Maestretti

Arriving none too soon, the summer issue of Always in Season has meandered into the Utne library. This edition of the quarterly newsletter created by Mama Donna's Tea Garden and Healing Haven is aptly dedicated to the sun -- that star so often associated with the gods throughout history for its omnipresence. 'Ritual Ragot' looks at sun worship and another piece examines 'sun science.' Also in this issue, Mama Donna Henes? provides an account of her surreal experience eating dinner in Sedona, Arizona, while watching a wildfire in the distance and viewing news of the same fire on CNN. Finally, an ode to the cucumber imparts methods for relief from the sweltering summer heat with recipes for a cucumber facial, soup, and drinks. -- Suzanne Lindgren

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