Hope is a stance, not an assessment.

What is different and exciting is how much we have learned. We learned we were right that we don't need the chemical model of agriculture. We know so much more about the life of soil now and we understand how plants synergistically work together with microbes and animals to create healthy conditions.

I had no identity [when I was 27] - I was terrified that somebody would ask me what I was doing, and I would have no answer.

My children threw me a life line: "Return to your roots - food - and rewrite your first book, Diet for a Small Planet." I learned that if I could just show up, in this case, if I could just get myself out of bed, get to the computer in my tiny office at MIT, and start writing, help would start arriving.

My path has not been smooth. But the great thing about getting to be an elder is that you can look back and see the intense times of confusion and challenge, and see that if you keep walking through them, they can lead to times of great satisfaction and reward.

Our food system takes abundant grain,which people can't afford,and shrinks it into meat,which better-off people will pay for.

We can choose who we bring into our lives. We can choose who will reinforce our risk taking.