Joshua Gordon

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Guelph, Ontario, Canada
I live in Guelph - an artsy, tree hugging university town in Ontario. I work hard to be a creative and innovative influence in the places I find myself. Most of the time that looks like networking with other creatives, researching, or filling up my sketchbook / journal with ideas.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

i find inspiration...

... in the pages of "World Changing: a user's guide to the 21st century".

a lot of people are surprised by my growing fascination with and investment into the burgeoning 'green culture' that is slowly taking root across the globe. i'd say that purchasing the aforementioned book (on sale for 12.99 through Pages in Kensington) was one of the decisions that started me on a journey that has seen me go vegetarian, switch to buying organically, and research the companies i buy from to make sure they're ethical in their business practices.

who knew this could happen to josh gordon? not me, that's for damn sure.

anyways, this 600 page compilation of essays, articles, and innumerable resources (lists of books, mags, websites, etc...) is not only great reading, but it's also absolutely packed with hopeful insights into creating a sustainable world. i love it. i've actually read right through front to back (which astonishes me), and through each of the 9 sections i found myself engaged critically, creatively, and intellectually. here's a quick paragraph I found particularly compelling int the "stuff: future of food" section:

"In the past half century, farming has, for the most part, been transformed from the sort of family enterprise depicted in children's books into full blown industrial resource extraction. Preserving the world's soils and the biological diversity of the crops is key to maintaining healthy global ecosystems, curbing poverty, and ensuring a peaceful future for billions of people. Possible solutions abound. Instead of turning the soil every year, we can grow perennial plants that need no tilling. Instead of growing square miles of one kind of corn, we can assemble a whole community of crops based on native plants that can support each other. In other words, we can build a farm the way nature would."

for some reason, after reading that i get all excited - and i'm not a farming kind of guy!

I think that what makes me excited is being a part of actually changing something. being a small piece of a larger 'movement' is immensely satisfying. as my life changes, my world changes - and that is making all the difference.

- josh

2 comments:

na said...

I hear that brother.

Plus, tofu is delicious.

Joshua Gordon said...

call me a lame vegetiarian, but i've not yet tried tofu...

i bought some a couple weeks ago, and it went bad before i could eat it.

it just looks weird.

- josh