The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reports that 24.6 million pounds -- roughly 70 percent of all antibiotic drugs -- are fed to healthy cows, pigs, & chickens annually for nontherapeutic purposes such as growth promotion. By their calculations the amount & total share of antibiotics used in livestock dwarf the 17.8 million pounds recently reported by industry for all agricultural use of antibiotics.

Research has shown that bacteria can quickly develop resistance to drugs administered in low dosages. As bacteria become resistant to antibiotics doctors have fewer tools to combat the diseases they cause.

Can diseases become untreatable? The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention consider the widespread use of antibiotics in animal agriculture to be the principal cause of growing antibiotic resistance in food-borne bacteria like salmonella & campylobacter.

The simple message is -- we must act now to prevent the emergence of untreatable human diseases.

The GMO industry continues to fight mounting consumer pressure in the US & abroad saying their products are just as safe as normal foods. If this is true, one wonders why they so flatly refuse to put them to the test.

My friend from Sweden has two towels. Actually she has three, but the third she uses only for travel. When the bathroom towels are dirty, she washes them. When they wear out, she buys two more -- & very good ones, so they'll last a long time.

"Why do I need more than two?" she says. "Det är lagom."

What she said in Swedish does not exactly translate to "This is enough." The word "lagom" -- pronounced melodically, the "la" a falling tone, the "gom" (rhymes with "home") a shorter syllable that's right back up where the "la" started -- means something like, "exactly the right amount."

What a delight to learn this word! When it comes to thinking about responses to over-consumption & consumerism, we are stuck, in English, with far less pleasing words. "Enough" sounds to most American ears as though it had the word "barely" just in front of it. For some reason, "enough" never sounds like ... enough. "Balance" sounds difficult; I'm always losing mine. "Sufficiency" carries the whiff of technical economic jargon. Even "simplicity," the current fad-word-of-the-moment in some marketing circles, tends to appeal only to those folks with either a moral commitment or a serious case of overwhelm.

We need a concept for thinking about how much, in terms of stuff, is the right amount -- & the Swedes have given us a word for it. The concept of "lagom" can be applied to everything from cake to carbon dioxide emissions. What is "lagom" for chocolate cake? For me, it's usually a little bit more than "enough." But what's "lagom" for CO2? Only as much as the ecosystems of the Earth can reabsorb, & no more. "Lagom" allows for more than enough -- but it still sets limits.

What if our society were organized around the concept of "lagom"? Not that Sweden is organized that way; although my friend is hardly an extremist, she is a more enthusiastic "lagom"-ist than many of her fellow Swedes. (Imagine the Vikings taking only "lagom" when they plundered!) & most Americans would have trouble just pronouncing it. But I have developed a small fascination with this word, because it has an attractive quality that "enough," "sufficient," & even "simple" often lack.

Most people in the world do not want enough. They want more. They certainly want more than the bare minimum, & research suggests they want more than those around them. This desire for more seems to be deeply wired in the human organism. We developed over millennia in hostile environments, both natural & social. To have more than we need has always been our first defense against the vagaries of an uncertain future. Hoarding is the first act of those who believe themselves to be in the path of a storm (or a marauding army of plundering Vikings, for that matter).

So while there will always be those of us who love the idea of "enough-ness" & "voluntary simplicity," it seems likely that such concepts will never quite be ... well ... enough to transform the masses of humanity (or the marauding army of corporations vying to fill their houses with stuff, in a kind of reverse-plunder operation).

Since 1983, the Alliance for Sustainability has been working to create a healthy future for the Earth & all of its inhabitants. We have always felt that spirituality is an important part of sustainability, which has been inspired by our original, 16-year home in the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota and our present home in the Hillel Center at the University of Minnesota. Although we have had no formal tie to either, we have addressed the connection between spirituality and sustainability through various writings and numerous presentations around the country to a range of audiences, from Christian and Jewish to farmers and business leaders.

Since we’ve been in the Hillel Center we have expanded our efforts in this area and offered a range of programs regarding Judaism, the environment & sustainability. Our goal is to create both a Center for Judaism and Sustainability as well as a Center for Spirituality and Sustainability that can offer resources and programs to address the needs of people of all spiritual paths in helping to create a sustainable future.

We have been collecting books, articles, tapes & more for our Resource Center. We also began a set of web pages dedicated to Judaism & Sustainability (www.mtn.org/iasa/judaism.htm) and will soon begin one on Spirituality and Sustainability. In the future, we hope to expand the web presence and include other resources such as new publications, educational events, travel tours to Israel & more.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas & hope that you will get involved and share any resources you think might be of interest. Please let us know at tgips@mtn.org.

In this regard, we are co-sponsoring three upcoming events. The first will be a Community Meeting on Judaism and the Environment from 7:30-9 pm January 29 at the Minneapolis Jewish Community Center. This will be an opportunity for the Jewish community to get to know each other over delicious eco-kosher, organic refreshments, learn about existing environmental activities in the Jewish community, share visions of what we’d like to create, and discuss what steps we can take to make them a reality.

In honor of Tu Bishvat (The Jewish New Year of the Trees that has become the major Jewish environmental holiday), there will be an Eco-Sabbath Celebration and Eco-Kosher, Organic Vegetarian Potluck at Shir HaNeshamah ("Song of the Soul") Jewish Renewal Minyan from 6:30-9:30pm Friday, Feb 2 in the Twin Cities Friends Meeting House, 1725 Grand Avenue in St. Paul. The hotline is 612-794-7146.

On Sat, Feb 3 there will also be a 9:30-11 am Tu Bishvat and Judaism and the Environment Study Session and Discussion, 11-noon Eco-Sabbath Service and Eco-Kosher, Organic Vegetarian Kiddush at Mayim Rabim Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in the Friends Meeting House, 44th and York in Minneapolis. The hotline is 612-922-5983.

For more information about these events & the Centers, please contact the Alliance at 612-331-1099 or iasa@mtn.org. Or contact Terry Gips at 612-374-4765 or tgips@mtn.org. You can also see the listings on our events page online (www.mtn.org/iasa/events.htm).

Builder John Abrams of Martha's Vineyard tells one of his favorite stories:

Abrams is convinced that to create truly green buildings & run a socially responsible business, a company has to "walk the talk." When he speaks to groups, rather than telling others how they should run their businesses, he humbly describes his own business, South Mountain Company. He describes his experiences in guiding it - not only to design & build environmentally responsible houses - but also in how the business is run.

This article looks at how design & construction companies can incorporate environmental & social responsibility into operations. Every company can look at how it operates internally to practice sustainability. By implementing our own green business practices, we learn a tremendous amount, we gain credibility in the eyes of our clients, we realize the environmental & health benefits we try to create for others, & we play our own important part in the shift toward sustainability.

We will profile several design & construction companies to see what they are doing to green their operations. A checklist of green business strategies is at the end of the article.

The Sahara has crossed the Mediterranean, forcing thousands to migrate as a lethal combination of soil degradation & climate change turns parts of southern Europe into desert.

A major UN conference was told December 19 that up to a third of Europe's soil could eventually be affected.

A fifth of Spanish land is so degraded that it is turning into desert, according to figures released for the first time yesterday, & in Italy tracts of land in the south are now abandoned & technically desert. Portugal, Spain, Italy & Greece are the four EU countries already so badly affected that they have joined the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) which is meeting in Bonn this week.

One expert, Maurizio Sciortino, said that there were many causes of the soil degradation, including changing weather patterns & the rise of global farming, which is making it uneconomic to run smallholdings & is driving people from the land.

"Land that has been carefully cultivated & preserved for 2,000 years, with terracing for soil conservation & careful irrigation to keep up productivity, is being abandoned & lost," he said. "The walls of the terracing break down, the soil is washed away & we are left with bare rock. Once that happens there is no way back.

"The conditions are particularly bad in southern Italy, Spain & Greece. Even southern France is not immune but so far they do not admit it for political reasons."

The problem is not confined to the EU. Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Romania & Russia have all reported signs of desertification. Experts say Moldova in particular is "highly vulnerable" to desertification, with about 60% its farmland degraded.

Beyond the Black Sea, there are belts of fast-degrading land stretching as far as Mongolia. China, for example, has said that land deterioration in its northern provinces is costing its economy £4bn a year. In places such as drought-stricken Sardinia & Sicily, economic conditions are accelerating the problem. "In many places tourism is making things far worse," Mr Sciortino said.

"Water is pumped from below ground, pulling salt water from the sea into the aquifers. Imagine how much water it takes to keep an 18-hole golf course going for the tourists. The trouble is they use the money to buy petrol to drive the desalination plants for more water & that makes global warming worse. In the end it means more deserts. We have to stop this cycle."