All Over Creation, by Ruth Ozeki
"It starts with the earth. How can it not? Imagine the planet like a split peach, whose pit forms the core, whose flesh its mantle, and whose fuzzy skin its crust -- no, that doesn't do justice to the crust, which is, after all, where all of life takes place. The earth's crust must be more like the rind of the orange, thicker and more durable, quite unlike the thin skin of a bruisable peach. Or is it? Funny, how you never think to wonder." -- Ruth Ozeki, from All Over Creation
Lloyd and Momoko Fuller are at the center of All Over Creation. Their neighbors, Cass and Will, have been caring for them in their declining health, allowing them to remain in their farmhouse even after buying "up the last of Fuller's acres." The Fullers' daughter, Yumi, her three children in tow, has arrived home for the first time in more than twenty years, summoned by Cass, her childhood friend. A group of activists, known as the Seeds of Resistance -- Melvin, Lilith, Geek, Charmey, Frankie -- have also found their way to the Fuller farm. They are on a pilgrimage to meet the people behind Fullers' Seeds. And there are those out to stop "the Seeds", fearful of anyone who could impact the potential profits from genetically engineered food, including Elliot, a lover from Yumi's past and the reason she ran away from home.
All these characters move the reader through the book's many themes, including those of friendship, parenting, infertility, aging, love, caregiving, death, and forgiveness, but, perhaps, it is the questioning of genetically engineered food that stands out, that remains in readers' minds long after the book is finished. Lloyd and Momoko Fuller began their lives together as potato farmers. During the years while Lloyd was expanding his "monoculture," becoming wealthy in the process, his wife, Momoko, was nurturing seeds, "open pollinating" them. When Lloyd's health begins to decline, he is drawn to his wife's endeavor. Together, they sell these seeds, encouraging their customers "to grow and save and multiply as you choose...."
The Seeds of Resistance are moving across the country, staging demonstrations against genetically engineered food, reminding any Edward Abbey reader of his "Monkey Wrench Gang". They drive a vehicle named "Spudnik", bio-fueled by cooking oil "pilfered" from fast food restaurants. The Seeds stage demonstrations as they travel, stopping at supermarkets to protest and educate. They have that Abbey combination of humor and seriousness -- imagine the characters dressed as a cow or a potato explaining to customers about the problems with genetically engineered food. They are gentle folk with a cause. When they see a flyer from Fullers' Seeds, they decide to travel to Power County, Idaho, to meet the Fullers. They think of Lloyd as their "guru" and, as his health deteriorates, they help care for him and the precious seeds.
As the characters struggle to find ways to reconcile their pasts with the present and as tragedy occurs, readers are tugged by emotion. But, All Over Creation, also tugs at our brains, encouraging us to think about what we want to eat and how we want it grown. We realize that the novel could take place anywhere. It isn't just the potato farmers of Power County, Idaho, who must make decisions about how to farm. And, as the characters prove in All Over Creation, everyone has a stake in what we consume. It is an issue that can reach beyond spiritual and political differences.
"The wondrous thing about nature, her gift to us, is her wanton promiscuity. She reproduces herself with abandon, with teeming, infinite, generosity. The first knuckle-dragging humanoid to realize this became the world's first farmer, and all the farmers who came after for thousands of years knew this, too. They saved seeds from their harvest, planted them, harvested them, and so it went, on and on, in a perfect, perpetually interconnected wheel of life. Until now." -- Ruth Ozeki, from All Over Creation
Related Websites:
J. L. Hudson, Seedsman (Ruth Ozeki mentions J. L. Hudson in her acknowledgemens.)
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/
Seed Savers Exchange
http://www.seedsavers.org/Home.asp
"Resistance is Fertile!" -- Ruth Ozeki, from All Over Creation
A related quote:
"Sometime in the last half century farming disappeared and was replaced by agribusiness. Farmers became agribusinessmen. And that was good, or so we've been told. But when we take the culture out of agriculture we risk losing the heart of what makes farming worthy of labor and love. Contrary to popular opinion, farming lives on -- and bigger isn't always better. Across America, a wide range of farms are keeping the art and culture of farming alive." -- Jim Richardson, introduction to his photographs at the Land Institute's 2002 Prairie Festival
