In general, I avoid reading books or watching movies that are at all related to soil. I read enough peer reviewed papers on the topic. I’ve found, with few exceptions, that most of these environmental books/movies emphasize the evils of humanity, often using “toxic sludge” as one of the examples. They also tend to paint a bucolic picture of life before humanity — or at least humanity in the modern age. They make you feel akin to that “toxic sludge” that they describe and typically don’t provide any tools to make the situation better. You end up feeling like your best option is to stop eating, using the toilet, turning on the lights or leaving the basement. So, I was not happy when a colleague that I respect not only recommended that I read Braiding Sweetgrass but actually got me an audio copy of the book. This was high on my avoid-reading-at-any-cost list, a book that I had been deliberately ignoring for close to a decade.
