Olivia Vent   We know that we have to work. It is our way of life. We not only work in our fields, also in our homes. In rice season, the workload is so much that we don’t have time to think about it. Since we are farming women, hardly anyone cares about it. Mami, an Indian woman rice farmer in Odisha state Is there a way of producing rice without experiencing pain in the body? Mami For me the spirit of rice is also the spirit of women, beautifully embodied by the Indonesian goddess of rice Dewi Sri. Historically, women were central to the domestication of rice, responsible for much of it ..read more

By Alex Jack “If you go to Mars in a titanium tube, you’ve lost the script,” declared John D. Liu, an award-winning film director and ecologist in a keynote address on “Restoring the Planet” at the Macrobiotic Summer Conference in late July. “We need to restore the Earth, not Mars. We need full employment and food security for everyone. Twenty past civilizations have destroyed their ecosystems.” Ours will be the twenty-first and last, he warned, unless we learn to change and renew our oxygen, freshwater system, and soil fertility. In his stunning film presentation, Liu showed that terracing, o ..read more

By Jan Jicha     Today at the supermarket in Prague an elderly woman with a cabbage in her hand turned to me and said she needed advice. I like to advise grandmothers when it comes to cabbage. It makes me feel important, mature. There were times when my grandmother advised me about cabbage.      In undisguised Ukrainian, she implored me to weigh it. I explained to her that it was a VEGETABLE and on the scale’s menu there was a WHITE CABBAGE. The CZK 22.30 sticker came out (US 96 cents). I slapped it on the cabbage and handed it to the grand-mother. She looked disa ..read more

By Alex Jack “The problem is not the problem. The problem is our approach to the problem,” declared author and social activist Tom Monte, in a keynote address accepting the 2021 Michio Kushi Peace Prize at this year’s Macrobiotic Summer Conference. “The problem is caused by the imbalance and injustice inside of us.” Through his bestselling books on diet and natural healing, wellness seminars, and social projects such as introducing whole foods in a South African orphanage, Tom has helped to right the balance and enhanced the lives of people around the world. “I let go of what the experts said ..read more

By Alex Jack      From the high Andes Mountains in Chile to the low Thames Valley in London, from high-energy Tokyo to locked down Amsterdam, the 2021 Online Macrobiotic Winter Conference turned the world into a classroom. Featuring stimulating presentations on diet, health, and the environment, cooking classes with nourishing, healthful dishes, open discussions among attendees, and yoga breaks, the live-streamed event fostered a spirit of planetary family harmony and peace as the world entered a second year of the Covid-19 pandemic.        ..read more

By Alex Jack Kicking off the 2020 Online Macrobiotic Summer Conference, frontline nurse Donna Clifford narrated a dramatic account of recovering from Covid-19 with the help of her macrobiotic way of eating. Like so many first responders, Donna came down with the virus after an elderly patient she was caring for in her hospital sprayed sputum all over her. But unlike most caregivers, Donna quickly healed herself with the help of a healthy, macrobiotic diet. “I had mild symptoms and was ill for about a week,” she recounted. “I had no appetite and survived on diluted warm apple juice.” When her a ..read more

Edward Esko talk with Japanese macrobiotic friends June 27, 2020 There may be two types of novel coronavirus. The first is Northeast corona—New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. The second is a Southwest coronavirus—Texas, Arizona, Southern California—plus Florida. So we have essentially a yang coronavirus, which was the early coronavirus in New York and the Northeast; and a yin coronavirus, which is currently surging in California, Texas, Arizona, and the Southwest (including Florida.) The yang coronavirus was mostly a cold weather, winter virus, connected with animal food. When winter cha ..read more

Warren Wepman, here with his beloved wife, Marquita, passed away peacefully, at age 91, in their home in Deerfield, Florida, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 16, 2020. An accomplished Miami lawyer, a student of natural health at the Macrobiotic Foundation of Florida and Kushi Institute, an expert macrobiotic chef and teacher of macrobiotic principles and cooking. And what a cook! Warren savored life and had great fun throughout his time on Earth. Always accompanied by his beautiful wife, Marquita, Warren truly had a GREAT LIFE!  Warren Wepman, here with his beloved wife, Marqu ..read more

By Edward Esko The U.S. economy didn’t recover from the Great Depression until 1941, a 5 soil year, at which time the United States entered World War II. As I point out in the chapter, 2020: Have We Passed the Point of No Return, the next several years are similar, in terms of their energy pattern, to those leading up to World War II. World War I and World II went global in 5 Soil years (1914 and 1941). The energy pattern of the years leading up to 2013, also a 5 Soil year, were the same as those leading up to the previous world wars. The world actually came close to a catastrophic war in the ..read more

In the event key foods are or unavailable, the following substitutions may be made: Instead of Miso soup make a kinpira soup with thinly sliced root vegetables such as carrot, onion, squash, burdock, lotus root, and season with sea salt or shoyu - serve a spoonful of sauerkraut or another pickle on the side. In case seaweed is unavailable use rockweed, river moss, spirulina, or chorella and season with salt or shoyu; or take apple pectin or other fruit pectin instead of agar agar. When good quality sea salt is not available use table salt with some kombu powder or nori flakes mixed in. Instea ..read more