Wolverine vs. the Soybean

Or, settling in at home

Dear friends,

When I last left you, I was in Wisconsin soaking up the disturbing but pleasurable October heat.

My last night there, I shared a room with my mom and her partner George in a dirt-cheap Econo Lodge near the Madison airport and awoke to a peachy-pink sunrise burning itself into day over the nearby Hooters.

My mom flew home with me, and we went from one mushroom bounty to another.

It’s frightening to reach our favorite mushroom spot because the first hundred yards of the decommissioned road we walk has been commandeered by gun enthusiasts who let off their weapons into the open forest. The nearby trees are obliterated by bullets, and the ground is littered in shell casings. It’s chilling. And yet…

I cannot resist the hunt!

I’m settling in at home for the fall and winter. It feels nice to get into a calmer rhythm. As of this October, I’ve begun making dessert every Second Monday of the month at Ikoi no Kai, a lunch program for elder Japanese Americans and their friends.

I’m devoted to this program, which has been ongoing for 45 years. Every weekday except Wednesday, visitors are welcome for a three-course Japanese American lunch—soup, a main, and dessert. (It’s a steal: $11 for under 65, $9 for 65 and older.) We regularly donate our Umi noodles, and I’ve wanted to take my commitment one step further.

I don’t have a lot of experience baking sweets at this scale, so I started with something that felt manageable: a sour cream cake made with local whole grain flour—a soft white wheat from Camas—plums from my yard, and as much whipped cream as I’d want.

My longtime friend Naomi is the lead chef on Mondays, and she always knocks it out of the park. This time she made shumai, which sat in front of me in a very bright sunbeam.

After the meal, the program director, Jeannine, leads everyone in thanking the chef and dessert maker. For the chef, we call out together, “oishikatta desu”—that was delicious!—and for the dessert maker, I kid you not, we say in unison: “mmmmm good.” I relished my first mmmmm good! So cute! That’s my idea of a swearing in.

If you find yourself with an abundance of fruit or other dessert-like ingredients you can easily donate (eggs, for example), I’d welcome your excess!

And if you’d like to join for lunch, please do. I’m there every second Monday of the month! You can check the menu here. Please email ikoinokai7@gmail.com to make your reservation a few days ahead.

I saw this tag at the Oregon Coast; I felt like it was about everything.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been mulling the economic lifeboat the U.S. is throwing Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, in the form of a $20 billion credit swap. It’s a wild arrangement in the midst of a U.S. government shutdown centered on whether the government should spend our money on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Milei is a Trump crony with a Wolverine-style swingers hairdo resting wig-like atop his Libertarian head.¹ He’s massively unpopular among working class Argentines for executing an extreme austerity agenda, including gutting social programs, deregulating industry, and consolidating power in the executive office. Midterm elections are October 26, and if his party doesn’t have a strong showing, Trump won’t buy $20 billion in Argentine pesos. So let it be clear: this isn’t to help the people; it’s only to boost his shitty buddy. But we knew that.

Stick with me: As it currently stands, this bailout will help Argentine farm businesses sell more soybeans to China, which is currently not buying U.S. soybeans because of the tariffs we’ve imposed. Chinese firms may buy zero U.S. soybeans this year, which is significant because soybeans are our number one agricultural export and China is our number one soybean buyer. U.S. farms are set to lose big-time.

I’m no fan of the U.S. soybean industry. Our farm sector continues to be consolidated in the hands of fewer and fewer agribusinesses,² which use farming practices that devastate the land, but… if I were them right now, I’d be furious. I perused the mainstream ag papers and the tone is honestly confused. They can’t deny that this Argentine bailout hurts their bottom line. For at least this moment, the Argentine bailout pits the president against one of the most significant agricultural lobbies in the country.

Trump’s solution is to bailout U.S. farm businesses at an estimated $10 to $14 billion. We’ll see if and when that happens.

If these go through, we’re left footing the massive bills, one to counteract the other, although of course money doesn’t work that way; meanwhile, we’re set to lose our health coverage, and not in the abstract. I checked my 2026 premium without federal assistance, and it’s more than I can afford. I know this is true for many.

I see this bailout as inseparable from the larger U.S. actions in Central and South America, namely blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela and threatening to attack the interior. Socialist and left-leaning countries are undermined and villainized; libertarian authoritarians are propped up. A big song and dance about democracy is performed, but we’ve seen this show before and we recognize it for what it is: a cover for a lie.

Back to the personal—also in October: My dad turned 79! We celebrated by eating at my friend Althea Potter’s brand new restaurant in St. Johns, Bar Nouveau. Her food is impeccable, delicious, layered, and texturally delightful. We adored it! When a parfait with a lit candle arrived, my dad stood up and waved it this way and that, offering cheers to everyone in the small room, who joyfully cheers’d him back. Please go eat at Bar Nouveau toot suite!

Also! My boyfriend, Corey, turned 50! I know, how can be!? I stuck a candle in a shumai; we ate pizza; we made pizza; I played my very first round of D&D—all because I love him. Happy birthday, Corey!

Upcoming Events

• Monday, October 27, 7:15 pm — Lifeline and Trojan, Today at Cinema 21: Two haunting documentary films—about Newport and Trojan nuclear—will be screened together. Composer Alexandra Burress will perform a live set. I’ll be moderating a brief Q&A afterwards with filmmaker Alix Jo Ryan and cinematographer Hannah Clark. Get your tickets today.

• Tuesday, November 4, 6 pm — Generosity/Scarcity: A Conversation with me at the University of Portland: I’m giving a talk on ideas of abundance and meagerness in our personal lives and our politics at the UP bookstore. All are welcome to join—the event is free! It’d be great to see you.

• October 31 - February 8 — A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin: Oregon Contemporary Museum (8371 N. Interstate Ave, Portland) is hosting an Ursula K. Le Guin exhibit curated by her son Theo. Please stop by and pick up a copy of the book that accompanies the exhibit, which includes an essay I wrote.

1. Do you see the resemblance?

2. More than 80 percent of the U.S. soybean crop is grown by large agribusinesses. The remaining 20-odd percent are grown by smaller farms with fewer than 250 acres and far less sway. Let me also note that more than 90 percent of the U.S. soybean crop is bioengineered, but that’s a topic for another day!