Letter To a Granddaughter, September 2030

“Petros Ladas is my son. I’ve asked him to guest-write this ‘letter to the future’ since he’s been telling me about all the positive possibilities of our planet’s evolution. It does not have to be negative, and you know how I hate focusing on bad scenarios or worse. And because the story would not gain by my retelling it, here is his note to a hypothetical granddaughter, named Victoria in honor of our victory over the forces of darkness and greed.”—Diana Farr Louis

Eating Well Is The Best Revenge

By Petros Ladas

SKYROS Greece—(Weekly Hubris)—9/5/2016—Dearest Victoria, as we wait for you to be born, I thought I might paint you a portrait of the world you are about to enter, where it has been and where you could take it. These words will probably not make much sense to you until you are about 15, which is also about as far back as I want to go to put things in context.

The civilization you are about to join is full of contradictions, complexity, and insanity. You belong to a species capable of unfathomable brutality and soaring genius, sometimes within the same person. Your time with humanity is unlikely to be boring, though it may be very vexing.

The world is in crisis. (The world is always in crisis.) Temperatures and seas are rising, and will continue to do so for a while. Plants and animals are going extinct at rates not seen since an asteroid hit the planet 65 million years ago. The weather is as crazy as many of the people. But it is a lot better than it was just a decade and a half ago. Back then, things seemed to be going from bad to worse with little prospect of improvement. An entire political party in the US had been captured by extremely rich and even more extremely selfish people who tried to block many of the emerging ways and means we have used to keep from going over the brink.

We got lucky, though. That political party began to fade, despite the vast amounts of fossil fuel money pouring into it, because they could not figure out how to appeal to a changing population. (And because once they nominated a narcissistic buffoon who exposed all their hypocrisy, but that is another story.)

Without that blocking, wind and solar power blossomed, propelling a new fleet of electric bikes, cars, trucks, and small aircraft. Apart from being safer, cleaner, quieter and, in many cases self-driving, the ongoing construction of all these new vehicles gave a boost to the economy while providing the energy storage the new power sources required. There is now enough of an energy surplus that we are pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, making liquid fuels (especially big airplanes still need them) and even putting some of it back in the ground.

You’ve probably noticed the self-driving bit. It is true, back then cars did not drive themselves, people did, at enormous cost in lives and lost time. Imagine going somewhere and having to hunt for a place to park rather than simply sending the car on its way to do something useful. Somebody actually driving a car is a rare sight now, and it will probably be illegal by the time you read this. So, who is doing the driving? An intelligent machine, similar to the one in your phone that teaches you and protects you and connects you with your family, friends, and the entire stored knowledge of our species. The rise of smart matter, artificial intelligence, robots, and drones, is a story too long and involved to relate here but it lead to us being able to do much more with much less.

However, the biggest change in the last decade or so was in consciousness. I do not know whether it was the so-called millennial generation coming of age or the weakening of that political party or simply enough people realizing the existential threat we are facing, but more and more of us began turning to a myriad of solutions that are making all our lives better and collectively turning the tide. Green roofs, regenerative and urban farming, closed loops, intelligent recycling, composting, permaculture, aquaculture and so many others. We are not out of danger by any means and we have done incredible damage to the ecosystem we all depend on, but the way forward for you and your generation is not as dark as it once was.

Megawatts of love,

Your grandfather,

Petros

Recipe

We couldn’t think of a futuristic recipe to accompany this piece, something using powdered cicadas and candied ants, perhaps. So I suddenly remembered this dessert, a yogurt soufflé, invented at a Grecotel in Rethymnon, Crete on the occasion of a visit by Hillary Clinton, then First Lady. In the hopes that she will win and that the GOP will self-destruct, allowing the eco-friendly technological innovations that Petros mentions above to flourish and slow our slide into The Sixth Extinction. The recipe first appeared in Feasting and Fasting in Crete and has been included in A Taste of Greece, edited by Princess Tatiana and myself and published by teNeues for the benefit of the Greek anti-foodwaste charity, Boroume.

Yogurt Soufflé

This exquisite feather-light dessert was served to Hillary Clinton when she came to Greece for ceremonies connected with the lighting of the Olympic Flame for the Atlanta Games of 1996. It was preceded by rack of baby lamb filets no bigger than walnuts in a sauce containing orange juice and sweet red wine. This soufflé is far easier to prepare. It goes well with a sauce made from puréed fruit—raspberries, strawberries or sour cherries.

3 egg yolks

200 grams (1 cup) sugar plus a little extra

275 grams (1 1/4 cups) full fat, “strained” (aka Greek) yogurt

2 tablespoons corn flour

5 egg whites

1 tablespoon butter

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until pale and stir in the yogurt and corn flour gradually. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold them gently into the mixture.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease a soufflé dish (21 cm/8 inch) with butter and dust with sugar to prevent sticking. Bake in a bain marie for about 25 minutes until the soufflé puffs right up and turns golden. Serves 6.

To order copies of Diana’s Farr Louis’ newest book, A Taste of Greece: Recipes, Cuisine & Culture, from Amazon, click on the book cover below.