Typically, I try to publish only one post per month; but, because I did not want to lessen the focus of or draw attention from Martin Luther King Jr. Day (highlighted in my previous post, “Hail to the King, Baby!”), I’m making an exception for an exceptional development.

In mid-November 2020, I awoke in the middle of the night and could not fall back asleep. I was struck by a particular thought, so I spent the next few hours shaping that thought until it could be brought into fruition. The result? A single-page letter to then President-elect Biden, urging any discussion of a Green New Deal to include embracing the growing meat-alternative movement, as well as shifting the United States agriculture to more sustainable, perennial models. To emphasis this latter point, I enclosed a book, Restoration Agriculture (2013) by Mark Shepard, with the letter and sent them both on their way!

Fast forward to January 20, 2021—two months to-the-day. During the very same hour I am watching the inauguration of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris, I received in the mail a letter response from Joe Biden himself!

What makes this interaction more meaningful is that one of my grandmothers, Beulah LaMalfa (my father’s mother), had written a letter to First Lady Roosevelt in the 1930s, while President Roosevelt enacted the New Deal. And preserved in a scrapbook is, none other than, a reply from Eleanor herself!

When time permits, I shall make a copy of the documents related to this exchange between my Grandmother and the First Lady. Until then, take care.

Yours in R’lyeh,

Tony LaMalfa