Well basically, in Eaarth you say that what Americans need to learn is that the era of growth and supersizing is over, and that instead we’re in an era of “maintenance, graceful decline, hunkering down”. But “hunkering down” is a hard sell, especially to people who like their minivans and junk food and cheap gadgets. Do you really think Americans can change their uber-consumer ways?

I think we all need a series of nudges. The most important would be making the cost of fossil fuel reflect the damage it does to the environment. Look at western Europe, where energy prices have been high for decades. The average citizen there uses half the energy of an average American.

If we do get the message and downsize, what do you envisage will happen to the empty malls, the McMansions, and the SUVs?

The malls and mansions are already emptying, simply because we overbuilt so significantly. I think we’ll start concentrating into more tightly knit communities — or at least I hope we will. The average American has half as many friends as the average American of 50 years ago. Renewed relationships will have to be the substitute for the Lincoln Navigator.

On that note, I was struck by what you said about farmer’s markets and small farms in the book. Sociologists have found that people have ten times as many conversations at farmers’ markets than at supermarkets; they function as community centers. And they’re the fastest-growing segment of our food economy, along with small family farms. Still, companies like Monsanto and Tyson have enormous political power. How are we going to break “Big Ag” — especially when Obama appoints someone like Tom Vilsack, a friend of Monsanto and agribusiness, as Secretary of Agriculture?

We’re going to have to organize like hell. The next opportunity will be the next Farm Bill, which is due in Congress in the next session. As Michael Pollan has said, it needs to be a Food Bill.