Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.
''As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.
''Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . .''
Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
''This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.''
What Others Say
Pretentious and preachy
I really wanted to like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I agree with the author in that as a culture we've clearly gotten out of touch with living off the land and have become a fast food society. But I struggled to even get through the first chapter. The tone of the book is much too preachy and pretentious giving it a "holier than thou" feel. It's hard to get past that.
You Take the Good, You Take the Bad
I'm only halfway through Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, so it's possible I will have a skewed opinion.
Anyway, Kingsolver opened my eyes to the plight of America's food problem. I'd heard of things like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), but I'd never given it much thought. I sure will now. I appreciated her discourses about the garden, the cheesemaking, etc. The information about transportation costs, etc. given in the sidebars by Steven Hopp was excellent. I will, without a doubt, make many considerations in regards to our family's eating habits.
Kingsolver's critics here accuse her of being preachy, uppity, and condescending. Usually, that's the allegation people make when they know someone is ... Read More
True Inspiration
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life was a complete inspiration to get better connections with our food. As years go on, it seems we've gotten further and further away from thinking about where our food comes from. This completely dials you in to the locavore movement, and just enjoying cooking/gardening again or in a new light. A great read for anyone who cares about what they put in their body!
Don't Believe the Hype
While the author makes many valid points about the benefits of consuming locally grown food, she is guilty of one (literally) fatal error: eating animals for food is neither necessary nor healthy for humans, the environment, or, of course, the animals themselves.
Moving from a vegetarian diet to a flesh-based diet is not progress, either physically or spiritually, and teaching children that slaughterhouses are bad, yet killing and eating animals whom they "know" is perfectly acceptable, is unconscionable.
Not only is our flesh-based diet destroying the planet, making excuses for and/or shielding ourselves from the true reality of unnecessary bloodshed desensitizes us and makes us less compassionate towards all types ... Read More
Terrific book!
Barbara Kingsolver has struck a wonderful balance among educating readers about gardening, slow food, food science and telling a great tale of a family's adventure of local eating. The recipes are great, too!
What a revelation to learn that we have all been anesthetized by the large corporations, whether they be the corporations that produce processed food, or the seed companies with their genetically modified terminator genes in the seeds.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and we have already made changes in our food shopping. Wish this great book were still available on audio CD.
