Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. That’s the title of my latest read by Barbara Kingsolver, talented author of the widely popular novel The Poisonwood Bible.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is, in itself, a sort of bible. A food bible. It’s the true story of one family who moves from Tucson to the Appalachians, and vows to feed themselves for an entire year from what they could grow on their farm, and what they could get from other farmers within their county.
It’s important to take Animal, Vegetable, Miracle at face value. If you expect something more than it is, then you may be disappointed. It’s not a how-to manual, nor is it an exciting dramatization of events. It’s not particularly funny, and it doesn’t explain every aspect of farm life, though it does do quite a thorough job with some of those aspects.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is simply one woman’s explanation of why she and her family decided to become locavores, and her story of how they went about it.
The pros of this book:
It is very well written. Many reviews of this book complain that Kingsolver is “preachy,” and beats her food principles into your head mercilessly. I can understand this concern, but I don’t agree. Kingsolver reiterates her main point many times, but always in the context of the topic she is discussing at the time. Her main point being? Namely, eat local, because a lot of fossil fuels are burned in order to transport food unnecessarily; and because foods that are shipped are bred for shape and toughness, not for flavor; and because knowing, in the most direct way possible, where your food comes from, is the surest way to make good choices toward living a healthier lifestyle.
At least, that’s what I got out of it.
But Kingsolver delves into so much more. She investigates the concept of food culture, and the fact that America’s food culture seems to be based on fast food and anything processed. She explains why processed foods make people overweight, even while they are less nutritious—because they consist of empty calories, making us fat without providing enough of the nutrients we need.
And honestly, how many times a week does the average person you know eat vegetables? That leaf of iceberg on your cheeseburger doesn’t count; nor do those french fries. I can remember a time, really not more than a year ago, when I could go for several days straight without eating any fruits or veggies. I only realized this because I would get a weird craving for a cucumber or an apple, or something of that nutritional caliber. And I know I’m not the only one who can manage to feed myself for a week without stopping to make sure something I ate was fresh, or even something that used to be fresh, once upon a time. The thought of how I was feeding myself, and how millions of others feed themselves, is really scary.
Back to the book, though. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle offers a great deal to think about. Kingsolver formats the book by dividing it into chapters based on the consecutive months of a year, describing the foods that were available and in season throughout. This concept of “in season” foods was, sadly, a foreign one to me. Before picking up this book, I never in my wildest imagination would have been able to tell you when asparagus grows and can be harvested. But Kingsolver makes this one easy to remember by starting off her book with this very first vegetable of spring.
Kingsolver and her co-author and husband, Steven L. Hopp, explain some of the stickier issues concerning food. Why not eating locally is highly unsustainable; why GM foods are impractical, and even bad in the hands of producers like Monsanto. Why genetic diversity in food sources is important, and how shockingly streamlined our food variety has become. They work together to link the over-busy, detached, self-gratifying mindset of our modern lifestyle with our bad food choices as a culture. I can’t even begin to list all the interesting topics they have touched upon and explained at length.
Additionally, Kingsolver’s daughter, Camille, contributes her own anecdotal chapters to the story, offering a much more personal and down to earth view of the trials and joys of one family feeding themselves. But the best part is that she provides recipes of many of the dishes that are discussed in the main part of the text. I have tried a few of the recipes, and earmarked several for future reference. All I can say about that is: just wait till I get my hands on some pumpkins this fall.
The only real criticism I have of this book is Kingsolver’s stance on tobacco farmers. She acknowledges that cigarettes are bad for you, but goes on to say that, as U.S. tobacco crops are dying off due to lack of federal financial support, the poor tobacco farmers are going out of business. Apparently, the government has been helping tobacco farmers “stay on their family farms” as recently as 2005, when the price supports were ended. Kingsolver’s idea is that we, as produce consumers, should be willing to pay more for our produce in order for those tobacco farmers to figure out what else they can grow in order to remain farmers. Except, she puts it like this: “If people out in the world were irate enough about the human damage of tobacco, why wouldn’t they care enough—and pay enough—to cover the costs of growing vegetables?”
Um, yeah. Now I can understand that complaint about preachiness. Most of us are just trying to get by on ramen noodles and frozen veggies, and Kingsolver thinks we should help subsidize anyone who has been making their living off of growing tobacco until now. Not exactly the shining moment of the book, in my eyes. I understand that farming is a way of life that needs to be protected, but I also believe that there are millions of people who have had to adjust their professional lives to accommodate growing and diminishing demands from consumers—or, as Kingsolver puts it, “people out in the world.” I’m pretty sure the tobacco farmers will figure out what to do with their energy, much like the other millions of people who have lost their livelihood in recent times.
That part of the book, however, represents a mere two pages among 350 pages of otherwise wonderful and informative reading. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It will teach you things that you never knew you didn’t know about. It will open doors and will, hopefully, convince you to start thinking more about where your food comes from, and why it should come from places close by. I am sure to keep this book around as my wealth of food knowledge grows and I become more adept at feeding myself. There is so much crammed into this one book that I simply cannot absorb it all in one reading.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
“Heirloom vegetables are irresistible, not just for the poetry in their names but because these titles stand for real stories. Vegetables acquire histories when they are saved as seeds for many generations, carefully maintained and passed by hand from one gardener to another.” ~p.46
“In just a few decades the out-of-season vegetable moved from novelty status to such an ordinary item, most North Americans now don’t know what out-of-season means.” ~p.48
“Bizarre as it seems, we’ve accepted a tradeoff that amounts to: ‘give me every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard picture of its former self.;” ~p. 55
“Routines save time, and tempers.” ~p. 128
“Physicians will tell you, the great majority of lactose-intolerant Americans don’t even know it. They just keep drinking milk, and having stomachaches.” ~p. 138
“The Roman Empire grew fat on the fruits of huge, corporate, slave-driven agricultural operations, to the near exclusion of any small farms by the end of the era. But when Rome crashed and burned, its urbanized citizenry scurried out to every nook and cranny of Italy’s mountains and valleys, returning once again to the work of feeding themselves and their families. They’re still doing it, famously, to this day.” ~p. 178
“Eaters must understand, how we eat determines how the world is used.” ~p. 211
“Food is not a product but a process, and it never sleeps.” ~p. 270
“Value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.” ~p. 287
“Most of us agree to put away our sandals and bikinis when the leaves start to turn, even if they’re our favorite clothes. We can learn to apply similar practicality to our foods.” ~p. 311
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