Book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Barbara Kingsolver's Novel Celebrates Local Food & Locavore Movement
Barbara Kingsolver's "A Year in the Life" details how her family attempted to eat only foods produced within a 100-mile radius of their farm in Virginia. How did they do?
Locavore: the practice of eating a diet consisting of food harvested from within an area most commonly bound by a 100 mile radius. [Wikipedia]
Locavore was coined on World Environment Day in 2005, and since that time the challenge to eat locally has been undertaken by people wanting to make a difference in their own health and that of the planet.
Among those is acclaimed novelist Barbara Kingsolver. Her book Animal ,Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life hit the book stores in the summer of 2007, to be devoured by her fans as well as those seeking to honor, or lambaste, the notion of eating only foods produced within 100 miles of home.
Kingsolver details a year in which her husband and 2 daughters sought to grow the bulk of their own food, but also to support other local growers and producers. Formerly a resident of Tucson, Arizona, she readily admits that her experiment would not have been possible in the southwestern US without using more than what she felt was their share of water. Their grand experiment waited until they moved to a farm in Virginia. They also made exceptions for a few foods that could not be produced locally such as coffee, chocolate, olive oil, spices and grains.
Kingsolver combines the narrative of their experiment with tidbits of natural history of various vegetables and amusing anecdotes about such things as the lost art of turkey sex. Her husband Steven Hopp contributes statistics, political views and plans for action. Her eldest daughter Camille gives a teenager’s viewpoint as well as recipes and menus.
It’s not a hardcore, “Let’s everybody do it” challenge. She acknowledges that they have resources others don’t, like a 100-acre farm and jobs that give them the time needed to raise much of their own food. The book is more of an invitation to everyone to become more conscious of what they eat and where it comes from.
Being a locavore in the strictest sense of the word is not practical for most people. But everyone can do something to conscientiously select foods that are produced locally, if only during the summer when farmers markets are available. Steven Hopp suggests, “If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.” That’s a significant impact.
Reading the book may not turn you into a locavore, but it will start you thinking. That’s the first step to making a difference.
