Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)

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 right. Welcome to America, 21st century...someone points out our faults, we get defensive and point right back. Fortunately for Kingsolver, she's got the facts and proof to back up her righteousness.

That said, let's not gloss over the fact that Kingsolver is a best-selling writer and her husband (Hopp) is a professor at a nearby university. They have the luxury of money and time. The bottom levels on their hierarchy of needs have been met...exceedingly. It stands to reason that they can now consider their spiritual, moral, mental needs and venture into this realm of life change.

Most of us, however, don't have that kind of access. Most of us work full-time jobs outside of the home and try to tackle parenting, housecleaning, social, and fiscal duties in those small hours between five and ten o' clock in the evening. I already feel guilty because my kids are in too many activities or too few, piles of laundry are a constant, and my husband and I don't always get the Date Night we need. Now I'm supposed to feel guilty because I'm not eating free-range chickens?

It's not high on my list of priorities right now. It might be someday when my kids are out of the house or I can sustainably work at home, working only five or six hours a day. In addition to this, I also think I'm doomed to failure because I don't have the resources Kingsolver has. She's got farmer friends all over the country, she's throwing a birthday party for dozens of people, and a caterer friend is helping with an all-local, all-natural menu, and she's been doing some of this organic stuff for years. Not me.

Honestly, the message is good. It's a catalyst for change. However, Kingsolver loses some of her message on people who simply are not in the position she is in.

This book 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!

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 of suffering, human and otherwise. Anyone who can't admit that just doesn't want to face it.

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.

This book is too constrained and confined. I have loved Kingsolver's other books- and I was so excited to get this. Very disappointed in the text.