Food Aplenty, If We're Smart
Written: Jan 06 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very knowledgeable, well written.
Cons: None. I got this book at the library; I need my own copy.
The Bottom Line: Non-preachy, thorough, packed with information
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| pambo's Full Review: Barbara Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp, Camille Kingso... |
Barbara Kingsolver has done what many people think about doing but will never accomplish: Move to the country, grow her own food and ditch the industrial-food pipeline. She and her family tell their story in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
It's a priceless, funny, stunning, informative book that should move us all to action. Kingsolver has a way of packing more information into a sentence or two than many people can in a paragraph. She did the same with "Poisonwood Bible," a novel about life in Africa. Here, she tells us how after a long period of thinking about their lives in Tucson, Ariz., growing ever drier as temperatures rise and rain fails to materialize, the family decides they need to move on. They are also motivated by watching bad planning, little intelligent thought about proper use of water and arable land, poor crop choices override common sense. Their solution is to head to Appalachia, Va., where farmers eke out a living by choosing crops that work for them.
As she does throughout her book, she cites a wonderful illustration, an anecdote of stunning contrast in thinking: on their way out of the Arizona desert, in an area that had received less than an inch of rain in the previous year, the family encounters a waitress unhappy at the sight of cloud, bemoaning the possibility that there might actually be rain on her day off. When they arrive in what looks like amazingly green Appalachia, a waitress watches and hopes for more rain, knowing the crops need more. Kingsolver tells these anecdotes perfectly.
Kingsolver is no fool; the family's choices to eat local foods almost exclusively, to eat only foods in season, to can or freeze foods or go without certain items, is not easy. The work required to turn uneven or sloped plots of land into their food sources is far from easy. Above all, the choice to take this route reminds them of their more impoverished days and which no one returns to willingly. They haven't gone this route because they were poor but they've chosen not to indulge themselves in ways so common in America these days, consuming because we can.
It is difficult to get started on their new lifestye: they live in an old cabin for a while, waiting to move into their farmhouse. They can't quite figure out how to get started--eliminate foods or take a more positive approach? Allow an exception or two? They agree to do this, allowing for coffee, chocolate and a few spices. They resolve the problem a plea for fresh fruit through a discovery of rhubarb at a farmers' market they frequent; though technically not a fruit, rhubarb fulfills their need.
The main narrative of their new lives is interspersed with shorter stories by other members of the family, explaining either their own choices or plans, sometimes getting into other related topics, such as the battle over patented genes, the world food supply, the importance of green vegetables, recipes and a lot more. We read about the appalling disconnect we Americans have with our own food supply, with stories of kids seeing carrots being pulled from the ground and wondering who put the carrots into the soil, otherwise bright adults who don't realize that part of the potato grows above ground, or want to dispute how pineapples are grown. As others have, Kingsolver notes the disastrous farming choices made after World War II when "better living through chemistry" seemed a viable, smart economic choice that led to the failure of family farms, the depletion of soil, bad choices of crops and a poisoning, essentially, of our food supply. In particular, the rise of corn and its development into high fructose and its use in so many of our foods, cmones in for legitimate cricitism.
I'd be happy if I could accomplish even a small number of goals that the Kingsolver family has reached, if we could wean ourselves from more non-local products. Rice, for example, would be difficult; wth an Asian-born teenager in the house, it's not going to leave our table any time soon and I don't envision turning our backyard into a rice paddy anytime soon. But perhaps reducing the purchase of imported fruits and vegetables, and favoring freezing of local fruits and vegetables instead, for winter meals.
I do have one little quibble--she mentions foods we sometimes hate as children but learn to like later and refers to those earlier instincts as immature. Sorry, I have never ever, ever met a pepper I could abide, though I got over resisting onions, cottage cheese and stewed tomatoes. :)
I'm not sure why Kingsolver's book hasn't received even more attention. Maybe the problem, like the greater environmental issues, seems too overwhelming. It's bright, literate, loaded with information for people who don't know what's in season when, who want to buy smarter and healthier or turn their over-grassed yards into productive gardens. She's a wonderful reporter on our culture, with a sharp eye and a lovely writing style. More power to Barbara and her family for their courageous choices; more power to us to make the changes we need to make.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
pambo
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Member: Pam
Location: Long Island
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