Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Excellent book, but not without caveats. After reading The Poisonwood Bible (a Kingsolver novel) the writing here was not nearly as good. But then again, it's hard to top, or even match that poem of a novel. So... the writing. That's really the only criticism, the meat of the book, is brilliant.

In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Kingsolver endeavers to eat for one solid year as close to the Earth as possible. She and her husband own a small farm. Additionally, they could supplement their diet locally for some other food items. And they allowed an extremely limited number of shipped items (coffee, spices, olive oil, and a couple other things).

This was an experiment. The book illustrates her family's experiences, the mistakes they make, and more. It also serves to point out what is possible. She acknowledges that many folks can't grow their own food, but most can certainly eat more sustainably. And she makes a plea to eat “just one meal” a week on nothing but stuff grown nearby.

Vegans won't like this book. She casually brushes aside their arguments pretty handily.

Folks that eat “whatever they find in the supermarket” may feel defensive (you see it throughout the reviews of this book). The book is intended to enlighten and inspire, but it seems to do the opposite with some. With some the book invokes defensive reactions.

Does it come across as self-important, self-congratulatory, self-satisfying? I would say “prideful” is the right word. She did something really hard, especially in an age where many of the skills necessary have atrophied or even disappeared. Her commentary on turkey breeding was especially telling. She prevailed. Pretty impressively. As I read the book I kept thinking, “just wait until the hard months, Jan, Feb, Mar”. She talks about this and beginning to run short of food. To many folks, I am sure this one section alone would be eye opening.

In the end, this is a book about process and what is possible. And a book about sustainability. The plea is to reduce our carbon footprint on the world. And to simply be... no so wasteful. The biggest impact all people can make is simply eating closer to home. For most this is possible, for others (her example is living in Arizona) the only solution is to move.

Preachy? Well, it's a book endorsing an idea... yeah, it will be a tad preachy. It's a sermon, that's what one should expect.

But it is a good sermon. A very achievable sermon. A plea to be more like Tuscany and less like... Arizona (and the rest of the USA). If folks would take this book to heart we'd really begin to tap into our local uniqueness (terrior), but more importaly, reduce our energy dependence and simply make the world a better place.