Barbra Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a year of food life. Toronto: Harper Perennials, 2008. x+370 pp.
This book is a moving account of one family’s decision to withdraw their support from industrial food industry vowing that, for at least one year, they would dig deep, get their hands dirty, buy local and attempt to grow their own food on their family farm in Virginia. Written in a journalistic style, in combination with the incorporation of various facts and personal experiences, this narrative is ultimately a call for action for all Americans to rethink their eating habits.
Our culture is not unacquainted with the idea of food as a spiritually loaded commodity. We're just particular about which spiritual arguments we'll accept as valid for declining certain foods. Generally unacceptable reasons: environmental destruction, energy waster, the poisoning of workers. Acceptable: it's prohibited by a holy text...Is it a stretch, then to make moral choices about food based on the global consequences of its production and transport? (Kingsolver 2008, 67-68).
Kingsolver examines the moral responsibilities that our actions as consumers incur. In doing so, this book forces readers to seriously contemplate their food choices while demonstrating how choices made in the average American household can have major impacts on our environment.
Kingsolver writes, “A food culture is not something that gets sold to people”, rather she asserts that it is rooted in “a place, a soil, a climate, a history, a temperature, a collective sense of belonging” (p.17). This highlights the reality of many (myself included) and is a testimony to our current disconnection from the food we eat as a result of our reliance on large supermarkets and industrial agriculture.
Our culture is not unacquainted with the idea of food as a spiritually loaded commodity. We're just particular about which spiritual arguments we'll accept as valid for declining certain foods. Generally unacceptable reasons: environmental destruction, energy waster, the poisoning of workers. Acceptable: it's prohibited by a holy text...Is it a stretch, then to make moral choices about food based on the global consequences of its production and transport? (Kingsolver 2008, 67-68).
Ultimately it is down with fast food and up with slow food! Once you've read this book you will never look at a banana the same way.
Here is a drawing that is found in the book. Underneath it read "Picture a single plant, bearing throughout one season all the different vegetables we harvest...we'll call it a vegetannual." You can also find this picture on the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website. http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/
Ty Steeves. Down By the Sea and Farm: A Collection of Atlantic Coast's Seafood and Farm Recipes. Waverley, Nova Scotia: Tall Ships Art Production Ltd., 1990. x+ 70 pp.
This wonderful cookbook has an array of delicious recipes that were created, tried and tested right here in the maritime provinces. The recipe for the traditional maritime clam bake is particularly delightful.
This wonderful cookbook has an array of delicious recipes that were created, tried and tested right here in the maritime provinces. The recipe for the traditional maritime clam bake is particularly delightful.
