(This was originally an essay that I wrote for my Urban Farming class in Undergrad in Fall 2024. It’s been updated to make it relevant here! P.S. I got an A!)
Sprinkled with essays, recipes, and short stories, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the true story of a family who vowed to eat and live off their own land and their local community for an entire year. The book is structured around the seasons, detailing the family’s experiences as they plant, nurture, harvest, and preserve their own produce. In addition to sharing their personal stories, Kingsolver provides readers with valuable information about the larger food system, highlighting the environmental and social consequences of conventional agriculture and the importance of sustainable, locally-sourced food. This book is a really easy read, with lots of interesting tidbits of information sprinkled amongst the story of the Kingsolver family, who moved from their home in Arizona to their property across the country in Virginia.
The book is very personal, and quite engaging, as Kingsolver often is in her writings. Barbara Kingsolver studied biology at DePauw University and evolutionary biology and ecology at the University of Arizona and her writings have focused on topics such as social justice and environmental concerns, making her a capable and qualified voice to encourage people to make more informed food choices, as she does in this book (Barbara Kingsolver’s Writing Style & Short Biography.). I think she does a really good job of transforming anxiety toward the future and food into actionable choices that individuals can make in whatever situation they live in. Obviously, we can’t all move onto a 4.5 acre homestead in the Appalachian Mountains. Kingsolver does encourage us though, to do what we can to source our own food, no matter our living situation.
Some of the things that I took away from this book are how the Industrial Food Complex completely disconnects us from our food sources and how there is joy in eating seasonally and locally.
The Industrial Food Complex Disconnects Us from Our Food Sources
Most Americans live in cities, and have no idea where their food comes from, much less what is involved in its transportation, preparation, or ingredients. A lot of our food has additives that we have no idea what they are, or genetically modified ingredients. For the most part, all the food we need is readily available and relatively cheap at grocery stores and convenience stores. Most Americans don’t even think about who grows the food or where it comes from.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to eat cleaner or more locally. Many Americans don’t have any idea that their food isn’t healthy. Many times, we just want to make the easier choice. We forget about the effect that our choices have on the local economy and on the environment. Barbara Kingsolver’s book shows that individual choices can have a big impact on reducing our ecological footprint. By growing their own, and choosing local and seasonal food, she and her family contributed to a more sustainable food system and reduced their carbon footprint.
There is Joy in Eating Seasonally and Locally
As someone who grew up on a farm, this is a concept that I have always known, but it was this book that really put it into words. Kingsolver describes gorging oneself on the freshest strawberries of the season, and describes that the way to truly enjoy them is for them to be in season. That really resonated with me. In the book, Barbara Kingsolver doesn’t ask everyone to leave their city dwellings to move out to the land and become farmers. She simply asks us all to think about our life and food choices and how they affect the local economy, our local communities, and the environment. Instead of picking up a strawberry in January, how can we use what it is in season to create a delicious meal, and also a social statement? Barbara’s prose alongside her daughter Camille’s recipes in the book challenges us to do just this.
In addition, Virginia’s seasons are not exactly the same as everywhere else in the United States, nor does everything that grows there grow well in every part of the country. By frequenting local farms or the farmer’s market, by growing a small balcony garden, or a large backyard garden, Americans can challenge the status quo, remove themselves from the hold of the Industrial Food Complex, and eat healthier, more robust, sustainable food. The book empowers readers to take their own steps toward eating locally and sustainably.
Most reviews of the book say that it is a good, entertaining read, usually rating it around 4 or 4.5 out of 5 stars. However, one customer review on Amazon points out that the topics in each chapter jump all over the place, from the history of the farm, to Appalachian flora trivia, to planting. The review goes on to criticize that while there are many topics of homesteading that are covered, none of them are in-depth enough that anyone could learn enough to follow through and do any of the things that are talked about potatoes (Customer Review.).
Unlike other books on homesteading though, this book never purports itself to be a manual or how-to book on farming and eating local. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a memoir, a story about how a family transforms itself and wants to help others transform themselves by giving a joyous account of their experiences, along with information about how the industrial food complex has disconnected us from our food sources, offering insights into the art of food preservation and sustainable gardening, and highlighting the sense of community and connection that can be fostered through supporting local agriculture. I thought it was a really great read for someone beginning their journey toward a more sustainable and local way of eating and living.
There’s a website for this book, along with recipes and more information that you can check out here: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/
Sources:
Barbara Kingsolver’s Writing Style & Short Biography. Edubirdie. https://edubirdie.com/examples/barbara-kingsolvers-writing-style-short-biography/. Accessed 4 November 2023.
Customer Review. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1Q6KM7QQRHXUH/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0060852569. Accessed 4 November 2023.