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Journal Entry 1 by carlissa from Miami, Florida USA on Monday, December 29, 2008
 Synopsis (from Barnes & Noble)
Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver describes her family's adventure as they move to a farm in southern Appalachia and realign their lives with the local food chain.
When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. "Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals, and enough sense to refrain from naming them."
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment. They find themselves eager to move away from the typical food scenario of American families: a refrigerator packed with processed, factory-farmed foods transported long distances using nonrenewable fuels. In their search for another way to eat and live, they begin to recover what Kingsolver considers our nation's lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production. American citizens spend less of their income on food than has any culture in the history of the world, but pay dearly in other ways -- losing the flavors, diversity and creative food cultures of earlier times. The environmental costs are also high, and the nutritional sacrifice is undeniable: on our modern industrial food supply, Americans are now raising the first generation of children to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
Believing that most of us have better options available, Kingsolver and her family set out to prove for themselves that a local diet is not just better for the economy and environment but also better on the table. Their search leads them through a season of planting, pulling weeds, expanding their kitchen skills, harvesting their own animals, joining the effort to save heritage crops from extinction, and learning the time-honored rural art of getting rid of zucchini. Inspired by the flavors and culinary arts of a local food culture, they explore farmers' markets and diversified organic farms at home and across the country, discovering a booming movement with devotees from the Deep South to Alaska. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, and complete with original recipes, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
The Washington Post - Bunny Crumpacker
This is a serious book about important problems. Its concerns are real and urgent. It is clear, thoughtful, often amusing, passionate and appealing. It may give you a serious case of supermarket guilt, thinking of the energy footprint left by each out-of-season tomato, but you'll also find unexpected knowledge and gain the ability to make informed choices about what -- and how -- you're willing to eat.
Biography
Equally at home with poetry, novels, and nonfiction narratives, Barbara Kingsolver credits her careers in scientific writing and journalism with instilling in her a love of nature, a writer's discipline, and a strong sense of social justice.
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paperback
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Journal Entry 3 by carlissa at bookring, Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, April 30, 2009
Released 3 yrs ago (4/30/2009 UTC) at bookring, Bookring -- Controlled Releases CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sent to tranq1
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Journal Entry 6 by tranq1 at by mail, Bookins -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, May 30, 2009
Released 2 yrs ago (5/30/2009 UTC) at by mail, Bookins -- Controlled Releases CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sending to afitz who is next in the bookring.
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Journal Entry 8 by afitz from The Woodlands, Texas USA on Thursday, June 25, 2009
I thought it was very well-written and informative. I learned a lot but also liked the sections about the author and her families events. I enjoyed the sections her daughter wrote and the recipes. It made me much more aware of where my food comes from and how I can effect and am affected by the environment. I think it will take awhile to make sweeping changes, a lot of people and jobs will be effected. But if we all make some changes it would certainly help. I have to admit I skipped some of the middle but I liked the end.
Glad I got involved in this bookring, will send back to carlissa
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
