Local Abundance and Variety

Ideas from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Jo Hunter Adams



Abundance and Deprivation
For Barbara Kingsolver and her family, eating locally (and healthily) was not an exercise in deprivation, it was an exercise that revealed abundance. I think this abundance is something very real for many of us in the U.S., but sometimes it's hard to be very aware of it, or take note of where the abundance becomes excess. Finding the excesses may be a key to being aware of how to share without feeling majorly deprived.

Helping to facilitate variety
The book introduces Seed Savers Exchange, a means of growing a very wide variety of seeds. Variety in domesticated species is one key to supporting a type of farming that is not as vulnerable to pests or changes in weather (and so may not require pesticides or chemical fertilizers). For more on this, I'll describe some of the ideas introduced in The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan in a future post. I was really excited by the huge variety of seeds available at this site, and the ways they can help me understand exactly how different species of the same vegetables may have completely different strengths and vulnerabilities.

How Much Energy Was Used For That Carrot: Vegetarianism and Energy

Ideas from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Jo Hunter Adams



One general theme discussed in Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is the concept of the energy used to make processed food and transport food overall. She sets this energy use against the backdrop of the vast amounts of energy used to raise and transport animals, as well as the moral implications of actually killing animals for food. The Kingsolver family is not vegetarian, but during the year actually raised her own turkeys, chickens, and only bought meat raised free-range by virtual neighbors.

She responds to vegetarians who accuse meat-eaters of sanctioning violence in order to feed their need for a luxury: she argues that one causes suffering in many different ways-- not least by having a highly fuel-needy lifestyle which fuels violence and even war in oil rich countries-- but that animals, when raised with respect, can be an excellent and otherwise difficult to find source of nutrients.

I was a vegetarian for several years, but am not right now, for practical reasons and because it just wasn't as important to me as earlier in my life. Although I hope that my meat eating will eventually exclude factory raised animals, that's not where I am right now. Thus I appreciated learning how much energy it takes for my food to reach me, and simple ways I can decrease my fuel consumption without making changes that I'm not yet ready to make.

One way to decrease my fuel consumption is to reduce the number of ingredients in foods that I eat. For example, carrots only have carrots but a processed food may contain twenty different ingredients, each shipped to the manufacturing factory. Personally, this was a simple way to decrease the distance the food I eat has been shipped, particularly as this method is also generally healthier. Making our own bread has been one small step in this direction, and there will be more such steps in the future.

A second way to decrease fuel consumption is to eat less meat, particularly less meat raised in regular US factory environments. I certainly can't take the high ground on this, as I very rarely buy organic or free-range meats. I would like to consider this in the long-term, and as a start gradually decrease our portion sizes of meat.

A third way to decrease fuel consumption is to buy local, or grow your own food. I'll definitely be doing this this coming year, and will talk about it here.

The overarching disjoint between food production and food consumption was clear in the book. The concept that our relationship with what we eat-- our realization that everything that we eat was once alive and should be treated as such-- is largely absent from day-to-day American life. Reclaiming this link is a key to decreasing our consumption.

These concerns can appear as "the concerns of privilege" which I think they actually are. But I think there is no problem with acknowledging this, as I hopefully will not impose these concerns on people who have other (more pressing, more difficult or more overwhelming) concerns. The point is, I recognize my privilege and my consumption can directly increase the problems of other people. To me, this does not mean that I decrease my consumption to the point that I fail to appreciate and be grateful for what I have. That doesn't seem to make sense. Rather, because small changes are relatively easy for me and don't significantly decrease my engagement with other pressing issues: they become a means to be more consistent.

Coming Soon

More thoughts from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Thoughts from The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
Thoughts on our bread machine
Our Plants

Huh, What's a Locavore?

Ideas from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Jo Hunter Adams



For one year, the Kingsolver family lived on food produced by them or by those in the immediate vicinity. The term evolving for this kind of life is locavore. They did this for health and wellness, and to learn how they were connected with land that produced their food. They also did this to drastically reduce their impact, by only eating food that was grown/produced in such a way that it did not use resources in a non-sustainable way (that is, overuse the soil, etc).

Over the next few days, I'm going to be looking at ways that I learned from this book. How does it apply to life in Boston? How would it apply to life outside of the U.S. context, particularly in South Africa?

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Coming Soon

I was really encouraged that the Kingsolver used a breadmaker during their experiment in local eating. Because, well, so do we. I'm going to be sharing some of my experiences in bread making.

I recently re-watched Sometimes in April with Eug, and I wanted to think a bit about it with you. Sometimes the things I am thinking about on this blog may not seem relevant to much larger problems, but I think they're connected. I'll be venturing to make the connection this week.