Book Review: Animal, Miracle, Plant

Many individuals look for the "grown locally" sign at their grocery store and frequent the weekend food markets to support local agriculture. The desire to eat the tastiest tomato, cut down on the food miles it takes to grown one's food, and support the livelihoods of neighboring farmers drive the buy local movement. Babara Kingsolver and her family took this initiative a bit further when they decided to move full-time to a Virginian farm where much, if not most, of the locally obtained food could be obtained from their backyard and through their labors. Her description of planting, weeding and harvesting showcase the crisp naturalist prose for which Kingsolver has received much acclaim. She is also at her best when she frames the scale of labor and the timing of the farming year. I did not welcome a lot of the agri-business op-eds that largely equated big as bad and small as good. I didn't necessarily disagree with their arguments, but they failed to cite statistics and references to back up their cases. I would still recommend the book to any vegetable gardener for the recipes, garden humor, and celebration of growing one's own food.