What I Learned

When I was finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver the book was full of little scrap pieces of paper tagging things that I found interesting and wanted to share. Unfortunately a 16 month old who shall remain nameless pulled some of the tags out, but trust me there are still plenty left.

Here goes!

1. The author's daughter wrote essays that are part of the book. One that I really loved talked about how as children we decide on the foods that we don't like and we hold onto those immature ideas into adulthood. Just think of all the good food we are missing out on because we are still to immature to just take a bite of something we decided we hated when we were five.

2. Our tax dollars subsidize a huge amount of industrially grown foods, almost 80 billion dollars a year, according to Steven Hopp, the author's husband who also included essays in the book. So when you compare an organic veggie to a industrially grown veggie the organic one probably costs more at the store, but you have paid a chunk of tax dollars for that cheap one!

3. Our children face a shorter life expectancy than us.

4. A yummy recipe for Basil-Blackberry crumble which you can check out at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/.

5. The transportation cost of shipping food is tax deductible for corporations, therefore tax payers pay for the shipping of food. I find it interesting that part of the reason for the steep rise in food prices is the rise in fuel costs, yet companies are able to deduct that. HMMMMMM!

6. You don't even want to know how the poor animals are treated in the meat industry. They have to be given tons of antibiotics because of the filthy conditions they live in. They are fed food that isn't their natural diet, in order to fatten them up, therefore the quality of the meat is decreased. Organic beef has way more good for you omega 3 fatty acids than industrial meat and free range eggs have way less cholesterol. (Sorry about the unscientific term of way more, but I couldn't find the exact number due to missing tags, which I have already explained).

7. An interesting essay about mad cow disease scared me to death. Our USDA is so nonchalant about this that it is scary. Check out www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.html.




This book really inspired me to make a better effort of eating locally . While it is a small step I have started a few herbs this year. I decided to grow some peppers, cilantro, chives and Thai basil because I am tired of paying all that money for herbs and then only using a few leaves and tossing the rest when it goes bad. This is my first attempt at growing anything from seed so keep your fingers crossed for me because I definitely do not have a green thumb.
I also plan on shopping at the farmer's market and local fruit stands this summer. I would also like to find a place where I can buy free range meat. As expensive as food is getting I really have to watch my dollars every time I go to the grocery store, but after reading about the meat industry this is the one area that I feel like it is a good idea to spend a few extra bucks for our health and the treatment of animals raised for meat.

Even if you aren't up for reading this book you should definitely check out the website http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/.