Recent Quote from Barbara Kingsolver

(Read it!)

---

Barbara Kingsolver was at McGill University in Montreal last week, and here's what she had to say about the current fight against Big Ag in India, and the fight against Big Ag in general. Love it!

.

"I believe there is absolutely a direct relationship between living with too much and living with not enough… we have in every part of the world lost control of our food systems to agribusiness… [referring to Monsanto] a number of companies… have quite systematically removed seed banks, have contaminated [and] diminished the genetic material that all people in the world have with which to feed themselves, and it’s a terrifying problem. [T]he only way we can reclaim control over our food systems is to [first] step away, to any extent that we can, from the dismal presumption that it’s too late, because it’s not, it can’t be (we owe this to our kids to try) and to try whatever we can to reinvest in [and re-energize] our local [diversified and sustainable] food systems. If you can do that, you are helping the farmers in India because you’re walking away from agribusiness; you are forcing them to relinquish absolute control."

.

Awesome. I'm so glad this movement has the voice and smarts of Barbara Kingsolver.

---

I finished reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" last week, and I found it inspiring and engrossing, with a minor caveat. I avoided reading it for a long time- first, I couldn't get past the second chapter of her earlier work of fiction, "The Poisionwood Bible"; second, I honestly thought I'd be jealous of the life she is living- yeah, I know- dumb reason, but there it is. Well, I was jealous (just a little), but it didn't keep me from enjoying her book- which I did, tremendously. I really hope there are follow-ups to this book. And I hope her older daughter Camille, who contributed to the book, keeps on writing- she clearly has the genes.

.

The caveat? Ok, I'm totally splitting hairs here, but she doesn't seem to put up much food via other methods besides freezing or canning. Both methods are absolutely great, but they both require a lot of energy. I personally would have been really interested and impressed if she had put up more food without electricity- say, via lactic fermentation, or oil or salt preserving. But I'm already a convert and that niggling complaint is completely beside the point. The book's intended audience are the millions and millions of Americans who don't care whether their food is industrial or not, and have absolutely no idea why they should care.

.

I read a lot of Amazon reviews about her book- the common criticism (in both positive and negative reviews) is that the book is preachy. Yeah... and? This is a subject that not only needs a heck of a lot more preaching, it needs to be shouted from the rafters. Would that this topic got as much attention in the media as pop culture or professional sports. Because without healthy, living soil, sustainable food-growing methods, and GMO-free, genetically diverse crops, we humans are pretty much goners. And you can take that to the bank.