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“Why,“ asked
Margery Leonard, discussion leader at the Nile Café book talk, ”
did Kingsolver title her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle?
“The animal
and vegetable part is pretty obvious, but why miracle?” asked Margery.
There were varying
opinions as to what the author meant by miracle but the group concluded
that it was the miracle of growth and harvest, and the kind of plenty
we get from the ground, that prompted the author to add the word
“miracle” to the title.
Some seven participants
took part in the second Animal, Vegetable, Miracle discussion, held in
the Niles area of Fremont.
Some of the attendees
came early to sample lunch and the Vietnamese iced coffee at the
Nile Café which was sweet and delicious. Most had read the
book and Margery peppered the conversation with several provocative questions.
She started off asking
us what association we all had with farming. Everyone gave
their experiences which ranged from some part of childhood on a farm to
thinking things grew from wooden baskets at a vegetable and fruit stand in a ghetto area.
The group shared a
number of perspectives and ideas that are summarized here:
- “Why”, asked Margery, “did Kingsolver feel compelled to spend a
year on a farm and write this book? Kingsolver was living
in Arizona where most foods are transported great distances to wind
up on our tables. The cost in environmental harm was great.
The author wanted to grow her own food and eat locally for the
sake of her and her family’s education and edification.”
- Kingsolver’s husband Steven L. Hopp shares in the book that
if everyone ate just one meal a week from products that were purchased
locally, we could reduce the amount of oil we consume by 1.1 billion
barrels in just one week.
- Most felt the idea of the book is to allow us to rethink how
we get the foods we eat every day. We all agreed that
Kingsolver was successful in changing the way we think about the
meals we put on the table. Several of us started going
to farmer’s markets because of the book and others check supermarket
stickers to see where the produce is coming from.
- One of the important themes in the book is that products grown
close to home and eaten in season have greater nutrients and are more delicious.
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