review

This post was originally posted on October 22, 2007 to Fresh From The Market – my food, farm, cooking blog.  At this point everyone who is even remotedly interested in the “localvore” movement, farmers market, organics, etc has heard of or read this book.

Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” arrived along with my copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” and I just got around to finishing it recently.  Michael’s style is significantly different than Barbara’s amusing and poetic prose about her family’s decision to eat locally and seasonally for one year.  The premise is that Michael follows four meals from farm to table: A McDonald’s meal eaten in the car, a meal purchased at Whole Foods, an organic meal eaten on the sustainable farm it was raised, and finally a meal hunted and foraged by Michael himself.

Michael has a much more textbook style approach to the subject than I expected for a topic that can be very passionate for many people.  I had expected some vilification of the industrial food industry yet out of the gate I was introduced to the farmer that has been growing industrial corn on his family’s land for years and how the changes over the years impact his decisions.  As Michael progresses through each type of meal the tone becomes slightly more personal.  Perhaps this is intentional or perhaps it’s simply the fact that non-industrial food touches more people.

Over all I enjoyed the book.  The textbook style helped me learn many facts about farming, politics, as well as the various moral and economic choices available.  The fact that there is not a single right choice was was always under the surface and his uniform approach allows the reader to feel they are making an educated decision rather than being sold on someone else’s opinion.  If you are looking for something dramatic then this is not likely to be your book, but if you are looking to educate and enlighten yourself and spend some time considering the choices you make, then you will likely take something away from it.

This post was originally posted on June 25, 2007 to Fresh From The Market – my food, farm, cooking blog.  Reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral really started whipping my passion around food and farm in to a frenzy and would make me realize that there are many books on the topic, many of which I would eventually read as well.

So I am really not much of a newsletter reader.  They seem mostly be spam and of little interest to me, but one that I find myself reading regularly is from the fine folks at Laptop Lunches.  We own a couple laptop lunch systems and have thoroughly enjoyed them.  Highly recommended.   But that’s actually not the point of this article.  In the June Laptop Lunc h Times they added a section for “Green Reads” and gave reviews or recommendations on a couple books.  Two caught my interest and with the click of a mouse they were on their way to my doorstep.  “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” arrived around Wednesday of last week and between being under the weather and home alone for the weekend I managed to polish it off just last night.

I’m not sure I know how to describe the book, it’s 1/2 poetic prose about farm and garden life and the romanticism of being self sustaining.  It’s 1/4 industrial and political commentary and 1/4 essays and recipes.  If you aren’t passionate about the topic of eating locally and seasonally it could come across as preachy.  I don’t think the approach is likely to change anyone’s mind that is already opposed to the ideas.  But if you harbor some passion for knowing where you food comes from, what is it in, how it was treated, the impact on our environment, or what you might be able to do about all of the above, then it’s nothing short of inspirational.  There are definitely portions that had me giggling out loud, wether it was Lily’s decision to sell her chickens for meat, but “only the mean ones”, or Barbara revealing the trials and tribulations of turkey sex.

The general “story” is following Barbara and her family through a year where they vowed to only eat food grown locally to them or ideally on their own land.  It starts out in the spring and ends the following spring.  She talks about their anxieties around what they will eat in winter and how do you feed a dinner party.  She talks about what they gave up, and what they found in it’s place.  When the winter was coming to an end I didn’t want the book to stop.  I wanted to know how things went this spring too.

All through out the book there are references and educational anecdotes.  I didn’t know that it’s normal for the lower leaves of my tomato plant to drop off as the fruiting moves up the plant.  Mine is doing that right now and I’d thought I’d done something wrong!  I also didn’t know that modern turkeys, as well as most of the seedlings or seeds available for purchase, are incapable of reproducing themselves with out intervention.  I also didn’t know exactly what a “heirloom” plant or vegetable meant or even how their numbers are dwindling while some have already been lost forever.

If you hadn’t gathered by now I do recommend the book.  I completely realize it is not going to be for everyone, but if you give it a chance, skip some of the stronger commentary if it doesn’t suit you, I think you will come out of it with new ideas and some fresh inspiration.