Novelist Barbara Kingsolver and her family meditate on their efforts to feed themselves outside of what I call “corporate communism” — the globalized and collectivized system of agriculture that is rapidly destroying health, environment and freedom on this planet. Kingsolver doesn’t use my terminology, and confines herself to immediate issues of personal health, aesthetics, animal ethics, and local economic vitality. But the book is useful background for the kind of issues that interest me, as well as being entertainingly written. The book doesn’t have the sanctimonious tone that hampers much that is written on the subject. Kingsolver knows that real families have to make economic choices under the constraint of shrinking financial resources, and practical reality. She is a strong advocate of the “eat local / eat seasonal” movement, which lies at the crux of her strategy, and takes every occasion to point out that both economy and pleasure tend to be maximized by it.
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