Ethical eating: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Firstly, let me declare my bias. I am a Barbara Kingsolver fan. I haven't read everything she has ever written - but quite a lot from her first novel, The Bean Trees, through to her most recent work, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle written in collaboration with her husband Steven Hopp and her elder daughter Camille Kingsolver and ably and practically assisted by the youngest family member, Lily Hopp.

Kingsolver's pictorial representation of a Year of Local Food eaten seasonally - The Vegetannual.

Please reverse months for the Southern Hemisphere

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is subtitled Our Year of Seasonal Eating. It could, as easily, have been subtitled "How to Organise Your Local Food Menu". The Hopp-Kingsolver menage resolved to eat locally and eat seasonally - within the parameters of traditional food preservation methods. Their resolution included a determination to move from long-time residence in distance transport dependent Tucson, Arizona where the water travels long distances as do the fruit and veges and much else that supports modern life there. Fortunately, Steven Hopp long possessed a run-down farm and farmhouse in the Appalachian Mountians of Virginia.

There has been mention, some critical, of the magical or fairy tale quality of Kingsolver's description of the family's Appalachian lifestyle. I do take issue with this. If her description sounds magical, fairy tale, or idealistic, perhaps it is because it speaks to an ideal or fantasy within ourselves which is imbued with such qualities. True, not all of us - even if we wished - could replicate the Kingsolver-Hopp project. This family was particularly well resourced in more ways than one.

For starters, they did not risk their livelihood. Kingsolver has a high profile as a writer - not least because her best selling Poisonwood Bible was featured on that automatic provider of best selling status, Oprah's Book Club. One presumes that this provided some sound financial resource. Hopp is Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia which is classified as a college that changes lives. Biology appears to be a family interest as Camille Kingsolver includes it in her studies at Duke University. Lily was too young to enter into a book contract but she, too, was committed every inch/centimetre of the way.

Secondly, they had the Appalachian farm - with house - which Steven had owned for a long time. Not everyone has one of those tucked away in their Glory Box.

Thirdly, they brought scientific training and literacy to the project. Having such skills backing the project has to be a plus.

Fourthly, the necessary resource of the free labour of three adults and one enthusiastic child. One adult (although she was absent at college for large chunks of the project) was young with, one assumes, the energy to match her age. Kingsolver and Hopp were hardly over the hill. I mention this because at my great age and antiquity I can get tired just thinking about consistent, strenuous, and demanding activity.

Lastly, the motivation of the entire family is a great spiritual resource. There is nothing quite like energetic, resourceful people reinforcing one another in their mutual resolve. It provides large quantities of fuel for the journey, particularly when the going gets tough or you wonder why you ever set out on the journey - although there did not appear to be much self-doubt in the Kingsolver-Hopp unit.

So, when these factors are present, I see nothing magical, fairy tale, or idealistic about Animal, Vegetable, Miracle merely a wonderful, imaginative, determined, and sensible use of resources by two people in mid-life. The Kingsolvers and Hopps appear to have done the project very well, very intelligently and in a well recorded manner - complete with detailed website. For those who wish to emulate them, there is a clear trail to follow.

Some of the clear, factual information provided in AVM is shocking:

Humans have eaten some 80,000 plant species in our history. After recent precipitous changes, three quarters of all human food now comes from just eight species with the field quickly narrowing down to genetically modified corn, soy and canola.

Garden seed inventories show that while about 5,000 non-hybrid vegetable varieties were available from catalogs in 1981, the number in 1998 was down to 600.

Hardly good stewardship of the planet's resources, is it?

The last chapter about the turkeys had me all but rolling on the floor with laughter - until the final paragraph when I was in tears. But it was life and death stuff Kingsolver was describing. The life and death of the re-creating pro-creating skills of created beings. If plain statistics make your eyes glaze over, the life and lot of an American turkey will not. Perhaps one day a futuristic Dr Strangelove will have wreaked the same havoc on humanity as has already been visited on the American turkey. It is our choice. Our questions, our demands, our very own actions will be the deciders. We can eat and die or we can eat and live.

I will be returning my copy to the Upper Ferntree Gully Library this afternoon, dear Reader, so get ye down there and check it out (641.0973 KIN). If it has disappeared from the shelf, great. Just get the friendly staff to put a hold on it.

It will take me a while to process all the information contained in AVM. For instance, I am a vegetarian and, for me, ahimsa/respect is a huge issue. My main motivation is the disrespect shown to animals by the industrial food chain. Kingsolver provides a rationale against vegetarian/vegan lifestyles in favour of respect and gratitude for animals while killing them for food. I do agree with her - in principle and in necessity. In reality, would I move to her side of the fence? I don't know.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is another contribution in the genre of think about what you eat or, in brief, ethical eating. We have philosophers, locavores, the 100 mile diet, seasonal eating, and the slow food movement. Kingsolver points out that when the family embarked on its project locavores and the 100 mile clubs were unknown. By the time the AVM was published, everyone was talking about ethically eating.

My view is that Prodigal Summer and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle should should be read in tandem. The first (written earlier than AVM) is fiction, the second non-fiction but each informs the other. Prodigal Summer deals with some issues that are not dealt with in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Some issues dealt with in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are dealt with more explicitly and graphically in Prodigal Summer. Otherwise, what else is fiction for?

Deep-sea bottom trawling

A major issue in our food chain, for our ethical eating, and - not least - for our environment and planet, is the way our sea food comes to us. We purchase our sea food in a variety of forms - fresh, frozen, canned and processed as ingredients in sauces and pre-packaged dishes. Many species are being fished out - either across the globe or in specific locations. Those consumers paying attention to what is happening are a minority.

Humanity will finish up with little seafood and the ocean a desert. If, dear Reader, you think that fish farming as a replacement for fish in the wild is a solution you need to have a closer look at the consequence of that for us and for the environment.

So one wants to be encouraged by what has just happened in Chile where China, the United States, France, Japan, Chile and South Korea were among the countries signing an agreement to impose restrictions on deep-sea bottom trawling from October until a full scientific study can be undertaken on the effects of bottom trawling. At time of writing, Miss Eagle has not been able to obtain a full list of signatories.

The agreement covers a quarter of the world's oceans and will restrict fishing vessels from dragging huge weighted nets across the sea floor. Except for the tuna fishery, the South Pacific high seas are essentially 'free-for-all' fishery.

Miss Eagle assumes that Australia was present at the meeting - but this has yet to be confirmed. Also to be confirmed is whether Australia is a signatory to the agreement. One assumes that Australia was there and is a signatory the agreement because of our role as a member of the Deep-Sea Defenders. Greenpeace has a compiled a Bottom Trawling League Table.

For three years, Greenpeace has worked with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and its 60 member organisations to get a global moratorium on the destructive fishing practice of bottom trawling in the high seas.

Japan, China and South Korea have signed this recent agreement: three nations in the whole of Asia. [If this is incorrect it is because of lack of details] Miss Eagle wants to know what Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia are doing.

Check your labels, dear Reader. If it is confirmed that a particular nation is not a signatory to the Regional Fisheries Management, please check your labels and the source of your fish and boycott products from nations who are not signatories to the agreement.

Otherwise, you are a contributor to the cycle of detriment to this planet. You are a contributor to the desertification of our oceans and species destruction.

For more information, dear Reader, on seafood sustainability you might like to go to the following sites:

• Eartheasy
• Fishonline
• Choice
• Sea-ex
• Frank Mason & Associates this site contains a host of useful links

My life: it is a'changing

Food from Oz has been silent for nearly four months. Something happened in August which has taken quite a bit of thinking about - including thinking about where Food from Oz fits. In August, Miss Eagle went to the desert. See more about it on To the Desert (linked on the sidebar). Miss Eagle was visiting a sheep station when she came across a situation which struck her, shocked her to the core of her being. Why this should have been so, Miss Eagle doesn't know. Miss Eagle has worked in a meatworks and continued to eat meat. Miss Eagle is not naive in regard to the realities of agriculture and raising animals for food. About ten years ago, she was even vegetarian for a period as a response to the inhumane inclusion of animal products in feed for herbivores. The current situation, however, struck deeper, penetrated spiritually. This was the line in the sand. Enough was enough. The word that came out of this was "Respect". Miss Eagle, when she returned home, blogged the word and it was met with another word "Ahimsa". Miss Eagle remembered this word. Miss Eagle is a scholar of religion and she knew what ahimsa meant. Again, for some strange reason, this had not connected with the original event and the emergence of the word "Respect". Now it all sunk in. It all came together. And issues of respect kept coming into her life and consciousness. Firstly, there was the elimination of all animal flesh with the exception of food from the sea. The exception was because of certain health necessities but Miss Eagle is keeping a watching brief and - if it is possible - seafood will be eliminated too. Miss Eagle has taken care for some time with the species of fish eaten and the quantities because of the stripping of our oceans and poor fishery practices. Secondly, Miss Eagle is endeavouring - with mixed success - to eliminate eggs and dairy products from the menu. Difficulties here are finding a reasonable and palatable substitute for cheese and the needs of others in Miss Eagle's life. It is early days though and Miss Eagle is reasonably hopeful of sorting out this situation. So why has Miss Eagle not edited her blog to take into account this new respect for ALL life. For two reasons: firstly, in a time when people are generally ignorant of their food - where it comes from, its history, how to prepare it - Food from Oz has tried to address this situation in a traditional manner. This general principle will continue with the provision of cooking tips and recipes. Miss Eagle is learning herself - although off an extensive base - and would welcome input of an instructive and constructive nature from others walking the same path. Secondly, it is good to remember from where once has come. That is one of the values of a blog - one can return to former thoughts and consider how much has changed on the way to the present. So, dear Reader, Miss Eagle hopes you will bear with her. It would be nice to have you on the journey too.