Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Kingsolver describes the experience of finding The Farmers Diner when the family was on their trip north. The restaurant serves food made only from ingredients sourced from farms within an hour’s drive. The owner, Tom Murphy, is a farmer who had struggled to find a market for his products, and so had opened the diner as a result. It serves similar food to any other diner, but “his unusual take on the ordinary has recently made the place world-famous, at least among those paying attention to food culture” (151).

Tom views the farming industry as “people trying to keep work and homes together, versus conglomerates that scoop up a customer’s money and move it out of town to a corporate bank account” (151-52). It is a real-world example of the locavore lifestyle going beyond the farm.

This chapter includes an essay from Hopp entitled “Speaking Up,” which encourages readers to ask their stores to stock local food and pressure local policymakers to encourage local eating.

Still on their trip, the family travels further north to Canada, where they spend some time trying to track down local food to eat. They pass several restaurants advertising American food, which amuses them as “our national cuisine seems to be food without obvious biological origins, chosen for the color and shape of the sign out front” (155). They visit various markets and find produce from California, showing that the issue of transporting food affects the world, not just America.

They then go to visit with their friends, Elsie and David, in Ohio. They farm corn, while their daughter and her husband, Emily and Hersh, raise dairy cows. They spend time watching how these family farmers operate; David has never used pesticides on his crops. He’s saddened by the way the conglomerate’s marketing has overtaken many farms. They pass an area where one field of corn is grown on land that had previously been farmed with modern methods while the other had only ever been farmed naturally and “the disparity between the two fields was almost comically dramatic

 (163).

One of the reasons for their commitment to traditional farming, Kingsolver says, is that “David and Elsie were raised by farmers and are doing the same for another generation” (165). Another reason is that “David and Elsie are Amish,” who famously adopt only technology and new processes that are vital needs, which “is what keeps our community healthy” (168-69).

Kingsolver’s point in describing the farm in detail is that since “a self-sufficient farming community has survived here, it remains a possibility elsewhere” (166).

Hopp’s essay in this chapter, “Losing the Bug Arms Race,” explores the dangers of using pesticides to control big populations on farms. Insect communities will grow resistant to the poisons; the same is true of herbicides. Meanwhile, “organic agriculture, which allows insect predator populations to retain a healthy presence in our fields, breaks the cycle” caused by these chemicals (165).

Camille’s essay “Organically Yours,” ends the chapter. She describes the various health and nutritional benefits of organic produce, including higher levels of antioxidants (171).

Kingsolver begins this chapter by describing the hard work that goes into a garden in the middle of summer. She argues that the work of weeding, cultivating, and harvesting summer produce like tomatoes, zucchini, and squash is enriching. Most people long for the peace of gardening likely because “it is mixed up in our DNA. Agriculture is the oldest, most continuous livelihood in which humans have engaged” (178). Most people still have a desire to garden and will cultivate some produce, if possible.

This may be why, despite American complacence with industrialized food, “we’re not unaware that things have gone wrong with our food and the culture of its production” (179).

The chapter continues with Kingsolver’s description of the chickens and turkeys, which have grown into adults, and ends with the harvest of summer squash and zucchini, which soon take over the house. The family devises inventive ways to use the squash and to avoid neighbors giving them more, as everyone is in the same boat of plenty.

The chapter includes the essay “Home Grown” from Hopp, which describes how even people living in apartments in urban areas can participate in gardening, such as by joining a community garden.

The chapter ends with Camille’s essay “The Spirit of Summer,” which describes a typical summer Saturday in the Kingsolver house, much of which involves cooking and baking bread. It tastes all the better, according to Camille, because “we had a relationship with this food” (191).