Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

After hearing only a little about it, I decided that Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life was definitely something I would enjoy reading, and asked (begged actually) Papa Bear to buy it for my birthday. A little over a week after my birthday, I have finished the book and definitely have a lot to think about.

Years before I ever heard of this book, or peak oil, or any of the things that have been on my mind lately, I became interested in the idea of self-sufficient living. I dreamt of living on an acreage, growing all our own food, raising chickens and sheep, keeping bees and so on. But it always remained just a dream. After reading this book, the dream has been rekindled, and Papa Bear and I have been talking about how to make it a reality. We have a few ideas, but we would need other families to get involved, and that is a post for another day.

For right now, we need to do what we can with what we've got. Our current land on our suburban block is large enough that we could grow a lot of our own fruit and veges, and maybe have a couple of chooks too. Of course, why would you need chooks if you don't eat eggs? Well, the author actually made some very thought-provoking arguments for local eating as opposed to veganism or even vegetarianism. No promises that our eating is about to change, but it has made me think.

A lot of people are starting to realise the importance of eating locally. There's the Slow Food Movement, the 100 Mile Diet and more recently The Bullseye Diet as suggested by Sharon at Casaubon's Book (a brilliant blog which everyone should read!). It's the bullseye idea our family is aiming for, which starts with providing as much of your own food in your own backyard as you can, and working outwards from there.

We have a lot of work to do. As much as I have known for some time that local eating is best for the planet, I haven't exactly taken any real action. Yesterday I did our weekly shopping and was alarmed at how far from our ideal we really are at the moment. I made sure to buy mostly seasonal produce, but I did still buy some that's really not in season for our area, which means it's been shipped from somewhere that it is. For some time I've been making sure not to buy any imported produce. At the very least, all the produce we eat was grown in this country. But that's not enough, and I need to start finding local sources for as much as I can, and preparing ourselves for a gardening adventure.

I'll leave you with a quote from the final chapter of the book:

"It's impossible to become a fuel purist, and it seems like failure to change our ways only halfway, or a pathetic 10 percent. So why even try? When the scope of the problem seems insuperable, isn't it reasonable just to call this one, give it up, and get on with life as we know it? I do know the answer to that one: that's called child abuse. When my teenager worries that her generation won't be able to fix this problem, I have to admit to her that it won't be up to her generation. It's up to mine. This is a now-or-never kind of project. But a project, nevertheless. Global-scale alteration from pollution didn't happen when human societies started using a little bit of fossil fuel. It happened after unrestrained growth, irresponsible management, and a cultural refusal to assign any moral value to excessive consumption. Those habits can be reformed."