local food in a modern world

I just finished a wonderful book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, that tells the story of her family's spending a year in southern Virginia eating only local foods. (Well, as it turns out it wasn't all local since they had a few splurges here and there like Florida cranberries at Thanksgiving.) Generally, though everything they ate came from their garden or that of a neighbor. I'll admit, I made baby food and buy organic milk but readers of my "Fries with that?" post will quickly note that I have my vices in the food department. Kingsolver manages to argue that buying locally not only supports local farmers, but is also healthier and cheaper than buying "conventional" foods. (She also argues that eating meat is just fine.) She weaves a story of her family on the farm with practical gardening information, recipes, resources on environmental issues. The book seems a bit gimicky at first since the family moves across the country from Arizona to Virginia to spend a year growing their own food, but after the sweat equity involved, I have to believe that Kingsolver is sincere.

Of course, this is the wrong time of year to be inspired to launch a homegrown program of my own, but I can choose local brands over imports and put an organic vegetable on my table every now and then. I'll probably even toss those halloween pumpkins, homegrown I might add, into some mulch to see if they'll come back next year.