Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life

Author Barbara Kingsolver

Chapters 6-11 Response

Chapter Six: The Birds and the Bees embodied many cultural elements of farming society in correlation to the natural cycle of life and reproduction. The chapter illustrates Lily’s excitement and anticipation in awaiting the hatching of her chicks, Kingsolver outlines the transition Lily pursues when committed to the idea of selling eggs for profit in order to manage funds that would result in a horse. When she told that her mother Lily would double her proceeds is extremely excited. Shortly after Lily expresses that she wishes to sell eggs and meat for profit, insisting to kill only the “mean” chickens.  I found the transition from loving the hens to seeing them as profit a peculiar one. I understand that it was a decision in order to achieve other goals; I just believe that it would be difficult for me to feed on something I once sought friendship with.

Other interesting point within the chapter expose the effects of the formation of intensively managed CAFOs or factory farms called concentrated animal feeding operations. To which Kingsolver acknowledges the recognized complaints (3); the first is that of the harsh treatment of animals, who are restricted to confined, tightly compacted buildings devoid of sunlight and natural characteristics of nature, such as grass. If we can not manage to control the conditions of our produce, aka if we can not ensure healthy conditions for the animals we are to consume, how can we have confidence in the quality of the meat. Need it be said, healthy treatment of livestock is essential to a productive, efficient system. The second problem is pollution, the waste projection of the animals creates water as well as obvious waste storage concerns. This is an easy problem to identify and correct, animals on land equals healthy fertilization, its as simple as that. The third problem remains the issue of health. It is easy to identify factors of risks to health, in fact this can be done on multiple levels. There is the initial health of the animal confined to unhealthy, viral conditions, the health of the land (lack of essential nutrients), the health risk to the operators’ of the facilities, and the massive risk to the consumer; the consumer whom of which unknowingly welcomes many dangers of bacterial, viral, and more importantly avoidable health concerns. For instance consumers unavailingly take in remnants of antibiotics that have been pumped into their produce, as a result of the horrible living conditions the animals stress levels increase making them susceptible to infection, and thus they are filled with antibiotics to revert, or prevent the loss of capital. This is absolutely dehumanizing, it forces animals, living creatures, to live a life of production to which they are enslaved.

I am a realist, it is not as thought I believe that everyone will abandon meat and let the fuzzy little creatures and animals live in a Utopian world of fantasy, I understand meat offers protein and in healthy conditions can enhance the basis, adding dietary contrast. The point is not that we produce meat in market structures, but that like any commodity of the market the set worth of the good correlates to the maintenance and treatment of the good within the market. Living creatures should not be subject to such exploitation or abuse by any other living creatures; it is systematically inhumane.

In Chapter 8 Growing Trust, the author who visits friends in Massachusetts while exploring the local markets of the New England area concludes the strong relationship between grower/ producer and products of the local market. Harvest is an extremely intimate occupation or hobby. The passion and patience pay off in the form of crops. By association, the consumers are extendedly welcomed into this local market structure, and by such association establish a link or extension of the intimate ‘organic’ relationship.  On page 120, Kingsolver reiterates a conversation between her an Amy that I find exemplifies the intimacy within the relationship, she writes, “I observed that in the first week of June, she (Amy) could charge anything she wanted for these. She laughed. “I could. But I don’t. I belong to this community, people know me. I wouldn’t want to take advantage.” This benevolence and moral pride, may be elements encouraged by the culture of harvesting, it may be an understanding of wisdom that has lay dormant for those who have no clue where their food is coming from.

Chapter 9 Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, besides reminding me of Alice in Wonderland, summarizes the impact of centralized food production and it’s impact upon our culture. “All that hurry can blur the truth that life is a zero-sum equation”(124). Truth is we spend our time distracting and hurrying ourselves along this rollercoaster lifestyle we have set up, paying little or no attention to the macro connections between our endless consumption patterns forgoing the fact that it is directly connected to capitalism, which relies on the market structure and is said to have acquired a life of its own. In fact capitalist consumption results directly in many of the complications and dilemmas we remain ‘distracted’ from today. “Cooking is a dying art in our culture” (126), Kingsolver goes on to proclaim that our food culture today runs mostly on empty calories. Considering food plays a major role in culture it is embarrassing to realize that our culture is defined largely, widely and commonly on fast food. This elaborate scheme to profit from exploiting the world’s resources is at the heart of capitalism, leaving no room for moral, conscious or corrective measures within the market structure. However, we as consumers have an easy in to the market structure. Problem is the more people who are attracted to the structure tend to seek profit and maintain a blindfold when it comes to such aspects of conditions and regulations of food production. The aggressive ‘capital-motivated’ drive of market structures has largely exploited many aspects of the food production economy and leaves the animals to the mercy of the system. Rather than allow a system devised to ensure ‘successful’ markets, it is the civil obligation of the people to remain informed and active in communal, societal issues, and especially those that influence so many aspects of life and culture; such as food.

             There was one fact I came upon in Chapter Ten: Eating Neighborly that caught my attention.  “Buying your goods from local businesses rather than national chains generates about three times as much money for your local economy. Studies from all over the country agree on that, even while consumers keep buying at chain stores, and fretting that the downtown blocks of cute mom-and-pop venues are turning into a ghost town. Today’s bargain always seems to matter more” (149).  This was absolutely astonishing to me. I believe that if communities began to tap into their potential for successful economic, environmental and societal arguments than preservation is not only possible but a more stable, sustainable and reliant system would thus socioeconomically emerge offering security in the health of the communities. Strong initiative is necessary to break corporate institutions that have too easily transformed into social constructions that define our cultural and physical health. In order to preserve and reestablish the culture of the American people, it is essential that we defend our human rights, to which are threatened by many different problems, all the way down to making money off of our food economy.

            The final reflection I would like to proclaim is the potential effectiveness of the agricultural system. Based upon research about the capitalist structure, market and priorities, it is easy to conclude that the market has spent billions of dollars in constructing advertisements of uncountable propaganda purposes, this system was designed to suck us in, tell us what we ‘need’, and provides for this need. The cycle continues by creating new and alluring (but more importantly) pointless temptations of needs and wants in order to create capital. The production system is built to shield the interworking and externalities of such a system in order to continuously and infinitely create capital. Problem is we live on a finite planet, and it is not the earth’s soil that shall have to transition to our desires, nor can a patented crop be held accountable by a court of law. There are some laws that are greater than that of man, thus regardless of how hard man fights the sun it shall continue to rise and set regardless of man’s discretion. In regards to power the Earth hands down in more powerful than the ideals of man and thus man must answer to the laws of nature before insisting upon the power of the law of man. It is important to understand that plant life emerged long, long, before the human species. The dinosaurs were among the first creatures to experience the various plant life of the Earth, and thus since their extinction that plant life has continued, we, humans, such a youthful species are foolish to believe there is survival without the Earth’s condolence. Plants may live without dinosaurs, they may certainly live without humans, but in fact it is humans who may not survive without the Earth. Therefore if we seek to survive as a species it is essential that we get involved, educated and active in defending many aspects of life, especially the environment or the detriment will be claimed by our extinction.

Alexandria Valente

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Author Barbara Kingsolver

Final Note

            On top of the numerous factoids and information Kingsolver managed to pack into her memoir my favorite element in learning of her family food production was the cultural evidence of food’s impact upon overall culture. In Chapter 17: Celebration Days, Kingsolver writes, “ Never underestimate the value of motivational speeches from the boss. Lily shot out of bed extra early every morning so she’d have time to spend in the chickens coop before the school bus came” (277). This passage interested me because it is largely different from the portrait understanding of a young girl’s ambitions. Lily’s deep-rooted, organic relationship to the natural world provides an intimate understanding of the importance in caretaking. Unlike many young girls her age she spends much of her time caring for her chickens, protecting and ensuring their safety. The harvest and farming culture allows for an opportunity in mental growth to initiate an all-natural coherence with the demands of nature, and although these demands are tentative they are not necessarily demanding, and ultimately they are arguably worth the rewards.

 Later in the chapter Kingsolver writes, “value is not made of money but of a tender balance of expectation and longing” (287). I agree with Kingsolver here, and I believe that cultural patterns of consumption have gotten out of control. This unregulated and strongly capitalistic ideology is destined to detach a conscious element of perspective where it comes to nature’s authority and importance before that of capital. There are many flaws within the financial system, which proves a further point that growing and harvesting one’s own food supply, and perhaps enough to sell helps to drastically influence the local economy’s in which the farming is taking place. This system is written off as out-dated, or pre-industrialized civilization, but in fact economic, political, environmental, and social studies replicate that it is the industrialized modernity of our nation that threatens our very chances at sustainable life. A shift to enhance, protect and maintain a larger agricultural section, especially by increasing farm workers, offers a chance of renewal, a new structure, moving away from the unsustainable future of our current industrialized empire.

I believe our system is headed in a direction that shall prove un-appealing in many ways, it shall take ingenuity, ambition and hard work to reconstruct a sustainable, beneficial system, but by paying close attention to the overall picture and taking swift action in environmental, energy efficient, and socioeconomic arenas shall further insurance of a compatible relationship between the natural world and our role as a product of that world. As Kingsolver states, in reflecting upon her year in whole, “We were trendy” (337). I believe this speaks to the civil obligation of of citizens, encouraging them to inform and educate themselves on influential issues and policies, and respond by acting out of moral belief in what is right and what is wrong, if everyone took it upon themselves to fulfill their civili obligation control would replenish itself in the hands of the people. We would be able to control our harvests, (with the help of mother nature), this would allow us to be able to regulate our health and avoid dangerous pesticides, and hormones that plague our food market, as well as lessen the corporate control over things as essential as food, intimately taking back control of our own lives to ensure the healthy and beneficial externalities that occur. I believe Kingsolver has paved the way, constructing options our of obstacles and offering advice and support throughout the transition. Acknowledging the light at the end of our ‘political’ and wall street encompassed tunnel, I strongly suggest we seek to recognize, treat and control our own consumption patterns, renouncing the role of corporate business in the lives and individuals as well as creating a new tunnel, or perhaps lifting the boundaries set by larger structures in order to announce a socioeconomic environmental freedom that was taken from us without negotiation. It is time that we defeat our tendencies to be apathetic and lazy in regards to civil involvement and reclaim treasures of evolution and interaction that allowed harvest discovery in the first place. The magnitude of importance surrounding issues such as food production are vitally essential and demand respective heed, and perhaps if we succeed we shall be granted the ultimate understanding, as Kingsolver explains, “altered routines were really at the heart of what we gained”(342).

Alexandria Valente