a summary by Alex Whalen
Barbara Kingsolver is an author who wrote the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," did an experiment to see what her family could do to only eat food grown by them or extremly fresh food. Kingsolver believed that this was the right thing to do for the environment and for her family. This links up to the fact that doing what is right may not always be easy.
A main point for Kingsolver is why healthy organic food is more expensive than a McDonald's cheeseburger. Her point is that in society eating what is good for your body can take a lot of time to make and a lot of money to buy. So, why chose organic? Because in our times of economic struggle and news of farmers failing why should we put or money in a world wide company, we should support or farmers at places like a famers market.She claims that people chose to eat badly because they do not want to put in the time and effort that it takes to eat healthy.
In Kingsolver's experiment she grew her own food by the basket. She said she grew enough corn, onions,okra, and tomatoes to last them through out the year. Her family was neer without food. They always had enough and it was satisfying to know that it came from their own hands and not some far of place. This mentality was one of the whole reasons for the experiment. To not depend on food imported and only rely on food that they grew.
We as teenagers and humans eat food that tastes good but may not be good for us. We need to support places like farmer's markets or even grow some of our own vegetables, just to know where our food comes from and to not depend on others for that food. Small tomato plants and zucchini plants are not expensive and grow tons of vegatables. One of the most practical plants to grow is an onion. All youdo is take an onion that you do not want and put in it the ground.
If we do this we can answer Barbara Kingsolver's questions of "Where did this come from? Is it nourishing? and Are my choices helping others?"
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