Autumn 2007

Think Global, Eat Local

Barbara Kingsolver discusses new ‘diet’ book

Barbara Kingsolver and Stephen Hopp signing books at Emory.

Ann Borden

Eating is, by its very nature, a political and ecological act. “We can choose each day to support operations that are killing the land or damaging the land or those that are making it beautiful and lively,” said author Barbara Kingsolver, who spoke to a full house at Glenn Memorial on September 20.

Kingsolver made the rare public appearance to talk about her latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, after learning that Emory’s goal is for 75 percent of the food served on campus to be locally or sustainably grown by 2015.

The nonfiction book, which Kingsolver wrote with her husband, Steven Hopp, who accompanied her to Emory, and their elder daughter, Camille, chronicles the year they spent on a Southern Appalachian farm, eating only what they could grow themselves or buy from nearby farms.

Kingsolver and Hopp (above) stressed that eating local foods substantially reduces oil used to transport foods around the world.

Best known for novels such as The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, Kingsolver says: “Food is one consumer choice we have to make day after day after day. So focusing on our food economy is a good entry point to address a whole lot of issues that are upsetting a whole lot of us, in terms of national health crises, in terms of environmental issues, and in terms of corporate control over how we live.”