Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

The main theme of the book is local eating; it is also the main argument of the book. Kingsolver explores different food-related topics and advocates for things like healthy eating, sustainable eating, and even ethical eating. However, she gathers all of these concerns together—health, sustainability, ethics—and makes the ultimate case that if you eat local, these concerns take care of themselves.

Local eating is, by nature, healthier because a local diet automatically cuts out processed foods, which are the majority of the empty calories Americans consume. Processed food and industrially produced items were supposed to “make food cheaper and available to more people. Instead, it has helped more of us become less healthy” (19).

Next, a local diet almost guarantees that its food comes from sustainable, small farms, simply because it would not be profitable for industrial farms to produce such small yields and only sell it within a few miles’ radius. For this reason, Kingsolver argues, “locally-grown; is a denomination whose meaning is incorruptible” (123). In terms of eco-friendliness, being a locavore also cuts out the huge fuel cost associated with buying and consuming food from far-flung areas. Additionally, local food is more likely to come from