Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver should be required reading for anyone with a concern for our food supply. Kingsolver’s autobiographical account charts her families course through a year in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.

Easier said than done!

What only a century ago was routine is now back in vogue as consumers attempt to get answers on the who, what and where of our food production and consumption.

Part humourous memoir, part layperson how-to manual, the book brings a lot of  information together in one rambling and entertaining package.

Some of the Shocking Facts 

Each item served in an American meal has traveled an average of 1500 miles before it reaches the dinner table

After automobiles, food production ranks at the second-biggest consumer of fossil fuels. Americans consume about 400 gallons of oil per citizen per year directly related to eating.

Almost 75% of all antibiotics used in the United States today are used by Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations – 1152 chickens can fit into a 6 X 8 foot room

If all the products with corn and soy included in them were removed from your grocery store the shelves would be next to empty – even packaging is now made from corn starch

Over 70% of the Midwestern United States farmland now only produces commercial soybean and corn