This is a story of Kingsolver and her family’s decision to move from urban Tuscon, Arizona to her

husband’s family farm in rural Virginia. They commit—for one full year—to eating only foods which

they either grow themselves or know personally the farmer who grows (or raises) they food they

eat. Her message: eat local food, eat what’s in season, eat organic. In other words, stop eating

food that’s shipped across the country—or across the world—before it arrives at your local store

and then your table. Why contribute toward millions of gallons of fossil fuels just to have a banana

that’s grown in South America. Do we really need that banana? Couldn’t we just eat apples and

strawberries and peaches instead (in season, of course)?

My answer is yes, we can. And we should. Since reading this book, I have made many changes

in my own life. I shop at the farmers’ market every weekend, I try to plan what we eat around

what’s in season, and I’ve significantly cut back on foods that are trucked from far away or

processed foods in which 20 or more ingredients are shipped to one place and then chemically

combined into a food item. Good-bye Pop Tarts. Good bye Cheeze-Its. (non-fiction/memoir)