Animal Vegetable Miracle (3rd Entry)

In the third chapter of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbra Kingsolver, Kingsolver talks about being a vegetarian some.  She also says that many humans have a negative impact on the land because of their cattle and other animals, but some humans have a positive impact on the land.  In case of the latter, they need to make sure that the animals don't over graze.  She talks about a small village in Peru where many people were starving in a barren wasteland.  When the herders brought in goats (which were, mind you, indigenous to that area,) not only did the people begin eating well, but the land was good too.  The problem with human civilization, apparently, is that they bring in many animals that are more or less not indigenous to the area and they over graze because the new animals have no natural predators.  Actually, I was reading about an animal that is not allowed inside the state of Georgia, even as a pet.  This is an animal that everyone knows, and it's called the hedgehog.  You may ask, what's wrong with a friendly neighborhood hedgehog?  well actually, the hedgehog's spikes make it more or less immune to eagles and coyotes, the main predators (besides humans and the occasional Alien Big Cat) of Georgia.  Because of this the hedgehog would live almost indefinitely and overgraze if there were only a female and a male hedgehog gettin' together.  That's not good, as it would turn Georgia into much more of a desert than humans have already made it (have you seen the sand in the street, man?)  Anyways, it turns out some species of organisms don't have good chemistry with the area, but humans put them there anyway.  (There's not a hedgehog law for every species of corn and tomato!) And that's why it's better for the environment if we eat locally.

Animal Vegetable Miracle (2nd Entry)

In "Animal Vegetable Miracle" so far, the main characters have shared many insights on farm life.  They stand opposed to over-produced produce, and have stayed true to eating only local food.  In the first part of the section that I'm doing, she talks about tomatoes.  She says that many tomatoes in the food industry are injected with many pesticides and growth hormones to make insects not eat them and to make them grow much bigger than tomatoes are supposed to grow.  She also said that most tomatoes are actually not red.  They apparently come in many other varieties of colors that range from green to yellow to orange.  She also keeps commenting on "UHP" milk, that apparently can not make cheese.  She says that it is very bad for the consumer and it does not have the nourishing fat and curds that other, not pasteurized milks have.  Also, the concept of "free range" by the food industry is steadily decreasing in value.  Chickens' eggs and meat can be called "free range" if they live in cages most of their lives, and maybe go outside in the open air once.
This book really opened up my eyes to the unhealthiness of the food that we eat, because so much of it is affected by things that make it look better.  However, the agents that make the food look so good are generally giving us negative effects, such as growth stunting and getting sick.  I think that as this book was being written the author was learning all these things too, as it is a fairly autobiographical story.