Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Mom is losing, no doubt, because our vegetables have come to lack two features of interest: nutrition and flavor. Storage and transport take predictable tolls on the volatile plant compounds that subtly add up to taste and food value. Breeding to increase shelf life also has tended to decrease palatability. Bizarre as it seems, we've accepted a tradeoff that amounts to: "Give me every vegetable in every season, even if it tastes like a cardboard picture of its former self."
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the trade-offs made in modern agriculture that prioritize shelf life over the nutritional value and flavor of vegetables.
Barbara Kingsolver's quote reflects on how contemporary agricultural practices have led to a decline in the taste and nutritional quality of vegetables. By focusing on aspects such as storage and transport, we have sacrificed the richness of flavor and essential nutrients, settling for produce that lacks the vibrancy and health benefits we once valued. The quote critiques our acceptance of these changes, suggesting a disconnect between our food choices and their natural qualities.
Themes
VegetablesNutritionFlavorAgricultureFood Quality
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the importance of nutrition, you could reference this quote to emphasize the need for better-quality produce.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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