Meh. I am struggling to get through this book. There is a ton of good information in it, but you have to get past the author, with her clumsy self-revelations and preachy patronizing tone. I can't tell you how irritating I find it that I agree with her on almost everything, given how little I'm enjoying reading this book. ( )

As an aspiring urban locavore I was very happy to win this book in a give away. I had just read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", and was disappointed in how little of it applied to my situation. I needed time to gather enough courage to read Vicky Robin's book. My apologies to Vicky for the late review.

Even though Vicky also lives in a rural area, she is very honest about her weaknesses, deviations from the rules she set herself, and human errors. She is a cancer survivor, who realizes that she needs to make some fundamental changes in her life style . She also does extensive research and preparation before she embarks on her 10 mile and 50% within 50 miles diets. The result is that she finds new friends, and creates new relationships with the people and animals that produce her food. Vicky calls this "relational" eating. She does not just build a cold business network, but an interdependent caring community.
At the end of each chapter is a section with "do it yourself" tips, recipes and statistics, which make doing an actual locavore experiment yourself much more realistic.

Unfortunately the book loses some of its spark after Vicky Robin finishes her two experiments with local eating. The tone gets more preachy, and she repeats the same thing endlessly in different ways. The composition of the beginning of the book fell apart, it needs tightening up. This is the main reason I gave the book three stars instead of the four or five I would have given, because the book inspired me to try, despite the fact that I live in the city.

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