When novelist Barbara Kingsolver, 52, moved from Tucson, Ariz., to southwest Virginia with her husband, Steven, and two daughters, they decided that they would spend a year trying to eat local: only food they either raised themselves or bought from nearby growers. They raised turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs, bought milk from a regional dairy, and froze corn and peas for the winter. The results of that experiment are the subject of her new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
Andrew Stout's farm in Carnation, Wash., is one of the most successful small organic farms in the country. Each week, Full Circle Farm delivers fresh lettuce, green peas, spring garlic, and spinach to 17 farmers' markets in the Seattle area, as well as to dozens of restaurants and retailers, including Whole Foods Market. Some 2,400 boxes of produce a week go out to families who have bought a share in the farm's riches. His customers are counting on getting freshness and taste-and also on Stout's care when it comes to hygiene. "Bacteria exists everywhere," he says. So he keeps the manure pile away from the packing shed, tests the water used to irrigate and wash vegetables, and keeps an eye on his workers to be sure they wash their hands. "I'm a food provider," he says. "You want to do the absolute best that you can."
AP - In grudging concessions to President Bush, Democrats intend to draft an Iraq war-funding bill without a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and shorn of billions of dollars in spending on domestic programs, officials said Monday.
AP - Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day Monday, raising huge columns of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
AP - Gunmen in two cars attacked a minibus heading to Baghdad from a Shiite town north of the capital Monday, killing seven passengers, including a child, police said.
Smoke billowed over a Palestinian refugee camp as Lebanese forces battled Islamic militants for a second day near the northern city of Tripoli. The clashes have left dozens dead and wounded. The Lebanese Red Cross is "receiving a lot of calls" and is trying to help those in need, but the violence limits the agency's abilities to do so, said Director George Ketaneh.
![[logo]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/bbc_news_120x60.gif "BBC News")
![[logo]](http://www.csmonitor.com/images/logo_88x31.gif "Christian Science Monitor"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gif "NYT > Home Page")
![[logo]](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/images/rss/logo_rss.gif "USNews.com"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/th/main_142b.gif "Yahoo! News")
![[logo]](http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif "Guardian Unlimited")
![[logo]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/logo/cnn.logo.rss.gif "CNN.com"){kind=logo}
