綠化日常論芭芭拉•金索夫在《自耕自食•奇蹟的一年》中的生態實踐與永續安居

Greeting the Everyday Barbara Kingsolver's Ecocritical Praxis and Sustainable Reinhabitation in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

自歐洲啟蒙時代、社會經濟政治現代化、全球化以來，啟蒙理性與全球消費邏輯商品化、同質化、庸俗化屬於日常生活範疇的食衣住行與文化生活。全球化時代下，世界成為巨型消費市場，資本主義結合消費主義使商品成為一連串的符碼系統。隨著生產技術進步、社會分工精細、加上跨國大量製造與包裝及科技媒體與跨國企業行銷，大眾已鮮少知曉整個商品生產過程的來龍去脈，因而提高個人在日常生活中商品消費的風險，甚至無意中資助破壞全球生態環境的企業。充斥於市場的「黑心」商品更是引發日常生活恐懼，尤以食品風險所造成的恐慌最為顯著。有鑑於此，芭芭拉•金索夫（Barbara Kingsolver）與家人從連水都要外求的亞利桑納州土桑市（Tuscon, Arizona）搬遷至自然條件適宜作物的肯塔基（Kentucky），並將一年自耕自食的生活實驗與日常生活的消費實踐，記錄在《自耕自食•奇蹟的一年：一個最低里程的成功實驗》（Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, 2007）一書中，因而此書可歸類為墨菲（Patrick Murphy）所分類的環境書寫（environmental writing）。本文企圖在金索夫的文本中結合日常生活研究與生態論述，一方面檢視《自耕自食•奇蹟的一年》文本中實際日常生活面貌、食物主權（food sovereignty）、消費實踐等議題，另一方面以日常生活文化理論學者狄塞托（Michel de Certeau）對於實踐於日常生活裡的戰術（tactics）的討論，探究金索夫如何在日常生活中化理論為行動，表現戰術為日常生活實踐的特徵，以永續安居（reinhabitation）作為一種與全球化食物商品邏輯抗衡的敘述；並審視分析屬於「私」領域的日常生活如何在與「公」領域重疊及交互影響下，進行反動以作為一種另類批判或抗衡現代性與全球化論述的可能。

In the age of globalization, the lives of everyday consumers' have been commodified and homogenized by commodity chains. Moreover, capitalism and consumerism make many of the processes of food production invisible to consumers. Advanced food processing technologies and facilities and the social division of labor, along with the exercise of international marketing strategies all increase food safety risks and peak consumers' food fears about their everyday diets.Internationally-renowned writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, have entered debates about food scarcity/safety and environmental degradation. Kingsolver's nonfiction Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007) tells the story of Kingsolver and her family as they examine their food and consumption activities over the course of one year. They attempt to reduce the control of international food companies' in their everyday lives and achieve a sustainable reinhabitation of their small farm in Virginia in the UnitedState. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, an excellent example of Kingsolver's skills as an environmental writer, discloses many of the secrets of the industrialized food system in a context of globalization. This paper proposes to combine theories of everyday life, described by Michel de Certeau, with ecocritical praxis to analyze some of the food and agricultural issues raised by Kingsolver. These issues include food sovereignty, food miles, food safety, fair trade, and farmer's markets. After moving to Kentucky from Tucson, Arizona, Kingsolver and her family begin ecological praxis along with sustainable agriculture and living by following the models first described by other famous environmental writers such as Wendell Berry. They participate in the growing of their own food, celebrating a return to the local and taking backtheir own food sovereignty, something that food writer Michael Pollan and global food justice advocate Raj Patel have encouraged. By doing so, Kingsolver and her family explore how small local farming or economies can improve the health of the planet. I will argue that Kingsolver is, in fact, engaging in de Certeau's ”tactics” by offering her readers a model of alternative everyday practices as a form of‚ ”resistance” to the discourses of economic globalization. This model, I will argue, also offers readers a positive way to become part of the solution to the environmental challenges that humans face on this planet.