Pandodyssey™ Panda Blog

This is a blog devoted to Giant Panda enthusiasts, environmental wanna-bes and peace loving funimals, world-wide.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

pass the errr...i'll just eat my napkin, thanks

Lately, I've been reading Kim O'Donnell's blog, food & cooking writer for the washington post. Normally I only read her when she has a tasty recipe listed on the front page of the Food section. Recently though, she's been broadening her subjects a bit and writing a lot about sustainable farming which is a very unique environmental animal unto itself, in that it directly impacts us as individuals every day because heck, ya gotta eat. And yet we remain largely uninformed about how our food gets to us.

O'Donnell's recent topic series has got me thinking today about how ignorant I truly wish to remain about the origins of my food. I'm not even talking about turning vegetarian because I oppose rampant animal cruelty in the meat production industries. (that is a whole nuther can of spam.) I'm talking about fruits and vegetables and feesh and all those things that are supposed to be good for you already. Well, I got news for you about those fresh looking veggies at the supermarket: they're not as good for you as you think (pesticides, growth chemicals GROSS), they're not good for our pollution/traffic/smog problem (hey how did these pineapples get to virginia anyway? via the pineapple fairy and her tractor trailer?), and are grown in environmentally unsustainable conditions, all to keep costs down and profits up. (If hearing this makes you queasy, don't even begin to think about seafood. Trust me.)

I'm as cheap and poor as the next person, but the more I learn about the origins of my food, the more I believe that I as a consumer have only 1 way to make my feelings known and that is to put my money where my mouth is.

I CAN spend my money on organic products. If there's any place in my budget to splurge on myself (and there isn't) at least I can justify it and feel really good about it. In other words, if you value your car and regularly fill it up with 93 octane, would you not also put the highest quality fuel available in your body too? (Ok, so my car gets measly 87 - I value myself more than my vehicle, and gas is really pricey these days for a cute-ute-that-is-always-in-the-shop)

I CAN use my dollars wisely and support local growers by buying their produce as opposed to supermarket produce which comes from lands far far away.

Finally, I CAN, with a little effort, see who else supports sustainable farming and lend my voice, my vote, whatever!

With that being said, I am now heading to the farmer's market.

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