eating like we care

The first thing I always take into account when shopping for food at the local grocery is definitely the tastiness. Sadly, my choices on food for the most part are selfish. I buy 1) what tastes yummy and 2) what's on sale. I do make trips down to the farmers' market occasionally, when I'm craving turnip greens and can't find them in Giant. I avoid grocery shopping as much as possible though, so when I do go I buy everything at once. And when I'm finally starving and sick of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I'll make the stubborn trip to the grocery store. I do make a point of buying fair trade, as Elizabeth does, when I can. But for me too, it's more of a human rights issue than an environmental one.

Of all the things I've consumed in the last few days, the one that probably had the most environmental impact was the biryani my mom made me while she was here visiting. The spices were shipped from somewhere in South Asia, my mom brought the basmati rice with her from Texas (because they don't sell the right brand up here) which I'm sure was produced somewhere else before even that, and who knows where the rest of the ingredients came from. Chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, onions…I don't think many of them were probably grown locally.