I really like the planet. A lot. And I think it's really photogenic, too. But I can't watch nature shows on TV, or read books and articles about natural phenomena, or, God forbid, see "An Inconvenient Truth," because all of these things inevitably end with a statement like:
"The habitat of the vermillion muskrat is shrinking due to encroachment by clear cutting for lumber mills." And then they show a cute little thing getting clubbed. I know that the message of this is that I need to use less lumber, but having reached a nadir of timber-wasting, it just makes me feel sad and hopeless.
So I was happy to read in the NYT today that not everything is quite as huge a terrible, man-made disaster, as I thought. I need to hear that every now and then.
JEK
Morale sensitive
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A Xanax for the Soul
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I'm all for a little relief now and again, but I take issue with the comment on forbidden fruit from far away. While it may be mathematically true in some cases that apples grown in New Zealand create a smaller carbon footprint than those grown in Washington State (as hard to fathom as that might be), I don't think we should be off the hook in terms of thinking carefully about where our fruit comes from and how far it has traveled. Mathematics aside, eating locally is a mindset and a value system. It is a mindset that recognizes that food is seasonal and that there are times during the year when certain vegetables and fruits can be grown and harvested. With a global food distribution system, seasonality is completely ignored. Ignoring seasonality means ignoring the complexity of the earth, sun and environment that allows us to grow food. My "local foods wheel" that hangs on my refrigerator, my garden in the backyard and my local farmers market, all remind me that food comes from the earth and that seasons exist. Eating bananas and kiwis and peaches year round pulls the wool over our eyes, no matter how delicious that fruit might be. Set aside the math for once and pay attention to the seasons.
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