Yesterday living a low
impact life seemed easy. That, I now realize, was because I didn’t leave home.
Today, day three, I went to town to do several necessary errands. Banking was
no problem. Mailing a package was no problem. The difficulties arose as soon as
I reached the grocery store and realized that I had forgotten to put the damn
cloth shopping bags in the car.
In Checker’s produce
department I quickly found exactly what I was looking for – Jonathon apples
from Waverly, Missouri. OK, Waverly isn’t exactly local, but these apples traveled less than 100 miles to
get here. That’s good enough for a low impact woman. Unfortunately all the
Jonathon apples came in big plastic bags.
Riding high on my success I
thoughtlessly put a hand of 19-cents-a-pound bananas in my cart.
Next I looked for local
meat, and sure enough, there was bratwurst produced in Bonner Springs, Kansas,
just a short hop down the road.
About this time I realized
that no matter how I rationalize, bananas are not local, regional, or even
national. I detoured back to the produce department to get rid of the bananas, the wind going out of my sails.
More sensitized now to the
hazards of grocery shopping, as I passed through the aisles I realized that
very, very little merchandise came from anywhere near where I live. And that, I
suppose, is the purpose of holding a No Impact Week – to make us aware of the
choices we are offered and the choices we make. How much petroleum was burned
in the process of getting all these products to the store?
I can’t remember a time
when I checked out at a grocery store with so little in my cart.
Copyright
2013 by Shirley Domer
1 comment:
I often think if I HAD to live locally (and I do always try to) I would miss bananas, avocados and coffee. Good for you for paying attention and sharing your experience. And good for Carol!
Post a Comment