I like to eat, and learning that seventy-five percent of our food is imported, and ninety percent of those imports are trucked up from California or Mexico, I am afraid. The annual CO2 emissions spewed into the atmosphere for the contents on my plate are the equivalent of a truck loaded with apples, oranges and iceberg lettuce making a trip to the moon and back ten times a year! I imagine a truck hopelessly chugging along and realise that that my food commute needs to be shortened, pronto! Food transportation as it stands today is not reliable. If the trucks quit running, Vancouver would be left with three days of food on the shelves. For every dollar received by a farmer, fisherman or rancher, three to four dollars is received by a shipper, processor, packager, retailer, and advertiser. A local farm, community garden or a backyard plot cuts out much of this excess, and you get more broccoli for your buck. When you pay less at the supermarket for imported foods, you are actually paying more, indirectly, through government subsidies, environmental degradation and by making it less viable to farm locally, increasing the need to be propped up by imported food. What can you do this week to shorten the distance your food travels? Visit your local community garden, seek out your farmers market, and see what grows! Saturday, November 15, 2008
Vancouver eats emissions
I like to eat, and learning that seventy-five percent of our food is imported, and ninety percent of those imports are trucked up from California or Mexico, I am afraid. The annual CO2 emissions spewed into the atmosphere for the contents on my plate are the equivalent of a truck loaded with apples, oranges and iceberg lettuce making a trip to the moon and back ten times a year! I imagine a truck hopelessly chugging along and realise that that my food commute needs to be shortened, pronto! Food transportation as it stands today is not reliable. If the trucks quit running, Vancouver would be left with three days of food on the shelves. For every dollar received by a farmer, fisherman or rancher, three to four dollars is received by a shipper, processor, packager, retailer, and advertiser. A local farm, community garden or a backyard plot cuts out much of this excess, and you get more broccoli for your buck. When you pay less at the supermarket for imported foods, you are actually paying more, indirectly, through government subsidies, environmental degradation and by making it less viable to farm locally, increasing the need to be propped up by imported food. What can you do this week to shorten the distance your food travels? Visit your local community garden, seek out your farmers market, and see what grows! 