Conventional vs. Organic and another argument for buying local

I came across the above cartoon this morning, and I have to admit that it kind of pissed me off.  I can’t argue with the value that makes this cartoon funny; eating organic is an activity that some people can’t afford.  There are people out there trying to feed their entire family with $100 a week, and if you’re one of those people, organic might be out of reach.  But is that really you?  Most people who say they can’t afford organic actually can, but choose not to prioritize it. While it’s true that some people simply don’t know the risks involved with buying conventional, I think plenty more do know, but choose to turn a blind eye anyway

Morals and Morels

Locally collected Morels

It was a feeling of moral necessity that helped me drag myself to the farmer’s market yesterday, despite my steadfast desire to stay seated at my desk in a half-working, mostly time-wasting daze.  Since oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico over a month ago, I’ve grown almost completely despondent.  I’ve long been concerned with the havoc our human systems are wreaking on both the planet and our own societies, but the oil spill has pushed me over an edge of sorts.  We will probably drill again, even with a democrat in the white house, and an environmental catastrophe unfolding.  This reality has caused me to seriously question the fate of our collective future.

What does one do?  You can’t escape oil culture completely, and this dependence makes it hard to try escaping it at all.  From the vehicles that help us navigate modern life, to the clothes we wear and the food we put on our plates; sweet crude is a very real ingredient in the recipe of our modern existence.  But if we passively accept our fate as oil guzzlers by doing nothing to stop our personal consumption, spills like the one happening in the Gulf right now are totally on us.  You can blame BP, you can blame the government; at the end of the day, it is those of us who purchase and consume oil who are ultimately at fault.  That’s a market democracy, folks.  The day we stop demanding ever more energy in the form of oil-intensive products and services, is the day the last drill head is lifted from the soil.

The correlation between oil and food is one of America’s biggest dirty little secrets.