The Food Issue

Good food has been a fairly recent development in my life. Not good food in the form of taste and health (my mom is an excellent cook and a health freak all in one), but in the form of environmentally friendly foods. Most of my food life has been dependent upon someone else- my mother bought the food in our house and I ate it without thinking twice and then, for a few years, American University decided what I ate. Because of my beliefs and my growing interest in environmental issues, since I have become responsible for my own food, I have made it my goal to eat good food, which to me means environmentally friendly food. I work at a farmer's market and I get a discount on food, which makes it so very easy to buy a majority of my food locally and organically. For the rest of my food needs, I shop at Yes Organic!, partially because of the convenience factor; Yes is my closest grocery store. I've learned to read ingredients rather than jumping at the first sign of "organic" or "all natural" lables, which these days could mean simply good advertizing. I don't eat much meat, partially because it's expensive and I still struggle with cooking it, and partially because I like to keep myself out of that system.

All of that being said...I love to eat out at restaurants. I don't do it all that often, what with being a college student and all, but when I get the chance, I jump on it. When I eat out, all the farmer's market and Yes lessons go out the window. This is partly because I have little choice to transfer those values into the restaurant market; there are few restaurants that serve "good food" and those that do are usually over-priced for my budget. But it gets even better; guess what is my favorite thing to eat at a restaurant? A burger. A big, juicy, methane producing, land ruining burger. So when I say all food values fly out the window when I'm at a restaurant, I mean it. I guess in some way I've just cynically accepted that restaurants don't cater to environmentally friendly lifestyles, so there's nothing I can do about it but eat a good old juicy burger. When eating out, options are limited because of price and because of a lack of available "good food" restaurants.

It is also upsetting to me that I probably spend more money on food than the average person. I have chosen to make food an important investment in my life; something on which I am willing to spend a larger portion of my income. However, I worry that there will come a time that this will not be possible. That my budget will limit my ability to eat "good food." I think about this a lot while living my current lifestyle. It's sometimes easier as a student because I have a limited number of things for which I have to pay on a regular basis. I have more freedom to make these choices, but I'm not sure it will always be this easy.

As far as my food impact in the last day or two, the biggest impact helps to validate what I've already said; restaurant food. This evening I had drinks and appetizers with a friend. I have no idea where that brie cheese with fruit and spinach and artichoke dip came from, but I'm guessing it wasn't anywhere near here. Who knows what kind of damage was incurred to put those plates before me. Pesticides ruining soil and human health, deforestation perhaps, and lots of greenhouse gasses to get here. I guess I'll never know for sure.