My Food Choices

When I make food choices, the first thing I think about is whether or not the item is made with animal products, and then whether it is healthy and sanitary. I usually don't take into consideration whether it was grown sustainably Although I like fair trade and organic products when they are available, I don't always go out of my way to buy them. I prefer them, but if I cannot find one easily, I generally go for a familiar, not necessarily sustainable product. I think that from an environmental perspective, I'm doing all right, but I need to think about what I eat more. It is important to eat locally grown food and eat from places that practice sustainable agriculture, but this concern often gets lost among all the other dietary constraints and concerns that I have.

Over the past two days, I have eaten peanut butter, pita bread, french fries, pasta, soup, pizza, salad, and chips. I drank water, Coke, and a "Naked Juice." Out of the drinks, the coke probably has the most negative effect on the planet. The "Naked" company prioritizes sustainability, so they probably fall between coke and water on the sustainability spectrum.

With the food I ate, it is more difficult to determine. The peanut butter is a cheap brand that has probably been shipped all over the place (it was made in Arkansas, purchased in Oregon and shipped to DC, so we can assume its got at least several thousand miles of history). The soup and pasta were pre-packaged, and I'm guessing their history is similar to that of the peanut butter. The pita bread came from Baltimore, so that is fairly local. The salad (low on the food chain!) was advertised as sustainable, local, and natural, so hopefully those are accurate portrayals. I never saw labeling for the pizza or fries, so it is difficult to determine precisely how sustainable those were.

When I think about all these foods, it seems to me that the biggest problem I encounter is localized eating. I just don’t do it enough. The pita bread wasn't purposefully purchased because it was local. I picked it because it was cheap and wheat. I don't need to make a dietary change, so much as I need to make a change in where my food comes from. If I indulge in globalization and purchase food from slashed-and-burned rainforest in Brazil, and positive choice I make in organic food or crop-rotation practices are counteracted by deforestation and transportation.