Grease Monkey

In order to delve more deeply into the project known as the Foodivas, I ventured to my local campus library to pick up some relevant reading material- some food for my brain if you will. The item I had set out to acquire was a copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which chronicles her family’s year long mission of living local. Described as part memoir, part journalistic investigation, it tells the tale of their attempts to gather as much food as possible from their backyard and nearby farms.

After only flipping through the first couple pages of my new reading material I came upon an excerpt from Steven L. Hopp entitled Oily Food that reminded me of the importance of buying local from a national perspective. “If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.” It’s easy to forget when you are staring your at your scrumptious avocado (that probably came from Mexico) how far that little food item had to travel just so you can have some guac on the side.

I can think of an instance just today when I was faced with a food mile dilemma. Earlier this afternoon I decided to get my legs in gear and walk down to the local co-op to purchase some food items I would need for the week. As I made my way through the produce department, taking my sweet time as anyone who has ever been grocery shopping with me would tell you I so often do, I spotted the cute little zucchinis I had been looking for. I must tell you as a precursor to this that I had been at Fred Meyer previously and had foregone purchasing produce so I could get local/organic from my favorite co-op. I had made my way over to the prize and was holding one in my hand admiring how petite the little number was when I looked down and to my dismay noticed where my zucchini was actually from. To my extreme disappointment it was not local in the slightest, in fact I would say it was the most anti-local zucchini I had seen- it had originated in Mexico. It’s almost laughable how far food has to travel to the local co-op (which is supposed to embody responsible food choices, right?) just so consumers, myself included, can enjoy their favorite foods in the off season. Well anyway, in case you are bursting at the seams to know, did she or didn’t she? She didn’t. I could not bring myself to buy the three times more expensive zucchini which came from some place where I have never even been. 

If the age old saying is true- you are what you eat, I think I have come to the conclusion that we are all just a bunch of grease monkeys.

Kingsolver, Barbara, Steven L. Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver. Animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.