Our Carbon Bite

I've discovered a problem with eating local. It's not the food; getting food produced within our region is music in the park, tastes great, looks beautiful, is plentiful, fragrant, diverse. We are in the garden of eden and this is the summer of love.

There is no question that the cute guy and I have reduced our carbon bite. We are no longer swallowing the energy it takes to package, store and transport the 1,500 to 3,000 miles food typically travels to our plate. Our garbage can is less full at the end of the week, our food is fresher. It smiles at us.

But here's the problem. After all the delicious reduced carbon lip licking I'm noticing the size of my carbon footprint, my handprint, what it looks like when I sit down, lay down, turn around. My life is so steeped in carbon I'm surprised I can breathe. I go to the dry cleaner. My face cream comes from Germany, soap from France. I bought a new white blouse from China, orange shoes from Israel. My car is Swedish, toilet paper double ply. I get highlights and buy my favorite t-shirts from Target at a price I know doesn't support a living wage. I don't care where you live.

The cute guy's answer is to give everything away and move onto the boat.

"But where would the couch go?" I ask him.

I love that each time I eat I have the ability to take action for a sustainable future. But it's not the entire solution. As much as I'd like to close my eyes, justify and excuse my consumer habits I can't and I hate that. With a bit of cultivation though I may be able to find some other kinds of fancy gardens; as long as they don't include sleeping in a life jacket every night!