As a project this semester, consuming food that has been produced 150 miles from my home, and generating less waste is something I hope to carry on beyond Lesley. Consider how the incredible honeybee works: they forage for their pollen and nectar sources in a two to four mile radius. They are producing and making food in a sustainable way. Our communities would be a a lot better off if we could do the same.
I have found that it is harder to find local food. I can find it in the grocery store at Whole Foods, but is all of the food sent to the distibution center at Whole Foods or do local companies like Cabot cheese truck their product directly to the store?
Went to JP Licks ice cream today, and they do not post in their stores if their ingredients are local. Hmmm I wonder.
Any thoughts?
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... to take the metaphor further, if we were microbes it would mean only collecting food from a 120 cm radius. Hmm. We'd also be responsible for making everything ourselves and have the tools to do it ... or at least the catalysts and neighbors around to make it happen. However, we'd definitely rely on imports, via diffusion and osmosis, from at least 1.2 miles or sometimes 12, sometimes 120 or so. Oops, Microbes win, too,
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to make light of this. I am just wondering how we can advance towards sustainability. It must be in the form of a cultural evolution, one that focuses on bringing in the tools (catalysts) and neighbors (community-building necessary!!) to make it happen. I still am not sure we should be limiting our active sphere to 1.2 or 12 miles.
Pardon the comma use; no glasses.
ReplyDeleteI really like this, Dom--the tools and neighbors thing. I'm really excited about the idea put forth in Cradle to Cradle--what would our systems be like if they were modeled after a cherry tree? Nature works--well!--so why not take a cue from it and mimic it in our own creations?
ReplyDeleteDominica --- does your microbe example imply that perhaps a 150-mile radius for humans isn't realistic? That actually, if we model our consumption area based on relative size to the areas of other organisms, then maybe thousands of miles is not necessarily out of the question?
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