We were making morning glory muffins. Being early March, no local veggies and fruits were available so I went to our local supermarket and loaded up on organic carrots (probably from Chile), organic apples (probably from Washington — stored cool with nitrogen pumped into the shed to slow respiration – ripening) , walnuts, picked up some orange juice (from oranges grown in Florida and not in South America) and was feeling good about the amount of “good” food I was purchasing but not so great about the distance that all of it had to travel. “The average bite of food has traveled more than 1500 miles before it reached your lips, changing hands an average of six times along the way.” – Bill McKibben – Deep Economy

It has become apparent to me in the past few years that just buying organic at the grocery store is not enough. At this point in my eating habits, I’d much rather feast on fresh vegetables from Seth and Caitlin or Erin’s greenhouse. I’d rather understand exactly who grazed my cow, what their education has been and which land management techniques were used. I’d rather know that the eggs I buy were laid that week from hens that have a choice whether or not to stay in their roost or go out and discover yummy bugs.

That being said, I still frequent our local supermarket, still buy lots of veggies out of season (had to make the expensive and damaging trip from South America), and still consume packaged food. I have mixed feelings about this…I really am striving to change my habits, but it is too nice to open a cold carton of orange juice and begin gulping.

So today, as always, I’m waiting in line watching the people ahead of me finish their transaction and the people behind me unloading their cart and I begin to feel very sad. Box after box of processed food hits the conveyor belt along with cans of soda, packages of candy and bags of chips. The people were obese and the food in their cart reflected it. My sadness came from a deep desire to help people realize that we make choices every day about what we eat.

This affects not only our world as we think about farming practices, processing plants and chemicals needed there, transportation, storage and waste, but also our health, the way we look and feel. The food industry (producers, refiners, processors, transporters, resellers) equates to a trillion dollar industry. Likewise, this same processed food grown with pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified seed produces health problems that only a trillion dollar health care industry can fix. Why wouldn’t the government love the idea of food related health issues then? Think of the economy and the tax revenue. Could it all be solved by eating food from our local sources? No, but perhaps we could put a big dent in it anyways.

Well, these are simply the thoughts racing through my head at the checkout line. Lets think about what we eat, where it is coming from, what is involved in getting the food from the ground into our mouths.