Food Musings.

When grocery shopping my first thought as a college student is definitely cost, not environmental impact. I guess I'm kind of a creature of habit - I know what I'm looking for and I mostly always buy the same staple foods - I've selected these items after checking things like the nutrition info, seeing if it's whole grain and of course, checking out the price. I would love to shop at Whole Foods all the time, but not because they are mostly organic but because they have a lot of more exotic type items that you won't find in the rest of the run of the mill chains I shop at like Giant. I only ever go to Whole Foods as a 'treat' - to buy plantain chips for example. As a college student without a car, I'm also constricted to distance - I have to shop at the nearest grocery store because I have to lug all of my purchases home with me by foot afterward. When dining out, I again, look at cost but I've been a vegetarian since the fifth grade, so I've sort of become an expert at scouring the menu for meat-free options. Lucky for me, those options tend to be cheaper than dishes with meat tend to be. 

I think the thing I've recently consumed that has the most impact was probably one of those frozen Amy's Indian dishes. I only occasionally buy meals off of that label, not because they are organic, but because a few of the varieties are so good! However, they are way too expensive and the whole organic thing was never really an important thing to me growing up - in reality I should really stop buying them all together. With the cardboard container and the plastic overlay, it definitely wasn't an eco-friendly meal. And while it is labeled as 'organic,' (which I guess is a bonus?) I'm pretty positive that the many ingredients found in the dish weren't purchased locally. Factor in the energy the plant used to manufacture the meal and add in the shipping to the grocery story and my meal probably added a sizable addition of carbon to the atmosphere. I can't say that I'll completely stop purchasing the Palak Paneer dish, but I may refrain from buying it as often in the future. If anything, this exercise has made me think twice about my personal impact. It really adds up!