Green Eating...

The main thoughts that go through my head when making food choices at a market or restaurant are price and quality. I generally shop at generic supermarkets, such as Superfresh or Safeway, mainly because it is what I can afford. I try to keep environmental considerations in mind when deciding what to eat, but the true nature of what I buy is based on price. I’m also pretty basic in what I buy – I have a meal plan, so I basically just buy bread, milk, cereal and lunchmeat every week for times when I don’t have a chance to grab lunch at the cafeteria. I try to make healthy decisions, but my habits of what I buy are so ingrained, that I hardly even think about what I’m buying anymore. The other day, I went with my boyfriend to Whole Foods to get dinner, because we thought it’d be quick and cheap to make a salad. My salad ended up costing my $9.99, which is outrageous for any type of small salad like the one I got, and it wasn’t even filling! I (kind of) admire people who are willing to put out this kind of money for food that’s ‘better’ for the environment, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to justify buying a salad for 10 dollars, even if I was super rich. (I also somewhat question people who are willing to put out that much money on food for themselves, when they can be putting their money towards way more important things). I do like to support local produce and farmer’s markets, but there’s also a downfall with this. Our campus farmer’s market produce not only is not organic, but it’s not local! The farm is in Pennsylvania, more than 100 miles from school. It leads me to question many farmer’s markets, and what I actually am supporting when buying ‘local.’

I’ve been sick all week so I actually haven’t eaten much in the last day or two, but I would most likely count the microwaveable soup that I’ve been eating as having the most environmental impact. Not only is there a TON of packaging, there is also the cost of producing the soup and shipping it around the country. The most appalling part however, is the packaging, because it contains metal and hard plastic and the whole contraption to microwave the soup in is not reusable once consumed. If everyone ate these as liberally as I have over the past few days, I feel that the amount of waste we create would significantly increase.