Monday, June 7, 2010

Cheating on Eating Sustainably

I love the convenience of steaming vegetables in a bag that I plucked right out of the freezer.  But I feel guilty every time I do it.  I know there's nothing good about encasing your vegetables in plastic and running microwave power over them.  I know that it's 100 times better for me to get stuff from the farmer's market and quick-steam it over the stove.  Not to mention half the price.  But I confess that I steam veggies-in-a-bag probably twice a week.

I am also addicted to Weight Watcher's Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.  In addition to being the most expensive ice cream in my grocery store on a per ounce basis, it's a pile of completely non-nutritive crap.  But such tasty non-nutritive crap that I eat it almost every day.  Sometimes twice a day.

I'm so committed to the local and sustainable food movement that I live and work on a farm.  But even I am seduced by the convenience and packaging of industrial food.  I tip my hat to people in big cities who are fellow travelers in the cause - the huge time commitment required makes them as much heroes of the local food movement as the farmers from whom they buy their produce.

1 comment:

  1. While we buy all our veggies from the produce market fresh and supplied locally, for some reason peas and corn are the two items we keep buying frozen in those steam in the bags.

    It's really hard to get to a farmer's market but we still manage to buy local/fresh for a lot of these. I think it's just that we need one or two options when we haven't been able to do the weekly produce shop or we've eaten everything before the week is up.

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