Ethical Dilemma
Today has been crazy with the work – although I did manage to take some time to have lunch with the Ambitious One. She is running the Healdsburg Half this weekend, and juggling the craziest work hours ever, possibly excepting my good friend & running buddy [back in the day] Kim.
So – my dilemma.
I am doing my damndest to eat locally & organically whenever possible. I am working really hard at buying seasonal produce & planning my menus around what’s available. Sometimes that’s really easy. Last weekend at the market, there were apples from Washington & apples from New Zealand. I chose the Washington apples (also picked up a couple bags of apples from some stand in Parkdale).
I am a huge veggie fan. About the only vegetable I don’t like is the radish – everything else is delicious. And, since I live in a great area with almost year-round produce, that part is easy.
The hard part? Fruit. I like apples….kind of. I enjoy them in sauce, and butter, and cake, and pie, and cut & stewed with raisins & mixed into oatmeal, or peeled & slathered with peanut butter. I do not like to pick up an apple and eat it.
The fruit I do like to eat the most? Bananas. Which do not grow in the Pacific NW. I haven’t bought bananas at the market in months. I don’t want to support unethical farming practices and make my poor fruit travel 1,000 miles. But I love bananas. Just plain old bananas. (Also banana smoothies. yum.)
Lately I have been stopping for a banana & diet coke at the coffee stand in the mornings on my way to work. Ignoring the Diet Coke issue (that’s a whole ‘nother post right there), what’s your opinion on my banana consumption. Should I just let that be my ‘cheat’ item and go ahead & start buying (organic, fairly-harvested) bananas again? Or should I just suck it up & look for more local fruit options?
Should I stop reading Michael Pollan?
(Do California avocadoes count as local food?)
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