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By Kathy Michaels
When green became the new black I was pleased.
It’s an ideal tone for both my colouring and inherited lefty ethics.
When all the products on Wal-Mart’s shelves and every lavish development started proclaiming sustainability, however, I realized with a jaundiced eye it was actually the new gold.
Boomer guilt, Gen Xer’s sense of impending doom and Y’s fondness for do-goodery was exploited and environmental consumerism became big business, turning everyone with a Made-In-China, re-usable polyester grocery bag into the next Al Gore.
By buying compact fluorescent lightbulbs, hybrid cars and carbon offsets, a finger-wagging environmentalist was born every minute.
After all, it’s much easier to assuage social guilt by spending cash than sacrificing a few degrees of heat, the comfort of driving to the grocery store or the cost advantage of buying products from a developing nation.
I’m not really in a position to judge. Consumerism is my sport. I love a deal and have fallen prey to lazy environmentalism more than once.
For example, bamboo everything was one craze my wardrobe bears the scars of. “It’s natural, grows freely and it’s sustainable,” I once told someone. Of course, I like things that are soft so it was chemical laden bamboo rayon I coveted and purchased. Later I learned that the chemicals used to make it such a lovely material are more toxic than cigarettes the way its damaging impact on the lands its grown doesn’t make it the least bit sustainable.
Dozens of examples of those kinds of miscalculations lie around my home, but my worst sin was highlighted this weekend.
While I hate anyone who points out how “lucky” we are to be Canadian or live in the Okanagan, I realized how much inherent wealth I take for granted at the farmer’s market this weekend. More importantly, how the most green thing I could do is fulfill my consuming needs with locally produced goods.
Local farmers are facing a crisis they may not come out of. Many can’t make a living because it is too expensive for them to keep their farms afloat and turn a profit. They make calls for help, but are oftentimes scoffed at because, “farmers are always complaining.”
But on some level, we know these are complaints worth listening to, right? Where many others in the world are facing a food supply in jeopardy because of environmental struggles ours, which is comparatively plentiful, is at risk because of of ignorance and a unified love of a bargain.
Between the four-year-long crisis of vanishing honeybees and the drought threatening California crops, it could be just a matter of time before the plentiful and cheap foods we’ve grown accustomed to are gone.
That leaves these small food producers, like we have in are backyard, to lead the reinvention of the food system. But we aren’t lining up to support them. This weekend lines snaked around the farmers market because many wanted a deal.
Okanaganites need to support their farmers more than when they just have a big sale or there is a distinct chance that our most legitimate means of going green will be lost forever.
Kathy@kelowna.com
2 Responses to “Kathy Michaels: Green guilt cured with a (local) apple”
Tags: apple sales, Farmers' Market, Kelowna
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I totally agree. Shopping at the Farmers Market is a great way to start too, but we have to be consistent by doing it regularly. If you buy those BC apples from a big grocery store right now the farmer only gets $0.13/kg, and the consumer pays between $0.79 and $1.79/kg for them. Buy from the farmer when ever you can.
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It is better to eat fresh produce from the farmer’s market even it costs a little more. I bought an apple from the grocery store and it was big and shiny. When I bit into it, it was rotten to the core! So much for saving money from the big-time grocery store! Go to the market and help the farmers.
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