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The crack from one poster about wanting Alaska crab... The cold hard answer is yes, if you want to eat Alaskan crab regularly, you might want to live closer to where they are harvested. Otherwise, be prepared to pay for it, and suck it up, because you are doing it to yourself.
Sure I like King Crab, but I also like Louisiana Blue Crab.
My bicycle is gonna get a work out.
Coastalgirl took a lot of flak over her self diagnosis of living locally... But instead of picking it apart (because let's face it, yeah, some things you just can't get around, like packaging, transport, the ramifications of a tightly knit international production economy where we as a country weigh in on the service end rather than the production one, agriculture notwithstanding), why not attempt to accept the points she was trying to make about the EFFORT to live in a "local circle" on the map as much as is reasonably possible? Dismissing the validity of her statements based on construing them as abrasive or condescending (or, more logically, possibly not fully thinking through second/third/fourth order effects as aptly pointed out by several people in regards to supply, raw materials, and distribution) is, as my ol' grams put it "throwin' the baby out with the bath water."
Let me throw out a few unpopular notions. This should be fun.
You like bananas? Gotta eat em on a regular basis? Maybe you should consider moving where banana trees grow. The crack from one poster about wanting Alaska crab... The cold hard answer is yes, if you want to eat Alaskan crab regularly, you might want to live closer to where they are harvested. Otherwise, be prepared to pay for it, and suck it up, because you are doing it to yourself. I currently enjoy bootheel peaches every year. Fresh, local, freakin amazing peaches. Love them. I rarely, if ever, have crab. When I execute my planned move, I'll be living on all kinds of crab and fish, but the only way I'll ever see one of those peaches again is if my friends can them and mail them to me. I don't have some sort of intrinsic RIGHT to those peaches, regardless of where I live. When I move, I will miss them. My point is, eating locally, eating SEASONALLY, is the only sane approach to this whole living-on-the-planet-sustainably thing.
Live where you eat. If you can't eat where you live, think about moving! That, or accept that you ARE on the receiving end of the transport system you rail against. Pay your taxes, pay your transport costs, and be grateful that there are people willing to bring you food/clothing/furniture in the first place. If you live in Vegas, you eat by a trucker's grace. If you don't like depending on this precarious system, move! If you can't move, reconcile yourself with your situation. Buy a little greenhouse. Get involved in a CSA or a community garden. Do SOMETHING, or simply accept that you live at the mercy of the system you hate paying for. If they ever stop bringing you Alaskan crab and start shipping you soylent green, you best break out the BBQ sauce. It's self inflicted. Learn to feed yourself, or humbly thank the long chain of people and equipment willing to do what you are not in exchange for pressed tree pulp and a little ink.
You think you have a RIGHT to cheap Costa Rican fruit in the middle of December? Uh uh. Unsustainable arrogance on a societal level. No worries though, the gubmint will pay for it, isn't that right Mr Tax Man?
I said, isn't that right Mr Tax Man? Uh, hello? Mr Tax Man? Aren't you still taking care of me?
(insert cricket sounds)
Where is anybody not thanking the complex supply chain system that exists? Driving up costs will drive down demand which will drive down employment of these truckers you seem to have a hard-on for.
I like the local food movement and I do try to buy local. But forcing people into buying local by eradicating a way of life that we're all used to is sort of akin to stopping people from smoking by making it prohibitively expensive. Except instead of cancer-causing products, it's ****ing fruit.
Where is anybody not thanking the complex supply chain system that exists? Driving up costs will drive down demand which will drive down employment of these truckers you seem to have a hard-on for.
I like the local food movement and I do try to buy local. But forcing people into buying local by eradicating a way of life that we're all used to is sort of akin to stopping people from smoking by making it prohibitively expensive. Except instead of cancer-causing products, it's ****ing fruit.
Coastalgirl took a lot of flak over her self diagnosis of living locally... But instead of picking it apart (because let's face it, yeah, some things you just can't get around, like packaging, transport, the ramifications of a tightly knit international production economy where we as a country weigh in on the service end rather than the production one, agriculture notwithstanding), why not attempt to accept the points she was trying to make about the EFFORT to live in a "local circle" on the map as much as is reasonably possible? Dismissing the validity of her statements based on construing them as abrasive or condescending (or, more logically, possibly not fully thinking through second/third/fourth order effects as aptly pointed out by several people in regards to supply, raw materials, and distribution) is, as my ol' grams put it "throwin' the baby out with the bath water."
Let me throw out a few unpopular notions. This should be fun.
You like bananas? Gotta eat em on a regular basis? Maybe you should consider moving where banana trees grow. The crack from one poster about wanting Alaska crab... The cold hard answer is yes, if you want to eat Alaskan crab regularly, you might want to live closer to where they are harvested. Otherwise, be prepared to pay for it, and suck it up, because you are doing it to yourself. I currently enjoy bootheel peaches every year. Fresh, local, freakin amazing peaches. Love them. I rarely, if ever, have crab. When I execute my planned move, I'll be living on all kinds of crab and fish, but the only way I'll ever see one of those peaches again is if my friends can them and mail them to me. I don't have some sort of intrinsic RIGHT to those peaches, regardless of where I live. When I move, I will miss them. My point is, eating locally, eating SEASONALLY, is the only sane approach to this whole living-on-the-planet-sustainably thing.
Live where you eat. If you can't eat where you live, think about moving! That, or accept that you ARE on the receiving end of the transport system you rail against. Pay your taxes, pay your transport costs, and be grateful that there are people willing to bring you food/clothing/furniture in the first place. If you live in Vegas, you eat by a trucker's grace. If you don't like depending on this precarious system, move! If you can't move, reconcile yourself with your situation. Buy a little greenhouse. Get involved in a CSA or a community garden. Do SOMETHING, or simply accept that you live at the mercy of the system you hate paying for. If they ever stop bringing you Alaskan crab and start shipping you soylent green, you best break out the BBQ sauce. It's self inflicted. Learn to feed yourself, or humbly thank the long chain of people and equipment willing to do what you are not in exchange for pressed tree pulp and a little ink.
You think you have a RIGHT to cheap Costa Rican fruit in the middle of December? Uh uh. Unsustainable arrogance on a societal level. No worries though, the gubmint will pay for it, isn't that right Mr Tax Man?
I said, isn't that right Mr Tax Man? Uh, hello? Mr Tax Man? Aren't you still taking care of me?
(insert cricket sounds)
Unsustainable arrogance?
The unsustainable arrogance, my friend, is in the hearts and minds of those who have nothing better to do with their time each day than to fabricate yet another reason to dismantle a transportation system that works....and more importantly to impose their will on a "societal level" as to the way in which ALL others will live.
This sustainability crap seems to be rising in media prominence just as people are waking up en mass to the fact that they've been had by the "global warming" scare. Hmmmmm........what will the next social engineering tool of choice be? Public gullibility seems to me to be at record heights, so it doesn't even take much imagination any more to get a ring in most every nose and pull in the direction of choice.
This is a battle for the future of freedom every bit as important as any in history, folks. While we squander blood and treasure in pointless overseas wars on "terror", the biggest threat we face to our freedom is a twisted mindset growing in numbers right here at home.
The unsustainable arrogance, my friend, is in the hearts and minds of those who have nothing better to do with their time each day than to fabricate yet another reason to dismantle a transportation system that works....and more importantly to impose their will on a "societal level" as to the way in which ALL others will live.
This sustainability crap seems to be rising in media prominence just as people are waking up en mass to the fact that they've been had by the "global warming" scare. Hmmmmm........what will the next social engineering tool of choice be? Public gullibility seems to me to be at record heights, so it doesn't even take much imagination any more to get a ring in most every nose and pull in the direction of choice.
This is a battle for the future of freedom every bit as important as any in history, folks. While we squander blood and treasure in pointless overseas wars on "terror", the biggest threat we face to our freedom is a twisted mindset growing in numbers right here at home.
We've already been "socially engineered" into car-dependency with subsidized roads. I don't see a problem with finding a use-tax that does a better job of actually paying for roads, since the gas tax doesn't cut it anymore. (and, maybe never did) If people using the roads had to pay the full costs of building and maintaining them, then maybe alternate forms of transportation might become more profitable.
A desire for 'cheap Costa Rican fruit in the middle of December' is 'unsustainable arrogance'? What a bunch of nonsense.
The availability of summer fruit in the dead of winter was driven by one thing---competition, at least here in LA, where the availability of summer fruit twelve months a year has been the case for almost three decades.
They want to put a GPS in your car. That's the creepy part, and it would never pass. Someone else suggested just tracking the mileage when you have your annual vehicle inspection. That would be a lot less big brother-y.
yes it would be less big brother but you might end up with a huge bill all at once. why not, if you have an electric car let the electric company collect a higher tax on those people. every car registration has an address of the owner. that adress gets a higher electric tax depending on the amount of electric cars that are register to that adress.
A desire for 'cheap Costa Rican fruit in the middle of December' is 'unsustainable arrogance'? What a bunch of nonsense.
The availability of summer fruit in the dead of winter was driven by one thing---competition, at least here in LA, where the availability of summer fruit twelve months a year has been the case for almost three decades.
Two little letters say it all. You're absolutely right, the world owes you affordable fresh bananas in January. Never mind the transportation costs, it's your RIGHT. Never mind that you live in a gigantic, unsustainable, overpopulated anthill. The colony demands bananas! Because it's your RIGHT.
As our economy slides down the international hillside, let me know how that right works out for you, sparky.
Your ignorance is appalling since the decision to have summertime fruits available here in SoCal in winter was a business decision made for competitive reasons in what has been a super-competitive industry (retail grocery) for decades.
Your assertion that California and/or the USA is overpopulated is also a crock, since ninety-three percent of the land in this country is undeveloped!!!!!!!!
Birth rates are plunging and/or flat worldwide on too many continents to mention; do some homework, would you please?
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scare. Hmmmmm........what will the next social engineering tool of choice be? Public gullibility seems to me to be at record heights, so it doesn't even take much imagination any more to get a ring in most every nose and pull in the direction of choice.
