Hi Kimberly,

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll have to investigate those options. I corrected my comment to clarify that we don’t grow “the jasmine rice I’m accustomed to” in the U.S. because of dips in temperature which halt their growth. Actually now that I think about it, I’ve had Carolina rice (I just checked its Web site, it is indeed grown in the U.S.) but it was kinda … um … yucky.

Thanks for correcting my mistaken belief, though! I might experiment some more.

Rice is grown in both Texas and California (and perhaps other states as well). Lundberg Farms grows a number of different varieties, much of it organic, and every variety that I’ve tried is delicious.

I’m trying to decide how far I’m willing to go in giving up foods that aren’t grown near Seattle. Fair trade coffee, here I come…

Thanks for mentioning Community Supported Agriculture and your link to Downtown Harvest.

I think that we illustrate your point above - that none of us can do it all, but all of us can make a difference. We are a small group of people who decided to try a relatively unknown concept. We know that we make a difference - people have made friendships with others in their community; our surplus and member donations help provide good food to people in need. By knowing our farmer, we deepen our appreciation of our food and we help to support the effort of sustainable agriculture and ultimately, stewardship of our earth.

We do this in a small way, but I feel that our effort is well invested.

Thank you for giving me plenty to consider!

Hey Meranie,

No one’s asking anyone to do the impossible. The best we all can aspire to is just to slash our food miles by as much as we can. Buying local (or closeby—getting bananas from the Philipines in your case, instead of, say, South America, would be more prudent), for those who have those products available to them, just happens to be the best way outside of growing produce yourself. And sometimes we’re not able to help it—I’m culturally predisposed to a rice-based diet, for instance, so not buying imported rice is not an option since we don’t grow the jasmine rice I’m accustomed to in the U.S. (Investigating fair-trade rice is on my to-do list, though.)

And here’s another personal example you might appreciate—I really, really love brown-rice crackers (with sprinklings of sesame seeds, yum) from Japan, but because I wanted to live more sustainably, I cut down what used to be a regular indulgence to having them maybe once a month instead. (And right now it’s a rare treat.) We all do whatever we can.

november hit it right on the head—if you can’t buy local, buy fair trade. So for people in the U.S. that includes coffee, tea, and chocolate, all of which have fair-trade options which guarantee that the farmers get a living wage for their efforts. I truly believe, after all, that “trade, not aid” is instrumental to alleviating world poverty and hunger. This is definitely an area we, as conscious consumers, can contribute.

Most of all, Meranie, you need to take care of yourself. So going without adequate nutrition during the winter months isn’t an option, either. There will always be compromises we’ll have to make. But we reduce what we _can_, offset what we can’t (contributing to renewable energy programs, e.g.), and encourage other people to tread lightly, too.

We’re all in this together.

anyway thanks for another great post, yet again. first read in the morning and it’s making me reflect mucho

By the way, I applaud your journal. I love how I can open your blog and learn something about the environment. Thank you for writing about the earth.