guilt and cream
the first things i saw when i walked into the grocery store last week and they looked good. as i stared at them on the shelf i had a little internal debate about these blackberries:
blackberry season is in august. it is january. a ship carried them through the ocean and a truck bounced them across the country to stock the shelves in my fairway. how much oil and gasoline was consumed by those vehicles to bring me those berries? how much pollution was released into the water and the air? how can i feel good about encouraging all that waste and damage? but those berries were really pretty and i really wanted them. so i put them in my cart and actually said to myself "that's the glory of being a modern-day american, right? fresh blackberries in january."
i haven't stopped feeling guilty since. each time i open the fridge i think about the tankers and the trucks and the oil and how i am a part of the whole polluted system of needing to have everything and anything whenever and wherever i want.
maybe the fact that i'm eating them with a local dairy's fresh organic cream purchased at the farmer's market redeems me? a little?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 06:36AM
Reader Comments (5)
We all have our moments of weakness! Those do look GOOD! Enjoy it, You can always blame it on pregnancy cravings and those void out any guilt!!
don't feel guilty about it. i buy blueberries year-round, at truly obscene prices in the winter. i think when the item in question is the healthiest thing on the planet (berries) it's fine to "indulge".
The cream totally negates everything else, I say. And you are supporting those poor, hard workers who are harvesting the berries too!
I can never bring myself to buy blackberries at the store because I think, how lazy am I that there are millions of them growing everywhere here, and I can have them for FREE, and I can't be bothered to pick some and freeze them. So next year I am definitely on that.
What I have been wanting is blueberries!
Were they at least expensive? That would help the guilt a little. Really, what's the harm of consumerism if you pay the actual cost to produce? I cannot imagine that they were sold at cost though, probably subsidized cost. Here, we can actually buy cherries from the supermarket that imports and charges high prices, but they cost R$52 a kilo. If I wanted to pay that for green cherries, I certainly could do it guilt free, but I don't have that kind of money.
cute post- a small slice of life that we all face on a daily basis. i say you have special allowances being pregnant and need a diverse healthy diet! enjoy that beautiful bowl of berries and cream! my mouth watered just looking at it! we are such lucky people to have access to treats like that!