Dear Joe, I'm not sure this relationship will last...

I have a problem with Trader Joe’s. The more I shop at Berkeley Bowl and the Farmer’s Market, the more it bothers me. They ask you to bring in your own shopping bags but then almost everything in the store is severely overpackaged and nothing is local.

Roma tomatoes come in hard plastic boxes, zuccinis come shrink wrapped on styrofoam trays, Carrots that have been pre-peeled and sliced come in plastic tubs and cost three times more than a 2 pound bag of unprocessed carrots. You can buy delicious Indian lunches that come in sealed bags that have been packed in boxes and portioned just enough for one person. All manner of frozen veggies are available with little globs of seasoned butter included, also in serving sizes for one or two people… because throwing a handful of greenbeans in a sauce pan with water, rosemary and butter is too hard!

This brings me to the second problem I have with Trader Joe’s… everything that has been pre-packaged three times over is all ready to heat and eat. So much of it is little more than a glorified and improved TV dinner. It is helping to perpetuate the helplessness of the urban dweller. It encourages shoppers to think “I don’t have time to cook” “I don’t know how to cook, it’s too hard”. Seriously! I am not a gormet chef but from the need to eat economically I’ve learned how to make a few really good meals. Salads are not difficult but you can still buy those in a bag. Is it because it’s too time consuming to wash lettuce, and chop up a few veggies?

There are so many Americans who just don’t cook for themselves, they have no idea about what they are shoveling into their mouths, there is too little thought about food and nutrition. There is too much thought about calories and suppliments. TJ’s also has an amazing array of cheap vitamins by the way, because after all eating a balanced diet is just too hard… you will need to be ‘healthy’ and add these pills to your diet. Despite the good things about TJ’s I just can’t deal with how much of it is fully pre-packaged and designed to allow consumers to feel good about their ignorance.

I’m torn. On the one hand they do sell a lot of tasty things that I enjoy, but when I went in yesterday I wound up leaving with my bottle of cheap wine, a pint of sherbet and a seltzer water. All of the overpackaged produce in number 5 plastic containers (my city only recycles numbers 1 and 2 plastic) just made me ill.

Be sure to bring back your canvas bag to carry home all of the small plastic bags that your food comes in… you don’t want to kill the earth do you?

Part 1; Africa

Happy Earth Day. Today I'm posting a rather longish (15 min) video of an interview with Wangari Maathai; the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The most simple explanation of her work is that she founded a movement to help replenish Kenya's forests... but the Green Belt Movement is much more than that. The planting of the trees is a medicine for problems in the community that reach far beyond a stripped landscape. They are allowing their community to produce their own fuel, they are giving women work and meager pay... Most of what I know of the Green Belt Movement is from interviews on NPR, today I started reading her memoir so hopefully I'll be able to discuss this inspirational woman better when I'm done. For now, please enjoy the youTube link, it's a 15 minutes well spent.

A call to Arms!

I must say I am tired of the state of environmentalism these days.


What concerns me though is the way that some people are going overboard about the doom of the planet.

If every Sunday you go to church and are told that you are going to hell and there is nothing you can really do about it, you'll probably stop going.
If every time you go to the gym you are told that you're wasting your time and you'll never really get into shape before you die... really why not just head over to Ben & Jerry's for some instant gratification instead?
If every book you read about the state of the environment tells you about how everything is falling apart and dying and it's doing that so rapidly that our efforts aren't doing enough, why bother?

On one level it is important to see the state of things. We need to understand that resources are not unlimited. There is too much waste, the oceans are suffocating, the glaciers are melting, extinction is increasing... Yes there are a lot of problems. But you know what, we are not living on a giant ball of decay. Doom and gloom environmental zealots are making Earth sound like a giant leper colony that we must try to make better but probably won't and everything will fall apart and die and it's all our fault... what a freakin' bummer!
I want people to see the Joy that is the Earth. I want people to go out into their local nature (forest, desert, savanna, ice cave...) and just take a look at what there is. If everybody just spent some quiet time with nature, breathing the air, feeling the ground, watching the bugs and the birds... they could remember that Earth is Beautiful. "Saving" the Earth is not a chore. It is just what we must do. We don't need to cry and moan about it, we just need to fix it.

Earth is not just beautiful. It is our home, our health. Earth is our family. Earth renews spirit... Even with a supposition of an afterlife and a heaven, we're not there folks, we are Here and Now. Right now we have the privilege to live in 'Creation'. We are not dead yet, Earth is not dead yet, so let's stop all the crying about what is wrong and let's get excited about fixing it up. Let's not think about what a bummer it is to live here in the ruins of Eden, but look around and see what we do have.

It's amazing.