Steph said:
"Hi Marcus, I am enjoying reading your posts and the debates around the various issues. When you say 'ecological responsibilities' do you mean our individual responsibilities for not buying apples with more air miles than Richard Branson when there are gorgeous UK apples? Or driving when we could walk? Going to Mozzers [Morrisons Supermarket] instead of using the local shops selling local produce? Not boiling more water than we need? Using a water butt? Composting? OR do you mean the 'church' ensuring it's energy efficient, not serving food that 'unsound' at functions, recycling? Or all of the above?"
The answer is, of course, "All of the above." Not sure how we do it, though! Or how we persuade others to do it. One problem is that, for those on low wages, using local shops rather than the 'cheap' supermarkets is just not an option. (And those £4.00 jeans from Asda are a bargain compared to the £200.00 pair I was given (I had to make it clear I DID NOT pay that much myself) in Los Angeles.) How can we prevent ecological responsibility becoming just the preserve of the rich?
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I can't answer this in less than a 60 page ramble! Sorry in advance!
I believe that information is key - without it, people cannot make informed choices about what they are choosing to feed themselves and their families.
Choices - everyone has choices, rich or poor. You can choose to buy a tasy bit of meat from the butchers & make it into something delicious and nutritious although you have to put a bit of work in OR you can buy 10 pies for £2.50 thus feeding your family on 'lips 'n' a**holes' and pick up a cd, dvd and 100 fags while you're in the supermarket.
The benefits of using the local shops are many but here's a few.
1. Quality of produce - safe, good, accountable food.
2. Sense of community - building relationships with the shopkeepers and influencing what they stock. Supporting their businesses and those of the farmers, growers etc who provide the goods.
3. Your children - they can learn to use cash, they can learn how to make smalltalk, they learn where their food comes from, they learn about making wholefoods into gorgeous meals - all skills they will need as part of leading a healthy, independent lifestyle as adults.
4.Health - foods cooked from scratch contain none of the chemicals and additives found in readymeals (inc pies, pizzas, hotdogs).
Did you know that an intensively reared chicken now contains a pint of fat? Not the lean, healthy option you thought it was?
Did you know that if you drop a packet of wafer thin ham out of your shopping bag and leave it under your car seat for a couple of months (I didn't do this, it was a friend!), it will be fine? It won't have gone mouldy or anything.
This is because of all the chemicals in it to stop nature doing it's job - i.e. making stuff go off when it's been around for long enough.
Anyway, sorry again about the ramble. You've got to make more of an effort when it comes to all things environmental, separating your recycling for the green bin, taking the glass jars and bottles to the tip, walking instead of driving. Same for food, buying it and cooking it. Everyone's got a responsibility to do the very best they can within their means.
And of course when it comes to taste, has anyone gone rushing up to the person who provided a cheap, factory made quiche and gushed about how delicious it was?
One last thought, and I do apologise again for my lack of discipline in getting my thoughts out, intensively reared chickens grow so fast that their bones are still so soft they can be minced up to be put in hotdogs. Yum. Enjoy.
I've been wrestling with these questions for a long time. I'm glad you brought them up!
I think that you raise a tough question about ecological responsibility and finances. It really does cost more for this when it comes to the environment, and also related, when it comes to purchasing organic and free range food.
If you have any interest I wrote two different articles about ecology and animals in www.sacredtribes.com
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