This I Resolve

This is from my folks’ house over Christmas. The print near the top says “Concentrate from China.” Apparently it’s now cheaper to raise apples in China, press them for concentrate, ship that, and reconstitute it somewhere in the US and ship that to Montana than using Montana or Washington apples for the same product.

I brought this up to my folks and my Dad, whom I greatly admire, said, “Well, it’s just hard to get things made in the US these days… Even furniture all comes from China.” No, no, no…. I pointed out that you can get HELENA-MADE furniture if you wanted, and there are probably a dozen more furniture makers in Montana if you look for them.

The problem, we all agreed, is that buying local (often) means spending more money or settling for something that is not exactly what you want. And we as a culture are practically hardwired to find the cheapest acceptable item to fulfill our immediate desire.

Last night I finally watched “The Botany of Desire” with Julie and while I was mesmerized by each of the four stories, the fourth, on potatoes, was most interesting. There we see the evolution of potatoes, focusing on the last 3oo or so years, when they’ve gone from the wide varieties found in S. America (pictured lower left) to the monocultures well-known in the US and Europe. The resulting famine in Ireland in 1847 (should have) taught us a great lesson in why not to simply focus on what is easiest and cheapest (economics overriding morals or other decision-making mechanisms).

I’ve heard Michael Pollan speak before, and one thing he strongly advocates is the redevelopment of local/regional food networks. Today we are (most of us at least) dangerously dependent upon transportation networks to bring us our food. Luckily there are folks moving to turn this around, but it will require awareness on the part of the consumer – me and you- to make it work. As I sip my Californian wine and type on my Chinese-made computer, I can’t help but wonder how much I’ll really be able to “act locally” – but I’ll try.

I’ll post updates along the way – under the below label “local living” and hope you’ll join me in deepening awareness of the sources of all this stuff in our lives.