Think outside the box!

Okay, having worked and lived in Silicon Valley, I really hate that term. I know what it means, but it ranks up with cliché’s such as “Don’t go there,” “Do you have the bandwidth,” “I’m so over it,” etc.

So I bring it up because there’s a debate going on as to what is better . . . buy organic? Buy local? Buy local organic? Organic is okay, even if it’s hauled from Peru or New Zealand? Free range? Cage free? Free range and cage free?

 How about . . . not buying processed?

I discussed in a prior post about how our little household creates very little garbage. We’d have even less if I could get my act together and attend a composting class, which the city had cancelled today. But the reason why our Silver Lake home contributes so little to the landfill is that we just buy very little pre-made “stuff.”

One greenwashing issue that irks me is all the products you can buy that are “natural” or “organic,” from the frozen dinners at Whole Foods to the packaged goodies at my beloved Trader Joe’s. You can buy “green” energy bars, and Paul Newman’s products are available at Von’s and Albertson’s.

I think that any benefits of buying organic food products is cancelled out by the packaging and fuel involved in transporting those goodies from ship to train to truck to store, from your truck to your pantry. No. Not a solution. If we spend a little more time making our own food, the benefits are enormous:

1) You save money! Stop kvetching about the economy and instead of spending $3 on a muffin at Starbucks, spend less than that to make a dozen at home. Stop buying $8 bags of “homemade” granola and make your own.

2) You reduce waste. Even if all that cardboard and plastic is recycled, you still are using energy to haul it and process it.

3) It’s healthier. You’re consuming less sugar, sodium, additives, and preservatives. Yes, maple syrup and honey are better than high fructose corn syrup, but when you cook, you can control what you’re ingesting.

4) Finally, you become connected with food. I’m still gob-smacked at overhearing folks that don’t know what a pomegranate or a white peach are . . . let alone that beets and turnips have greens and you can eat them.

Now I know the response, “I don’t have time.” Phooey. Put the blackberry down, stop blogging (oops), stop Twittering, turn off the TV, and try a few little things—soak some dry lentils while you’re at work and when you get home, add them to your salad. Buy a few ceramic pots, place them on your balcony, throw in a few arugula seeds, and a month later you have salad every day. Take a large bag of almonds to work to snack instead of buying a $3 energy bar, or even worse, those annoying 100 calorie snack bags. Nuke some frozen blueberries from TJ’s or Costco for 30 seconds, add some cereal and yogurt, and you’ve saved the expense of a $4 parfait from the basement café in your building.

And at the risk my committing green heresy, shop at Costco. Think about it—shopping daily for groceries is a fantasy if you don’t live in Little Italy or Provence, but buy large quantities of your favorite base ingredients. You’re shopping less, and buying less packaging. But skip their apples—the packaging in which they come always appall me.

Trust me—taking baby steps turn into monster leaps if we all are doing it.