Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Give Your Head a Shake!
You know what I'm really getting sick of? The constant parade of what I like to call the "pretension du jour".
Now, don't get me wrong. Even though I'm Tory (sorry JC), I like to think I'm pretty progressive about most lifestyle things. I try to eat vegetarian at least a couple times a week. I don't think strict vegetarianism is the right dietary choice for humans, but I respect people who make that choice and I recognize that, for health reasons, we should all try to eat veggie more often.
But it seems like there is this steady progression of self-righteous twits trying to outdo each other in how pretentious they can be in their dietary and consumer choices. As though there weren't enough real problems in the world.
Vegetarianism got to be old hat, so along came vegan.
Vegan cooking started to get too tasty, so along came the whole PETA non-exploitation stance.
PETA went too Hollywood, so along came Fair Trade.
Starbucks started carrying Fair Trade coffee, so then came organic.
Well, now the supermarkets are selling brand name organic foods, so you had to know that all the hippies of the world weren't going to sit still for that for too long.
So now we have the Eat Local movement, wherein you only eat stuff that grows within a 60 mile radius of where you live (distances seem to vary according to, I don't know, the sanity of the person involved perhaps.)
The theory, I guess, is that all the shipping, refrigeration, etc. is ever so bad for the planet, yada yada.
I watched a bit on the news about a local woman whose family had just finished a year of an Eat Local pledge. She was going on and on about how great it was and how much better the world would be if everyone did it as much as possible all the time.
Now, here's a couple of quick pieces of info: where I live, we have at best a four month growing season. Just about the only thing that grows in any great quantity around these parts is wheat. There is nothing remotely resembling a citrus fruit that grows within 1,000 kilometres of this place.
I cannot think of a less sane place on Earth to try to practice strict Eat Local principles, except perhaps the Arctic.
Oh sure, in summertime there are local market gardens where one could load up on carrots and such, but then you'd have to either freeze or can them yourself, and wouldn't that undercut the whole energy-saving rationale?
Plus, have any of these save-the-world knobs considered the impoverished farmers and workers in Third World countries who depend on trade in fruits and vegetables for what little income they receive? How did 'Fair Trade' suddenly morph into 'No Trade'?
The notion that we should shut down world trade in food, of all things, just to satisfy the moral pretensions of the professionally outraged is just too stupid for words.
As a counterpoint to this, shortly after seeing the news item about Eat Local, I saw a fundraising commercial for one of those evangelist Christian overseas missions. I usually tune those things out, 'cause like most people I generally dislike evangelist types. But this one caught my attention. They were raising money to buy medicine to treat leprosy afflicting poor Third World people.
So, on the one hand, you've got these "right-wing" evangelist types who everyone (including me) loves to sneer at, yet they are doggedly, thanklessly working away to try to fix a real problem.
On the other hand, you've got all these Green snots who get all the attention, are total media darlings yet half the time they seem to be wasting their time and ours with all these pointless half-baked notions of theirs.
Well, there's my rant du jour. Man, we're getting a lot of these things lately, aren't we? What do you think? Am I over-reacting or do these fad-causes bug you as much as they bug me?
posted by Mentok @ 1:00 p.m.,
6 Comments:
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At 4:44 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Aw, thanks. My day was missing a bit of curmudgeoness...
Move to Vancouver. Come feast with me on salmon, scallops, oysters, the fruits and veg of Richmond, and, er, fiddleheads. -
At 5:13 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Oh, now you're just being mean with all you're boastful West Coast talk. I'm surprised you didn't bring up the killer whale pods again just to twist the knife a little more ;-)
You say "er, fiddleheads" as though you have some hesitation about that lovely vegetable. Don't tell me you don't like fiddleheads. I'm surprised they grow there. I always thought they were an East Cost thing. -
At 5:25 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Also, you see what I mean about my karmic balance being all discombubulated ;-)
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At 3:21 p.m.,
mjrc said...
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hey, check out this website. it's oh-so-germane to your post--and fil's, for that matter. i found it through andrew bird's website, which i find to be a little weird, but whatevah.
http://www.grist.org/
i would do some fancy html stuff but we all know what happens when i try to do that! : ) -
At 5:07 a.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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You are totally not over-reacting.
Vegans, Veggies, and Starbuckies annoy the hell out of me. -
At 4:05 p.m.,
claymonster said...
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This made my day.
I'm not sure what grows within 60 miles of my home either... except... well, cattle, and seafood. I could live on that, I suppose!
