One day when I was in Churchill I was sat in a bakery/ coffeehouse undertaking the onerous task of deciding which pastry to have with my coffee. I felt that I couldn’t possibly have a fruit based pie or tart as the berries much have come from a thousand miles away. I’m sure this occurred to me as I’d seen all the hundreds of miles of nothing but snow that berries, or almost anything for that matter, had to travel to get there.
That thought stayed with me once I got home. I hadn’t previously specifically looked at the origin of foods I buy at here. I guess with neighbouring New Jersey being” The Garden State” and all the farmland in the area I had managed to kid myself that much of the food is grown nearby. Of course it isn’t. I had a quick look at what was in my most recent shopping basket and found things from places including Mexico, Costa Rica, France (ok so I still won’t buy local cheese). Wow my shopping has an astonishing amount of air miles and even the USA grown bits are from thousands of miles away.
I’d actually like to buy locally. I believe it is worth supporting the local community (although some of the shops on the local high street are clearly a tax dodge – there’s no way they are actually trying to make money). I’d love for there to be shops selling local meat and local fruit and veg – not stuff shipped in from somewhere. I’ll keep looking.