Things I learned on my lunch hour

1. My neighborhood Five Guys is now open!

2. On the opposite end of the health food spectrum, Slate had an interesting article about Whole Foods today. The article got my attention with the line "the dark secrets of the organic-food movement."

The article wasn't quite what I expected. I thought it would be an article about how organic food wasn't actually any better for you, which I'd maybe agree with to a degree, but not completely.

Instead, the article was about how buying organic isn't neccesarily better for the environment. And that I agree with completely.

Where does most of the pollution related to food come from? You're probably thinking pesticides, right? Well, pesticides are an issue, but MUCH more pollution comes from.... drum roll please... transportation.

Say you live in Virginia, and you have the option of buying a non-organic tomato from Virginia, or an organic tomato from South America. The South American tomato might have had a more environmentally friendly growing process, but then it was put on planes, trains, boats, cars, etc., burning fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Virginia tomato had a relatively clean transportation process to your Harris Teeter or Giant or Safeway or wherever you bought it.

I don't mean this as an attack on Whole Foods. I shop there myself. And I do believe, to a degree, in buying organic for health reasons. But I don't kid myself into thinking my Whole Foods shopping experience is especially "eco-friendly."

In another Slate article today, you'll find out how to survive your Trader Joe's shopping experience.

Update

Here's a little more on Life-cycle assessment: That is, accounting for all parts of a product's life cycle (raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, storing, transporting, using and disposing) when considering the environmental impact of a product.

And here's some more about buying local food. I don't pay attention to this so much at the grocery store, but it makes sense and perhaps I should start.