The+Seasoned+Traveler

KENDRA RASK, KACIE KIYUNA

"The typical item of food on an American's plate travels some fifteen hundred miles to get there, and is frequently better traveled and more worldly than its eater" (387).

"The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States (about as much as automobiles do). Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate" (299).

"A one-pound box of prewashed lettuce contains 80 calories of food energy. According to Cornell ecologist David Pimental, growing, chilling, washing, packaging, and transporting that box of organic salad to a plate on the East Coast takes more than 4,600 calories of fossil fuel energy, or 57 calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food" (273-4)

"Just because we can ship organic lettuce from the Salinas Valley or organic cut flowers from Peru doesn't mean we should do it, not if we're really serious about energy and seasonality and bioregionalism." (Pollan 133)

The Seasoned Traveler on Your Plate

Did your banana pack a suitcase on its journey to your plate? Surly it must have. According to Michael Pollan your banana has embarked on quite a long journey from where it grew to where it sits in your hand now, saying that "the typical item of food on an American's plate travels some fifteen hundred miles to get there" (387).

Fifteen hundred miles is a long trek for a banana, which on route to your plate has consumed large amounts of fossil fuel to arrive to you. According to Pollan, "the food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States (about as much as automobiles do). Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate" (299).

When was the last time you traveled as far as your banana? Is the food you eat a more seasoned traveler than you are? When was the last time that you burned more calories than you consumed to obtain your food? Ask yourself these questions before you eat. Eat local and let your banana be eaten a bit closer to home.