I made a bouillabaisse for dinner. Its a creamy fish stew, most delicious. But I had such a dilemma. Had the fish already, but wanted to add some prawns and scallops, so, abandoning poor sick hubby with the crabby screamies, I pottered off to Coles.Well.
I had a choice of prawns from Vietnam, prawns from China or (most expensive) prawns from Australia. I inwardly groaned, mentally totting up food miles and the horrible rumors about the conditions Asian seafood is raised in. Yes, had an ethical dilemma about my fish soup. I was glad they were busy, because I vacillated for quite a while. I had no choice with the scallops, from China or nothing. I had a vision of Chinese ladies, de-shelling scallops at lightening speed in some terrible factory. If I bought the scallops would I be unintentionally supporting their subjugation?
Its been bothering me for a while actually. I try really hard to buy local, consume ethically, grow my own, save water, help the environment, but it can be so massively challenging. Do I buy organic produce from the Macro supermarket in Hornsby? But its mostly sourced from overseas. What about the food miles and the carbon produced transporting it to me?
I just wanted to buy scallops and prawns dammit. But consuming has become a huge ethical deal and is giving me a headache. I've got too much to worry about already. But is that terribly pathetic of me. Am I making the world a worse place by thinking about acting unthinkingly?
I went for the Chinese prawns and scallops by the way. They looked the nicest and tasted great. But as I served it out to my children I did wonder if the food was safe. Actually they didn't touch it, they ate a great deal of lunch and weren't hungry, but that's not the point. I still worried.
sigh.
Okay, now I've finished moaning about that, nano is going well, am up to 8288 in total.
3 people love me:
Congrats on 8288, you are going great guns. I loved your excerpt by the way.
I'm the same by the way when i go shopping I normally by Aussie, unless what I really wants is only imported. I'm at the stage that I don't look at price (very bad at times) I just buy it and enjoy.
Have a great weekend
Hugs
Sandie
Surprised you had time/motivation for cooking. And yes the shopping is a huge problem. I'm forced usually to choose on the basis of price, but some things I choose for ethical reasons i.e. free range eggs and chicken (have you seen what they do to cage hens? Shudder!). And I love organic but the price and the meagre range of items tend to deter me. And I wonder if stuff is really organic anyway. I mean anyone could slap a sticker on a packet of beef and say it's grain fed or whatever. I don't exactly trust the monster supermarket chains.
Too much angst for a Sunday morning. Well done you on the word count.
Sami
Yeah, I tend to go on price as well, I mentioned a few posts ago I was sorting out our finances and you wouldn't believe how much we spend on groceries every week. Its shocking, and I've noticed a big difference in the last year. The way prices are creeping up with this drought is a real worry.
I do spend money on eggs from happy chickens as well. And yeah, our local supermarket is Coles and I simply do not beleive that their Coles Organic range is organic. I can just see them somewhere down the track saying 'oh it was a brand name, did you think it meant the goods were organic??'
I garden organically, and I know how challenging that can be, I also buy stuff from a wonderful local health food place that I trust is organic and its devastatingly expensive. I don't see how Coles can supply the same thing at a third of the price.
Am in a ranty mood today. Will go and try to focus ranting on novel. So not in the mood right now.
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