I’m planning a garden for next year. This year we were too late. Too much going on, and all that. And then there’s the question of where we’ll be next year.

So, I’m only imagining it, right now. I’m imagining how lovely it will be to just walk outside and pick something, and then go in the kitchen and use it, right at that moment. And then also, I’m thinking how this will make our connection to the earth so much more relevant to my children – how they’ll learn the importance of dirt, water, sun, wind, and also the patience it takes to tend to and care for a garden. How it feels to create and nurture a living thing from the soil, and how that, in turn, will physically become a part of them and sustain them.

And then this makes me take a look at our fast food nation, and notice a hole there. When did we go from plate to mouth, with no sense of the original source? I mean, I know that people know where food comes from, in the general sense. But do they think about it as they are eating? Are they aware, as they nosh, of every single ingredient they are putting into their bodies at that moment? I know I am not, probably most of the time.

In fact, most of the “food” eaten these days in the United States is chemically-enhanced. Take a look at labels. For example, what in the world is this, d’ya think?:

Potatoes, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor (beef source), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (to preserve natural color). Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and citric acid added to help preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent.

(Anti-foaming agent? Why would it foam? Unless maybe the TBHQ, or the sodium acid pyrophosphate somehow holds foaming properties. In which case, eeww! And yuck. But then, what else does the Dimethylpolysiloxane affect? If it’s anti-foaming, does it somehow stifle the oxygen content within the molecular structure of the actual food – if there is actual food there, at all? And what is the result of that?

See? There is so much to think about when chemicals are added to an otherwise natural and sort of seamless system of whole foods that exists solely for us to eat).

Here’s another list of ingredients:

Potatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper, a sprinkle of garlic powder if desired.

The first? McDonald’s French fries. The second? A home made version.

If you are what you eat, then pretty soon we are all going to be one big blob of mixed chemical compounds walking around. Will we start to turn neon colors? Foam at the mouth? Dry up? Explode? Implode?

Most likely not. But we might start to break down, our hearts might give out, we might acquire diabetes, severe acne, and develop other serious ailments.

Imagine eating, and really noticing your food. Look at it, and think about where it came from. Feel gratitude that it will sustain you. Try to feel as if you’re a part of it, if that is possible. Because in about two minutes it will be a part of you, and you jolly well better know exactly what it is that’s plummeting down your throat, making its way to your stomach, your bloodstream, your liver, and all the other organs involved.

I imagine that some of our disconnectedness to nature is, in part at least, because of the disconnectedness to our food. Or is it the other way around? Certainly there is a correlation there. And there is a surge of talk about eating and buying locally, eating organically grown food, and an emphasis on the slow food movement. But at the same time, fast food chains are booming, high fructose corn syrup (for one) remains a key ingredient in many products, and obesity is reaching record levels.

What’s up with all that?

I am saddened by the lack of attention and care, but also by the lack of time spent at the table, as we all rush about our lives as if being chased. Why are we running? From whom? What place is so dad-blamed important that we have to sacrifice our own serenity and inherent nature, not to mention family and ritual, in order to get there fast, fast, fast?

So, here’s what I propose. Start a garden. It doesn’t have to be massive. It can be indoors. Plant some herbs, and maybe a little tomato plant. Watch it grow, and share it with your family and friends. Eat from it. The experience might be more profound than you imagine.

Buy fresh, local, organic, whenever possible. You don’t have to sacrifice. There are lots of companies and grocery stores that sell whole food, even candy. The Natural Candy Store, has everything you need to satisfy your sweet tooth, and there are no artificial flavors, colors, or high fructose corn syrup – or any kind of nasty chems, for that matter. Check it out. (And, no, they are not paying me. Just in case you were wondering).

Bake your own bread. My husband recently bought me this incredible book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I had taken it out of the library and loved it, so he went out and bought it. (And I am thrilled to start making my own bread, by the way. Ever smell fresh bread as it bakes? Sheer fabulousity).

There are many ways to make our food situation better. There are city gardens cropping up, in empty lots, in inner cities. See Urbanfarming.org – and IOBY.org. There are a lot of CSAs , which are becoming increasingly popular, both as a way to procure fresh produce, but also to support local farms. There are school programs sponsored by the Center for Ecoliteracy, which offer courses on nature and sustainability.

In any case, it’s off to the vegetable garden for me, next spring. It appears to be the thing to do

“If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal – that is your success.  All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.”

-  Henry David Thoreau

“All that in this delightful garden grows should happy be and have immortal bliss.”

- Edmund Spencer, The Faerie Queen

“We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.”

-Joni Mitchell

All right. Twist my arm. I’m off to slice limes right now.

Despair or no despair, the small daily things do matter and help maintain the larger purpose of saving sweet home earth. So many simple, minute, miniscule, teeny, tiny, little, not-so-difficult, really-quite-easy (okay, you get the picture) every day tasks help the world be greener and brighter, truly. I mean, would I lie to you? No. No, I wouldn’t. Here. Have a margarita.

Ø      Compost. For one thing, composting is great for your garden. If you don’t garden, sprinkle the compost directly on your lawn – preferably before a rainstorm, and after your Great Aunt Agnes comes over for a visit and a nice game of croquet. (I mean, who wants compost all over their brand-spanking new Maryjanes, for cripes sake)?

Compost helps make grass lush and fuller without the use of chemical treatments. It also helps ward off environmental pollutants that occur when one throws excess food away. When food is contained in plastic bags and dumped it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to destroying our environment. Instead of tossing away food, simply find a dedicated spot on your property in which to bury it (produce scraps only, no meat or dairy), and then use that soil to fertilize your garden or yard.

You can find actual composters, which allow you to turn the compost over, rather than having to use a shovel. (I use a shovel, though, and it works just fine for me. But I’m rather the scrappy sort and don’t mind getting my nose a little dirty. Actually, sometimes I like it. Shhh…)

Ø      Walk or bike instead of drive. I know, I know. You hear it all the time. But my God – there are cars everywhere, all over the road. I hardly see any walkers around in my town. No bikers either, but it’s hardly the season yet. Still, if an errand is just down the street, consider using your feet rather than your wheels. It seems like such a little thing, but if it was done every day, and if we all of us did it…okay, enough of the dead-horse beating.

(But it could be a good deterrent for the obesity epidemic running rampant in our country nowadays. Just sayin’).

Ø      Choose to buy locally. Visit your local farm for produce. Go to Mom and Pop’s five and ten, rather than CVS or Target or Walmart. Choose your local hardware store, rather than Home Depot. Supporting small businesses is a major way to help change environmental factors for the better, and helps your community (and therefore helps you) at the same time.

Ø      Do not accept The Plastic Bags. Say no to your grocer, when asked The Question. No to the ubiquitous plastic pile of them small frisky fiends waiting to gracelessly follow you home, hide out in your cabinet among the other bags, make faces behind your back, eat up all the rest of your homemade Snickerdoodles, put their feet up on your brand new cream-colored ottoman with the snowy egret pattern, and blow their noses on your favorite silk blouse.

Okay, I know they don’t really do that. But they might as well.

And no – I don’t really have a cream-colored ottoman with a snowy egret pattern, although it sounds kind of pretty, doesn’t it?

Ø      Eshew disposable water bottles. Everyone drinks water these days as if we’re scraping across the desert with nothing but our camels in tow and a big hunk of salt that we are required to lick periodically. Water bottles everywhere. Get ahold of the stainless steel kind. They come in all kinds of awesome patterns and colors, too. The $20.00 you drop for one more than pays itself off, when you consider how much it costs to buy ONE measly bottle of Poland Springs. Totally worth it. (I personally like SIGG. Those Swiss people really do it right. And no, I’m not at all biased just because I am half Swiss, myself…and there is always a place in my heart for Switzerland…okay, maybe I’m a little biased).

Ø      Join a CSA. Community Supported Agriculture is, essentially, getting us back to the way things were before we had Food, Inc. It allows us the finest in local ingredients, taste, health, ease of procurement, and also allows us to support our local farmers, who need us now more than ever. And we need them, by the way. It’s a symbiotic relationship that keeps on giving. Holla!

There’s more. Much more. But these are some daily tasks that I think are manageable for almost everyone. Our daily rituals, our daily bread. The major environmental disasters in the world are enormous and it’s easy to get downhearted – but on this small side of the planet, here where we stand on this little piece of land, we can do our best. And perhaps that is the best we can do, on this day, in our space, in this moment, right now.

Do I sound bitter? That’s because, frankly, I am.

The fact that big businesses perk up their collective ears at anything that might remotely mean more dough in their wallets makes me want to throw water balloons at them. (I’m relatively peace-loving, so water balloons is all I got).

The terminology that everyone is hurling around these days gives one pause. Local. Green. All-natural. Organic. Additive-free. What do these things mean? And, what are the laws about using these terms? And, can we get some definitions, please? And, how smug do consumers feel, purchasing ubiquitous pink tupperware and a turbo upright vacuum cleaner at the Walmart down the street and patting themselves on the back, because they’ve just purchased something “locally?”

Pretty darned smug, I tell you. Pretty darned smug.

Sure, yes, all right, fine – it’s local, in a sense. The store is a five-minute drive. Ten minutes, maybe. It’s in the same town. Or in the next town over.

This is what Walmart wants you to think: That, because the store is within driving distance, that means it’s local, and therefore if you shop there, you are being a good, green consumer – a conscientious citizen, really -  and you shouldn’t worry any more about that other local movement they’re talking about…no, no – look over here, this way… because you are, indeed, doing your part for the country – nay, the world. You are an environmentalist, by Golly.

In another bold and slithery move, Walmart also provides a small portion of locally-grown produce, and so can plaster posters all over the place, pronouncing themselves as saintly, hip, all-wise, for having the insight and the initiative to support the local marketplace.”We’re local,” they say, folding their arms in triumph.

Selling local produce sounds like a good thing, for Walmart. But I’d almost rather they didn’t. Because they’re perpetuating a lie. That lie being, they are committed to supporting the small business owner, thus the consumer is, in essence, supporting the small business owner by shopping there.

It’s a lie.

These made-up – let’s face it, rather creative – ways of looking at the local movement are sort of akin to feeling as if, as long as I join the Save-the-earth-Haitian-earthquake-victims-Chilean-people-whales-rainforests-and-polar-ice-caps group on my Facebook page, then I am doing my part and no longer have to be accountable to them, or for anything else in my life. I belong to the group, you see. I’m doing so much. Not to mention, I am exceptionally selfless. And enlightened. And kind of good looking, too.

I fail hopelessly here, belonging, as I do, to many Facebook groups. And – do I find myself feeling smarmy? Do I say to myself, “Look here, people. Look at all my humanitarian groups that I belong to. See? SEE?”

Yes. Yes, I am superlatively smarmy. No question, I fall into this trap. It makes me want to go and delete all of those groups. And throw water balloons at them. But if I did, then I wouldn’t be able to read all these great articles about things like how Walmart is calling itself “local” and then I wouldn’t be able to seethe and cast expletives at the screen, and then blog about it later, and…and…and, well. Um. Here we are.

When applied to an environmental idea, such as supporting local businesses, considering a store like Walmart to be local becomes a direct affront to this idea – further, it pushes backwards any kind of momentum that has been gained due to the grassroots campaigning for the support of small businesses and farms – which is a very necessary and important campaign, at this time.

Perhaps they may be a teeny weeny bit afraid – Walmart and the like. Afraid that people will realize how much their town will benefit from supporting the local, small business person, and the local farmer.

People do realize this – do they not?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Perhaps all that people can see is how much they are saving right at this moment, on this day. That Walmart is cheaper, and so therefore they will shop there. Perhaps there’s no eye to the future, to how things might shift if they went to Joe’s Hardware, rather than to Home Depot; that in shopping at Corner Consignment, rather than at Target, they are supporting their own community. They are supporting themselves.

People are not all so separate from one another, after all – as much as everyone would like to think we all are. In fact, we are pretty reliant on one another. And if a small business closes due to a lack of customer support, than everyone suffers.

Except for the big-box. They wouldn’t suffer – not at all. They’d hitch up their drawers, wink a little, and light up a cigar. To them, every last little business must be bought up, sold out, pushed into bankruptcy, crushed into oblivion. For in the obliteration, they reign supreme. They bask in their success.

To my way of thinking, though, there is no sun to bask in. And this is not a success.

Recently, a good friend of mine decided to go locavore for the summer, and eat only locally-based foods. She inspires me in lots of different ways, so I figured one more inspirational idea from her would do me good.

As I wandered the grocery aisles today, I decided that I would experiment and try to only buy locally produced items – if possible. Meaning, items produced from companies located solely in New England, since I’m in the Boston area.

It was a challenge.

In the first place, I usually only buy organic and whole foods. So already, I am limited. Plus, I have to think about packaging – a new-ish obsession. So there’s more than just looking at the ingredients, which is what I usually do. Now there is also looking at where the company is located, and how it is packaged, as well as paying attention to the kind of item it is. (Who would’ve thought grocery shopping would be so thought-provoking? Sort of like a science exam…)

For example, I don’t think that coffee and olives could possibly be produced in New England. Nor could chocolate, in any way. Or avocados. *sigh* Or artichokes. *weep*

But I WAS surprised at how many things actually ARE manufactured by local companies and farms. A lot of items that I usually buy are straight from Vermont, happily – and there are more than a few things that happen to be from Massachusetts. So I lucked out, actually.

But I did have a difficult time with cereal. I spent an enormous amount of time in that aisle, picking up boxes, reading them, and then putting them back down in increasing frustration. Finally, I found this:

And snatched it up. I love granola. Score!

I went down the snack aisle and my mind wandered. I tossed in a couple of bags of stuff I know my husband and kids like, and continued on. But, wait! I forgot to check. Aaaand…Texas. And Oregon. Damn.

(At least I didn’t buy that air freshener from Singapore).

I kept the snacks in the cart, anyway. After all, this is only an experiment. And I have to get used to it. This paying attention thing is hard.

I tried finding some sort of fish in a tin, but everything seemed to be from California.

Then I found some herring from Maine.

Excellent.

Okay, I made it to the check-out counter. I think I’m all set. Milk from New Hampshire, diapers from Vermont, cheese from Buffalo, New York – not technically New England, but probably closer to me than upstate Maine, or something.

But, wait! I didn’t look at the masking tape label. And I look, mid-check-out.

Ohio. Ugh.

And, oh, by the way – the wine’s from California.

Did I mention this is my first time doing this?

And all I can say is, hats off to you, Barbie and Mattel, for at the very least being aware and perhaps starting a trend with major companies. And it really only goes to show how environmental awareness is making great strides in the mainstream. It’s a good sign.

Although, there’s this. Which makes a good point, really. And that is, how green is Mattel being? Sure, they’re purporting the importance of recycling, and sure, the packaging is somewhat better. But are we still being duped, here?

I’m inclined to say that, even though the company may have some shady environmental dealings, and even though the packaging is not made from recycled materials, and even though the product itself inside the nifty cardboard box is still made of all kinds of nasty smelly plastic, the whole idea of the thing is a positive step in the right direction.

But I don’t know. What do you think?

Do you think that all these green products are, in the long run, worse for consumers and the earth because in actuality the products are not what they appear to be, and create misinformation, and perhaps worse, support for companies that get failing grades when it comes to the environment?

Or, is anything better than nothing? Even though it is not perfect, is it enough that these major players in the industry might possibly take a step in the right direction and join the rest of us in the twenty-first century?

Which is worse?