What Won’t I Give Up?

I am obviously new to this “tagging” business because it took me a couple days to figure out what I am suppose to do with the shout out that Phelan gave me. She writes a great blog called “A Homesteading Neophyte“. The challenging question is “What will you refuse to give up to save Mother Earth?”

That’s hard. Hmmm….

#1) Fine cheese – I don’t consume tons of dairy, but I can’t part with my beloved cheese. Not only that, but more specifically I couldn’t give up fancy cheese. The fancy cheese that gets trucked in, flown in, or shipped from far away places. I try to choose farms with good animal treatment standards, no artificial aging, rbst free. But it still takes some fuel to ship the stuff.

#2) International Travel – I still need to hop on a plane fairly frequently across the globe to unknown places. I can travel cheap and environmentally responsible once I’m there, but still need a plane or boat to get there.

#3) Tango shoes – I’ve been an Argentine tango dancers for about seven years. Good shoes don’t make you a good dancer, but if you are a good dancer they certainly help. And they are typically made with some combination of leather and whatever else.

#4) Coffee – I had the best coffee in Costa Rica. Most of the coffee I drink is from another country. Even if it’s ethically grown in an environmentally responsible way, again they are still trucking it into the US for me.

#5) Medically formulated low-protein food – “What?” you ask. My sweet nephew Evan was born with PKU, which is a metabolic disease. In a nut shell, he has an extremely low tolerance for protein. Without special, medical food to supplement his diet, the protein would build up in his system and cause brain damage. So he has his “lo-pro” version of flour, pasta, rice, etc. They shop the food in from labs across the world. I’m sure the labs treat their employees well, but the shipping alone is probably not great on the earth. But I choose my nephew’s brain cells over the earth’s interests 🙂

Boy, that was a hard one!

Note: Phelan was originally charged with this question by Howling Hill in this post.