While Vashon has always been a hotspot for activist activity, it seems to have picked up in recent months since the presidential election and the realization that ensuing policies and orders could potentially have harmful effects locally. New groups are being formed and new actions are being taken. Now, with the advent of spring, there are more chances to get involved and support sustainable and responsible policy. The best part is, it requires no direct dealings with politics or politicians and actually encourages you to be outdoors.
Gardening and shopping at local farmers markets can be, and is becoming, a political act. It’s a way to put self-sufficiency into action and decrease dependence on large-scale farming, fossil fuels and the entire industrial agricultural complex. Buying local eggs from chickens who have wandered outside their whole lives and pecked through Vashon’s grass and weeds are not only far healthier, but are insurance that you are not supporting the industrialized poultry farms whose mistreatment of chickens has been widely publicized.
The same goes for buying local fruits and vegetables. Eating what is in-season is far more sustainable in the long-term than expecting bananas, apples, tomatoes and squash to be offered at the grocery store year-round. The issues with this were seen in Europe earlier this winter after bad weather in agriculture-heavy regions of Spain led to shortages of lettuces, courgettes, broccoli and other “unseasonal vegetables.”
“The dilemmas involved with eating imported fresh produce are concerned with environmental and social impact, and the socialisation by commercial entities into expecting any food we want to be available at any time, without the complications of ethical buying and eating,” an article from the University of Portsmouth on phys.org states before explaining that the expectation of fresh produce year-round is also financially fragile.
Multiple other studies, including one from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), report further on the environmental repercussions of buying locally. According to the IATP study, when fresh products are sourced locally, “the distribution chain can be reduced from six to two or fewer motorised transport stages.”
“Thus a process of localisation is a direct approach to reducing or minimising the negative environmental, social and economic impacts of international transportation, freight distribution and car use,” the study reports.
By riding a bike, walking or taking a bus to the Vashon farmers market, there could be no motorized transport on the consumers end involved.
Now that is food for thought.
