Gas and Food

I worry a lot. I worry about where my food and wine comes from and how the farmers and their families who produced it are doing. I worry about the ozone and global warming. I worry about wildlife losing their habitat to development. I worry about my weight. I worry about the streets not being safe for children to play in, about people not knowing their neighbors, about living a fulfilled life. I surprised myself recently by feeling worried about the price of gas.

Most people know that I don't own or drive a car. So, why should I care? ...Well, it's not all about me. People I love drive cars. I worry about them spending all their money on gas. I worry about the transportation of food becoming too much. I worry about the public transit systems and their bottom lines. Someone on one of my carfree lists recently expressed the desire for drivers to stop being able to afford gas and to have to just stop driving right in the middle of the road. I'm more frugal than I am idealistic, it turns out.

The other day, I spent a few minutes scouring the web for a community supported agriculture system we can join to support a local farm. No luck. I found some, but they are all fully subscribed. I got on some waitlists. What kind of a place is this that you can't even promise to buy overpriced vegetables from a farm for a year and pay in advance? Frickin' hippie San Francisco!

I finally got some space in a community garden. It turns out the gardeners have decided that the whole garden should be a service to the community, and no one is allowed to grow vegetables for themselves. They told me I can only grow tomatoes (or raspberries or potatoes -- I choose tomatoes). As a member of the community, I'm not sure how I benefit from being limited in what I am permitted to grow. Gardening brings me joy, and I'm not letting myself get annoyed by the hippie dogma. I planted a bunch of tomatoes at the garden and some lettuce in a planter box in the apartment.

A while back, my friend Mitja sent me this link which recounts an argument that buying local food loses its benefit if you cook it inefficiently... and then refutes it. It made me want to plant more lettuce seeds in the apartment. Would it be possible to grow all my food right here?

The issue makes me feel anxious and itchy. I have a lot of projects, but I crave more. Farming in my Mission studio doesn't seem like the right on tho -- I'll keep looking.