The Problems Presented are really big

I started out this week by responding to a question from one of KMO's listeners who heard me speak on his C-Realm podcast. (See Plastic Problems to read the original post.) I wanted to finally follow up on something else that listener said in their email. He or she said:

"Great show, but as always, I feel like I am caught in the system, not
that I am suffering right now, but yeah I drive a long commute everyday with only me in the car (unless you count all my podcast world friends in there with me!) I do have a nice vegetable garden, but it isn't a significant part of the grocery tally. The problems presented really are big problems when so much of what keeps us going, literally week to week, is on a fine margin as it is."

First, I think that growing at least a small part of your own food — be it just some herbs on a windowsill and a small garden in the summer, perhaps a couple tomato plants and some salad greens — is truly the best thing people can do to help themselves and the planet. In her wonderful book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver and her husband, Steven Hopp, calculated that if each person in America ate just one local meal per week, we would save a million barrels of oil per week. That is huge, and by growing even a small garden, you really are making a difference!

As to