Move to Bolivia to be a Locavore?

  




Sign on a building in Boulder...

JC and I watched the film FUEL and it only makes me more aware of how I take part in the crazy consumption of non-renewables.  I am right now, at this moment, sitting in a big chunk of aluminum flying from Tucson to Boulder after taking a shuttle from Patagonia to Tucson.  Why?  Because I want to see my friends there and I found a great deal on the flight.  200 years ago I would have written long letters to my friends and they would have gotten them a month later and then responded and I would most likely have most of my dearest friends and family within walking distance.  I would not have expected to see my friends on a regular basis who live hundreds of miles away. 

I know that my choice to be vegan saves a boatload of oil.  Animal agriculture uses more petroleum than all forms of transportation combined in the world.  Also, I am not a shopper and rarely buy anything new.  My idea of a gift for our home is the beautiful rocks and sticks and bones I find while hiking.  So, I may not be the world’s biggest petroleum consumer…..but I am still aware of how spoiled I am…and I could sure make my footprint smaller.  

We have a home on wheels.  We get to park it wherever we please.  I would guess that we don’t drive even a fraction of the miles that most commuters do, but the fact that we can even have this mobile lifestyle depends on fuel. 

And, it’s not just that part of our lifestyle that contributes to the USA’s over the top consumption….

Our wonderful daily green smoothie drink has ginger and cinnamon from who knows where and bananas from Mexico.  It is only by chance that the kale, lemons, oranges, carrots, and apples in it are from the local organic farms in the area where we are parked right now.  There are places we have lived where the sources for our smoothie ingredients make it a virtual United Nations in a blender.

I have to admit it….I am just another fossil fuel dependent human.

I would like to simplify life down to the point where I am not so dependent on fossil fuels.  But, as I look around at my life, it seems almost impossible. First I would have to shed the things that are wants rather than needs….that means most of what I have and do.  Could I really do without my sun-dried organic Bolivian olives?  Probably.  Or I guess we could move to Bolivia so then I would be eating locally. The olives would be the easiest to let go of (I know this is hard to believe for those of you who have seen me go through a pint of them in less than 5 minutes) ….Choices choices.
It's all easier when I remember that those really simple pleasures are what bring me the most contentment....

JC making saurkraut with local organic veggies.