My Little Act of Rebellion...

Eggs for £3.70, please.

I consider myself a quasi-green-thumb, partial hippie-wanna-be. How uncommitted does that sound?! What I mean by this is I care about the earth, I wish I had a garden and chickens, sometimes I clean with vinegar (much  to Jordan's chagrin), but I don't have dreadlocks, and I prefer to shower twice a day.

I think living in Athens, GA during my University years started it all (it's quite a hippie town). What drew me in was Earth Fare. It happened to be the closest grocery store to my apartment, and it was a mini version (but on steroids) of Whole Foods. This is where I became obsessed with organic food. And it's a slippery slope... what started out as a selfish interest (my own health), slowly turned outward, and I began caring about the environment. I started to avoid plastic (milk came in glass bottles at Earth Fare), and I wanted to eat organic meat, not just for health reason, but because I wanted happy cows.

Not that any of this is unusual. I am, in many respects, a creature of my generation. These issues have become hot topics. Food Inc., and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (to name a couple) have brought our food crisis in America to the forefront of many people's minds. In Athens I was even using earth-friendly laundry detergent. You vote with your purchases. Yes, that detergent cost more, but I was telling the market that this was what I wanted to see on the shelves.

THEN graduate school happened. This had two effects. While in Boston for Jordan's Master's degree, we lived near an organic farm. I went from getting my milk in glass bottles (which I did think was pretty cool), to hand-picking my own organic green beans and blueberries. Talk about "vine-ripened!" I was hooked. The other effect was running into the problem of no longer being able to afford all the luxuries of green-living I so wished to choose. And I do mean "luxuries." (As a side-rant, there is a problem with the fact that these healthy choices for body and earth are not widely affordable. See the recent documentary A Place at the Table.)

Now in Scotland, with the Master's degree and farm far behind us, pushing through Jordan's PhD, finding myself with the least amount of buying/voting power yet, I have to set aside (for now) much of what I wish I could do (no more earth-friendly laundry detergent for sure).  However, I can't completely suppress the wanna-be green-spirit. I desperately hold onto a few principles. I may have to choose the non-organic or the non-recycled paper products most of the time, but I always buy free-range, organic eggs. Jordan cringes at the price, laughs at me, and turns a blind-eye all at the same time as I reach for the carton of eggs that cost £3.70. I don't know why I can't let this one go. Call it my little act of rebellion...