I just finished up a late supper with Jo. We had one of our favorite meals: fresh baked baguette, camembert cheese and smoked salmon with fresh green onions on the side. A nice Riesling washes it down quite well. We've snacked all day on kumquats, had leftover beef stroganoff for lunch and started this sunny March Sunday with bacon and egg sandwiches and nice strong coffee.

Why another post about food? As I finished up the last bits of supper and poured myself a second glass of wine, I began thinking about the system behind my meals today. The energy to produce and move the food, the numerous people working on each part to make the elements of my meal, to package and sell it. All of these parts of a vast network of people and companies working together to allow a couple in Iowa to eat a delightful meal, a meal that in the vast stretches of human history would have been beyond the means of all but the wealthiest of royalty.

Now there are some that would look at this and see only carbon footprints and environmental destruction. They would see farm workers toiling away at body crushing tasks. Workers in factories making a modest living packaging the food and supplies for my meal. They might see exploitation and destruction at every point, and urge me to turn my back on these sinful ways and buy local, eat a more modest diet.

The thing is, I do in fact eat quite a bit of local food. I'm a huge fan of Hansen's Dairy, the milk in my coffee came from just 10 miles from my house. The eggs were local too, and, given that I live in Iowa, it's not a stretch to think that the bacon came from nearby as well.

But cheese from France? Wine from 1800 miles away? Kumquats from some sunny spot in the US far away from the land of corn and pork? How can I justify such extravagance when the Earth is in peril, when so many people were so damaged to make this meal for my wife and I?

My response to this is complicated. I fully realize that I live in the greatest empire the human race has ever created. Even with the recent financial troubles, we live in the most prosperous era of human history. People are healthier, live longer and enjoy richer lives than at any other point in history. The access to knowledge and experience is absolutely unprecedented. I may have done nothing to deserve this rich life than be born in the right place at the right time. But even that fact is nearly miraculous. It may not be fair, but most people, if given the chance will usually work to their own advantage most of the time, even if only to feel good about being so blessedly selfless. All in all, those selfish acts mesh together to make a rather pleasant civilization.

You see, I outgrew the the desire to participate in an apocalyptic cult long ago. First I shed my upbringing in the Catholic church. I respect other's beliefs, and core to mine is the desire to not be told what to believe, and also not to proselytize much myself. But shedding Christianity was relatively easy compared to my questioning and skepticism of what is commonly called Environmentalism. This is not to say that I don't believe there are problems, and many of them are caused by human activity, my own included. It's just that I reject the apocalyptic nature of the current trends in these matters. I do what I can, I grow a garden, I support local farmers, I walk 2 miles every day as my work commute. But what so many of these caring souls often fail to remember is the tremendous work done by previous generations to cure disease, provide food for the world, and to solve the problems of their day. They tirelessly worked to create the world we now have because they wanted something better for themselves, but also for their children.

I want the same thing. I want a healthy environment for future generations. I want small local farm families to prosper like the Hansens have. But I also want a world where they can enjoy a nice French cheese from time to time. A world where fruit is available all year and information flows as freely as the air around us. All those people in humanity's past worked to make the world we enjoy today a bit better than what they experienced. They didn't set out to destroy the environment or exploit the workers of the world. They simply wanted to solve the problems before them and make the world something new. We dishonor their efforts when we only see the negative outcomes from their actions.

So buy local when it makes sense. Walk if you don't need to drive. Think about what you're doing and learn how we got where we are today. But most of all, enjoy the world we have and say some thanks for all those forgotten folks that came before us and gave us this golden time to be alive.