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Grandma's carbon footprintThe running gag in our family is that my grandma was "overly frugal." Afterall, the woman reused plastic butter containers and aluminum foil, and had a compost heap in the backyard. From used wrapping paper to hand-me-down clothes, there was nothing that didn't find a second life in Grandma Clark's house. If she were alive today, though, I'm sure she'd get a kick out of the environmental "green" movement that's sprung up in the aisles of our local superstores. According to the aging hippies hawking everything from biodegradable cleaning supplies to organically grown cotton T-shirts, we should all be aware of our carbon footprints. A simple stop at the store for groceries and essentials is now a guilt trip for having it so good as an over-privileged American consumer. Make the wrong choice in your purchases and face the wrath of the environmentalists, the free trade activists, the marching union members, and any other group touting its cause on your local shelves. You can't just buy any product anymore. Now you have to make sure that it's biodegradable, ecologically sound, and the packaging is made from recycled materials. I wonder what my grandma would say to that? Forget antibacterial soaps and cleaners designed to kill the germs--Grandma's kitchen was cleaner than an operating room with just baking soda, bleach or ammonia. And, at the store, you can forget just buying any fresh produce anymore. Instead, it has to be organically grown by family farmers from some fair trade country in the Third World. There has to be a story with every bunch of bananas or head of lettuce, so that you feel good with every bowl of cereal or BLT sandwich. Your milk has to be hormone-free, your bread has to be whole-grain, and your meat has to be free-range. The only produce Grandma ever bought at the store were bananas and oranges. Her garden and fruit trees in her backyard provided all the vegetables and apples she needed. She drank un-pasteurized milk, she ate hamburgers from corn-fed steers, and she had a knack for making bread that put any loaf in the store to shame. And, she did so without the intervention of a fair trade organization or environmental lobbyist. (Although, I'm sure she would have welcomed the fertilizer.) I wonder what Grandma would say about the latest trend of organically grown, environmentally sound clothing that's popping up in stores everywhere? Frankly, I think she'd laugh at the idea. Afterall, she didn't need to buy organic clothing to reduce her carbon footprint. Every outfit in her household was handed down at least three times before finding a new life as a quilt scrap. What could be more organic than that? As the oldest of nine children, Grandma lived through the Depression. She was a farm wife, and a working mother of four during a recession. She knew that pennies pinched become dollars saved, and those dollars were what helped her family survive. She recycled out of necessity, not out of a guilty conscience for the environment. She grew her garden to feed her children and because it gave her joy--not because she was concerned about today's farming practices. She did her part to reduce her carbon footprint without being bullied into it. I guess this means our family will have to adjust our jokes about grandma's frugality. Afterall, she wasn't being "cheap," she was just "green" before it was cool. Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807 or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com. 9/1/08 Date: 8/26/08 Advertisement
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