Fruit Juice Tiff

Matt and I had a bit of a tiff last night. He picked up four bottles of Naked juice, overjoyed that they would only cost us $14. I didn’t say anything about it, but apparently my face did.

He confronted me.

I explained, “It’s just that I don’t really see the point in spending money on fruit juice. If you want the benefits of juice, why not just eat the fruit itself? It costs less. There’s more fiber. And you aren’t condoning the production of more plastic.”

He proceeded to read the salubrious ingredients, including things like spiralina.

I argued that our venerable ancestors did not drink spiralina out of plastic bottles. He could’ve argued that they also had reduced life expectancies, but instead he tried to argue that they got more nutrients because they were hunters and gatherers.

In my mind, the issue at stake is that we, as a society, tend to have such narrow focus. It happens in important areas, like the Civil Rights Movement. For example, there was rampant sexism within the movement because everyone was so focused on racial equality instead of just equality for all people.

It happens in other ways, too. Like the organic food fad. People were rah-rah organic food because it’s so much healthier, and yet we neglect to realize that the carbon dioxide that’s created by shipping organic apples from New Zealand is actually very bad for our health.

The movement for a better world is all connected. Reducing our negative impact on the world also reduces our negative impact on ourselves. We’ve got to look beyond the immediate effect on ourselves and look at the broader implications of our actions.

Eating a locally-grown orange and dumping the rind in the composter is good for us and the environment.