I received a comment on my pop-top tuna poll entry - and now don't want to eat tuna anymore. To clarify, the tuna mentioned is not so much an afternoon nibbly - I usually have one or 2 of these as my lunch. I am notoriously bad at getting up from my desk and going and having something to eat - which is very, very bad for my health. I have been looking for a relatively healthy food with a long shelf-life for storage in my desk.
As for the fully loaded cost discussions mentioned in the comment - I agree 100% and feel that environmental factors should be incorporated into the cost of products sold. However since that is not the case it becomes nearly impossible to do this on a product by product basis. Surely you can see this just from the example given: doing all of the analysis mentioned for just a can of tuna would be exhausting - then do it for a can of beans that maybe uses 90+% recycled metal in their product. In the end I find that trying to make these assessments by myself leads me to becoming a huddled quivering mass of jelly-like substance. Between my "real" job and my personal "life", I don't want to sacrifice the time to do this analysis for everything I buy - HOWEVER, I would pay someone (like GreenPeace???) to do this analysis for me and provide me with direction on a monthly or quarterly basis on which is the least evironmentally expensive thing to buy in a given category. Example: if tuna is an "expensive" fish, then what are the lower "cost" options for my area? What about other meats? What about GMO vegetables - how can I steer clear of genetically modified organisms? Which shampoos are not tested on animals? Which toilet paper has the highest percentage of post-consumer recycled fibers?
I freely admit that I need help living an environmentally and socially and morally agreeable life. In my experience the politics and zealotism associated with these types of discussions tend to colour the information leading to difficult decisions for the general public. Where can I go, no, where can we, the caring-individuals-who-want-to-do-the-right-thing go, to get help with our purchasing decisions?
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