Eggplantation

So far this year, I've directly purchased 11 gallons of gas for commuting to work. It is hard to calculate the gas purchases E-Tran and Sac Regional Transit have had to buy to haul me to and from work. What I'd like to do is calculate my true carbon production. I think I can do it accurately, and particularly calculating all the hidden carbon in the stuff I buy.

I was after a new toothbrush last week. I took the time to identify where each was made -- the vast majority in China. Go figure. But there was one brand made in U.S.A., and that decided it, not the cost. My son Tyler was amused (when we rode to the store for eggplant) that I looked at the fruit stickers to see where they were made -- and that I decided to buy local tomatoes over the better looking Canadian hothouse ones.

The eggplant, though -- Mexico. And not a single bug on them. Bugs never get on them, what with all the well-regulated and limited pesticide use on those Mexican eggplantations. When was the last bug you ever saw on a head of Vons cauliflower? But I digress.

So if a gallon of gas sends up 25 lbs. of CO2, and I use 45 gallons/year for commuting, that's 0.6 tons (1,125 lbs.) this year.

We make a fuss over hybrid this and lithium-ion battery that -- but I've not yet heard of one design for a hybrid tractor-trailer truck. They're gonna run on diesel until there's no more diesel left. And for every six miles one is driven, 25 lbs of CO2 goes up. So if I eat one Mexican eggplant a week and one truck hauls 8,000 eggplants, and the distance from farm to fork is ~750 miles (I don't count the total round trip of 1500 miles as they are likely hauling at least something back to Mexico), and the carbon rate is 4.16 lbs/mile, my eggplants alone will send up 19 lbs. of carbon this year in shipping.

One eggplant has 130 calories. I eat 3,100 calories a day. If I (simplistically) take the numbers forward, that's 1.6 tons/year to transport my food to my hollow leg.