Environmental Conversation

Over break I had a surprising conversation about environmental issues with an unlikely person. However, she did not disagree with my position on the matter but instead suggested some ideas that I had not fully considered before she mentioned them. While sitting down to lunch at a Whole Foods cafeteria, my dad's friend's older sister from Ohio, without any kind of prompting by me to discuss the environment, began to talk about the concerns she has for her family's health with regards to food packaging and treatment in the agricultural industry today. One example she gave was her fear of the effect that plastic could be having on food when, coincidentally she looked down and noticed that the salad she was eating was in a plastic container. As a possible solution to this she told me about her plans to start her own garden because she was tired of driving all the way to the supermarket where the produce was bound to be suboptimal anyhow. I thought this rather progressive from someone who grew up in a different era and who is part of a generation that did not consider environmental concerns to the extent that mine does now. It gives me some kind of hope that, if the issues being advocated by younger folks can somehow transcend generations, there is the possibility that they can also span across other societal gaps as well.