Although I’ve always known the importance of oil, it had never occurred to me that EVERYTHING I am consuming has a direct relationship to oil. Being from Alberta, I often associate “oil” with the oil sands, seeing it as the root of Alberta’s prosperity. This exercise has made me rethink the role of oil in my life and questioning whether our reliance on oil is healthy or not.

 

BREAKFAST 

The day I am recording is Wednesday, July 9th of 2014. I started my morning off with orange juice, white toast, and a hazelnut vanilla coffee chocolate spread.

The Tropicana orange juice came in a plastic jug, which was made with the help of oil. The orange juice was made from Florida.  Oil was needed to ship the juice my Superstore. Not only is there transportation, the machines that pressed the orange juice would also require energy, whether it may or may not be oil driven.

 

My toast was made in Toronto, and made with enriched wheat flour, which is most likely from North America. I feel like I always have this misconception that products made in Canada is closer to home than things made in the United States, when that may not always be true. Now thinking about it. bread made in Toronto maybe using more oil than bread that’s from a nearby US city, such as Seattle. I guess sometimes its more to do with patriotism than energy consumption.

 

Now the hazelnut vanilla coffee chocolate spread I am really proud of because its one of the only things on my list that is produced locally and its main ingredients are cocoa, sugar, coffee….wait,….I DON’T live in Central America and therefore I DON’T have access to close-to-home cocoa, sugar, and coffee. So it turns out it is only locally assembled, with a glass jar that is probably imported as well. This doesn’t really decrease the mileage of this product, it just increased the price I had to pay for domestic production price.

 

 

SNACKS

Throughout the day, I was having iced water, which is from my BrIta filter and the ice from my ice cube tray (which is most likely made in China……everything is made in China). The production of both the Brita filter and the ice cube tray is obviously not from beautiful British Columbia, so there definitely oil use in the transportation of those products. In addition, the processing and production of the plastic in these products also uses oil.

I also had some baby carrots for snacks, which came in a plastic bag and is made from the United States. This to me seems somewhat unnecessary since they are just carrots….they can be grown anywhere, why not source them locally? I guess the US is able to sell for cheaper.

In between meals, I had some Activia vanilla yogurt, they are the best. It is made in Canada and the main ingredients include skim milk, cream, and sugar. Plastic packaging aside, I would just like the point out that the skim milk may be redundant when the next ingredient is cream……cream as in the heaviest part of milk.

 

Some Pocky were also eaten throughout the day, and they come in individual plastic bags that are packed in larger plastic packaging. Although convenient, this is not very environmentally friendly and it uses more plastic. Since this is made from Japan, the transportation has definitely used oil.

 

LUNCH

For lunch I had some pepperoni sticks made in Langley, BC. it came in a simple plastic bag which used oil. The pepperoni sticks are most likely made from Canadian meat, which means less travelling for the ingredients.

I also had some romaine lettuce salad, which came in packs of three in another plastic bag form the United States. Although the lettuce maybe healthy, the plastic bag is bad news.

 

Aside from the salad, I had some potato salad as well. They came in a tough plastic container and is made in the United States. The main ingredients are potatoes, mayonnaise, and corn syrup, which are most likely all produced in the United States.

 

DINNER

For dinner, I had stir fried udon with beef and Chinese cabbage. The udon I bought frozen. It came in a hand crafted mahogany treasure chest….just kidding….it came in another plastic bag. It is made in Korea and the main ingredient in wheat flour, Oil is used for both the production of the wheat and the transportation of the finished product.

 

i used Chinese cabbage in my stir fry, which according to the sign at Superstore, is from China. It came in plastic wrap which keeps the Chinese cabbage fresh while making the trip to Canada.

I also had beef and a Korean BBQ sauce in my stir fry but I forgot to take a photo of those. The beef is close to home as it is Alberta beef, this means that there were less oil used for transportation than other meats such as lamb (since most lamb in Canada is from New Zealand).

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is interesting to learn that despite nations like the United States consuming 2/3 of the oil produced and 44% of the gasoline, they continue to point fingers at other developing nations for its attempt at the “American Dream”. Pollution is not only from factories, it also comes from things that we (in Canada) are taking for granted such as getting fresh exotic tropical fruits from our local supermarket, or driving to our favourite hiking trails in order to enjoy nature (or what’s left of it). Although I feel very cynical writing this, it is something that is worth thinking about. When talking about damages to the environment, we are just as guilty as the smug-filled cities we see in global warming documentaries, just because some criticize the loudest does not mean that they are off the hook.