Krav?

Some things seem to be much easier in Canada than in Sweden.  Finding a new apartment, for example.  No endless queues and trips to housing offices here, it's just a matter of browsing Craigslist and sending a few emails.  On the other hand, some things are much easier in Sweden - like finding organic, local food at the grocery store.

I went grocery shopping here for the first time in a month yesterday and was struck by how difficult it is to find local, organic foods.  The difference is especially striking when I've just come back from Sweden, where I can easily go shopping and come home with a (reusable!) bag full of only organic/sustainable-certified items, from milk to soap to coffee to toilet paper.  I spent a very frustrating hour wandering around the huge, huge local grocery store, finally coming to the conclusion that I would only find organic foods in the few aisles that were marked with green signs as containing "health" products.  I went home without ham because it was impossible to determine where the deli meats had come from - none of them had their provenance marked, and no organic options were in sight. Despite living in one of the most productive growing regions of the country, I was scarcely able to find produce that hadn't been shipped from the US, Mexico, or farther away.  Although apples are currently in season, for example, I found about 12 varieties of imported apples, and had to search to find the five local varieties, none of which were organic.  Why is it necessary to build such an enormous, resource-gobbling store and fill it with 20 kinds of apples? Isn't it enough to have a smaller, more manageable store that sells, for example, only the local apples? That doesn't make it an impossible task to hunt down a bag of organic lentils? I was struck by how miserable my fellow shoppers looked, but after twenty minutes in the store I understood why. 

I hate to turn into one of those people who are forever going around moaning about how much better things are in Europe.  But sometimes it really is true.  We have a long, long way to go here when it comes to environmental awareness, and making organic, local, sustainable food into a popular choice.

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