Lakshmi berated me today for not updating my blog much lately. So here goes!
These last two weeks I've been having my usual breakfast shakes, but with a slight modification: for realz Alphonso mangos straight from India. For those who have never been to India or had an Alphonso mango, they are amazing. Like pudding in mango form. I thought I didn't like mangoes until I tried Alphonso. They only grow in a small part of india on the west coast. Finding them in grocery stores is extremely difficult - the season is only about a month long, and every Indian person wants them, so they disappear quickly. Last year, though, I learned that I could buy mangoes online.
I'm on what I call a "mango program" provided by the highly reputable-sounding mangozz.com. They pick the mangoes in India, have the USDA inspect them in Bombay, then fly them to Chicago where they are dispatched across the country. I get a weekly shipment of 6 mangoes for 4 weeks. This cost me $185, $50 of which was for the shipping alone.
This is the second year in a row I'm ordering them, though last year I split an order with Radha, so this marks a new level of disregard for the planet. BUT THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS!
These last two weeks I've been having my usual breakfast shakes, but with a slight modification: for realz Alphonso mangos straight from India. For those who have never been to India or had an Alphonso mango, they are amazing. Like pudding in mango form. I thought I didn't like mangoes until I tried Alphonso. They only grow in a small part of india on the west coast. Finding them in grocery stores is extremely difficult - the season is only about a month long, and every Indian person wants them, so they disappear quickly. Last year, though, I learned that I could buy mangoes online.
I'm on what I call a "mango program" provided by the highly reputable-sounding mangozz.com. They pick the mangoes in India, have the USDA inspect them in Bombay, then fly them to Chicago where they are dispatched across the country. I get a weekly shipment of 6 mangoes for 4 weeks. This cost me $185, $50 of which was for the shipping alone.
Carbon Footprint-alicious!
This is the second year in a row I'm ordering them, though last year I split an order with Radha, so this marks a new level of disregard for the planet. BUT THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS!
My babies - delicious, yummy babies
Although delicious, they basically negate all my efforts to reduce my carbon footprint. For instance, being vegetarian saves me about 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year (I eat mostly vegan during the week, so that ups my savings)*. However, the carbon footprint of a person flying from Bombay to San Francisco via Chicago is 3.672 tons. That overhead would be less for mangoes - let's say it's 1/20th. That makes the carbon footprint of my mango order:
CF(mangoes) = 4 * 3.672 tons / 20 = 0.7344 tons
The carbon footprint of 4 weeks of fresh mangoes from India. is almost half the savings of being full vegetarian, 3/4 vegan all year. I am a disgrace. Although I guess this means next year I can get twice as much :)
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ReplyDeleteCounterpoint: The alternative would be for you to fly to India each morning, make a breakfast shake with fresh mangoes, then fly back. By my math that would be:
ReplyDeleteCF(the other mango plan) = 4 * 6 * 2 * 3.672 tons = 176.256 tons
By having them shipped, you're saving 175.5 tons of carbon.
Alternatively, you could go with the flying to India plan, and convince 117.5 of your closest friends to go vegan, and you'd be carbon neutral.
[reposted because, predictably, my math was wrong]