My old desk top Dell gave up yesterday. I am a couple of days away from a vacation and I feel like doing much the same. But what about giving up imported beer not for the cause of slackerdom but for a higher cause?
A majority of Canadians would give up imported beer or wine to reduce shipping and lessen the environmental impact of imported products, according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News. About 67 per cent of Canadians polled said they'd relinquish imported beer -- what, no Heineken? -- and 56 per cent said they'd forgo foreign wine. "That's just a testament to the good beer that we produce in Canada, and increasingly, the good wine as well," said Sean Simpson, a senior research manager at Ipsos Reid.
While I am not the first in line for right-wing libertarian economic opinions, it seems to me to be reasonable to want to avoid the extra costs of travel, and not just the extra cash. But wouldn't it be nice if the reasons for forgoing the foreign were also based on the taste of what was in the glass? I can't imagine I am the only one who has been disappointed with the too well traveled ale. And I am not talking only of the extreme case of the beaten up beer. I recently have had a couple of beer from The Bruery from California which, though reasonably priced, I suspect had just gotten beyond their natural sphere of... influence? Maybe sphere of persuasion. I am left with a poor impression of the brewery but have to remember that the would not likely taste as they did closer to their home. And how much more the case for the green bottled, mass produced stuff.
So while it is swell to be green in an abstract sense, isn't it just as valid or even more so to pass on bottles that have been trucked a thousand miles or more because a more local one should always be fresher?