It's a special occasion alright, my birthday!
The meal is fantastic: a chicken and rice casserole, with veggies and potatoes. Doesn't sound special? Everything in the meal was grown within my own neighbourhood.
That's right.
It's even cooked in a sustainable way, since now I'm 100% drawing from green energy instead of the standard grid, and even that's reduced thanks to solar panels and my 2 windmills on the roof.
New laws have allowed for residents to take up micro-farming, raising small numbers of livestock or growing crops in backyards, on rooftops, and hydroponically in basements and attics. With a very, very local market system, everyone can get what we need without depending on produce from the US or Mexico.
Yes, it means that we don't enjoy tropical fruit in the middle of winter, but the reliance on packaging and shipping and trucking infrastructure was a horrendous price to pay, and ultimately was unsustainable.
The markets changed, economies were restructured, jobs were lost but many more repurposed and created. Now there aren't as many huge corporate entities deciding what gets put on our tables, but my birthday dinner tastes extra delicious. That secret ingredient? Pride.
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