Food Intake and Packaging

Part A - Daily Food Intake
Breakfast - 2 Cups Kashi Go-Lean Cereal (280 cal.), 1 Cup Soymilk (70. cal)
Lunch - 2 1/4lb. Costco Polish sausage w/ bun (936. cal), 16 oz. Raspberry iced tea (140 cal.)
Dinner #1 - (home) Turkey sandwich, multigrain bread (345. cal), 2 Dogfish Head IPAs (440 cal.)
Snacks - 1 Choc. chip cookie (60. cal), 1/2 20 oz. Coke (146. cal), 2 Cups Soymilk (140. cal)
Total Daily Caloric intake: 2557
Sources: About.com, food packaging labels, Dogfish Head (by phone)

My food comes from all over the U.S. I'm pretty sure I didn't eat anything imported today. It would probably not be sustainable for 6.7 billion people to eat the way I do. Thankfully, most people in the third world don't have the option, so for now, my eating habits are sustainable.

Part B - Packaging
I work in retail, in an electronics store, so today 99% of the items I handled were very likely not sustainable. Just about everything comes in a plastic case, inside a cardboard box full of styrofoam, inside a plastic tote, stacked high and wrapped in thick plastic shrink wrap. When I say not sustainable, what I mean is not economically sustainable. Most of the cardboard gets recycled, and the totes are reused. The plastic could be recycled if that was a priority. The most important thing in this equation is the items themselves, 90% of which are completely unnecessary. Who needs a netbook? Most of the people that buy them already have a laptop and a blackberry. Why do you need that printer? Unless you're in an office, it is much more economical to keep everything electronically and print the occasional document at the library. The list goes on. This will be the true downfall of humanity: our gluttony. That being said, I own all this crap, and everything I buy comes in one-use packaging.