Forest / Traffic
Recently I was away from home for two weeks, and when I returned, there was a black film of pollution covering my light gray driveway. This area is the San Joaquin valley in central California. All along our 99 freeway you will see agriculture, rows of grapevines, watermelons, carrots, garlic, strawberries, almonds, oranges, grapefruits, etc., many of which are exported to other countries.

So with six lanes of traffic, three in each direction, where do you think all the pollution goes? In the summertime, the air is thick and almost unbreathable at times. We have no forests. In fact, a few years ago the Environmental Protection Agency had to make an even worse category because our numbers were so bad. We went from "severe" to "extreme," and were rated as having the worst air quality in the country. The weather forcast usually states our air quality as "unhealthy."

All this traffic pollution is landing on the crops, produce, and soil. They are bathed in pollution.

Conversely, places like Washington state and Canada have plenty of forest with some traffic. Idaho and Montana have tons of forest and very little traffic. Oregon has some traffic and lots of forest (but they're cutting it down). And the South American countries generally have less cars and fewer diesel spewing 18-wheeler trucks, and more forest.

So the next time you are at the grocery store, choose produce from an area with a high forest to traffic ratio.