Tesco on Orkney today has: River cobbler from Vietman, Plums from South Africa, Strawberries from Spain,Asparagus from Peru,Chicken from Tailand,Bananas from Ecuador,Pineapple from "The tropics" etc etc. It did have some Orkney beef and Scotish potatoes and neeps For us it's a thirty five mile round trip in the car to town using probably the highest cost diesel in the UK (£1.30 a litre)

We have the community waste area just near us. Mrs V and I used to separate all our differn t materials.But Orkney sends everything to Shetland to be incinerated to keep them warm.

Carbon footprint........ a term used to make us feel guilty about things almsot completely out of our control(And in the UK to lead increased taxation). Of course we can avoid buying the products that travel great distances, but it would take an almost total boycot to have an effect and then what would happen to the local economies that produce the product?

There is no avoiding the carbon footprint and it can't be reduced easily. Very few people can sustain them selves even in Orkney which is lush and has the greatest head of beef per human head of population. Almost everything else has to be carried onto the islands by a long road journey and then boat where ever it comes from in the UK or from abroad.

Cynical, I know but no matter how much it concerns me I can not find a way of altering things. If we in the west (UK, europe and the USA) are continually creating this and looking for solutions, imagine how bad the developing nations are at making carbon footprints without redress.

But then we get huge oil spills that make a few jet planes across the atlantic small stuff and of course the odd volcano.