An Iowa City thing? Or, doing my part?

In Iowa City, there's a store called the New Pioneer Co-op. I guess it's like Whole Foods, but there are two branches, and they sell organic and all-natural foods. It's a little crunchy-granola, but a few weeks ago, I finally bought a membership for us. When Katie's eye was getting all goopy again, a friend in my department who happens to be a metropathic/homeopathic/whatever doctor, recommended washing her eyes with a tea made of eyebright. It's an herb that comes in bulk and the only place to get it for sure is at the Co-op. At least, I've never noticed a bulk herbs section at Wal-Mart, Target or HyVee.

This place is a lot nicer than Atkin's in OKC, with a bakery, wine and beer section, deli, seafood, all that. The prices aren't as bad as Atkin's, and they have so much more selection. When I bought our membership, which is a one-time fee, lasts a lifetime, and makes us part owners, I suddenly felt like a part of the Iowa City establishment. The Co-op is very much a part of the university vernacular here. At department picnics, people bring desserts from the Co-op; the Co-op downtown is a popular reference point ("that restaurant is across from the Co-op"); it was mentioned on my first tour of the town, and a peer in my department worked there.

I think my decision to get a membership represents something a little more, though; an intersection, if you will, of my education and motherhood. I study media and culture, paying special attention to media and gender as they interact with globalization. Theoretically, or, what the theory I use argues, is a careful examination of power as it manifests in the media and how it works to reinforce oppressive values: objectifying re-presentations of women and minorities, or the "strategic silences" of media coverage of international events. What this imparts is a heightened social consciousness- for instance, to just how backward and repressive the current presidential administration is, or the dangers of the current trajectory of neoliberal economic policies and the resulting cycles of poverty of the people of the world.

As a result, I've started to care more about things I ignored previously and that has translated into, for example, minding what goes into my daughter's food. I try and buy organic baby food as much as possible. Because organic agricultural practices are for some reason much more expensive, I will also buy organic for all of us when the day comes that Eric and I graduate into the next tax bracket.

I may still buy it, but I notice when my clothing is made in Third World countries (i.e.: when my underwear is taped together meticulously in its package, surely by poor women in poor countries our government negotiated some "free trade" agreement with recently). I remain skeptical of celebrity campaigns, like Bono's RED thingy. However, I pay attention to my purchases, wonder about their origins, and internalize how my consumption may be working to oppress someone, somewhere else in the world that the media in this country don't talk about.

I've stopped buying foods, such as coffee and soon, chocolate, that I know to be particularly susceptible to unfair trade practices; the Co-op has GREAT coffee that is certified to be both fair trade and organic. I just need to do some research on where to find mass quantities of fair trade chocolate to supplement my daily intake.

I'm also annoyed by the sheer numbers of plastic bags that result from any trip to the grocery store. I threw a bit of a tantrum the other day when Eric belittled by effort to buy a reusable grocery bag- I'll just get a few next time I'm at the store by myself.

I could go on and on about what I want to do: make my house energy efficient (I'm not sure that's possible in a hundred year-old house, but it'd be nice), drive only fuel-efficient vehicles if mass transit were not available, recycle all the stinkin' paper I throw away all the time (especially since Katie has taken to rummaging through the garbage cans at eye level...oh, the similarities between her and Eleanor are striking sometimes), turn off appliances, use less water...

But the point of all this is, the combination of Iowa City and becoming a mother has awakened my consciousness to what can, and should be done better in the world.

In closing, I came across a profile of a UI undergraduate whose profile I found quite humbling. She's a woman's studies and economics double major, working on a grant that polls local pharmacies on their dispensation of emergency contraception. She volunteers at the local women's health clinic and she's going to get her master's in urban and regional planning.

To read of this student, it sent me reeling and encapsulates my dilemma: what am I doing getting my PhD? Put another way, am I doing anything getting my PhD? Will it benefit the world, given all that there that I can do? Will it be just enough to have a heightened sense of consciousness, or will I put it in action? And finally, how will it benefit my daughter?

I doubt that last question is any different than the questions every parents asks for their children. Iowa City, as unique and FRIGID a place as it is, has placed them in the forefront and I have to decide the answers for myself.