Editor, The Times:
Hallowe’en, sandwiched as it is between Thanksgiving and Remembrance Day, often gives me pause to consider what an entitled and wasteful bunch we have become.
Being neither a farmer nor a nutritionist, I don’t have exact figures on the amount of energy it requires to grow the truckloads of jack-o-lanterns or the food value of the flesh and seeds that will be, for the most part, smashed on city streets or thrown in the garbage.
With pumpkin seeds in the bulk section selling for $1.10 per 100 grams, I can only imagine we are throwing away a tidy sum of money.
Looking even briefly on the Internet, there seems to be an endless supply of healthy pumpkin recipes for soup, loaf and muffins, not to mention pie.
One wonders how much time and energy would be required to mobilize willing and able volunteers to arrange pick up or drop-off locations on Nov. 1 so those beautiful pumpkins and their seeds can be turned into nutritious food for so many in our city requiring help from wonderful groups like our food bank.
I won’t mention the load it would remove from our landfill or people will start to get the idea I’m just another one of those left wing, pinko, environmental types trying to spoil all the fun on another of our kids’ religious holidays.
That’s all from here. I have to go stir the pumpkin seeds.
Sheldon Shore
Kamloops, B.C.
