My Relationship with Food and when it turned Green

The summer before my freshman year in high school I went on a month long backpacking trip in the Pacific Northwest, which drastically impacted my perceptions on the relationship between humans and their natural environment, including my personal relationship with food. After coming back from the trip I told my mom that I would only eat Kosher organic meat (I grew up in an observantly Jewish household, so all of our food had to be strictly Kosher, and I loved meat too much-or so I thought-to just give it up). My mom's response was, "If you pay for it, you can do whatever you want". Well, having no source of income except for meager babysitting wages, I chose what I saw to be the next best, although initially painful, option. I became a strict organic vegetarian.
My initial reasons for becoming a vegetarian were rooted in politics and health. I did not want to support the companies that were mistreating both animals and workers (for me it was the Kosher companies that were hiring immigrant workers and paying them meager wages--I am also weary with clothing companies), and I did not want to put chemically infested animals into my body. However, over the past 6 years, my reasons for vegetarianism, now pescetarianism (I reintegrated fish into my diet for medical reasons), have evolved and are continuing to evolve significantly.
One example is that my understanding of the environmental impact food production had went so far as the treatment of animals, but I rarely associated my diet with the impact of food transportation. Last week I went home for Rosh Hashanah, and, as with most Jewish holidays, our week revolved around two giant feasts dedicated to bringing in a sweet and healthy new year. My mom, knowing that I am usually short protein, made a beautiful organic seared tuna dish the first night and wild Alaskan salmon the second night. Under normal circumstances that would have been a dream. I should have been able to eat those dishes no problem, with nothing on my conscience (except the fact that I am still not completely comfortable eating fish). After all, it was a holiday, I got to go home and eat my mom's cooking, and she made two ridiculously nice special meals just for me (well, for my siblings and relatives too). So, why then was I unable to eat my fish without a heavy heart?
I think I can attribute a large part of that to the recent readings for this class relating to the world's fisheries. Those readings reminded me that there are still hundreds of changes I can make in my life to coexist more peacefully with the earth. The Alaskan salmon, probably the food that had the greatest environmental impact because of the transportation (although I am not entirely sure) was contributing to the depletion of the very thing that keeps us alive-the natural environment. It was organic, so my Mom certainly thought that I would approve, but that didn't matter. The environmental impact of bringing that salmon to my dinner plate in Akron, Ohio was not the way I wanted to start my new year. To credit my mom, the fish was delicious (there was no point on letting it go to waste), and it may have even been worth it simply for the dialogue that it opened among my family members. So, to answer the question, I do think about the environmental impact of the food that I consume, and the weight the impact plays on my decision to consume the food has continued to increase since taking this course.