Before containers, transport costs ate up 25 percent of the value of whatever was being shipped.

Shipping is the greenest method of transport. In terms of carbon emissions per ton per mile, it emits about a thousandth of aviation and about a tenth of trucking. But it's not benign, because there's so much of it. So shipping emissions are about three to four percent, almost the same as aviation's.

It's going to be probably one of the greatest harvests ever. We're looking at a 2 percent to 4 percent increase over last year, which was a great year.

We shipped 60 to 70 percent of what we normally would have expected to ship out of this harvest.

As for restaurants and fast-food places who tip tons of oil down their drains, they are routinely encouraged to use fat traps, but enforcement is minimal. It costs money to cart away fat (although now that fat is being turned into energy, it can make money).

We were always on the run and just ate whatever was there. We never sat down as a family because we were always on different schedules.