Simple Suggestion #201... Consider your food's sources

a view in our greenhouse today...
 Black Prince heirloom tomato plants

Wow, what a great bunch of people at this most recent round of Simplicity Study Circles. They're teaching me a lot -- and last night's discussion was the best one I've attended yet on the topic of Simplicity and Diet, just for all that I learned.

To be honest, I'm not the best at carrying through on this Simple Suggestion -- but as I've admitted often in the past, I'm no expert in Simplicity, but a traveller on the path toward a simpler, saner and more sustainable way of life. When it comes to food, growing, canning and freezing the organic bounty from our own backyard is my main effort toward ensuring that our family is eating healthy and local foods. But there is so much more that can be done, as last night's discussion made clear. For example, a wee conversation before we even got the circle started showed me that it wouldn't be that difficult to make my own yogurt -- and it would save on the hundreds of non-biodegradable plastic containers my family seems to collect because of the commercially produced store-bought variety we favour. So now I'm looking into how to make my own yogurt...

It's so easy to take our food for granted, to forget where it comes from and how it affects our bodies and our planet, and to allow the food system and its marketers to dictate to us how and what to eat. But the commercial food system is deeply flawed -- filled with Genetically Modified Organisms and super-processed foods that contribute to all sorts of health problems like obesity, heart disease and early-onset dementia, not to mention the impact its production is having on our only planet. And in the quest for greater food diversity and globalization, unsustainable food chains have been developed the world over. It is estimated that the average mouthful of North American food travels 1500 km from where it is produced to where it is consumed, contributing mightily to the planet's dis-ease through the increase in fossil fuel emissions and global climate change. Do we really need to eat strawberries from Argentina in January? Or can we learn to preserve the ones that grow at our local u-picks in the summer in jams, sauces and tarts, or support locals who make preserves and sell them at our local farmers' markets?

Today's challenge is one I know that I need to take to heart more often than I do. Producing food for my family in our garden is one thing, but being aware of the food system's conundrums is another. I know I should eat fewer animal products, but does it make sense to eat almonds all the way from California as protein instead? Where is my food coming from? Can I find more local sources that are using better farming practices and fewer pesticides in food production? And am I doing all I can to avoid processed foods that contain too much sugar, salt and fat?

There's always room for improvement, as we all acknowledged in our discussion last night. As consumers, we have power to push for improvements at our local food stores and suppliers, by asking hard questions about where our food is coming from and whether it could be sourced more locally.

Changing our diets can seem scary or overwhelming, but less so if we take one small step at a time. This is mine: instead of taking the convenient way out and buying my yogurt at the store, I have found two friends who are willing to share their own methods and expertise (thanks Su and Diane!), so guess what I'll soon be doing...? Watch for a yogurt moodling, coming soon...

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #196... Support a local artisan

My friend Nicola, with whom I share tomato plants and who shares apples with me, has a neat little business going. She makes Geekware (click here to see more) -- basically, she recycles odds and ends from our digital age and turns them into interesting things that people might enjoy using. Yesterday, the clock that you see in this picture showed up on Facebook, and I thought, wow, how creative is that!? It's made of some mini cds and "old bits and pieces of technology lying around." If I didn't have too many clocks in my house already, I'd buy one -- such a creative idea. Hmm... I wonder if my hubby needs an office clock? So far, I don't think Nicola has these up on her website, but I think she's got a great idea there. She also has some nifty keyboard cufflinks (think monograms) and other digital gift ideas to please computer geeks.

The thing is, there are a lot of wonderful local artisans out there who are making old bits and pieces of this and that into new, useful items. I'm thinking of my cousin Cyla's baby quilts, and the folks at our farmer's markets who sell all sorts of interesting and practical odds and ends made of old bits and pieces of fabric, wire, re-purposed elevator shafts -- you name it. Then you have artisans who create pottery, paint gorgeous watercolour images, and come up with enough different, cute knitted hats to cover the heads of all the kids in our local elementary school. Plus there are the foodies -- who make jams, loaves, breads, kale chips, relishes -- again, you name it. And it's all local, so fewer fossil fuel emissions are added to the planetary cost.

I think this moodling is a sign that it's been too long since I've been to a farmers market, or snooped on kijiji for good local gifts that people will enjoy. How about you? When's the last time you supported a local artisan?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #82... Buy local where possible

My local shopping mall has a nice little farmer's market every Saturday. One day I was there buying some onions, and a tiny little senior citizen shuffled up to me and asked, "Nice onions?"
"Yes," I replied.
She came in closer to see for herself, then said, "Hmmph. They're cheaper at Safeway." And off she went to the big grocery store further down the mall.

Don't you just hate it when you think of what to say long after the opportunity has passed? What I should have said was that Safeway's onions probably come from California, and they're not so cheap when you add in the poorly-paid labour of the migrant workers who harvested them, the cost of the gasoline to transport them thousands of kilometres, and the carbon emissions of the trucks that brought them so far north. I could have suggested that we really ought to be supporting our local farmers, encouraging them by buying their produce so that they can grow more food for local markets, because there may come a day when the price of transporting onions from California will be prohibitive, or crops down there will fail, or there will be other reasons that we will need our farmers here to be doing well. If I would have pointed out to her that I don't mind paying a little more for my onions because they taste fresher than Safeway's and I like to kibbitz with the man who grew them and brought them to the mall in his truck, I wonder if she might have understood the happiness that comes from knowing where my produce originates and who is benefitting from its sale.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Next time, I'll be more prepared to defend the simplicity of buying from my local producer.

What's your favourite local product?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

Christmas gift considerations

These days, we're doing our little bit of Christmas shopping in preparation for our family gatherings at Christmas time. I find shopping to be hard work because of the overwhelming choices out there. Walking through a mall on Friday, I wondered if there isn't more clothing in the world than human beings can actually make use of, and why we continually have to buy new clothes if we're not really wearing holes in most of them. When I think about these kinds of things as I shop, malls get tiresome rather quickly! And those sorts of thoughts are unavoidable if you care about the earth at all.

But I do like it when I find the right item for the right person. And these are some questions I use to determine what is right:
 1. Will the recipient really use/enjoy this gift?
 2. Is it beautiful and long lasting, or will it break down and be forgotten over time?
 3. What impact has the making of this gift had on the planet and its resources?
 4. How does this gift reflect my care for its recipient?
 5. Would Jesus give a gift like this one?
 6. Does the purchase/creation of this gift empower people or corporations? How and why?

I didn't have a lot of luck at the shopping malls with regards to these questions, so I'm hoping to pay a visit to a different sort of store later this week, and perhaps I'll post some moodlings about it. Stay tuned. 

In the meantime, here's another set of shopping criteria that I think is quite brilliant if you like acronyms (paraphrased from Lynn A. Miller, author of a book I'm trying to get my hands on called The Power of Enough: Finding Contentment by Putting Stuff in its Place, and whose RULES were quoted in “Whose Birthday is it, Anyway? 2008”):

R = recyclable – will this gift and its packaging ever return to natural elements?
U = used – why buy new when something used can be just as good, and often nicely “broken in”?
L = local – can a local variety of gift strengthen the local economy and save fossil fuels?
E = enough – how much of this gift will be used, and how much is too much?
S = sustainable – does this item add to or subtract from our planet’s sustainability?

Of course, it's not always easy to find gifts that meet all these criteria, but the closer I get, the better the gift, and the happier I am to give it!