In my ever widening quest for information I’ve started to realize that my actions and lifestyle have effects greater than just what I see around me. How and why is a whole other topic for a whole other day. For now let’s say my reasons are sound and I need to make some changes.
I’ve made some of the easier changes already: I conserve power like it’s gold (it kind of is since I pay for it!!); I never waste food; I recycle and don’t buy things with tons of packaging; I don’t participate at all with Walmart; I have greatly limited the use of my car and am considering possibly not having one; I try to buy locally grown and in season foods.
Now that I’ve mastered those steps I’m moving on up. I’m not going to use plastic bags anymore. This small thing has been one of the hardest for me to accomplish; I never remember to bring a cloth bag with me or don’t think that I might need one so I’m using thinner bags that can be left in my purse. I’m also going to see how possible it is to stop using plastic all together. If I can’t avoid it I think I’ll be okay with biodegradable stuff, but I don’t really want it in contact with my food; the research I’ve been reading indicates it might not be such a good idea after all. There must be biodegradable garbage bags out there!
It’s winter now so the farmer’s markets are closed but next year I’m going to see if I can get fresh food from local farmers markets only – no more produce that’s GMO, traveled a long distance or grown in other countries for me! This will mean a change in diet, which funny enough I think will be fairly easy. I’ll have to eat with the seasons, whatever is being grown at the time is what I’ll eat. I kind of think it’ll be a more satisfying and healthy diet. After all, it’s the way I evolved to eat.
Another thing about my future diet – I’m not going to eat beef or beef products. The world resources that have to go into producing beef and dairy are staggering. Luckily, this won’t be a big deal for me; I already don’t eat much meat and I definitely prefer fish if I’m going to eat an animal. The hard part is the cheese . . oh how I love cheese. But I guess I can always eat goat cheese.
And here’s the thing about not eating all of this stuff . . I think if I had a steak a couple times a year it wouldn’t be so bad. I try to balance my decisions using this qustion: If every one of the 7 billion people in the world today did what I want to do (eat beef daily for example) is it sustainable? If not, then I can’t in good conscience do it. So, if everyone had steak a few times a year would it be okay? Well, I haven’t seen any research specifically on this but I estimate, from everything we know now and the research I have read, it would be okay.
Here are a few other things I’m planning:
- A balcony produce garden next summer
- Buying local as much as possible. I’ve found honey, produce, breads and bakery, even coffee (it’s imported from 3 different small, family owned & run growers by a local Canadian family).
- Toilet training my cats so I don’t have to use & waste all that cat litter.
Interested in knowing more? Here are a few things you can check out:
BBC Horizon – How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?
Toilet Train Your Cat
Balcony Gardening
*’The end is where you start from’ is a quote credited to T.S. Eliot
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Tags: balcony garden, Brandie Olivia, Brandie Olivia Williams, Brandie Williams, buying local, carbon swan, CarbonSwan, cat, cat litter, climate, environment, farmers market, food, food not lawns, Olivia Williams, social change, toilet training cat