Food shopping is a personal activity, and we tend to think of it in personal terms. What will I cook for dinner? What does my family like to eat? Do I have everything I need for that recipe? We shop for value (is this a good price?). We shop for taste (this kind of apple is juicier than that kind of apple). We shop for our health (blueberries have fewer carbs than bananas).
Shopping is also a community activity. What we buy influences the market of what the agricultural and food processing industries prepare for our purchase. Their advertising and other strategies do attempt to influence us, but, if we don't buy the product, it will eventually disappear from the shelves. What we buy can also influence the lives of people who live and work far away from us. If our shopping inclines us to buy quinoa, for example, we may distort food production and consumption in Peru with health consequences for the people who depend on quinoa's nutritional value there. Shrimp farming in Thailand depends on slave labor to provide the fish meal needed to farm the shrimp.
In Ethical Culture, we say that we are committed to making a more humane world. One way to do that--in my opinion--is what I am calling mindful shopping. Shopping responsibly in order to minimize displacements and disruptions for others. Making food choices that follow after thoughtful inquiry about food origins and conditions of production, processing, and shipment.
Now, that's a lot of work. We already have to worry about the effects of junk food on our bodies. We have to think about shopping locally, eating fresh, minimizing the packaging--sometimes it seems like we could starve before we even get the first bite of something that won't kill us or the planet. Yet we have to eat. And, frankly, growing my own is not all that appealing. Maybe tomatoes, but kale and beans and corn and . . . well, no.
Maybe we can only do what we can do.
One thing that we can do is reduce the number of plastic bags that we bring home from the grocery store. We already do this when we take our own reusable shopping bags, with positive benefits for the environment as well as our wallets. Even so, we still tend to accumulate plastic bags--and wire twister ties--when we shop for fresh produce. The solution? Reusable produce bags. Net or mesh bags, preferably with a drawstring for closure, that can be used for one, preferably for more than one, type of produce. You can make your own or purchase pre-made bags.
The one and only time I've ever seen this done was while unloading my cart at the grocery store and seeing a mesh bag full of a variety of produce items on the conveyor in front of me. I was immediately struck by the utility of such a bag and asked the woman whose bag it was about it. She had received it as a gift and had no idea where to get more, but she said she really liked shopping with it. Her strategy was to weigh the produce while it was loose, print the appropriate label, toss the produce in her bag--all mixed up--and then affix the printed label to a sheet of paper that she brought for that purpose. The checker then only has to scan the various labels, all on the same sheet of paper, which speeds up the check out process even more.
I have since bought my own bags but haven't yet had a need to shop for veggies, so I can't say how they work for me. Mine are smaller than the one I saw in use, with finer mesh, so I'll likely only be able to put one type of vegetable per bag unless I am buying a smaller quantity. I still plan to try the labels-on-a-sheet-of-paper thing. I know that they are washable, although I don't know how many washes will wear them out. Cold water and hanging to dry will help, I'm sure. I can even see an advantage in using these bags to hold the vegetables that don't need refrigeration once I've brought them home.
Have you been using reusable produce bags? Do you have a different solution to the accumulation of plastic produce bags? Is the adoption of reusable produce bags a practical step for your mindful shopping?
3 comments:
Seems.to me its a situation of awareness, thinking about what are the little things I can do. We use those bags for changing kitty I litter, freezing baked goods and storing partially used dry goods. Repair, reuse and recycle is a great memory pneumonic. But, the real value is in THINKING, about ways to do it.
Seems.to me its a situation of awareness, thinking about what are the little things I can do. We use those bags for changing kitty I litter, freezing baked goods and storing partially used dry goods. Repair, reuse and recycle is a great memory pneumonic. But, the real value is in THINKING, about ways to do it.
Exactly, John. Thinking. Life in the US is so easy for so many of us that we don't actually HAVE to think about what we are using, where it came from, and where it goes when it leaves our hands. Thoughtless consumption is not, in my mind, sustainable. Thank you also for the uses of the produce bags. I always recycle them, don't have a cat, thought them too flimsy for other uses. I will give them a second look to see what uses I can come up with for those that I do end up having. In the meantime, I have achieved the success of getting my new reusable bags to the car, but I haven't yet bought any more veggies with (or without) them. Baby steps apparently.
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