Choices Make Changes

Great reminders of simple changes that make a big impact. Living mindfully and making careful choices is a great way to change the world! Don't forget the products we use on our bodies which contribute largely the levels of chemicals in our bodies. Many ingredients in lotions, soaps, shampoos etc. are petroleum derivatives. Many ingredients are known carcinogens or hormone disrupters. Lots of products on the US market are banned in Europe already. We rub these products directly into our largest organ, and then we wash them off into the water supply. I've found the book No More Dirty Looks by Siobhan O'Conner and Alexandra Sprunt to offer great practical info on the matter.

Thank you for this article. One thing that I do to save water is that we bought a laundry tub and put it beside the washer. I save the wash water into the tub, and then pour it back into the wash machine. This means that I start washing with a white load, then lights, then darker colors, then darks, then a load of rags, rugs, or whatever is filthy enough to use that gray water and still come out cleaner! This means that I have to keep an eye on the time, because if the rinse water goes into the tub too, it will overflow. I either send the rinse water down the drain, or when times are dry, into buckets, and carry it out the door to water my garden. I also make my own laundry detergent, which saves an immense amount of packaging, a lot of money, and time. It's wonderful to not have to lug the large containers of detergent home, and it's wonderful to never be out of it, because it takes only a few minutes to stir up another batch. It's so simple that a child can do it (with stove supervision).

I buy as much as I can from the produce section, making sure that we always have potatoes, onions, celery and carrots on hand. Then, according to what we can afford, we buy some fresh fruit. I make my own bread, which is tremendously rewarding for the amount of time that it takes. I encourage you in that....there are lots of great recipes, but I don't even use one anymore, and it turns out wonderful!

Thanks, Jennifer, for joining the few of us who are already doing most of the things you have discovered, and for publicizing your actions. Sometimes it feels kinda lonely. May I suggest you explore a solar clothes drier (aka clothesline)? It is great to have to pay attention to what the weather is doing.

Thanks, Jennifer, for joining the few of us who are already doing most of the things you have discovered, and for publicizing your actions. Sometimes it feels kinda lonely. May I suggest you explore a solar clothes drier (aka clothesline)? It is great to have to pay attention to what the weather is doing.

My family and I have made most of the changes Jennifer is striving to accomplish. The part about making bread is quite intimidating to many. I, the husband by the way, started using a bread machine a nice lady from church gave us when they moved. We wore that one out and are now on our third machine. The last two I found at thrift stores and neither one looked to have ever been used and one cost $5.00 and the other about $20.00. I believe many get them as gifts, but erroneously believe, as did I, that they are very hard to use. I can get the ingredients for a loaf of bread in the machine in about 5 minutes. Depending on the bread cycle you use it may take a few hours to finish, but the machine does the work. We have a family of three and I need to keep on my toes and keep a loaf "in process" so we are not bread deprived. Bread is indeed the "staff of life" around this home! The savings for us are sizable since we eat about two loaves a day and a good bread is approx. $4.00/loaf or more. The ingredients are probably about $.50 or less, I would estimate. Find a machine, get some flour, yeast, sugar or honey, and get started. You will have fun and may wake up in the middle of the night smelling bread baking (if you start the machine just before bed). Enjoy and peace

Another easy way to make bread is to make bulk "sticky" dough - Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day is a great source for recipes for this kind of dough.

We are fortunate enough to belong to a Combined CSA (uses several local farms and producers to provide a variety of local food) - this makes it very easy and affordable to eat a nearly 100% local diet (at least in the summer - things could get interesting this winter).

We struggle with transportation choices. We bought a gas guzzler SUV several years ago and can't afford to replace it. Having four kids to transport hither and yon doesn't help much either. If I had more guts, I'd ride my bike more places . . .

There's always more to be done - but thanks for getting people thinking along the right lines.

If you have even a small backyard you can grow a lot of your own vegetables in summer time. Straightneck yellow squash are prolific summer squash. I'm not much into winter squash but my daughter loves them. You can grow a lot of tomatoes on a little space. Some apartment dwellers grow rooftop gardens. As a guy who grew up on a 640 acre farm, that latter thing sounds pretty intimidating. I like dirt, and still manage to have my small garden with tomatoes, squash, okra, and cucumbers in spite of 76 years and back and shoulder surgery.

Thanks Jennifer for that great article. If many people started making these relatively small changes it would have a big impact.
I have been doing this for a long time and am glad that we have a food co-op and a farmers market close by. One more thing we all can do is use less electricity, just by turning off lights as starters. After 20 years of living in the USA it still sometimes shocks me to see so many lights on during the day. In Europe lights are turned off when they are not needed, at least they were when I was growing up.

Thanks Jennifer for that great article. If many people started making these relatively small changes it would have a big impact.
I have been doing this for a long time and am glad that we have a food co-op and a farmers market close by. One more thing we all can do is use less electricity, just by turning off lights as starters. After 20 years of living in the USA it still sometimes shocks me to see so many lights on during the day. In Europe lights are turned off when they are not needed, at least they were when I was growing up.

We happen to have a shower with a very old water heater that has a limited storage of hot water, so we have had to learn how to conserve and have found out that you can also save water in the shower by turning it off when you lather!

love my family more than words can express. I want them to be safe and healthy, and most importantly I want them to know Jesus.
To keep them safe I want to drive a safe car. Should I buy the safest car available? I could perhaps get one of those SUV's the President gets to ride in. That should be safe enough. But I cannot afford that safe of a car. Well, then, I'll have to buy a car that somehow is both safe and affordable. I will most likely have to sacrifice some safety for affordability. What car will I buy? The one which best fits these tradeoffs.
The same applies to food and water. You have articulated some very fine ideals. The food and water consumption you propose is the armored SUV of nutritive consumption. Notice what makes it possible: your relative wealth. This regime which you have proposed is a luxury to most of us.
Buying food from far away can be less expensive than locally grown food because there are economies of scale in production and transportation. It really, really is cheaper to grow grapes in Chile, and then transport them to the US to be sold in grocery stores which we drive to in our armored SUVs than it is to grow them locally. If it were not cheaper than local growers would be able to charge lower prices!
Prices are very important. They communicate to buyers and sellers what the most efficient way of producing things is. The most efficient way is also the best for the environment, and for world hunger, and for domestic poverty. Prices are meaningful.
Now, a move toward frugality is certainly in order. Gluttony is rampant in the US and in the church. The solution is not consuming less by purchasing luxuries in place of necessities. This is merely another form of overconsumption. Every local purchase merely plays into the hands of green-marketers who have played on our well-meaning intentions to get our business. It also takes away from growers in third world countries who will no longer get our business. Even if such growers are being exploited (debatable, but sometimes true) the alternative of unemployed or unable to sell their produce abroad is even worse.
Processed foods have made it possible for millions of people to have access to food. Canned baked beans feed millions of children every day for far less in both the money and time it would have cost to make them from scratch. Remember, time is a valuable resource, too. Prices tell us when it is better to make our own beans and when it is better to buy them canned.
The production of water filters may cause more or less pollution than the bottling of water. Prices should be able to tell us which is more efficient. I buy mine bottled or drink tap. (Gasp!

love my family more than words can express. I want them to be safe and healthy, and most importantly I want them to know Jesus.
To keep them safe I want to drive a safe car. Should I buy the safest car available? I could perhaps get one of those SUV's the President gets to ride in. That should be safe enough. But I cannot afford that safe of a car. Well, then, I'll have to buy a car that somehow is both safe and affordable. I will most likely have to sacrifice some safety for affordability. What car will I buy? The one which best fits these tradeoffs.
The same applies to food and water. You have articulated some very fine ideals. The food and water consumption you propose is the armored SUV of nutritive consumption. Notice what makes it possible: your relative wealth. This regime which you have proposed is a luxury to most of us.
Buying food from far away can be less expensive than locally grown food because there are economies of scale in production and transportation. It really, really is cheaper to grow grapes in Chile, and then transport them to the US to be sold in grocery stores which we drive to in our armored SUVs than it is to grow them locally. If it were not cheaper than local growers would be able to charge lower prices!
Prices are very important. They communicate to buyers and sellers what the most efficient way of producing things is. The most efficient way is also the best for the environment, and for world hunger, and for domestic poverty. Prices are meaningful.
Now, a move toward frugality is certainly in order. Gluttony is rampant in the US and in the church. The solution is not consuming less by purchasing luxuries in place of necessities. This is merely another form of overconsumption. Every local purchase merely plays into the hands of green-marketers who have played on our well-meaning intentions to get our business. It also takes away from growers in third world countries who will no longer get our business. Even if such growers are being exploited (debatable, but sometimes true) the alternative of unemployed or unable to sell their produce abroad is even worse.
Processed foods have made it possible for millions of people to have access to food. Canned baked beans feed millions of children every day for far less in both the money and time it would have cost to make them from scratch. Remember, time is a valuable resource, too. Prices tell us when it is better to make our own beans and when it is better to buy them canned.
The production of water filters may cause more or less pollution than the bottling of water. Prices should be able to tell us which is more efficient. I buy mine bottled or drink tap. (Gasp!

Food Inc. is a very informative documentary on this topic of environmentally (and socially) conscious eating. To those 3 changes I would add #4 Eating less meat (and choosing organic meat and sustainable fish).

On the submarines on which I served, we took "submarine showers." (Get in, get wet, turn off the water, soap up, and rinse). Probably less than 2 gallons.

But I wonder if you are really helping by baking your own bread. Store-bought bread (while maybe not as healthy) is baked in an oven with hundreds of other loaves. You are using electricity to produce a single loaf.

On the submarines on which I served, we took "submarine showers." (Get in, get wet, turn off the water, soap up, and rinse). Probably less than 2 gallons.

But I wonder if you are really helping by baking your own bread. Store-bought bread (while maybe not as healthy) is baked in an oven with hundreds of other loaves. You are using electricity to produce a single loaf.

What you write is generally true, except for (negative) environmental effects which the market is notorious for not pricing in. Quite a few economists argue that taxes on negative environmental effects can correct for the distortion at least to some degree. The Pigovian taxes would do two things:
1. Incentivize through market mechanisms the reduction of the negative environmental effects that otherwise are not priced into the market, and
2. Raise revenue for the government at the same time.

Now, I can't say for other environmental effect prices, but the European Carbon price is last time I checked equal to $0.17/gal for gasoline. It's actually surprisingly low.

Now, as for the quality of life, how we define it is actually very important. It's actually sort of a fuzzy concept at times since the "consume, consume, consume!" mentality is hardly a formula for living a high-quality life. Physical activity leading to a healthier body I would submit is a high quality of life, and eating mainly highly processed unhealthy food leads to a low quality of life.

Reverand Kottler offers the most sound advice for living that I can imagine, All of these choices is a good feeling coming your way and something better to do with your ass than have it parked in traffic. Have fun living with simpler, more local means and see if you dont feel good and save money. two nice things to consider, win for the planet and win for God by how we live. Reverand Kottler, Amen !! Very well said!

Reverand Kottler offers the most sound advice for living that I can imagine, All of these choices is a good feeling coming your way and something better to do with your ass than have it parked in traffic. Have fun living with simpler, more local means and see if you dont feel good and save money. two nice things to consider, win for the planet and win for God by how we live. Reverand Kottler, Amen !! Very well said!

2 super easy things to try when shopping at your local grocery store:

1. The HEALTHIEST food in the store can be found around the perimeter of the store! Do your best to stay way from the processed foods in the isles (most of which are made out of corn).

2. Read the labels on the food you buy. If you can - make it your mantra to only buy foods with 5 ingredients or less! It's hard to know what you're putting in your body when you can't pronounce half the ingredients and when there 65 of them. Where can you find foods with less than 5 ingredients? See point #1 :)

Good ideas. The reasons processed food and food shipped from Chile or across the country is cheaper than local food are not that these practices are "more efficient" and therefore less expensive. The real costs are being externalized and their production and transportation is being subsidized. While individual efforts to eat better, closer and greener are all very good (and as an organic farmer, something I practice as both a consumer and a producer) real change that makes a significant difference will have to be achieved politically. When sustainable food production and distribution is subsidized and promoted by the USDA will this kind of healthy, earth sustaining eating and farming be an option for everyone.

Good ideas. The reasons processed food and food shipped from Chile or across the country is cheaper than local food are not that these practices are "more efficient" and therefore less expensive. The real costs are being externalized and their production and transportation is being subsidized. While individual efforts to eat better, closer and greener are all very good (and as an organic farmer, something I practice as both a consumer and a producer) real change that makes a significant difference will have to be achieved politically. When sustainable food production and distribution is subsidized and promoted by the USDA will this kind of healthy, earth sustaining eating and farming be an option for everyone.

Instead of making bread you can buy the bread from a local bakery and help keep a small business afloat. Even the fresh baked bread at the supermarket is giving someone a job.