Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Eating
Even if you don’t stay up to date on current affairs, you can’t have missed the focusing in on environmental issues lately. Twenty years ago, very few people even thought about where their food, tableware or other products were sourced from. It was a case of what do I want and where do I get it. Nowadays however, we cannot afford to live in the same manner, especially if we want to secure a future for the next generation and beyond. Here are some ideas to help save the planet and local economies when having a simple meal.
Local Producers. It seems all to easy these days to buy exotic fruit whenever you want it or pick up some foreign spices from the local shop. The fact that products such as these are having to be transported over many hundreds, if not thousands of miles has large ramifications. Not only does the transport release vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, due to burning fuel and having to use a food and wine cooler to keep the produce chilled all the way, but also local food suppliers struggle to compete with low foreign costs. If you want to see the important businesses in your local area survive for years to come then make sure you use them whenever you can.
Choose Less Packaging. You only have to take a walk down one of the isles to see how much food packaging is wasted making products look pretty. A single cake might be singly wrapped, inside a little box with a plastic place-holder, which is cloaked in cellophane and transported within a cardboard box, with the other cake boxes. It is often the case that such packaging is completely redundant, so do your bit and try to buy loose or sensibly wrapped goods.
Ethically Sourced Accessories. It is not only what food you buy than can have an effect on the planet. Everything from the cutlery you use to the little wine gifts bought for yourself or other can have just as much influence and the consumables themselves. Ask yourself where this ware has come from, is it something that could be made from a more sustainable textile, and is this a disposable product when I could be purchasing a reclaimable one? Disposable chopsticks for example cause thousands of trees to be cut down every day, when a good reusable pair can last a lifetime.
