Convenience v Conservation

"Would you like a water?" a friend offered. I was really thirsty, I'd been working outside all day and had forgotten to bring water. The thirst could so easily be quenched with a bottle of water...seems a pretty obvious solution. However the bottle I was offered was made of plastic. Before this journey to be the change I want to see began I wouldn't have thought twice about simply connecting the dots, I'm thirsty, here is some water, problem solved. But now I seem to have acquired an environmentally conscious little voice in my head "for someone who is trying to reduce your plastic consumption you're not very good at it". I am facing more and more decisions like this since starting down this path of trying to be more sustainable. I could easily drink the water, ignore the voice, and choose convenience over conservation, or I could make a minuscule step in the right direction towards the change I want to see.

The problem is it's not just water bottles that creates this internal debate, it is with everything. We as a society seem to have started a war, convenience v conservation, and convenience is winning. We are presented with so many choices as a consumer and each time we have an option, choose the convenient option or sacrifice that for the sustainable option. Buy a takeaway coffee, forget your reusable bag at the store, whatever it is very rarely it seems is the convenient choice the most sustainable.

The convenience option is to take the water bottle which creates waste from the single use plastic . The conservation option is to go thirsty, I'm sure I'll survive, after all, it was my fault I didn't bring a refillable bottle. I realise this might seem a silly debate to have and am well aware that drinking water is important. However I can't help but feel a bit arrogant in deciding that my need for water that day far outweighs the damage of leaving that piece of plastic around for future generations.

"No thanks" I replied.

I went to a nearby washroom and drank the warm water from the tap, it tasted horrible, but I looked in the mirror and grinned.

Community Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was a new phrase to me a few months ago. Since then its been shaking things up in my world a bit. What is it? It's unsurprisingly pretty much as it sounds. Agriculture that is supported by the community. Local farmers grow food in your area that you buy into on a mostly weekly basis. You, the community, support the farmers by agreeing to buy a share of the food in advance which allows the farmers to plan how much to grow accordingly and means they know what their expected income for the season will be.

Why is this different to the normal way you buy food? Because it's local, seasonal, usually organic, fresh, real food thats why and it doesn't come in pointless plastic! It also means that because the farmers know how many people they are feeding in advance of actually growing the food they can reduce the amount of food they waste. According to this reasonably respectable looking website of all the food grown for human consumption every year roughly a third is wasted...A THIRD! That really isn't good enough, what the hell are we playing at?

Having learnt more about it I have now started volunteering 1 day a week at a Community Supported Agriculture urban farm in Vancouver. It's early days yet but I already feel much more connected with how my food is grown, when it is in season and the effort that goes into making it. On top of that the food tastes considerably better when it comes straight from the ground. Having lived in cities for the last 5 years I realised I could probably count on my hands the number of times I had taken food direct from where it was grown and eaten it straight away. The reality is the food we buy in the supermarket, even if it's local and organic, is at best several days away from being fresh. I want to see more of these programs so that we can move away from relying on a broken, wasteful system and support people within our community who can grow the food sustainably.

If, like me, you love a good infographic to explain things here you go (this is for the USA but is mostly relevant to everyone):

Source: Fix.com

If you have been looking for a way to buy more sustainable food I highly recommend seeing if there is a CSA in operation near you, if not maybe set one up!

If you are based in the UK (where I'm from) you can see what CSA's are near you here: http://www.communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk/find-csa/

And if your in Vancouver (where I live) here is a list of CSA's in the area: http://www.urbanfarmers.ca/csas/