Three Steps to Being an Eco Conscious Grocery Shopper

Three Steps to Being an Eco Conscious Grocery Shopper

Food. Since we can’t all be organic farmers and have fresh, healthy produce growing in the back forty, we have to rely on other sources for our food. For most people, their primary food source is the grocery store. Whether you go to a major supermarket or a locally owned, mom-and-pop shop, your market is a great place to start being a more conscious consumer.

Step One: Make a list.

When shopping for groceries, conscious consumers don’t wander in and start loading up their carts. They prepare first, and that preparation pays off. Sit down and make a list of everything you actually need at the store. Yes, this part is important, and no, it doesn’t have to be written on recycled paper…although that’s not a bad idea.

The list is essential for a few reasons. First, you’re more likely to remember all the items you need, reducing the need for multiple trips to the store. Imagine how much energy we would save and how much we could reduce carbon emissions if we all made an effort to plan our shopping trips well, alleviating the need for those “extra” trips during the week because we forgot Janie’s organic chocolate milk and there’s no bread in the house. Plus, people who make grocery lists tend to stick to them, meaning they make fewer impulse buys, reducing wasteful purchasing and saving you money.

Step Two: Bring your own bags.

If you’re like me, you have “green” bags, so you know that they hold a LOT more than plastic bags, which makes it easier and faster to get your groceries from Point A to Point B. At the same time, when you shop using cloth bags, you’re being a conscious consumer. How? By reducing waste. In the United States alone, consumers use over 380 billion (yes, billion with a B) plastic bags a year, 100 billion of which are those thin little grocery bags. Creating all of those bags requires 12 million barrels of oil. Worse, a good 98% of those bags never get recycled. They end up in our oceans and our landfills, infecting and killing wildlife and contaminating our food supply.

So, I know it’s easy to forget the bags in your car, but really, it’s worth the trip back out to get them. Take it one step further and bring your cloth bags to ALL of the places you shop: clothing stores, hardware stores, the farmer’s market, bookstores. Cloth bags are easier to carry and frankly, I feel oddly contradictory when I buy organic bananas and put them in a plastic bag…that the bagger then puts in a plastic bag. Don’t you?

Step 3: Buy organics and locally grown crops.

We all know it’s good to buy locally grown produce, preferably organic. But most people still pick up some, if not all, of their apples and cucumbers and mangoes at the local supermarket, particularly when those stores offer organic options. Why? Well, first, most towns don’t have farmer’s markets that are open every day, and sometimes the farmer’s market won’t have what you really want because it’s not in season or not a locally viable crop.

As a conscious consumer, however, the source of your produce is really something to consider. Yes, the organic guavas from Phoenix, Arizona are great, but do you really want to buy something that’s shipped all the way across the continent? Locally grown, organic produce is undeniably fresher, and it’s typically grown on small farms, which use very few chemical interventions. Plus, you’ll be supporting local growers, which is great for your local economy!

So, yes, you can be a conscious consumer and still buy produce at the grocery store (although certainly the farmer’s market is a better option when it’s available), but look for those “locally grown” labels in the organic section, and please, put those bananas in a cloth bag.

Tagged with: Being • Conscious • Grocery • Shopper • Steps • Three

Filed under: Organic Grocery

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