Rethinking the shopping

Starting with your habits

How can shopping be a conscious gesture? Do you often pause in front of supermarket corridors to figure out which is the most sustainable and environmentally friendly pasta package?

Although it is hard to believe that one person can make a difference, we can still argue that if every action is a choice, and choosing means taking a stand, then every action can be political and impact the external environment.

At an individual level, it is not always easy to change one’s habits, it is difficult and laborious. Habitus is something to emerge, to educate and to cultivate. Being aware of your choices and understanding how you are acting on the environment is the first step to an ethical-environmental revolution.

The first step is (also) doing the shopping

How many times are we too late to pay attention to what we buy? The need to bring home something to eat is an enemy of sustainability. Many of us don’t know that making sustainable shopping is simple and can also be cheaper. Here there are five practical tips to take care of the environment:

Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables: respect seasons and so the earth’s cycle is an ecological choice and harmonious with the environment. The pollution effects of transport are reduced, and small local communities are allowed to continue to survive, without the need for intensive processing of agricultural products and by giving value to the work of those who survive the slaughter of industrial farming.

Reducing meat and fish consumption: For the same reasoning about the polluting effects of transport, we believe that it is necessary to eliminate the purchase of meat and fish raised and caught in distant lands and waters. Intensive farming of both types is detrimental to both animals and the environment. Conscious eating and acting in an ecological way cannot fail to assume as a presupposition a drastic reduction and conscious choice of meat and fish consumed.

Reduce the consumption of plastic: There are several ways to approach zero plastics, starting with reusable shopping bags, disposing of bottled water, buying detergents and bulk foods. It is very useful to reuse the glass containers and bring your own food containers for example in fast food, when ordering take away.

Reuse lighters, pens and everything else that is reusable: avoid buying coloured markers and buy coloured pencils instead; there are many substitutes for everything we usually buy. Pay attention to the brands you choose, prefer shampoos and solid toothpaste, and avoid frozen foods, which are as convenient as they are useless from a nutritional point of view and polluting from an environmental point of view.

You must be interested in production of the food you choose: environmental sustainability cannot be separated from the need for the rights of those who produce what you eat.

To spread awareness

Each of us once we change our way of being in the world can think of transforming the way of being in the world of everyone else. Communicating, suggesting, telling how we act can make those around us understand that change is within reach.

There are different buying experiences that run counter to the logic of multinationals and large-scale organized retailers. One of these is the way of G.A.S. or solidarity buying groups. Another possibility is to choose organic shops, fruit shops and butchers who know the origin of the products they see.

At this point in your personal change of habit, you need – to network, community and really be active – to talk about your choices, oppose mainstream consumption and show by your behaviour that a revolution at the table and in the way of life is possible, just start it.