1. Reduce the amount of unnecessary items we purchase. Every few months I go through my whole house and send about two bags worth of stuff to my sister or Goodwill. This is a clear indicator of how we consume too much stuff. In many places of the world there are people who are barely surviving on less than what would be allocated for one person. Yet in the U.S. (Canada ranks a tiny bit better) people consume ten times what is allotted per person. I am sure that if you just take a look at your house you can see thousands of dollars of worth of rarely used items. Not only that, but most of those items are likely purchased using credit. This is a very unstable existence!

2. Borrowing more books/movies etc. from the library instead of buying them. Same premise as #1.

3. Reducing the amount of dining in/take out we participate in. Take out food is over-packaged with materials that aren’t always recyclable. This contributes to overfilled landfills. Also, any form of eating out is often unhealthy (especially compared to home cooked wholefoods meals) and far more expensive.

4. Trying to unload my plastic junk. Now this one requires some buying but it is a long term investment that is good for the family. Plastic is horribly toxic stuff and the sooner I can get it out of my home the better.

5. Using my computer and TV less and lowering my heat in the winter. This little effort can save hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. It’s funny that what benefits the environment often benefits my budget. I can’t lower my heat too much with a new baby in the house but I do try to lower it during the day. I also plan on spending much more time outdoors when it gets warmer out and that will mean a lot less time when the TV is on. We don’t have cable but we use it for watching movies and as a CD player these days.

6. Going fully vegan. The only vice left is cheese! We have given up all meats, eggs and all dairy except cheese. This will need to be a slow transition if we are going to stick to it but we will get there, so help me, by the end of 2009. The meat and dairy industry uses up piles of land and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions tremendously through all the different attributes of farming (from cow farts, to transportation of goods, to processing, to packaging).

7. Not eating any processed food. This is one that won’t be very hard for us to acheive. We didn’t eat much before. The processing of food often exposes it to chemicals and other garbage. It also reduces the nutritional value of many food items and makes them higher on the Glycemic Index scale. This means you aren’t nourished adequately and your body sends you signals to nourish it causing you to overeat and gain weight. Eating fresh foods means less packaging and less of a carbon footprint from all the over-packaging and processing.

8. Eating/buying items locally. Also buying organic food. I already boycott anything from Mexico (because of the pesticides) and try not to eat things from the USA either because of the GMO. The hardest will be giving up avocado but, I will likely allow myself to indulge in the healthy fruits and veggies. I want to start shopping at the Farmer’s Market more often too.  This also means that I’ll have to stop shopping at Wal Mart. Ha ha ha. I have hated shopping there but it is the closest store to my house and the prices are often what we can afford as a family of five living off of one income. But I am hoping that we can save a lot of money by changing our buying habits and can afford to shop in more local shops. Organic farming is much easier on the environment and the fruits/veggies from organic farms are often more nutritious and contain less pesticides. Another perk is that they cannot contain any GMO’d products.

9. Getting back to using cloth bags instead of taking plastic ones. We are pretty good about this one. When we do forget and are only buying a few, easy-to-carry items we often decline a bag and then just bag it in the car with one of our reusable bags. My goal for this year is to stop forgetting to bring the bags!

10. Streamlining our errands (ie. wasting less fuel because we go out to go get one container of soy milk).

Other, more personal goals:

1. Cheap dates. There are so many activities that are considerably cheaper than a dinner and a movie. We have thought of going swimming, going for walks on walking trails and playing tennis. There is also dancing at a latin club (we are taking lessons in the spring). These activities have the added benefit of offering quality time together and making our bodies healthier.

2. Exercising regularily and losing my baby weight.

3. Clearing out debt and not buying any large items with credit. Learning to have patience and save for the items we need.

4. Being more involved in my children’s education (see last post for details.

I was on a Facebook group today that talked about the ecological (and likely economical) sustainability of the Vegan lifestyle. There was a link to a blog from a former-vegan (not sure if I believe that) where he talks about how being vegan doesn’t help sustainability and that organisations like the UN are wrong to say that.

These were his reasons (in a nutshell): If you feed cows grain and cut out the cow, then people get the grain directly. To him cows eat grain = people eat grain.

This is not true. Cows eat about ten times more grain that people. Then we slaughter the cow and the cow feeds the equivalent of maybe one person. So if you cut the cow out you can actually feed 10 more people. This could, theoretically, end world famine. The reality is: Cows eat grain = 1 person eats meat = 10 people eat grain. The yield is much higher for the veg sources.

And if cows were out of the equation (again theoretical), you would have even more land to use for the production of produce, beans, soy etc. This makes a higher yield at a lower cost.

Not just that but there are areas in the U.S. where there is drought because water sources have been rerouted to feed cattle. There are cases of water contamination from manure and from the wastes of slaughterhouses to be reckoned with as well.

Slaughterhouse have always been a concern in regards to water contamination. Plus they use many resources to make sure that you get your perfect slice of meat. It’s cruel and not Eco-friendly.

Plus, depending on how you buy your produce (I prefer bag-less and unwrapped) then you aren’t contributing to the ecologically unfriendly practise of wrapping meat etc. in petroleum based Styrofoam plates and cling wrap.

Eating plant based food is a very green option. Especially since people with yards can choose to grow their own carrots, onions etc. If they have green thumb and enjoy it.

I am not trying to discredit the efforts of non-veg*n people but rather clarify some lies. I think that people shouldn’t be berated for not being good enough but praised for trying. So you still refuse to stop eating animal flesh but you recycle your cans and cereal boxes. Congratulations! You are contributing to a greener world! We all need to do something!