Why It Matters What You Buy

“The world has enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for everybody’s greed”

–Mahatma Gandhi

We live in a consumer society. With increased technological and managerial innovations in the past 150 years, we have increased the amount of goods we are able to produce, negatively impacting and decreasing the supply of natural resources. A direct relationship exists between unsustainable consumption and the destruction of natural resources through mining, refining, transportation, manufacture and the disposal of goods, and we must recognize the ecological impact of our modern standard of living. By recognizing that Earth has limited resources and understanding the costs of our consumer behavior, we can limit our consumption by making conscientious choices that will help us live within the Earth’s ecological limits.

How to Apply This to Your Life

Minimize your daily consumption and learn to distinguish your wants from your needs. Not only will this reduce your impact on the environment, but will also result in buying less and saving money. By distinguishing your wants from your needs, you will learn to buy only what you need and reduce your waste and the consumption of valuable resources. You can avoid pointless purchases by purposefully buying products that can be reused and do not have to be thrown away after a single use. (ie: a reusable hand soap dispenser allows you to buy soap in bulk at the same cost as a smaller, single use handsoap product)

Buy items with less packaging and try to buy any regularly used items in bulk, saving you both money and reducing waste. Think before throwing items away and use your innovation to reuse items in creative way; if you do not have a use for a particular item, consider donating to a thrift store benefitting a local charity or selling the item to a consignment store.

Value of Thrifting

Choosing to buy pre-owned items makes both economic and environmental sense, as you will save money avoiding newly-made products in resource-intensive stores, and diverting that item form the landfill. Thrifting allows us to end the linear system of consumption (where we produce, consume, then throw goods away) to a closed loop system that allows us to utilize any unused goods. Essentially, you may find a use in a no-longer needed item of someone else’s and prevent that item from being wasted.

Choosing to thrift also supports local businesses, organizations, and/or charities, which also supports this conscientious consumer decision.

Think About Your Food

Buy locally and in-season. Buying from local vendors means there was less energy used to get the product onto the store shelves, and buying in-season prevents you from purchasing items shipped from hundreds, possibly even thousands of miles away. For items not available from local vendors, purchasing fairly traded goods from developing countries offers a conscientious consumer decision.

Avoid food produced with toxic pesticides that endanger biodiversity; avoid petroleum-based fertilizers to reduce the amount of carbon used in agriculture; avoid farms that use chemical pesticides that pollute groundwater and soil. Seek grass-fed, free-range, or pasture-raised meat and dairy.

Be aware of what grocery stores define as “locally-based” products. Grocers in Davis, such as The Nugget and Davis Food Coop, define local products as products supplied within 100 miles of the store, whereas others may define “locally-based” as products supplied within 500 miles or short plane ride.

Consumers do control the market, and in theory, if the demand for sustainably grown and produced food increases, the supply will follow and the products will become more available.

Why Cooperatives are Valuable

Cooperatives are independent of government and private enterprise, and its members own the cooperative with all decisions made democratically by its members. Democratic member control gives consumers the power to determine what they want and to have an impact on the quality and nutrition of the co-op’s available products. Cooperatives value honest dealings by the accurate measurements of their goods, consistent and reliable quality, and providing fair prices for its customers. Cooperatives share a concern for the community and aim to achieve a better form of society by valuing ethic business decisions concerning the needs of its members, the environment, and the global market. By sharing goods and services, and sharing administration to reduce overhead with other cooperatives and local businesses, cooperatives can address many shared needs within a community.

Grocery Store Check List

√            Defines “local” as products grown or produced within 100 miles of Davis

√            Encourages use of reusable shopping bags

√            Established labeling system for identifying sustainable goods

√            Monitors water and energy use, and produced waste

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 12:05 am and is filed under DHC-CCE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.