“Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.”
- David Suzuki

I like things to be laid out and clear. I want to know what the best plan of action is. I know that what is considered the ‘best plan’ may change as information and circumstances change, but if I know what the best plan is for today, then I can get on with it.

I don’t think I’m so unusual in this and I believe that a (perceived) lack of a best plan is what keeps a lot of people from making significant changes to their lifestyles. Most people want to live greener lifestyles, I think, but many are unable to move forward because they are unsure which way to go. There is an expert for everything; pick one and go :)

Radishes from our backyard garden.

Food - what we eat and where it comes from - is a huge part of greener living. But buying food carefully can be really difficult. My grocery store labels produce as “local” - with the quotes. Is that really local or just quoty-fingers local? And how local? Telling me it is Ontario-grown doesn’t say much. Ontario is a huge province (according to Wikipedia, 1,076,395 km² or 415,598 sq mi), so Ontario-grown doesn’t necessarily mean local. But there is no ‘official’ definition of local, anyway, so.. Uhh?

My best plan for local is this: my first choice is food that is labelled with the farmer’s location. If is somewhere near me, then yay. If not, then I choose the one closest to me. Next choice, is to believe it when my grocery store says “local”. Some things I just won’t buy if they aren’t local. For example, I live in some of the best apple-producing country in the world. Many varieties keep well over the winter. I won’t buy apples that come from outside of Ontario. We are apples. So why is my grocery store stocking apples from South Africa? (or tomatoes from Holland for that matter?) Ontario grown apples only.

But then there is organic. (My plan: yes if I can get it, local is preferable, but I’m not paying 3x the price of conventional. Double is as high as I will go, usually.) And what about corporate farms vs family farms? And what about Fair Trade? It quickly becomes overwhelming and then I’m standing in the grocery store and can’t decide which broccoli to buy.

Homegrown salad greens. Several kinds of lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, chives, parsley.

So I was SO happy to see this in Little Homestead In The City

If not FROM BACKYARD then locally produced.
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

That there is a Food Hierarchy and I am ever glad to see that! I love option hierarchies. If possible, choose this, if not, then this, etc etc. I’ve printed that out and put it on my fridge and copied it into my PDA so I have it when I’m shopping. I have a Best Plan and will never be stymied by broccoli again. :D

And speaking of organic, this is an awesome little movie (thanks Jean!) about organic farming and produce. Sure to be a hit with Star Wars fans:

We’re working the Food Hierarchy here at my house. We’ve been eating greens from our backyard gardens all month. In fact, I haven’t bought any since the beginning of June. And I’ve already processed and frozen two flats of strawberries (well, what was left of two flats after all the eating that went on lol) from the farmer just up the road. I’ll definitely be freezing more and making jam too. Once the strawberries are done, that same farmer will have raspberries. Mmmmmmm :)

Little Homestead in the City I have been reading this blog almost since its inception. There is a lot of really good information there; it is a never-ending source of inspiration and is fast becoming one of the pillars of the Sustainable Living grassroots community.

David Suzuki Foundation: Solutions Are In Our Nature

PickYourOwn.org - Where you can find a pick-your-farm near you. Cover the US, Canada and other countries too.