A Sustainable Transient life?

11-23-09
Hey folks, wow I’m late on this by like two weeks.
But here’s my take on the challenge.

Firsties – SPROUT is brilliant and It’s been sad to be away from it for a semester, not seeing the final harvest and all that but! I’ve been up to some stimulating things and am excited to be able to support y’all through this blog deal.

Currently I am traveling from New York back to Minnesota via the intriguing southern states and sustainability is on my mind. For the past few months I’ve been working on a biodynamic vegetable and herb farm that has taught me about giving and taking from the land where we live and focused quite a bit around building stronger veins between rural natural growing farmers and folks in big cities to put it shortly. There was a definite consciousness around living in a way that was positive for the ecosystem around us. But, I’m not there anymore- so it doesn’t count. Basically that was only one way of being sustainable but applying lessons I’ve learned from that experience will most definitely be applicable to other situations. Diversity is a key aspect of successful things, and the preservation of this world and humans in it are without exception. So basically farming and camping is not for everyone but thanks to whomever it doesn’t have to be! but food and other things are so lets talk about that.

So sustainable traveling lightly on a light budget? here we go. To me being “sustainable” is about supporting natural/productive/positive/compounding cycles so I would like to focus on making my experiences more cyclical. Supporting local farmer’s when I find them, staying with friends, acquaintances, couch-surfing strangers and providing them a home one day if they need it, supporting public transportation by train and bus and of course being a bicycle presence with cars and threatening that ugly power they enjoy grimacing or just testing their awareness at the cost of my safety, going to community events, cooking as much as possible, and what ever else comes up.

So Ill be leaving in a few days to go to Philadelphia but right now I’m in Brooklyn New York and enjoying it!

enjoy the ride!
Emma

First Organic Experiment with the result of:…meh >.>

Hi it’s Marin and again I am going to arbitrarily mention how the SPROUT Challenge is going for me so far. Last Sunday was my first day of cooking with organic food entirely and quite honestly I was a little out of my depth. Not because I disliked the organic food stuffs I had bought–I used tofu, finger potatoes, soy sause and virgin olive oil–I just didn’t plan out what I was going to make very well. I figured I would just wing it and see what I would come up with and the result was…well…meh. It wasn’t bad but it could have definitely been better. From now on I will probably work from online reciepies instead of getting over confident and just throwing things together. That sort of thing didn’t use to bother me so much. Heck you are looking at girl who would take snacking in the middle of the night with reheated rice, soy sauce ( I love soy sauce :) , and seaweed rap, to be a decent meal. Here however, I would like to take an opportunity to learn some basic culinary skills, instead of just noming the first thing I see (Om nom nom nom nom nom), along with eating on an organic only diet. I certainly think there is room to fit more than one goal into this experiment. Just saying.

Anyways, what I did for Sunday was take some fingerling potatoes cut them up into shaving like slices, fry them in an olive oil spread pan and added salt. As a side dish I sort of just took out the tofu and sprinkled it with soy sauce ( I used to eat it that way as a kid). Like I said, it wasn’t fabulous but it wasn’t bad.

So, next week end I will be eating organic all of Saturday and Sunday. Yeah…I suppose that’s pretty much all that I wanted to say here. Bye for now.

Hrm … Challenges

Hello everyone, Abbie here again.

This week was … strangely difficult on my budget. This is largely due to the fact that my French Press broke (what a tragedy!), and for a student entering finals, having the requisite supply of coffee is a MUST.

So I had to adjust my budget so I could spend $20 on a new coffeemaker. That meant that I had no spending money for this week. I also had to get gas this week – which was an unexpected cut. (PS, I’m very bad at remembering that gas actually costs money. Especially considering I don’t drive often at all, I forget when I need to fill up.) I also needed to get a windshield scraper, in preparation for winter.  Moral of the story: I’ve felt a little tight on money this week.

**

Here’s what I bought:

Grape Tomatoes

Bag of chips

Whole Wheat Pasta

Can of Corn

Can of Tuna

Tomato Paste

Herb mix

Small green bell pepper

one navel orange

Mozzarella

Lime

Russet Potato

1/2 pound of coffee

Total Cost: $36.63

**

With those groceries, I made my own pizza (huge onion from last week, green pepper, corn, and some chicken I found in the freezer) from scratch and I used the potatoes from last week to make a side-dish to accompany my Thanksgiving leftovers.

I have enough leftovers right now to carry me through the weekend, and possibly to carry me through the first part of next week, but I’m not sure about that. Making the pizza from scratch was quite tasty, and a good way to save some money. However, I did miss the greasy wonder that is junk-food pizza. Oh well.

I think next week is going to be an eating-out sort of week, and an eat-up-everything-in-the-fridge/pantry week. Yes yes.

Also: Organic Finals Week Comfort Food? I’ll try to figure something out …

Results of week one

Continuing from my first post, it’s Marin here btw, I said that I would research what the word “organic” meant to other people and most people came up with around the same meaning to it. The concensus was basically that it should be food that is untainted with persevatives or chemicals and is grown as naturally as possible or in the case of animals, that the animals should be raised on a diet as close to their ancestries dietary supplements would have been. This food should also be as unmessed-around-with as possible too since we all are what we eat. If I plan on eating completely organic by the time the end of the challenge comes around I should at least know what I am allowed to eat and its basically anything certifiably organic on a label on the food so that is what I’ll be doing again this Sunday and I’ll fill everyone in on how that goes. I’ll be cooking everything myself with only organic ingredients and for that day this week I will eat only organic and nothing else. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving Love and Food

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I hope your first weeks of the challenge have been good (collectively). This week has been really great for me – I was able to spend some time with the family, eating really good food and relaxing away from the rush of city life.

Thanksgiving has always been the biggest holiday for my family. My parents got married the week of Thanksgiving, and so two days before her wedding, my mom cooked a giant feast for both sides of the family. Since then, it has been one of the most important holidays my parents and I celebrate. This year, we had a fairly small crew, with only eleven of us around the table. (Usually we have around 15 or 16.)

I learned my passion for good food from my parents. I was the kid, growing up, that just wanted a burger from McDonald’s instead of all the (really good) food my parents would make for me on a regular basis. Now, thankfully, that has completely reversed, as I’ve come to understand the reasons why food is important.

My understanding of food issues and hunger has evolved as I’ve come to place myself in this world of politics, ethics, and social justice. I learned in high school that what I put in my mouth is so much more than its taste.

That still didn’t change the fact that, when I went off to college, I thought more about quantity of what I was eating than quality. I wanted to get food that tasted as good as possible that cost as little as possible. And that’s definitely understandable; I am not, in any way, saying that for some, quantity may be more of a consideration than quality. That is something that should be weighed personally.

And isn’t that the whole point of this challenge? To figure out how different people, with different economic backgrounds, and different living situations, can incorporate aspects of organic/sustainable living into their lives without sacrificing too much.

Personally, I have come to prioritize food in my life. Cooking is something I enjoy, and something that has a more lasting satisfaction for me than other experiences. Cooking for myself really makes me appreciate when I eat out, or don’t have to cook for myself, or when I splurge and make popcorn at the movie my dinner.

Really knowing what it takes to make food, to grow food, to produce food, is something I have SPROUT to thank.

… wow, this turned into more of a reflection than I thought it would be. On to last week’s grocery list!

**

Grocery List:

Whole Wheat Pita

Cherry Tomatoes

GIANT onion

Apples

Bibb Lettuce

Raspberry Leaf Tea (Traditional Medicinals – supports the female system)

Yogi Tea – Kava stress relief

Potatoes

Raspberry and Cream Granola

Connie’s Organic Pepperoni Pizza

Total Spent: $37.30

This really surprised me. I didn’t have to buy as much last week, because I was at home from Wednesday-Sunday. I’ll have to be more careful this week. And I’ll also have to make sure that I eat everything I buy.

Will plan my groceries better this week around. Have a great day, everyone!

The Trap of Green Consumerism? Why Raj Patel Gets It Wrong by Ethan Genauer

Posted by MARGARET, via HUSPROUT username!

I am waiting to post about Thanksgiving until later this week. For now, here are some observations from an interesting commentary I just read about this article by Raj Patel on Civil Eats (the link is in the commentary posted below).

SPROUT recieved this in email form from the author via the GFJA listserv. It expresses really well some of the things I have been pondering about the effectiveness of green consumerism. In my first post for the SPROUT challenge I asserted my belief that buying green falls short of the substantial changes needed togrow a truly just and sustainable economic system. Personally I am often disappointed by little triumphs such as improvements to the 2008 Farm Bill, the election of Barack Obama, and salient–but isolated and usually small-scale–organizations that seem to be getting it right. I also agree when the author Ethan Genauer says that attacks on green consumerism are often misdirected. He says, “Instead of throwing out green consumerism, we must build upon its successes, and still go much further to actively confront and dismantle the entrenched systems of power that prefer us to remain locked in our passive role as consumers.” Wow, I couldn’t agree more! 

Many activists these days (myself included) are impatient and often seek the quick-fix solutions to massive social, political, environmental (etc…) problems that got us into trouble in the first place. I believe it is a trap that humans have continually fallen into throughout the course of history from all parts of the political spectrum. It is particularly easy to do when we are raised with the values that fuel very system we are trying to change, that teaches us the lessons of the sensationalist rags-to-riches and overnight celebrity success stories, sensationalist politics philosophy that . The slow, determined organizers of the civil rights movement are not nearly as exalted as Dr. Martin Luther King was (not to discount his incredible contributions to the movement). People on the outside of the Civil Rights Movement only came to see one salient figure, not the years of organization, training and mobilizing that went into its success.  On the other extreme, the quick-fix mentality was the folly of neoliberalism in many parts of the world: it was believed that quick, sustained, dramatic changes in the economy would result in (what? I’m not sure…) a trickle-down effect starting from the richest and eventually raising standard of living for all people.

At the Soul Conference hosted by the Sister’s of St. Joseph Nov 21-22 (attended by me and another sprout, Cami), we listened to celebrated food activist Francis Moore Lappe talking about her definition of a living democracy. This was an encompassing definition of sustainability in community. She maintained that when people worked together and were intentional about being inclusive in shaping their community, the results would be a living democracy in which each individual was empowered to act in the interest of the common good.

At the end of the two day workshop, we got into small groups according to our specific interests related to building a local food economy. I took part in the ”Farmers” discussion group.  I was especially inspired by the business model of the Rural Enterprise Center, directed by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin (www.RuralEC.com)  who  helped lead our discussion. I was impressed by his resistance to expand the operation when others, even and especially within the sustainable movement, likely would have. According to what I understood from Haslett-Marroquin each farmer involved in REC has the capacity to make profit from year one. The farming practices are proven and intentional, but have a specific timeline to be followed that builds on itself over many years and eventually achievesan integral, sustainable, small-scale-but-incredibly-intensive operation based on “traditional” farming practices, much like the famed operation of Joe Salatin at Polyface Farms. He insisted that growing faster than the measured strategy (that has been developed from years working in the field and observing the successes of other successful sustainable farmers like Salatin) compromises the integrity and only results in another less-than perfect model. After listening to Haslett-Marroqin, we agreed as a group that time is key to building successful, truly sustainable food economy. When we don’t allow time for long-term projects to reach their potential, we cut short the possibility of probably the most likely solutions to our food system.

So, as a lesson learned from this article response by Ethan Genauer and my conversation with REC Director Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, I urge time and patience as necessary elements of buildling sustainable communities.  I also see both from Genauer and Haslett-Marroquin that buildilng on what has worked and leaving what hasn’t is a simple, but often overlooked element of successful organizational models for businesses, public policy and social movements alike.   

The following is the email sent by the author, Ethan Genauer via the Growing Food and Justice Listserv:

Note: This is my response to Raj Patel’s disturbing recent essay, “The Trap of Green Consumerism” — http://civileats.com/2009/11/18/the-trap-of-green-consumerism/ — published last week on Civil Eats. Like usual, I seek forums to publish my writing, in particular as the editor of Civil Eats refuses to provide balance by publishing a farmer’s grounded response to Patel’s misleading (because he implies that he speaks for farmers) & academia-oriented original piece!

The Trap of Green Consumerism? Why Raj Patel Gets It Wrong by Ethan Genauer Friday, November 27, 2009

 The day after millions of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, “Black Friday,” is famous for discounts that lure consumers into stores and the beginning of Christmas shopping-spree season. But in recent years, it has also become fodder for an anti-consumerist backlash. “Stop buying crap no one needs and spend some real time with loved ones,” say the organizers of “Buy Nothing Day.”

Ordinarily, I agree with this sentiment whole-heartedly. In daily life, I endeavor to not buy stuff as much as possible. I strive to minimize my personal role in depletion of non-renewable resources, build relationships with others that go deeper than dollars, and avoid paying taxes that are used primarily to fuel the unrelenting U.S. war machine. But when well-meaning folks extend this justified antipathy for consumerism to something that I believe everyone needs — sustainably produced food — I am forced to draw the line and speak out for shopping!

Altruism, generosity, and social awareness “are killed by the act of purchase,” University of California eco-intellectual Raj Patel declared in his November 18th Civil Eats blog post, “The Trap of Green Consumerism.” With his specific call for people to ask what farmers want as our preferred alternative to fair trade and ‘green’ labels, Patel implies that those of us who actually practice sustainable agriculture — rather than just writing about it as academics, like he does — are somehow the leading bastions and beneficiaries of a critique and movement against our supposed common enemy of “green consumerism.”

But if he really asked local and sustainable farmers what we want, Patel would probably find little of the hostility against green consumerism that he expects. While many farmers — especially those cultivating grassroots food justice movements — do indeed feel severe frustration with the limitations inherent in capitalist markets, and we are eager to explore new ways to expand low-income people’s access to good food without regard for money or profit, we are also adamant that we cannot survive, let alone thrive, if we don’t receive fair wages for our labor as farm owners and workers and decent prices for our produce. In the context of America’s lopsidedly dollar-driven economy, many farmers would agree that green consumerism per se is not the biggest enemy of environmentally benevolent and socially just agriculture, but rather — as much as we may love to hate it — is currently one of the key and indispensable forces that enables us to continue our work of building vibrant sustainable food systems.

By advancing thinly supported arguments that skewer fair trade labeling and green consumerism, instead of supporting sustainable agriculture, Patel and his fellow green-consumption grinch George Monbiot have unwittingly entered into an unholy alliance with the Earth-destroying beasts of industrial agribusiness. Marketing agents of Monsanto, Cargill, Kraft and their corporate kin must be eagerly taking notes for their next cynical crusade to undermine sustainable food movements. Smart, ethical consumers should, as usual, read between the lines … and not fall for clever spin that only sounds good on paper!

Under the guise that buying green products “can establish the moral credentials that license subsequent bad behavior,” Patel and Monbiot blithely criticize the entire sprawling, diverse field of progressive human enterprise that aims to protect and sustain the environment and human rights by adapting and integrating — not rejecting — the profit motive. This conclusion itself is based upon nothing more than a psychological study by University of Toronto researchers in the field of experimental “game theory.” While this study is derived only from hypothetical laboratory tests on human subjects, the practical extreme to which it Patel and Monbiot apply it could have very serious and dangerous real-world effects. After all, we must remember that agribusiness corporations themselves have always been the first and foremost combatants in the battle to limit, muzzle, co-opt and neuter the rise and spread of green labeling and informed consumer choices.

Genetically engineered (GE) foodstuffs are a prime case in point. In the US, the majority of consumers have consistently said, in polls, that food products containing GE ingredients should be labeled. But when a 1990s Vermont labeling law required dairy products from cows treated with GE recombinant growth hormone (rBST) to be labeled as such, Monsanto went ballistic. The biotech giant’s lawyers argued before a US federal Court of Appeals that this GE labeling statute violated the corporations’ “negative free speech” rights of the First Amendment — in other words, their right to silence. In a huge loss for consumer freedom, the court then decided on behalf of Monsanto and dairy industry corporations, judging that it was illegal for the Vermont labeling law to require them to make involuntary statements.

The court ruled: “Although the Court is sympathetic to the Vermont consumers who wish to know which products may derive from rBST-treated herds, their desire is insufficient to permit the State of Vermont to compel the dairy manufacturers to speak against their will. Were consumer interest alone sufficient, there is no end to the information that states could require manufacturers to disclose about their production methods… Instead, those consumers interested in such information should exercise the power of their purses by buying products from manufacturers who voluntarily reveal it.”

The evolution of food labeling regimes in the US has been defined by this legal context. Agribusiness corporations, with government collusion, have defeated every attempt by concerned consumers to improve their environmental behavior — or else reduce their market share — through the power of positive labeling of GE ingredients (or other types of critical information such as exploitative labor practices or inhumane animal treatment) that they have placed in food products. Thus, conscientious consumers and sustainable producers have had no choice but to create alternative “green” and “fair trade” labels — including organic certification — to identify the foods that are not produced with practices that damage our health, environment, and human rights.

In doing so, these labels have helped substantially to bolster the economic viability of small-scale and middle-sized sustainable food producers and to expand the markets that specialize in their goods. Labels have not, it is true, succeeded at transforming the vast bulk of industrial agribusiness. However, we are mistaken if we fail to realize that it was never the intent of alternative labeling systems to lead to this kind of large-scale transformation in the first place! If such wholesale change could happen as a consequence of alternative labels, it would be miraculous and wonderful. Yet in the absence of this success, we should not excoriate labels as the scapegoat for the corruption of our political institutions, the unadulterated ease with which agribusiness corporations have purchased power and avoided regulation, and the general inability or unwillingness of people to effectively fight back.

To the extent that individuals really believe that green labels and consumerism can transform the world, they do need to be disabused of that notion. In the US, where the logic of capitalism dominates public discourse and rules so much of most people’s daily lives, this is truly an important task. But instead of simply haranguing people for making better (greener) choices in their consumption patterns and for having the naivete to think that it matters, the job of eco-intellectuals such as Patel and Monbiot should be to articulate clear paths to deeper and more substantive change. And at this point, it is not enough to merely preach the trite and functionally empty gospel, as Patel does, urging people to come to terms with “political challenges that will be solved not by shopping, but by civic engagement.”

Americans have attempted the route of “civic engagement,” and discovered to our dismay that it doesn’t work as advertised — at least, not while corporations and their elected (or appointed) puppets keep politics in a state of gridlock. Americans mobilized in massive numbers to try to transform the 2008 Farm Bill, and then voted Barack Obama into the White House. These efforts have resulted in some marginal victories for community-based and sustainable agriculture, but America’s fundamental agri-industrial political power structures — billions of dollars in subsidies for commodity crops and high-level federal appointments of pesticide-pushing, GE-favoring corporate lobbyists — have remained strongly in force. In the face of this entrenched status quo, the growing appetite of Americans for green consumerism has been one of the few effective counterweights enabling the development of local and sustainable food systems.

Don’t get me wrong: I am all for building a solidarity economy fueled by generosity and abundance, not money and scarcity, in which universal adherence to environmentally benign and socially just standards of production renders the profit motive and the consumerist mentality itself alien to human experience.

For years, I have struggled to create this utopian world by working with cooperative grassroots volunteer-based projects such as Food Not Bombs, through which people cook and share free vegetarian meals in public places — like the sidewalk outside City Hall or the community park where homeless people congregate — usually with unsold, damaged or expired food that is donated by or otherwise reclaimed from local markets. Everyone gets healthy nourishment, no one pays for it, perfectly edible food is liberated from the waste stream, and we strike a symbolic blow against society’s systematic militarism that values war many orders of magnitude more than basic human sustenance. But this is hardly a viable way to feed the masses, and it doesn’t adequately address (much less liberate) the unsavory sources where most of our food come from.

So what is our ultimate goal, and how do we get there? Patel is correct in saying that we need to “fight to make sure all goods” are produced with “less” (I would say zero) “cruelty, exploitation, resource-waste and culture-destruction.” But in a world so far from this ideal that it isn’t funny, his flippant denunciation of green labels and consumerism is worse than the wrong target. It threatens to throw out much of the hard-fought progress that sustainable food movements have already won, without providing any tangible alternative to move us forward.

At its core, Patel’s argument boils down to a cynical and spurious cop-out. “After throwing a few coins in the direction of the sirens of sustainability,” he says, “people can behave worse than before, their ears plugged by having bought green goods.” Patel apparently believes that if some people hypothetically are able to exploit green consumerism as a moral panacea that excuses their guilt for acts of greater evil, this negates and discredits any social or environmental benefits that otherwise accrue from sustainable business. Instead of advocating for the greatest good, Patel thus pushes for the greatest moral purity. In his imaginary all-or-nothing world, it is better for people to purchase and behave badly, because this is a state of being without moral confusion or unfair effacement of individual guilt, than to utilize green consumerism as a progressive-if-imperfect platform that presses people to collectively behave better. We urgently need analysis that, yes, criticizes the insufficiency of green consumerism as a sole method to save the planet, but nevertheless doesn’t disparage the necessity of it as one solution among many and as a starting point from which lots of people can become engaged with their responsibility to participate in deeper and more radical change. We also need to clearly, concisely and specifically envision how this deeper and more radical change can happen.

To quote Derrick Jensen, who perhaps has done more than anyone else to articulate this kind of nuanced analysis through his essays and books, particularly The Endgame, “We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.” In this case, the oppressive power of industrial agribusiness is the enemy — not green markets and labeling. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, and avoid the trap of bringing down friends and allies through the misguided rhetoric of extreme greener-than-thou moral purity. Ultimately, the problems that we are facing — endless war, global warming, resource depletion, poverty, overpopulation, pollution, species extinctions — are infinitely bigger than any individual acts of consumption. Instead of throwing out green consumerism, we must build upon its successes, and still go much further to actively confront and dismantle the entrenched systems of power that prefer us to remain locked in our passive role as consumers. Unless and until we mobilize a mass movement to take down and transform the U.S. legal, political and economic systems upholding the fiction that corporations possess the same constitutional rights as individuals, along with other hallmarks of corporate power, it is fruitless to blame green consumers for their failure to spur large-scale meaningful change.

Ethan Genauer is a freelance journalist and grassroots activist for food and environmental justice. When not on the road, he lives and farms in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of his blogs is “New Mexico Young Farmers Rise Up!” — http://nmyoungfarmers.wikidot.com

Going Organic…for noobs?

Hi, my name is Marin Ryan and I am a freshmen at Hamline University and also double as a fully dependent addict of processed food. I am as average as they come as far as dietary standards go, probably worse. Since I was little most of the food that I came to eat either came from a box, paper bag, prepackaged wrapping or within the basic shape of a hamburger. Out of the times that I heard of healthy living or organic food there was a part of me that said ‘ya that is pretty cool, good for the people who can go without Micky Ds.’ but there was another part of me that seemed to co-notate the words healthy and organic with EW! I’ve come to realize that, through my work with SPROUT this might not necessarily be true and that, hey trying something new out couldn’t hurt. So as far as this challenge goes I’m pretty much a noob and that is how I am basically going to progress with this here SPROUT Challenge. For the first week I plan to research what Organic means from either Internet sources or far more likely a few of my friends who have organic living parents, vegetarians or have limited diets and are forced-er- inclined to eat organic foods. Following this research period I’ll slowly start to initiate some on line recipes of organic food stuffs, I’ll cook everything myself and all the foods will be organically produced, and I more than likely won’t go into eating meats simply because as an unpracticed cook I wouldn’t want to risk getting e-coli or some such bacterium in me and get sick. Also since I am limited by my Sorin meal plan, I will probably start eating the food on the weekend first then possibly working my way out into the week days slowly weening my way off of the sorin food and onto only organic food stuffs and by the end of a few weeks I’ll have gone completely organic. If by the time I have gone completely organic and still have some time left I’ll look into what organic means in the long run and to other cultures. Oh, and before I forget, I haven’t made a set time to post my updates although I will post once a week. Well, wish me luck!

Challenge Update

Hello fellow sustainability supporters! It’s Amanda again with my Tuesday challenge update.

My first two days of steering clear of heavily-processed foods have been going fairly smoothly. I haven’t hit any real issues thus far other than that I am finding myself not feeling as full as I would like, an extremely common side-effect of dietary changes like this. Personally, it is due to not eating as much as I normally would because I am still seeking out healthy and environmentally-friendly foods that I enjoy. Among my other sustainable choices, yesterday I rekindled my love for dried fruit and nuts as a good filler during busy times of the day and I had an organic frozen burrito for dinner tonight from the “Amy’s Kitchen” brand. This brand is very reliable and I haven’t found anything I dislike yet, although they can get a little spendy. I will have much more intriguing things to write about next week I’m sure, but until then, have a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone gets a chance to cherish time with loved ones and eat consciously. :)

Pursuing Sustainability

Hello all,

My wordpress account won’t let me post on the SPROUT blog yet, so for now you will be hearing from me via husprout. My name is Amanda and I am a sophomore new to SPROUT this year.

For my rendition of the SPROUT Challenge I am going to focus on cutting down the amount of heavily-processed foods I eat and seeking out more products that are organic and/or local. I think the most productive method for being successful in this endeavor will be to work on substituting my regular choices with those I have just mentioned. Pausing before I decide to buy or eat something and questioning whether it is the best choice will help to facilitate these substitutions toward a more sustainable lifestyle. I will post an update every Tuesday (or thereabouts) letting you guys know what new things I have been trying and where I have been successful or unsuccessful in this challenge. I have been working on my own to make these types of changes in my life for quite awhile but have not been as steadfast toward permanent habits as I would like. I am hoping that by formally announcing my intentions I will be more productive in turning these aims into a reality. I also know that the support of my fellow SPROUTS will be really helpful in staying strong through this very worthwhile challenge.

 

consciousness and sustainability

My Challenge

 

Name: Abbie

Year at Hamline: Third Year/Junior

Majors: English, Social Justice – Environmental Justice

The Challenge: I will be buying all organic (or local, sustainable, whatever you want to call it) groceries on a limited budget. This budget will start high, and then I will gradually readjust it. I will attempt to spend as little money as possible, and every week will post a recipe, my grocery list (with prices), and talk about what has worked and what hasn’t worked.

For now, my budget is $45 a week. I will work it down to an even more thrifty budget if possible. This budget is for food, so it does include eating out. If I buy too many groceries to feasibly eat out, I’ll take money from my “fun” budget. My goal is to make my trips to the co-op for the week around $30.

Plans to Meet the Challenge: I will make two large meals a week, and save the leftovers. I will also make my own bread/bagels/other baked goods. I’m going to drastically cut back on the amount of meat that I consume. Whenever possible, I will buy in bulk (grains, seeds, granola, etc.) and make things from scratch, with enough for leftovers for at least a week. I will also eat all of the food that I purchase, rather than letting anything go to waste.

Let’s do this! I’m excited!