There’s something you should know about me before we commit to anything long-term.
I am an almost tree-hugging, hippie, Earth-child.
Take me or leave me. I’m not all the way crunchy. I’m definitely not gonna turn down so me good old Blue Box, but I do try to keep that stuff out of my house. Key word there being I try. There have been many a time that Kraft maca’ is on sale and I stock up like the apocalypse is coming. But I digress.
I try to keep chemicals out of my house. We clean with eco stuff, we eat from the Earth as best we can, and we buy everything fair trade, where it is feasible. I do go out of my way to research and try to be mindful about where we are investing and what we want to bring into our home. But with that being said, right now the hubs and I both work 30+ hours a week, friends. The kids have homework, basketball, scouts, piano, art, swim. Like, we try. But we do eat Taco Bell and then we pay for it dearly.
But that’s my point. It’s hard. It’s hard to eat organic. It’s hard to buy fair trade. It’s hard to eat from the Earth. It’s hard to be good humans sometimes. But why is it so much harder in America?
Our great grandparents just called it food. There was no organic, no fair trade. It just was organic and fair trade. Other cultures just automatically do these things! They compost in their communities. They have community gardens. Open markets filled with fruits, veggies, fresh meat, and flowers! Where in America did we go so wrong? I know, I know. The almighty U.S. dollar.
J and I were grocery shopping tonight, and he wanted to get soup for work. Down the soup aisle we went, and he headed straight for the Campbell’s soup.
L: “Whoaaaaa, where are you going?”
J: “….to get soup.”
L: “But Campbell’s?”
J: “…uhh?”
L: “Here are some better ones, let’s look at these.”
He finds a few in the ‘healthy section’ that sound good and I’m casually browsing through them all, when I notice something.
L: “Waaaait.”
J: “Hmm?”
L: “These are made by Campbell’s.”
J: “Wait, what?”
L: “Look! They are made by Campbell’s! The tiny logo is all hidden in the corner like it’s illegal.”
I turn the can over in my hand to browse the ingredients list. I’m pleased with what I see. Carefully selected ingredients, it says.
L: “I wonder…”
I head down the aisle to the normal Campbell’s soups. Approximately 5 more lines of ingredients than the “healthy” version. No claims about carefully selected ingredients.
Herein lies my question. Why make one soup with all this crap, and one soup without it. They were the same price. Why can we not get to a place in this country where food is just food? It comes from the Earth and we dont need to add this or that to make it quicker and easier, etc.
Is the American dream dying? Careers and the need for power and money are taking over our country. We took the American dream and we put it on steroids. We took it too far. Having a family, a car and a house have now become having the best family. The best car. The biggest and nicest house.
Ask yourself; what do you want out of life? To be the richest? To work the most? To be the most admired person at your job? Probably not, right? Try these on: be happy. Be healthy. Love and be loved. To help others. That’s what you’d really say, right? On your deathbed you’d like to look back and say you had a good life.
I do get it. You need to work to live, of course. And we need those jobs to make the world go round. But where can we cut back? You know we can cut back.
Why not band together and begin to grow gardens in our neighborhoods? Plant vegetable gardens and fruit trees for us all to chip in and help with and then harvest in the summer and fall. Start canning. Trade. Begin compost piles to lower food waste. Put it right back into the Earth.
I have ideas about this, folks, but that’s for another post.
To wrap this up, I challenge you to change one product in your house and make it fair trade and organic. I feel soap is an excellent place to start. Do your research about it and choose one with carefully selected ingredients. Packaged in recycled materials. Worst case scenario, you’re out like $4.
What is one goal you can set, no matter how big or small, to be a better human?
– L –
I can appreciate the craziness of life and the desire to have the simplicity of pizza or Taco Bell. ;-) We don't have kids, but even still, life gets busy. Some days when I come home from work, I don't feel like spending an hour or more cooking dinner. That doesn't make us bad. It makes us human. Like you say, making changes one at a time will eventually get you where you want to be.
And I think the market will eventually evolve to the point where the Campbell's soup with the carefully chosen ingredients will be the rule and not the exception. The fact that they are making soups like that means there's a market for it. It means people want more options with carefully chosen ingredients. Don't lose heart yet. :-)
Sorry but it's not hard to eat organic. I eat 100% organic and vegan and am poor but still manage. And you're wrong when you say our grandparents ate organic because it WAS organic because they were farming with synthetics in the 1800's.. I make my own organic cleaner, laundry detergent, use organic soaps and cook all my own meals, never take out. And well I could keep going but I'm not trying to one up you. Thanks for the post however, it does help.. I'm 23 and am able to sustain myself living organic, I'm sure everyone else can as well, people just like to make excuses, ALSO I've learned that a large majority of people don't even think the food they eat is bad... which is just sad but it's not only the US... it's world wide
I'm glad you don't struggle to live an organic lifestyle at age 23. I assume you are responsible only for yourself? As stated in the article, we are in our 30s, both work 30+ hrs a week, and have two very active children we also have to provide for. The point of this article is that there is more our country could be doing to make healthy living more of a priority and more convenient for people with a variety schedules. Surely you are in support of doing more to make this lifestyle easier to achieve for everyone? You're very lucky that it is so easy for you in your phase of life. It is difficult for the vast majority of people in our phase of life.
Cheers.
Lindee
Never said I don't struggle I said it's not hard to obtain organic food, I also said I'm poor, meaning I literally scrape by every pay check - but somehow still do it. Everyone has a choice to buy organic, most just don't because it's more 'expensive' and no, I live with my girlfriend and we have pets. Both of you working 30+ hours should make it easier since you have the money to buy organic.. I worked 70+ hours and work provided free food but I never ate there, because it was my choice. If you start refusing and stop going to taco bell, and stop going to other places and stop buying conventional, that's what will make the biggest impact on "more our country could be doing to make healthy living more of a priority." Although I don't think you grasp that the industry is setup so that you get sick and go to the doctor, that's how it works. And of course yes I support making it easier which is why I thanked you for the post, I just don't agree with everything you're saying. Nothing's easy for me okay, I don't have any family other than my girl friend, they're all gone and literally have no support system if needed one. The point being I have barely any money but sacrifice certain things for other things and make it work. Everyone wants to be healthy, but nobody wants to do the work for one, and two, don't know what healthy is. And your point about growing stuff well, that would be great if everyone grew their own food but people would be buying miracle grow and calling it organic, I've witnessed this first hand, more than once.
Please just keep in mind that time is what some cannot afford these days.