Diet and Sustainability

This evening on the way home from the train station I listened to a seminar broadcast on ABC National Radio. It was hosted by the University of Technology Sydney and the topic was 'Diet, Food and Sustainability'.

It never fails to amaze me how points of matter that arise in discussion of sustainability, frugal living, simple living etc. hit home in one of those light-bulb 'of COURSE' moments.... but are, at the same time, embarrassingly simple.

Some of the points that I found interesting or light-bulb moments were:

1. Bottled water is bad mmmkay. Why? Because millions upon millions of those bottles end up in landfill.
2. People in today's society have become so 'precious' (the presenter's choice of phrase) that we import navel oranges from California in our Summer when we have no shortage of valencia oranges grown locally. In taste testing sessions people have almost exclusively preferred the taste of the valencia oranges but they don't sell as well as the imported navel oranges... Why? Because navel oranges don't have pips. Because of pips! *facepalm*
3. Meat in our daily diet causes a strain on the sustainability of our food supply. Why? Because it takes some very large amount of grain to produce one kilo of meat - which is then often exported from Australia anyway adding a big fat, heavy carbon footprint.
   

It was interesting to think about how our daily choices of food make a difference. It made me consider the things I do (or have started doing recently) to lessen the impact of my household on the environment and to be more sustainable.

I buy my green groceries from our local farmers' market. The market boasts that it is the only one in our local area that restricts sellers to local producers or produced food only. I am not sure how true this is but I'm going with it. It is less distance for me to drive to than other local markets I previously tried out - a lower carbon footprint for me and the sellers.

I have a vegetable garden started (that is... a hole in our turf waiting for soil, mulch and seeds!) and plan to own chickens, both with the aim to be more self sufficient and sustainable.

I drink tap water both at home and at work. Bottled water is a no-no.

I have bought a worm farm - as yet empty of it's squiggly occupants, not yet bought, and plan to pick up a cheap compost bin from the council this week (yay Compost Awareness week!). I plan to use both of these, as ways to reduce the amount of household waste going to the tip and therefore landfill.