Insights on 6 weeks of pledge pursuit   -late September 2020

-pledge was to purchase 60% of food items that were either local and or organic

-end result about 70% achieved not including garden grown produce

-insights -the ultimate goal of 90% local and organic is going to be very difficult to achieve until some things change

-processed food items are often not local and not organic and poorly labeled -no doubt due to corporate lobbying for their benefit and not ours

-source of ingredients and the labeling of this is very inadequate -you often cannot tell where something came from -packaged or processed in Canada is not enough

-how to get to 80%

-don' plan on processed food -ie crackers, soups, salad dressing, cookies, juice,ice cream, baked goods, a lot of bulk purchase items -no labelled, not local, not organic

-the local challenge for nuts is almost impossible to meet -I have never seen Ontario nuts for sale

-specialty items will be a challenge -non dairy, gluten free

-prepare to give up on conveniences -like prepared pizza crust

-find local meat sources -you never know where the stuff is from in the supermarket

Helping insights

-where you shop is NB -stone store, goodness me, organic section, farm gate and market all help with the local or organic goal

-you can pick out a lot of local produce at this time of year  in supermarkets-august and September -but to achieve a high organic /local goal stay out of supermarkets

-embrace home food preparation -baking muffins and making granola, canning and freezing fruit , soup etc

-food preservation for fresh fruit and vegetables will be NB to keep % up through the winter

-home food cultivation is very important and in winter can mean indoor cultivation such as sprouting

-look for small producers -big corporations are sketchy at best and evil at worst

-it would have been beneficial if there was a small food group that were actively interacting to help support each other during the pledge period  -maybe an ongoing local food pledge support  group is worth establishing -sourcing insight sharing, recipes, etc

-participating in this pledge group was very beneficial -I was motivated to keep records, look for local and organic more vigorously, reject items that did not meet my criteria

-it would be more difficult to do this with young kids in the household

-I will look to repeat this again with another pledge group in the future and maybe modify my goal according to the season

Welcome and we are glad that you have decided to get a on a pathway to good climate living.

We are going to start by listing the people participating in this project along with their pledges. See below.

To recap

1. We are each selecting some area of our lives to bring about change so that we have less of an impact on climate change.  Each person can choose from the 5 or 6 pledge explorations that we have reviewed or create a pledge that is of relevance to you.

2. To be reading this you will have sent your pledge in and it is listed below.

3.Off we go.  Working individually or with people in this group, we are going to go about working to meet our pledges.  It is a good idea to keep notes and keep track of progress.

4. Sharing along the way.  You can share you experiences with other people in the group directly or by postings comments here.  The goal is to create a supportive community that will help each of us achieve our goals.

5. Check in -our first check in will be Thursday August 27 at 7 p.m..  You will get an Zoom invite for this.

6. First milepost -in five weeks (September 24, 7 p.m.) we will reconvene by Zoom and see how we are doing. Some people will  have been able to make significant progress depending on their pledge.  Others may just be starting.  We will check in and explore where to next.

Please share your experiences and insights by posting comments in this blog.  It will help encourage others.

Cheers,

Stan 

for the Pathways to Good Climate Living team

 

Pledges

 

Name            Pledge

Anita  -Food Waste to Landfill -I am pledging to reduce my household food waste to landfill by half.  

Arlene -Consumption over 5 weeks - 1. track our discretionary spending as a couple and send 15% of our total to various charities 2. I will reduce my household and clothing items by at least 10% and 3. Purchase any needed items produced locally or from the thrift store.  

Cathy -Food-I pledge to cut down beef consumption to once a week. -I pledge to research the availability of grass fed beef in the Parry Sound district  in the next two weeks and in the Fergus area by the end of October in order to replace our grocery store  beef.

Isabelle -Food -I pledge to source fruit, vegetables,  meat and eggs to achieve a goal of 80% of these items being local over the next five weeks. I will also preserve additional local produce for use over the coming winter.

Jill and Peter Gill -Home Energy-reduce lighting: Transportation -car purchase research:  Finance -review investments 

John -Home Energy -I pledge to create a plan to address basement rim joist air leaks (research to identify methods and materials and need for professional help to undertake the work)

Lisa M. Food and Food waste -prepare a weekly meal plan to help shifting to locally sourced food and reduce waste 

Liz - Food -all breakfasts, all lunches and 4 dinners/week vegetarian. Also no beef or lamb.

Margaret -Home Energy -pledge being formulated

Michaela -Home energy -reduce energy and water use by 15%

Phil -Home Energy -prepare a plan to reduce household electrical and fossil fuel usage, by 30 Nov 2020.

Sya -Civic participation -Identify ten climate change initiatives that you can support by doing one or more of the following : - E.g., KAIROS, UCC, David Suzuki, indigenous action group, youth led initiatives

Stan -Food -  I will track all of my food purchases over the next five weeks to achieve the goal of having over 60% of these being local and/or organic.