Everyone buys food, but did you know that there are ways you can ensure that your shopping trips add as little to your carbon footprint as possible? These green shopping tips for buying food will help turn you into a sustainable shopper in no time.
- Buy in Season – Whether it’s plants, meat, or fish, there is a season for everything. If you buy in season, the price will be lower, and the food will be fresher. Not only that it will offer more vitamins and minerals for every calorie than processed food or old out of season food that may not have been stored properly. The exception is fermented food as this is the most sustainable and healthy manner of storage.
- Buy Locally – When you buy locally from people who are producing food on their own land you will cut down your carbon footprint by a lot. Mostly because fewer fossil fuels are needed to get the food to you. When you buy locally, you also put more money in your local coffers that will help boost your local economy.
- Buy Sustainably Raised – When you are buying animal products for food, it’s important to ensure that you’re buying from farms that raise their animals sustainably and kindly. That will include grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, and even farmed-fish that uses sustainable practices to ensure the fish are healthy.
- Buy Low Packing Items – Watch out for packaging. Even organics can sometimes be in plastic containers and use too much packing. Many so-called sustainable mail-order programs reuse the packaging but don’t forget about the fuel used to get it to you.
- Buy from Bulk Bins – One way to cut down on the packaging is to bring your own containers and buy from bulk bins for things like rice, cereal, oats, and even candy. Getting rid of the packaging is going to help create so much less waste.
- Buy Unprocessed Food – Anything already in packaging like crackers, chips, cereal and so forth often has a lot of packaging. Not to mention how they process it adds to the pollution in the environment substantially.
- Buy Only What You Need – Make a list and plan your meals out so that you don’t buy more than you need. By some estimates, most people throw away from a fourth to half the food that they buy. Imagine how this food can be used and try to buy only what you need and use it.
- Buy Reusable Bags – Invest in some reusable bags that you keep in your car so that you don’t buy more bags that are plastic. You can also put a cooler in your vehicle to store any cold things for the trip home avoiding bags and boxes for those things altogether.
- Buy Storage Containers That Lengthen Usable Life – There is a proper way to store most things that make their life last longer. Storage containers that increase the lifespan of your food like Debbie Meyers Green Bags and Containers work great to increase how long your produce lasts. (https://amzn.to/2VUHGub)
If you have a yard, can grow your own food, and raise your own animals for food, that’s even better. You can be self-sustainable within a year or two if you start now setting up your homestead for sustainable living. However, even if you cannot raise your own and grow your own, you can become a much greener shopper if you follow these green shopping tips for buying food.
