How to Make Sustainable Food Choices, from the Grocery Store to the Kitchen
By Sagan MorrowMaking sustainable food choices and living sustainably doesn’t have to be a challenge! Here are some of my favourite personal ways to make sustainable choices, from the grocery store to the kitchen:
1) Plan your meals around what you’ve already got. Don’t let the green bell pepper or bunch of broccoli in your fridge go to waste! Think about what you can do with those random ingredients that will have to be tossed soon if you don’t use them now, and plan your next meal around them.
2) Walk or bike to the store, or get groceries delivered. This is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint! Instead of driving, try walking to the store. Get a cart on wheels to carry your groceries (and cut down on plastic bags!), or invest in saddle bags for your bike. Alternatively, a grocery delivery service using fuel-efficient vehicles is another awesome sustainable choice you can make (that saves you time, too!).
3) Think about where your food is coming from. Can you support local farmers and producers? Can you grow some of your favourite vegetables in your own garden? Where does your go-to grocery store get the majority of its food items from? Choosing local ingredients from smaller farms is a great way to make more sustainable food choices.
4) Make some of your meals meatless. Can you go meatless for a day? How about vegan? Cut down on animal products to reduce your impact! Try organic tofu, rice and beans, quinoa salad, noodles, curry, stir-fries, etc. using vegan and vegetarian ingredients.
5) Choose cooking methods that don’t require a lot of energy. As we shift into warmer months, we can cut back on cooking by eating more salads and “cooler” foods—and save energy while we’re at it. Use reusable items instead of the disposable kind (for everything from chopsticks to cutlery to dish ware), and plan ahead to see if you can cook a couple things up at the same time to save on energy that way.
Every small change you can make counts and makes a big impact over time. What little change(s) can you make today that could go the distance for a more sustainable lifestyle?
Sagan Morrow is a freelance writer, editor, and social media manager, as well as a certified holistic nutritionist, living in Winnipeg. She writes a lifestyle blog at SaganMorrow.com on topics of food and fitness, style and beauty, writing and business, and general health and wellness. Sagan has a B.A. in Rhetoric, Writing & Communications, and she likes to spend her spare time exercising and writing.
Originally posted April, 2015
