I'm looking forward to his post, & I'm looking forward to a lot of what's coming for us in the near future–not that I'm in ANY way. We have a lot more adventures to cram into the next four months. I was reading today, & I was completely distracted. The words weren't processing. My mind was floating between scenes of the coming months & to-do's, the things I'm struggling not to write out again.
We can' look forward without looking back, & that's what most of today has been: reflection. We've done without a lot this year, & I'm excited to think about what this means for our life's mission statement, to have as little of an environmental impact as possible. We've had a lot of great experiences, but let's look at what we've done without over the first part of our year in France...
A Year without Cars
We invested in bikes & comfortable shoes when we got to Nancy & have gotten used to heading out 30 minutes early in order to arrive at a friend's on time or the grocery before they close for lunch. Let's be honest, though: when you're driving in a city & dealing with parking, traffic & one-way streets, you're leaving just as early.
That's also a quick 581-gallon of gas dropped from our lives, & about 11.5 thousand CO2 emissions. See other emissions saved on the EPA's page about car emissions. Want to see what your carbon footprint is? Check out this truly outstanding Guardian interactive carbon calculator.
Now on days I don't walk enough, my hips & legs feel tight. I feel pent up. I can't wait to get to the States, buy some nice storage space (like this & this) for my bike & use it more than our vehicle. This will be easy, since we've sold my car to my sister & I am terrible at driving Joe's truck.
A Year without Doctors...
...so far. We haven't even taken medicine. I would like to attribute this to our diet & exercise, but we've also been good about letting our bodies do the work for themselves. I'm a fan of all-natural treatment plans & giving my body some time to figure things out. With extra sleep & extra fruit, we have bounced back from the few germs that have tried to get us this year.
What's unfortunate is that this year we have health care. We don't know what the future will bring–especially as the country is poised to take away women's rights to birth control (among other things), even when it's for medical & not just contraceptive purposes, which is the case for so many of us. (I digress, but TAKE ACTION HERE.) We should be letting ourselves soak up the meds for now & fasting in the States. We're going to try keeping ourselves as healthy & without medicine–even headache medicine. I realize that with a cup of coffee or tea (several times a day) we don't really complain about headaches.
A Year without Wal*Mart...
...& there's no going back. I realize that Wal*Mart provides jobs. However, their corporate culture that results in no support for American farmers, coupled with fewer rights & opportunities for American women, is not something I care to buy into any longer. Their convenience comes at a serious price–buying produce from foreign countries & leaving our farmers with only corn to grow because "it's cheaper". I'll stop here. This is the topic I rant about most. If you're interested, let me know & I'll expand on this later.
So what that means for us is shopping at a fruit & vegetable store, operating like a very organized farmer's market. We're lucky that France is still considered the breadbasket of Europe*, because that spreads to more than just grains. France has one of the most varied agricultural systems in the world & could feeds itself without imports (though, granted, without tropical fruits or tomatoes year-round).
Stores, even the Carrefour we go to (a small grocery), MUST post where the food came from. They MUST tell you how the meat & eggs were raised. (In metal cages? On a real farm?) This means that, even when shopping for plastic-wrapped veggies or meats we try to avoid, we're buying French goods produced by smaller farms. It means our food is traveling less, which has two proven benefits:
1. smaller carbon footprint (test your knowledge of on food's CO2 here)
2. more nutrients (because 1/2 of the nutrients can be gone within a week of harvesting*)
We're looking forward to participating in food co-ops, farmer's markets & shops that let us buy all of our grains in bulk. I realize that this is a lot to ask you to join in on, but take a minute to look about what you bring home & what happens in your community. Is there a way to buy even one thing differently? For example, my family enjoys Subway sandwiches, but that's some seriously processed meat. We were lucky enough to have a new sandwich shop come to town that has few options but hormone-free meat that travels less–PLUS we're helping a local business. I get jealous when my family tells me they've gotten sandwiches from the Cheese Cottage.
What are small changes you've made this year that make you feel better–lighter, eco-friendlier, healthier, happier?
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2 comments:
You'd love this: we ditched our microwave. It was starting to freak us out. Everything we reheat goes into the oven or onto the stove. This forces us to think about what we buy and make. Our replacement was a rice steamer... Does double duty. It cooks rice (white, brown, black, red) perfectly and has a steamer basket to heat veggies or leftovers. We've also said goodbye to some microwave frozen foods because of it (read: Mac n cheese) and have learned to make the great stuff from scratch :)
I "sold" my microwave to Joe when I moved into a house. It was so liberating. My roommates had one, but I hated using it. We're without one here, and I hope we can be as strong as you guys when we get back.
I used to hate rice cookers, since I didn't eat much rice... but you can do SO much more in that thing! Have you ever made "hot pot" (veggies boiled for a bit in the hot broth)? Our friend makes it via rice cooker--think you'd really like it!
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