Eating Ethically

Categories: ethics

Tags: Organic, Ethics

Date: 01 April 2009 13:56:36

I've recently increased the proportion of my diet which is organic.  Not because I've become more aware of the importance of eating organically, and the general improvement in the quality of organic food.  But because of my location.  I now live 10 minutes walk from an Organic Supermarket, and we have arranged for organic fruit and veg boxes to be delivered to our house from them, once a fortnight.  Our veg box is entirely British, so it is completely dependent on the seasons.  It has it's advantages and disadvantages - it means that we have a constant supply of fruit and veg in, it encourages us to eat in tune with the seasons, and its all good quality stuff which I don't have to drag up the hill inbetween shifts.  It also encourages us to eat stuff that we wouldn't normally do so, but then if there are items in the boxes which we simply don't like, then it's a bit tricky.  You just have to find someone who does like them, and if that fails then you end up feeding it to the compost.  The other slight disadvangtage is that each fortnights veg box comes with potatos - something that we like, we're just not in the habit of eating v.often.  About once a week or so, I'll look into the potato drawer and say 'right - we're eating some potatos tonight!'  We could have got a potato free veg box, but we opted for the local, British one instead.

The other ethical food scheme that we're trying out, is a milk jug system in Waitrose.  Basically you buy a special jug for a couple of quid, and then you buy sealed bags of milk.  The jug lid spikes a hole in the milk bag, when the bag is placed inside the jug, and then you can pour milk from the jug.  Simple.  Except Mr B set up the jug and I didn't realise the milk had to stay in the bag, and tried to pour it out into the jug, and made a big mess...  It seems really good because it cuts down on packaging by 75% and it means you don't end up with piles of plastic milk bottles which the council don't collect, so they sit there until you get round to taking them to the bottle bank.  But, as I realised today when our milk ran out, every time we need milk, we'll have to drive to Waitrose.  Which seems to contridict the point slightly.  I suppose I could cycle there... it's just up a big hill.  Maybe if we buy a weeks worth of milk bags then we won't have to make as many trips, and maybe we can call in there when we're passing anyway.  I'm sure we'll figure something out.