Second day of Lent
The 34th anniversary of the
Tra la la! It is my birth-day. And to celebrate, I am abandoning my family and work for two days of church-sponsored retreat. Tra la la! In the mean time, last night the Husband went to the grocery store, and returned having attempted the 'reduce plastics' grocery run. It was not easy.
Item 1 Bananas. $1.10 Success! no plastic, unless you count the little sticker. I...don't know if that counts yet.
Item 2 Twelve tiny boxes of milk for kid lunches. $9.48 Hmm. Boxes are cardboard, but obviouslylined with something to a) waterproof and b) preserve milk. Probably plastic, unknown origin. Also, has tiny plastic straw of ingenious engineering (the sort that telescopes! cool!) covered in that ubiquitous thin clear plastic. What IS this sort of plastic anyway? Does it have a recycling number or a name? Note to self: this is a good question for later. Possible solution: getting those kid-canteen things or a thermos like we had when kids. Downside: requires responsible daily cleaning or acceptance of homemade cheese. Yuck. Add to file for possible action.
Item 3 Peanut Butter. $6.19. the hell you say! $6.19 for peanut butter? I usually pay less than $3 for this stuff, unless it's the soy butter crap the schools require (I'm sorry. It does not taste like peanut butter. It's ok, but it is not a clean substitute). The husband explains his incredulity as well, but this was the only organic creamy peanut butter in a glass jar. The only plastic, he proudly and correctly points out, is the government required plastic liner around the seal of the lid. At least is it one pound of peanut butter, and thank goodness it has salt (have you tried the salt-less kind? Heresy!) so here is to the most morally proud, expensive, hippy-hipster-cooler-than-you peanut butter that e'er existed. I shall call you Steve. Steve the Expensive Butter. You shall reign in the pantry for at least a month.
Item 4 Canned Olives $1.69 That's not on sale. I wouldn't have bought it.
Item 5 Bulk Ground Coffee $7.09. Ooo, that's cheaper than normal. A discussion ensues. This is not Fair Trade Coffee. In a previous year's lent, we agreed to try purchase only slave-free coffee, tea and chocolate because, you know, slaves. This is also not easy, but it's a habit we've kept, to get fair trade when we can. He explains that he got the bulk ground non-fair trade this time to a) try it out b) honor the plastic deal, and look this is a paper bag! and c) it would be a whole dollar cheaper than Newman's Own. (This morning the coffee is good. I can tell no difference, aside from the moral decay and the shrinking of my resolve). We agreed that the next coffee run would either be to a local producer (my favorite shop, River City Coffee, Tea and Cream takes their beans from a local roaster, so it's worth a discussion of fair trade to learn more about it). We then discover that THIS paper sack also has a thin funky plasticky liner, like the milks do, but we don't know what it is. The packaging, however, states that the whole bag is COMPOSTABLE, and we proudly make our own dirt here, so that seems fortunate.
Item 6 Two box Granola Bars $1.50 each. I point out, each is individually wrapped in the damnable shiny silvery plastic of unknown origin, and I was going to make granola bars on Sunday. He denies my ability to make granola bars, a brief argument ensues, I win. Note to self: have to make granola bars, but maybe not on Sunday.
Item 7 1554 Black Ale $8.69. Is not sale but who cares! This is delicious, velvety, chocolatey beer made by the kind and generous employee/owner hipster magicians of New Belgium Brewing Co. in the wind-powered factories of your liberal dreams. Enjoy frequently.
Item 8 Catfood $8.39. Not on sale, as it hardly ever is but it's the only thing our old, cranky, UTI-prone cat will eat, he's lucky we love him despite his cruel attempts on the life of the youngest one. Paper sack, with strange liner. Yes, will have to find out what exactly that is. Also, note to self: we store this as we've always done in an old plastic tub. Given that BPA and TPP are suspect of leaching estrogenic effects, should we replace these? Could this be affecting the cat's UTIs? Startling thought. Will have to consider.
Item 9 Bread. $2.99 Is not on sale, I wouldn't have bought it. But regardless, all breads are covered in plastic-bag-of-unknown-origin. Last week I baked a loaf of bread, but it is tiny in comparison to a store bought loaf and we consumed it in one meal. Need bigger pan if I plan to replace bread with that of my own making. And who has time for this??
Item 10 Chips $4.99 what?! These better be manna from heaven! They are not. Sure, hooray, they are natural, no sale (blech!), non-GMO, no cholesterol, no trans fats, no preservative slices of crispy, but I think I prefer my $3 Blue Corn chips. They're non GMO too, and maybe that's all I care about. This bag has the appearance of paper, but again we find the liner that keeps the chip-oil from ruining the paper, and presumably retains freshness. Clearly this is my next assignment. Figure out what the heck makes this lining.
Plus tax, minus store savings, the total comes to $57.48
$57.48!! This is not even a serious grocery run. It contained no dairy products, no proteins, no diapers. We made one positive, cost negative shift that likely involved slaves, and three cost increasing shifts to avoid/reduce plastic. Well, we aren't doing it because it's cheap.
Why do we care what we spent on groceries?
Because this is expensive, and it highlights both the cost reducing effects of lighter packaging (glass is heavy!) and the laziness/expectation of being able to get all our stuff at one big box store. This might be part of the problem. If I think for a minute, I know of several other stores where I could get specific items. "But Marie, then you're spending more on gas! That's waaaaaasteful!"
Why do I think God cares about my grocery bill?
Oh, I don't.
I think God cares that I've got the privilege to drive where I want and purchase what I want without restriction, and is concerned that more of God's children do not have the same privilege. In Arkansas, where I live, almost 1 in 4 kids--that's almost 25% or a QUARTER of them--are food insecure. The concept of worrying about which food I'm buying based on it's relationship to plastic is so incredibly foreign to them as to be laughable. This is not about my righteousness. Forget that. This is about understanding a system that is pushing down everyone, from the most privileged to the weakest, and harming the weakest the most. If some foods are only available in plastics because that's the best and fastest and cheapest way to transport them to hungry people who have NO food, that might be a blessing. There is food enough in the world to feed everyone if we can move the stuff around before it spoils. Plastic is a blessing to this endeavor. Frozen food? Wow. Vacuum sealed? WHOA. Let it not be thought for a second that I'm earning a crown in heaven here by complaining. This is an experiment, a fast from plastics to widen my view of what God's will might be in our really complicated world. It isn't supposed to be easy. In fact, as a fast, maybe it's supposed to be hard.
This is also about food availability, accessibility, movement, and quality. And plastics probably play an important role in that too, like, a positive even good part.
So before I go slamming plastics as "of the Devil" I've got to remember that they may have an important place in sustaining my fellow human beings. I'm just kind convinced that balance is out of whack.
The end.
-Peacefully,
Marie
Awesome! I love River City Coffee and didn't know that about them!
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