Less is More: Where to Begin?

Last night*, I watched the documentary Food, Inc. I am reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and once upon a time, I started reading Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (a book I do plan to finish some day in the near future), and I believe Food, Inc. was inspired by both of these books. So I decided to watch it.

It arrived in the mail, thanks to Netflix, yesterday, so I got down to the business of watching. (I was watching by myself, but the boyfriend walked through later, became fascinated, and finished the movie with me.) Like the nerd and perpetual student that I am, I found an old notebook, so I could take notes.

See? I really take notes, even in my free time.

I was immediately engrossed in the film, disgusted with the way our food is made and the ways in which big corporations control the production, policy, and regulation of our food.  One interesting part of the film was how changes can and have been made. Apparently, Wal-Mart made the decision to start supporting organic farms and foods, based on customer demand. I know there are a lot of reasons not to support Wal-Mart, and I'm not saying anyone has to shop there, but it's very interesting to see such a huge, huge, corporation making a change to support better farming and food preparation practices.

After watching the movie, we decided to make a list of things we can do. Now, we are not doing any sort of specific project, like the No Impact Man guy was. We just decided to make a conscious effort to change as much about our behavior as we can.

We started right away, deciding to cut the lights off for the night. The boyfriend loves scented candles (I don't mind them, just never think to light them), so he jumped at the chance to light a few. We cut off the lights and surveyed our surroundings. Acknowledging that I could not keep writing our list in so much darkness, we turned on the smallest lamp in the den. (Add to list: buy more candles) My favorite part, though, was when it was time to go to bed. We each took one candle with us. I took my candle to the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth with the candle on the edge of the sink. Next time, I'll put the candle on my right side; I came dangerously close to lighting my hair on fire when I bent over the sink to rinse! Then I carried the candle with me to my room, setting it on the dresser as I put away my watch and earrings, and setting it on the floor of the closet as I hung up my sweater and put on pajamas. The candlelight bouncing off the closet mirror added some fun illumination. Then I carried the candle to my nightstand, tossed my extra pillows (not throw pillows! just a big, sturdy reading pillow and two pillows with sham pillowcases on them) on the floor, and climbed into bed. I set my alarm on my phone and picked up the lid to the candle. This was my favorite part: I put the lid over the candle, so it cut off the oxygen supply and the flame faded out instead of going out instantly like a light. It was a nice way to get into the darkness of the night and prepare for sleep!

Our beginner's list for saving the world

We may not know exactly what we are doing, but we felt we should start somewhere. And the most important thing on our list is "Ask questions--get information." The more we know about our food and our energy use, the more control we have over what goes into our bodies and how we impact the world around us.









*OK It wasn't actually last night, I wrote this last week and forgot to post it!