The cost of food has risen in accordance with the price of oil. More Americans than ever are using food bank resources (America's Second Harvest). After a recent survey America's Second Harvest says that use of food banks and soup kitchens is up by 15 to 20% in this time of economic hardship.
How many of us are guilty of loving food that is flown and trucked half away around the world to our neighborhood super markets. I know I am. The best way to minimize the gas pains of this food is to not eat it. If we can give it up we can help our wallets hold more cash.
My wife and I have decided that we are going to grow our own. Our families grew gardens when we were young, but as we got older we got away from it. Well now we are learning again. We had wanted to xeriscape our yard. Now keep in mind that we have a lush lawn that is beginning to die off because we haven't watered it essentially for two years, though we did have some good rain last year. We are now in the process of transforming our yard. We are putting vegetable plots all over the yard. We are removing the grass when we can replace it with a food item bed, an herb patch, or a decorative xeric bed. We are doing this as our resources allow. We are buying hardy plants and mulching them well to conserve water.
When we are done and the harvest is over in the fall, we hope to have dined well during the summer and still had enough to put some away for winter. For all that we have spent on seed and mulch when it is all said and done we will have saved hundreds of dollars at the least. When we can't grow what we need we are buying locally grown goods that have a reduced carbon footprint and lower cost becaue they don't have to be transported as far. We are seriously considering raising rabbits to supplement our meat intake.
After we save some money then we will reinvest in our household to give it solar energy. With over 300 days of sunlight a year we can be nearly off the grid. There is so much we can do.
If every American changed one habit into a green habit every week we could make a huge difference in the world. We can change our economy and geopolitics if we take the steps to make a difference. First we have to get up off the couch and do the work or nothing will change until it is too late. If we think the gas pains are bad now, wait and see what happens when we do nothing. I promise it will be far worse. One only has to take a look at human history to know this.
I encourage everyone to pick up some green habits. It will make the world a better place
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