"Healthy Options for People and the Earth Society (HOPE) is a grassroots group of Houston B.C. residents who are dedicated to build and nurture our local community by encouraging sustainable choices through partnerships and education."
Mostly, we run the farmer's market in town. But we also do a few minor environmental things around town. We also make a point of doing something every Earth Day and run the Serendipity craft sale every year in November.
Thursday night we had a meeting to discuss our "vision". We felt kind of lost as to what is under the scope of HOPE and what really is beyond our jurisdiction. We discussed a lot of things, including the negative connotation of "environmentalist", and came up with the mandate given above.
I have always felt that even though this group is Earth-friendly, we haven't done anything focused on reducing garbage, which is my biggest environmental concern. And when I brought this up at the meeting, I was surprised to see everyone completely agree with me. We had a mini rant about how everything is unnecessarily over-packaged. From the the giant plastic box that ear buds come in to every piece of meat being on a plastic moisture absorber sheet, on a styrofoam container wrapped in plastic wrap (and then put into a plastic bag at the till in our particular Super Valu).
So I realized that people are aware of this, but even those in my stewardship group (because "environmental" is a bad word :P) don't talk about it. But how will anything change if we don't talk about it?
PS: First picture is of a seminar where we are drawing a map of where our tomatoes come from. Second picture is of our farmer's market. Also, I really wish I had the option to get my meat from a butcher or something where I can get it in waxed paper. There are some downfalls of living in a small town.
Ah, the good old-fashioned butcher shop! Super Valu would do well to set up their meat department like a butcher shop. Not likely, but it is a nice thought. The most important thing to remember is that YOU are making a difference. It may be frustrating to see that others don't appear to be, but just think that only a few years ago, we couldn't recycle paper and cardboard locally. Now we can. Things are getting better.
ReplyDeleteThe second most important thing to remember is to to bring back my drill!