Today’s post is to show my solidarity with the social media challenge #fevriersanssupermarche ‘No-Supermarket February’ – that means no supermarkets for a month! Food shopping is to be done at farmer’s markets and small greengrocers, butchers, organic, bulk or specialist food shops instead.
The aim is to detach people from the belief that they must fund overly polluting mega-nationals to survive, and return some cash flow into the smaller, local economies that help our communities thrive.
I am 100% behind this movement and can assure you that doing my food shopping in this way has made the whole thing much less stressful, I might even go as far as to say it’s become enjoyable.
Especially after seeing how much is wasted by these big-name high street shops throughout the world on dumpster diving social media accounts like @anurbanharvester.
Admittedly, it feels good to not be financing this kind of thing anymore. Even if there have been sanctions put in place in France on some supermarket structures to reduce their waste, the reality often falls woefully short of being a viable solution in action. Hence the importance of not waiting for the overlords to act right and jumping into the world we want to create ourselves by making as many personal changes as feasibly possible.
Personally, it has been almost a year since I last set foot in a large food retailer. I buy exclusively from small organic shops, farm cooperatives, or the weekly market and I’m not out of pocket. My health is without a shadow of a doubt in much better condition too.
Let’s be real. It wasn’t obvious at first, but I did go it alone and without the help and advice of anyone close to me. Nor did I have any motivation from an online community challenge like this! Nevertheless, I was really motivated by my desire to protect the planet I live on, so I managed to find ways to make it work and wouldn’t ever look back now.
There are many ways to rethink the way we spend our money and make it align with how we want to see our world evolving. If you feel like you want to take part in these positive changes with us but don’t know where to start or need help, send me a message, it’s much easier together. ✊
Disclaimer: the trolley pictured below is not completely #zerowaste – if I can’t get products loose in my own recycled containers, I always favour products in new containers that can be easily recycled in my area, or directly by upcycling it myself. It isn’t always easy but I’m trying really hard to reduce the waste I create in the first place by avidly looking for alternatives and minimising purchases across all industries in general. This is me for the time being and that’s cool, I’m trying for better all the time and you can too ❤.
