Guest Post: Savvy Eats

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Greening Your Groceries

Hey everyone! This is Julie from Savvy Eats. In keeping with Leslie’s recent “Only the Essentials” challenge, I’m here to talk about making your groceries greener. And by greener, I don’t mean adding more leafy veggies to your meals (though that is also a good thing!). We’re actually talking about the other kind of ‘greener,’ or making your groceries more environmentally-friendly.

Here are my top FOUR tips for making your groceries more eco-friendly.

Buy in bulk.

Check out the bulk bins at your local grocery store. Depending on the store, you can typically find anything from dried beans to rice to nuts to trail mix to flour. By purchasing your staples in bulk, you will be saving on packaging. And as an added bonus, you will usually save money as well!

I have a set of air-tight glass canisters that I keep all my bulk items in, and refill when necessary.

Buy local.

Buying produce, meat, and other groceries from local farms uses less fuel because the food doesn’t need to be shipped as far, or at all! I love going to the Farmer’s Market in the spring, summer and fall to support local farmers and get higher quality produce.

One word of warning: some Farmer’s Markets are more ‘authentic’ than others. For example, some stands will sell fruit that was shipped across the country, which means you aren’t actually buying locally. The best Farmer’s Markets, in my opinion, are those that only sell food grown or raised on local farms.

Celebrate Meatless Monday.

Raising livestock for food uses more water and produces more greenhouse gasses than raising grains and produce. Additionally, animal agriculture is inefficient because space and resources are needed not only for the animals, but also for the feed they eat.

I’m not saying you need to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, because that is a personal choice. But by eating just one or two fewer servings of meat a week, you can help the environment.

Plan your meals.

Try planning out a week’s worth of dinners, and buy only what you need for those meals, along with some staple breakfast and lunch items. By doing so, you’ll have less food that goes to waste because you forgot that it was sitting in the back of the fridge or pantry and it went bad. You may also save a few bucks by doing this, as an added bonus!