Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Back in the early 90s, Unicorn Grocery’s founders felt frustrated at their lack of shopping options, and aimed to create the kind of place where they wanted to shop themselves—where their needs were met and their ethics not sold out. And so Unicorn was born. In the 14 years that have followed, it has remained a place we love to shop in, and a realistic, affordable alternative to the supermarket.
Was I surprised that last issue’s column, Can Renewables Outshine Fossil Fuels?, elicited a strong reaction, with written responses of support and derision? Not at all. It’s an issue that continues to divide the environmental community, and one which keeps us from moving forward as quickly as possible to conserve resources and relocalize as an era of cheap, concentrated, easy-to-get energy comes to an end.
Some parents are soccer parents. Some parents are baseball or gymnastics parents. Some drive constantly to swim, cheer, play volleyball or cricket. My kids do swim, play basketball in winter and pick-up baseball anytime, but our primary family sport is fruit picking.
Much of the clothing we purchase every year carries hidden environmental and social costs. Growing non-organic cotton, for example, uses copious amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and water. That’s one concern for people who want to make low-impact, ethical choices as consumers. Another issue is that clothing sold in the United States is often produced in the developing world, in factories with poor wages and working conditions.
-Growing Cities Movie
-Something’s Growing at Riverpark
-Picturing World Agriculture
-National Farmers Market Week: Why the Feds Should Support Family Farms
-Creating a sustainable world: An interview with Barton Seaver
-“And The Echo Follows” Brings the Food Sovereignty Movement to Life
-Algae-Based Transportation Fuels Comes At A Cost
-Algae Could Solve World’s Fuel Crisis
-Ethanol-loving bacteria accelerate cracking of pipeline steels
-3 things you need to know about biofuels
Even when manufacturers purportedly “hold the line” on prices, inflation wins. The hoe you buy today for nearly the same price as the one you bought fifteen years ago will need repair or replacement twice as soon which means that the inflation occurs not only in your wallet but in the increasing height of the landfill. Or, what is very prevalent right now, the manufacturer holds the line on the price, but when you check the package, it holds somewhat less than it did previously.
What we need are stories about how people are not only avoiding hunger but are living well. Such stories are myriad. Physically joining our own lives to such stories can help us see the abundant way of living we’re each called to embody.
A society that is based on a multiplicity of interconnected communities and places will appear as a large ecology of people, animals, plants, places and products.
It’s been over 13 months since we shopped in a large, intense, brightly lit, empire of grocery consumerism and I’m happy to report that life sans supermarket is not only viable but quite wonderful! With no intention of going back, I hope you will consider quitting too!
A lot of people blame fast buck artists for bringing on the 2008 economic crash, but few have yet looked to slow money artistry to get the economy moving in a better direction.
-How a community farm for London could end ‘madness of flying and shipping in food’
-The truth about the global demand for food
-The Permaculture Movement Grows From Underground
-Cooking with California Food in K-12 Schools
-British farmers forced to pay the cost of supermarket price wars
