5 Ways to Make Grocery Shopping More Earth Friendly

Making small changes in our every day lives can lead to a huge impact on the environment. Changing how you grocery shop is one of the small changes that you can easily make that will help the environment. Here are five simple tips that can get you started.

1. Buy local goods. Buying from local farmers can help the environment in many ways. Small, local farms are less likely to use the dangerous pesticides and other chemicals on their crops or to use hormones in their animals. Often smaller farms also are more human in their treatment of their farm animals. Shopping at local farmer markets or from small farm venders allows you a chance to talk with the farmers themselves and find out first hand what practices they use and what impact they have on the land they use. Shopping locally also eliminates the need for large trucks that use fuel for shipping and the need for chemical enhancers and preservatives to keep the foods fresh.

2. Buy organic when possible. Many companies offer organic versions of many of the common foods eaten. Though organic versions can cost slightly more they are worth the price in how they impact both the environment and your health. Foods grown free from dangerous chemicals are safer to eat and create virtually no pollution on the land they are grown on.

3. Use reusable shopping bags. There is a wide variety of reusable shopping bags available today. From canvas to cotton, from white to neon, and every style in between there is a bag for everyone. Choosing to carry reusable shopping bags reduces the garbage created by the plastic bags stores use that poison rivers and lakes and can kill animals. Producing the billions of plastic shopping bags each year requires vast amounts of oil creating more pollution. However, by using a reusable shopping bag you can help protect the environment. Several stores are offering discounts on your purchases when you bring your own reusable bags.

4. Buy fresh foods rather than pre-packaged. Packaged foods generate tons of waste from the cardboard and plastic packaging used. Rarely is the packaging made from recycled products, and too often that same packaging finds its way into the garbage rather than being recycled. Also the foods that are sold pre-packaged are often covered with chemicals to preserve them in shipping and while at the store, and also to help them keep an attractive appearance. These chemicals can be dangerous for you and can pollute the ground and water that they come in contact with. By instead choosing to purchase fresh foods that do not require packaging you can help to prevent the pollution pre-packaged foods can generate.

5. Walk, don't drive to the store. Instead of driving to the grocery store for each shopping trip choose to walk, ride a bike, or use a bus. This simple change can reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned and the amount of pollution generated. Making this change can help to protect the environment. But making this choice can offer more than just that. Walking or riding a bike provides a great way to exorcise and stay healthy. It can also cause you to buy less, which can mean choosing not to buy many of the unhealthy and environmentally unsound foods offered.