Ideal for EatingEating ethically while eating great!

This year is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. And I'm 40. So I'm going to recognize and celebrate Earth Day for 40 days this year. Actually, I got the idea and motivation from the Unitarian Universalists' 40/40/40 plan: 40th anniversary, 40 members of a congregation, 40 days. Since I don't have a congregation (unless I count y'all!), my second 40 comes from my age. (By the way,Sesame Street is also 40.)

The UUA 40/40/40 has a list of suggested ways to celebrate Earth Day for 40 days. These include being mindful while eating, cutting out fast food, going vegan, buying only fair trade coffee, and composting. The idea that resonated the most with me was to eat normally and save all my food packing for 40 days.

This idea definitely feels scary and overwhelming. While I feel as if I eat mostly fresh vegetables, I know that I buy more processed foods than I "should" -- certainly more than I'd like. Having two teenagers and a three-year-old means I capitulate to buying more processed foods than I'd like to. And my husband refuses to live without his myriad processed foods.So I'm envisioning this mountain of food packaging growing rather quickly in the corner of my kitchen.

That's the scary and overwhelming part. But the idea also feels productive and enlightening. I think I eat mostly fresh vegetables. But I suspect that these 40 days will reveal another truth: that I use mostly processed foods of some sort or other. For example, for my breakfast smoothie, in addition to a fresh banana, I use frozen raspberries, store-bought soymilk, protein powder (sometimes), and flaxseeds. The only ingredient that comes without man-made packaging is the banana. When I make bean salad for lunch, I use canned chickpeas, canned black beans, balsamic vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt, and some herbs/spices. Every item comes in man-made packaging. Now, at least all that packaging is recyclable. And the balsamic vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt and herbs/spices take a month or more to use up. So that packaging is more environmentally friendly simply because I don't have to replace it so often.

I'm not looking to eliminate food packaging completely. That's impossible considering the things I enjoy eating. But I would like to cut down on unnecessary or particularly wasteful packaging. Do I really need to buy the wonderful vegan cookies that come eight to a box, complete with plastic tray and plastic wrapper? With five people in the house, we can eat that entire box in one day. As delicious as those cookies are, I find that packaging rather wasteful.

[I shouldn't pick on Back to Nature like that. I LOVE their vegan products. And their packaging is made from 100% recycled paperboard. So they're doing a fantastic job of being as sustainable as possible given that they have to use packaging at all. And having no preservatives in their products means that they need a bit of extra packaging to maintain freshness. So, I'm sorry for picking on you, Back to Nature! I really do love you! I just wish that you'd cut out one layer of packaging and label your products as perishable.]

So, back to my plan for saving food packaging for 40 days. Geez. This really does feel monumental. Fortunately, my family is into doing it. We'll rinse out food residue to avoid rot and bugs. We'll stack the packaging on a table in the corner. And I anticipate needing a bigger table sooner than later.

The 40/40/40 site suggests taking a picture of the mountain at the end of the 40 days. But I'm going to take a picture every other day or so. I'll post the results here.

My goal is inspire myself and my family to cut back on processed food. A secondary goal is to inspire a few readers to cut back on processed foods as a result of my food packaging exercise.

In the meantime, if you have an suggestions or comments, please leave them for me. How are you recognizing/celebrating Earth Day this year? Let us know!