It is hard in this day and age to be conscious of everything that one consumes. Even if you wrote it all down in a little note pad, or had a t.v. crew film you day and night, you still wouldn’t know half of what went into the finished product that you were consuming.
Take the food you eat: there are entire lifestyles based on screening the content of your food, whether it’s wheat-free, gluten-free, meat-free, animal product-free, micro-biotic, macro-biotic, and God knows what else. Some people are more concerned with the impact their food has on the planet, whether it was shipped, flown or grown in the country where it will be consumed, whether the people producing the raw materials get a square deal, etc. The same goes for the clothes you wear, the car you drive (or don’t drive, if you’re a militant pedestrian like myself), the house you live in, the fuel you burn — you name it.
Not all of us have the commitment — or the interest! — to be so diligent in our habits; but with a bit of effort and some common sense, it’s easy to gain a broader view of what you’re using and what you’re throwing away.
So many things we buy every day are ridiculously overpriced. Countless shops and restaurants seem to be taking the piss with what they’re peddling. I’m guessing they’re preying on the thick, or students, or people who aren’t sure where to shop yet because they’ve recently moved here from another country. Ireland is an expensive country, take it from an immigrant! Naturally, not everybody knows that the Italian “panini” means “little bread” (plural) and is a small sandwich that is often served as a sort of light lunch — not something you’d spend the same amount for as a full meal…unless, of course, you like throwing your money away! I’ve even seen these flights of culinary imagination advertised, as though something to be proud of. One clone of a corporate chain of café’s on the quays haughtily displayed a sign out front which read: “Egg on toast – only €4.50!” You could guarantee it was whipped together in less than a minute in a microwave, with bulk-bought ingredients of the lowest quality. Or another chain-brainchild which had me in stitches: “Soup & Sandwich only €9!” Maybe if the soup was made with white truffles, the sandwich was gilded, and the lot was served by singing angels who massaged you while you ate!
Frighteningly, the fact is that people actually eat in these places, and many think the prices are reasonable. Why wouldn’t they? When the prime selling point is convenience, would most people wonder what actually goes into the stuff they’re buying, or how it’s made? With recession looming, it’s going to be even more expensive not to wonder about these things.
Speaking of not thinking, there is the issue of waste. What an easy thing to forget about! It’s the stuff you don’t want. But eventually, the piles get bigger and harder to ignore. Eventually, we’ll have to start thinking about shooting our landfills into space or something — because they won’t fit on the planet anymore! And, who knows? maybe we’ll miss having seasons, enough to take global warming seriously and start thinking green. But forget the Kyoto Protocol for now, there are so many ways to save energy in your everyday life that people devote entire books to them. And it saves you money. Being eco-conscious is often synonymous with being thrifty.
The problem is, many people feel like they couldn’t be bothered thinking about all this stuff. Maybe it seems like a huge task to think about what you consume, I don’t know. What I do know is: I don’t live in isolation (thank God!) and I feel obliged to contribute to the world I live in, even if that means being less wasteful, more conscientious, perhaps a little sparing, definitely more sensible. That’s what I’m aiming to do.
I’m no expert, I just give a toss about what I’m using to sustain my lifestyle. It’s not rocket science, really, and I’ve certainly not been doing it so long that I could boast in anybody’s face or be judgmental about it. I’m going to update this blog with news (news to me!), delicious and easy recipes made from things available often right under your nose — some of which you may not have known were so near-to-hand — which I’ve learned by hook, by crook, by cooking awful things until they came out well, by listening to my aunties, my grandmothers, my mom, my dad, etc. I’m going to write about easy ways to recycle things you may have thought were rubbish. I’m also going to write about the sometimes difficult, sometimes funny hurdles of learning to be a conscious, conscientious consumer.
