Comments on: How Can Social Responsibility Be Made More Affordable?

By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Queercents Weekly Roundup: Finally! The weekend

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:45:31 +0000

[...] flashback: Social responsibility is a great goal but can be hard to achieve because of price concerns on a limited income. Make sure [...]

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By: John

John — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:03:07 +0000

Thanks Jesse. These are good starting points for a follow up I'd like to write on this subject.

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By: jesse

jesse — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:17:31 +0000

And this one, too! Sorry, last post, I promise.
http://www.coopdirectory.org/directory.htm

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By: jesse

jesse — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:14:45 +0000

Sorry, this is the food co-op listing nationally (http://www.ncga.coop/); Co-Op America as a broader mission and I always confuse the two because of the names.

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By: jesse

jesse — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:46:19 +0000

I would have to agree that families with kids especially have big time crunches but also counter-point Mrs. Micah’s point to some extent. My mother was a working single mother of 2 who was on public assistance when I was born and she thought diet/health was important so she made sure that she made the time to make food. Yes, it’s more difficult – but it can be done and depends on what you value. (And also there’s a difference between eating McDonald’s every day and eating it once a week – cooking every day is almost impossible.) I work full time, manage a nonprofit in my extremely limited free time which is at least an extra 20 hours a week if not more and I can make the time to do batch cooking (and work a food co-op shift once a month). I know that there are niche movements for families in our area such as:

Our state’s WIC program advertises farmers markets:
http://www.health.state.ny.us/prevention/nutrition/fmnp/index.htm
(I’ve seen subway posters for this as well)

Food co-ops taking WIC checks

Nonprofits like Added Value:
http://www.added-value.org/

I think that all of these are excellent steps toward giving resources to people who might want and need them and we definitely need more of them. For those in more median income ranges groups like Just Food have been pushing green markets and CSAs (http://www.justfood.org/jf/index.html). Co-Op America is doing the same nationally with food co-ops: http://www.coopamerica.org/.

I think just people sharing what they do, how they eat, where they get it from — because it’s no longer intuitive to expect for *everyone* to deserve good organic food — helps.

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By: Nina

Nina — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:34:53 +0000

John: I think the key is to start small. At LighterFootstep, Chris Baskind’s Ten First Steps inspires simple and inexpensive ways to move toward a lighter, more sustainable lifestyle.

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By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:29:47 +0000

Well, if Jane Shmoe has to work then it's much harder. Otherwise, she might be able to spend some of her time concentrating on finding inexpensive, healthy organic foods and cooking them herself to save money. Or Jack Schmoe. But for two parent families without much income....I don't know.

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By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:04:53 +0000

There's also letting the business do it for you: instead of McDonald's go to Chipotle or a small local restaurant (we have a place called Elevation Burger near me, it's great, and nothing's a dollar but it's not expensive). And, like Jesse said, a lot of socially responsible things are easily frugal: like buying secondhand, decreasing your utility use, and taking public transit or walking instead of driving.

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By: John

John — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:01:24 +0000

Good points, Jesse. We clearly can't rely on the government and should look to our local community for ideas. Even though there's plenty of discussion on PF and green blogs, the message hasn't caught on with the general public. I guess what I'm driving at are answers to: What are some trusted starting points / sources to learn about affordable and greener options in one's local community? How can we best disseminate that information? How can we influence companies to provide us greener options at more affordable price points?

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By: jesse

jesse — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:06:25 +0000

In this specific example there would be a few options depending on geography. Eating whole foods is often comparable to eating at fast food joints, price-wise. - Farmer's markets - CSAs if you have money up front - Food co-operatives with work shifts/member discounts Just because the government condones and subsidizes this food paradigm doesn't mean there aren't ways to buy direct from the farmers who often get very little back from the industrialized food industry. Small farms have been so screwed by the system that a lot of them don't pay the money to be *certified* organic but they are. I think a lot of green and socially responsible ideas that take some research and a better relationship with your community are usually cost-effective as well. I belong to a ton of PF and green blogs and I can't tell you how many times I see the same topics on both.

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