Lauren Meyers

Today, I watched the story of bottled water. When thinking about bottled water, I usually worry about body of water. This mini doc, reminded me of what happens to things that get "recycled". There is so much misinformation about recycling, it is sad that so much of what we consciously and thoughtfully recycle still ends up in landfills. I wish, I would have thought of this aspect before my final project. The amount of plastic water bottles we drink in one year, can wrap the planet 5 times. This sort of analogy kind of scares me, it should and I am unsettled. I don't read many Dr. Suess books anymore to the children I watch, they have fallen out of fashion. But, I love the Lorax and was thinking about it while watching this video. "A thneed is is thing everyone needs", this amazing consumerism and capitalism has disastrous effects. It feels like science is giving us all Truffula seeds in the form of knowledge and people are trying really hard to plant them. The next thing on my list to remedy in terms of becoming more sustainable, is just investing in a soda stream. I love La Croix. It seems like, everything we fix is replaced with a new evil.
Before I buy food at the grocery, I touch it and ask if it is going to nourish me. It is a quick response and similar to the arm thing we do with herbalist. Now, it is a working part of my brain and intuition has over come a lot of temptation. I wonder if that exercise would work with technology, or non-produce/food items? I keep just thinking, all the answers are inside us, and we just have to chart the way to them.

For all of this term, I have avoided buying or using plastic bottles for water drinking. It has been tricky on days that I forgot my bottle. I spent some time being dehydrated and then, started remembering. I have only used two paper cups this term and feel like not having a coffee mug and water bottle at all times severely impacted my happiness on campus/ and at work. The convenience and how readily available cups and bottles are make it seem like a chore to bring bottles sometimes. I am happy about the times I said no to plastic, and refused my favorite gatorade. We get to make so many little choices each day, this one has pretty huge impacts.

This was a fun week! I started this on a day when a bunch of bills were due and realized spending is kind of unpredictable sometimes. It is important to keep an eye on it especially around the holidays. the little bits add up.
M-
Donuts $6.50
Apple- $1.99/$12.99
Spotify-$9.99
24 hour Fitness- $29.99
T-
Stayed home
W-
$5 day pass bus
Imprefect foods- $99.09
Parking kitty:$8.40
TH-
Shell-$73.09
Parking $8.40
F-
Gas station $16 on junk/candy
S-
grocery odds and ends- $33
S-
Dinner with Jack $58.00

This was a fun challenge! Unfortunately, with my work schedule carpooling to school is pretty difficult. It made me realize that having children(or in my case being responsible for them) has great impacts. Getting from school to after school activities and playdates is really a hassle without a car. We had one successful day of bus riding and the rest of the week was pulling teeth. After my failed attempt during the week, I realized I could use the weekend to still make my goal. My sister, boyfriend and I carpooled in her electric car, to see my brother in hood river. We had to pack light but, it actually made the trip more enjoyable. After arriving we all carpooled for the weekend from hikes, to orchard, to restaurants, the miles collected between the 5 of us made up for my failure earlier in the week. I am thankful for my families flexibility and feel happy that, even with the lack of creature comforts we had a great time together. I also, made sure to give rides to people going to the same meetings and gatherings during the week. Some of this stuff, feels like a all or nothing. What I am realizing is that we can make small choices in our daily lives that can become habits. Then, those habits grow and maybe at some point it will be easier to carpool/ use public transit with the kids. 

This week was an interesting challenge. I don't really do, plastic bottles for water drinking and have a bunch of water bottles that I like. I wanted to make this challenge more appropriate for where I am. Sometimes, I am lazy and don't refill my soaps at the grocery with the bulk options. So, I made it a point to fill my soaps this week. Dr. Bronners is less expensive as a refill and can be used for so many cleaning projects. I made sure this week to take the time to enjoy my coffee/tea at the establishment providing it. Plastic lids are a problem in my life, I love getting lattes and barely spend the time enjoying them. I did some research on other products I have to see what parts of them are recyclable and what their companies impact looks like. Olaplex has a pretty amazing website and I realized there wasn't much on it about the actual bottles. Finally, I found that the bottles are recyclable and the company is doing a lot to offset* their impact. 
Finally, I've been putting off purchasing glass Tupperware and have old plastic Ikea tuppies. I invested in 3 pyrex containers. :)

 https://olaplex.com/pages/sustainability

Over the past week, I have eaten 15 whole foods meals. This was a pretty easy week to do this because, I conveniently scheduled an imperfect foods box for Wednesday of last week. My diet, typically has over what anyone would suggest of sugar. A few years ago, I took a nutrition course though PCC. I learned quickly, that not just what I was eating but, how little was affecting my health. I run 10-15 miles each week, and hit the gym most days. We have to think about our bodies as machines. If we put in half the fuel we need, we can’t expect to achieve our daily goals. In documenting my food intake, I learned my low-calorie days affected the following day the most causing, overeating, impulsive choices, and increased mood issues. Most of my issue with food stems from not eating enough of it. This week was a good reminder of some of the places I have been cutting corners. Eating processed sauces, processed noodles, bars, protein powder all make getting to my daily caloric goals faster but, the consequences of all those products is more waste. It does actually take more time to at a whole foods diet. If you miss a day of meal prep it is easy to let stuff, accidentally go bad. This week helped me reconsider some goals for the future. It is important to me to have space to cook, time to prepare food, space to grow things, and hopefully space to have some chickens at some point. We know that eating a wholefoods diet is a good measure to take in caring for ourselves it is also, a move towards more sustainable eating. It is a win/win. 

Practice Gratitude for Earth

Every day for the last 7, I have spent 10 minutes outside practicing gratitude for the earth. This was a fun way to be intentional with my time outside. I got new glasses this week and was blown away at how sharp the edges of everything are. The transition from Summer to Fall has seemed slow because of the temperature but, in looking closer, I noticed how much plants still know what they are supposed to be doing. The trees are changing day by day and it has been pleasant to sit and notice the differences from the beginning of last week until now. In today’s society, we spend so much time looking towards the next thing, getting home, going to work, feeding ourselves, that we are completely unaware of the magic occurring outside our homes.  Each day, I went for a walk around the block and took my time noticing. It was nice to wave at my neighbors, see all the stink bugs, and see how the plants are starting to decay. The practice was beneficial and allowed me to return to studying refreshed. 

Growing up in a small town in Ohio, meant a backyard of corn. I learned how to milk cows, bail hay, and drive a tractor by the time I was 10. The agricultural runoff from my hometown, Napoleon trickles into Lake Erie. In recent years, the algal blooms due to the runoff have turned the water green and made it nearly undrinkable. I grew up in a town of people with set ideas of how to raise crops efficiently making the documentary Kiss the Ground feel like an impossible dream. Kiss the Ground is a documentary about regenerative farming. Woody Harrelson narrates the film, as himself, and really gets the viewer excited about soil. The film touches on topics from fertilizer, reduction of soil disturbances, plant diversity and livestock integration. The film is hopeful and lighthearted. It was hard to believe that by just changing how we interact with soil, we can greatly change the impacts of carbon emissions. Degenerative farming practices are a key factor in the global warming and capitalism is the cause. Farmers in the film are changing the way they farm so that they can make profit again, with empty fields the only option is moving to more natural ways of farming. The problem is, not every farm in America is getting to the point of decimated soil. People are unfortunately, not motivated by this documentary as much as they are by profit. One thing that seemed to be missing from this film was that many of the ideas they brought up could be connected to indigenous agricultural practices. It seemed like the writers didn’t want to say that white settler colonialism was the reason why we are in the mess we are in. I’ve added a few links! 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/native-americans-farming-practices-may-help-feed-warming-world/

 

https://www.fao.org/zhc/detail-events/en/c/1028010/

This is Leaders family farm, the Biggest corn maze in Ohio! Just about a 1/2 mile from my house growing up! :)
https://www.leadersfarms.com/corn-maze.html