2 Harnessing the power of dollars

We all know it's in to be 'green.' Buy local. Eat sustainable. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Taglines are abound, but have these mantras actually been translated into actions? On my part, I do try to make green efforts such as bringing my own shopping bags but beyond that, not much. Which is why I decided to take up the Mindful Consumption challenge as part of the 2012 DIY Lifestyle challenge.

The DIY lifestyle challenge is the brainchild of Evon, a graphic designer and final year student at NTU School of Art, Design and Media. This project, which doubles up as her final year project, aims to inculcate sustainable lifestyle choices in urban dwellers. (If only my FYP can be as cool as hers!) There are four specific challenges in the series, targeting different aspects of DIY in every day lives: Food, Commute, Making and Mindful Consumption. I chose the latter.

Mindful consumption is about being constantly aware of the things we consume and spend money on can affects us, the community, society and the planet. It dose not only refer to the food we eat, but the TV we watch, and even the conversations we partake it. Anyway, here's what I have to do for the Mindful Consumption challenge (which has a more specific focus on tangible consumption):

• Snap a photo of everything you spend money on every day for seven days (i.e. food, clothes etc.)
• Keep a consumption diary, tracking what you bought every day and how much you spent.
• Document the above with pictures/videos and upload them in a new album on Facebook, tagging at least 3 friends

Tips are provided on the website, such as buying local, second-hand, and recyclable products, and stopping to think if "I really really need this" before buying.

Here's the breakdown for challenge Day 1 (mostly, no actually all food):

Item	Brand	Bought from	Country of origin
Steel cut oats	Bob's Red Mill	Brown Rice Paradise	US
Chocolate rice milk	Rice Dream	MarketPlace	US
Protein powder	Right 4 Your Type	Clinic	US
Pomegranate	-	Cold Storage	Australia
Coconut cashew dream	Loving Earth	Real Food Grocer	Australia
Ensure Plus	Ensure Plus	Pharmacy	Ireland
Roast chicken set lunch	-	Han's	Unknown
Royal Gala apples	-	Cold Storage	US
Red cherries	-	Cold Storage	US
Green bell pepper	-	Cold Storage	Malaysia?
Coriander	-	Cold Storage	Malaysia
Jazz apple	-	Cold Storage	US
Salmon	-	NTUC	Atlantic ocean?

Wow! I really ought to hang my head in shame. My food comes from all sorts of far-flung places except local soil. My carbon footprint must be as huge as a dinosaur's one. It doesn't help that Singapore virtually has nil farms. At least it's good to know that Bob's Red Mill is a small business in Oregon (started as family-run but recently turned employee-owned) and not to mention their steel cut oats have cinched the Golden Spurtle Awards How cute is that? I think I could try to switch to local soy milk although I find the taste vastly different from Silk soy; it has a very strong beany taste. Or am I just being atas? As far as fruits go, US apples are by far the best (Jazz, Fuji, Granny Smith, Ambrosia, Honey Crisp, Pink Lady). Sure China has Fuji too, and thus more 'regional,' but it's just inferior in taste (watery apples anyone?)

It's so difficult to strike a balance between local, organic, quality and variety. Of course the ideal situation would be local and organic, of high quality and great variety. I think Day 1 of this exercise has revealed a lot of points to ponder upon, and that this following week will uncover even more of the politics of consumption.