As part of the Cutting Carbons Challenge and Local Food Month preparations, I recorded all the grocery items I bought today, including their country of origin. I was really surprised at the results! I thought I was paying at least some attention to trying to buy locally, but the results were as follows:
Number of items purchased: 88
Number Made in Australia or Product of Australia: 33
Number Imported or Made in Australia from Local and Imported ingredients (MIALII): 55
Therefore:
% Australian = 37.5%
% Wholly Imported = 43%
% MIALII = 19.5%
This grocery shop doesn't include my fruit and vegetables as they are home-delivered. They are all organic and products of Australia, but I will endeavour to find out where in Australia they come from if I can, or at least what percentage are grown in the Hunter Valley (within approximately 100 miles/ 160km), when I get them delivered on Tuesday.
I also looked at how many items I bought that contained plastic as all or part of the packaging. It was 50 of the 88 items, or almost 57%. *Sigh*. Some were packaged in wholly recycleable plastic (10 items), but that still leaves 40 items containing plastic destined for landfill :-( And I'm not sure how to get around that issue, except to not buy them! For example, the organic tea bags are shrinkwrapped in plastic, as are every other box of tea bags on the shelves. Every type of cheese is packaged in plastic, as are the vegetarian "bacon" and tempeh, tofu and dried beans. Double *sigh*. Ah well, at least I'm working on it.
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