Grocery Shopping: What changes did you make this week?

Just thought I would kick this off. There seems to be quite a few of us who want to make changes to how we shop, whether that is to support Australian made and owned products, or ethically aware products (fair trade).

This week I brought some Green and Blacks Maya Gold chocolate (fair trade), because well any excuse to buy chocolate will do and I haven't had it in a while. Green and Blacks chocolate is also organic. I also brought White wings organic flour too instead of the usual black and gold brand - it wasn't a great deal more expensive either. A few weeks ago I also made the switch to D ick smith peanut butter and to Madura tea instead of tetleys

So what changes did you make?

Green & Blacks organic hot chocolate (it is yummy *drool*)

I also now only get my meat & F&V from the farmers market and I'm now only shopping fortnightly.

I decided it's time to dump the Huggies nappies (we only use them overnight anyway) and get some of the eco ones instead.
Decided to get my hands on a copy of the Ethical Supermarket Shopping booklet that Ange recommended and also decided that I will start to nag the coffee shops I buy my coffees at about where their coffee beans are from.
I've been a bit slack in some areas since I became a mother (ie the Huggies) and I think I need to get back on track.

ETA - We get the D ick Smith peanut butter. I love it.

I bought a peanut butter from the organic section of a large, local independent supermarket - the peanut butter eaters in the house like it :)
I bought organic tofu last week, instead of the main supermarket version.
I'm careful of the candles I buy, and soaps, that they don't contain palm products, unless there's an explanation of where the palm product was harvested and that it hasn't been from a plantation that destroyed more indigenous and old growth forest areas.
I tend to buy roo meat because it is far more ethical to eat what is already there than to contribute to demand for large scale farming of cattle, sheep and pigs, though if I buy these kinds of meat I do it from the local butcher, and not a supermarket.
DP thinks we can't afford to shop organically, but it's not just about the pesticides for me, it's about my impact on the environment. I've told him that he can take over the shopping if he's not happy with my choices, because I will not buy certain things, no matter what!

It really is negligible the whole 'organic is dearer' thing because I noticed it's not a great difference that the few things you buy that are organic would break the bank, kwim? from what I have seen there is not a lot of difference, and in some cases it is cheaper - take G&B chocolate - it is cheaper than Cadbury's.

Interesting you say that about the roo meat though - that's probably a question for another thread though LOL. I assume that you're not against the culling of roos then?

there's a huge difference between culling & harvesting roos! IMO, we have contributed to the overpopulation of roos by providing them with pastureland to munch on and then we cull them? MEH!!

What differences did I make this week ... oh cat food - I went for an australian-made organic cat food blend.
Plus we only had 1 meat meal this week (tonight!) of sausages - free-range country-killed beef.

I beg to differ on the point of roo over population being our fault for creating pastureland for them to graze on, but as I said that's for another thread ;)

The meat from Macro Meats comes from a quota to hunt, not a cull. Culls tend to happen on too large a scale to collect the meat from and get it butchered (maybe cull meat is what they use for the roo mince that's just for pets). My local butcher used to stock it but there wasn't enough demand, so he stopped :( So, it's the Macro Meats from Maxi's for us!
I am not against either quota hunting or culling. Our mismanagement of the land has led to overpopulation, as Kaz said, and as much as it's not fair on the roos, it means they then live in mobs that are of man-made proportions competing for less food resources. Culls are kinder than trapping and poisoning, and mean roos don't have to live in a roo-version of a slum. It's not too OT, it's part of my decision-making process in meat buying, so it's relevant to the thread :) It also means the roos live as roos whilst they are alive, and not as economic units on a farm destined for one fate, fattened up beyond their biological needs, and separated early from their mothers. I'm not a vego - I'd rather have meat from animals that lived as animals, that's all. I'd eat horse if it were available in Oz anywhere other than Darwin (has to be killed close to export location, which is up there - there's more taboo over horse flesh consumption than roo meat consumption!). We overproduce thoroughbreds purely for profit and the vast majority that don't make it on the track (and even those with a couple of wins) end up as dog food and other commodities (when they're kindly put down, instead of left to wither or be mistreated by horse traders etc before being eventually sold to market anyway), when some of it could be diverted for food, as it is in France, Belgium and other less-taboo-hindered cultures. And I LOVE horses!
ETA: My take on 'man-made' overpopulation comes from salinisation of land and pushing roos into smaller spaces, where they used to roam further to forage, not so much from giving them pasture land. Salinisation and using land that keeps roos out for whatever reason. Anyway, a quota-kill IS still different from culling, but either way, they got to live life as roos :)

I note that the discussion on roos may be OT but I wanted to refer people to a recent report called 'A Shot in the Dark'. go to A Shot in the Dark

Too friggin long to read in its entirety, given I had an exam last week and don't need to read articles of that length for another 12 months! Skimmed over it, nothing surprising - it's commissioned by the Animal Libbers and some issues are not exclusive to roo harvesting. Really, I'm more alarmed by knowing how cows milk gets to my supermarket than anything I've read in my quick skim of the link! And I have serious doubts about the prevalence of joey clubbing - I know a few hunters and they're not 'clubbers'! Ethically, I'm able to justify roo meat purchases than other commercial meats, is what I'm getting at. And during pg I seem to have vego preferences anyway! Hence the tofu...;)

Sorry Ali, I'm not interested in propaganda that is unsupported by fact.

Have to say I agree with you, Trillian, on the cost of organic goods - the prices have become quite competitive in the last few years and I don't know why DP thinks it's going to send us broke to buy organic. It would cost us more if I shopped at Woolies and shopped for 'regular' food! I love the G&B's chocky - esp the cherry one, cos the cherries are so sour!

Despite the fact that I think as a society we eat way too much meat Animal Lib and PETA make want to nom raw steak whilst wearing a fur coat.

ETA G&B have a sour cherry chocolate mmm nomnomnom. I wish I could un-know that Maya. I've just hit the 60kg mark and I'm feeling really podgy. The last thing I need in my life is a new yummy chocolate.

OMG Maya! I didn't know that! I haven't seen it in the shops at all. I do luff their dark choc with coffee - the only time I drink coffee is with dark choc at least 75% cocoa. BUT I just found out that G&B is now owned by Cadbury but on the upside Cadbury is starting to move towards more fair trade stuff.

I think that chocolate deserves its own thread so I started it http://forums.bellybelly.com.au/foru...d-slavery.html

Good call, Brontide! This forum's gonna take over the world...sorry about the sour cherry expose ;)
I'm nearly out of hair product (which I'm not happy with), but I came across the David Babaii WildAid range, and am trying to source a stockist within a half hour drive of my house...or may just pay for postage. It's a bit exxy, but I hope it lasts a while - it's quite the ethical hair product, it would appear! So, I've held off buying a commercial brand. That's been my most conscious ethical shopping decision all week...oh, yeah, I run deep!