Times of need are times of change.

 

It is very often that only in times of need is it that changes are made, changes that may have been needed for some time, but it is only when situations get critical that they actually come into action.

 

Food makes up for a massive sector of modern consumerism. A factor that is necessary, as we all need food to live. It is however the way the food is manufacture and distributed that is the major problem. ‘Each year an estimated 6.3 million tones of packaging comes into British homes’ [1] it is this packaging that is raising landfill across the country.  Manufacturers say that the food has to be packaged like this so that the produce is still fresh by the time it gets to the user, and as industrial methods are not local to its consumers this takes some time.

 

There are ways you can reduce the amount of this packaging that ends up in landfill that is by reusing and recycling.  ‘It’s more economical to put empty containers to another use’ [1] than it is to recycle them. By using contains and jars for storage, and then no energy has to be used to give them a new life.

 

Another way of reducing the amount of packaging is to reduce the amount of need, by this I mean move the production closer to the consumer. In wartime when people were in need, thousands of city gardens were turned into kitchen gardens, supplying the household with fresh fruit and vegetables with no need for transport or packaging, and at a much lower cost. If only people now could realize the benefits of growing ones one produce then maybe the mass market would decline. Masses of neglected space around cities could be put back to practical use, and people would realize that they are not as dependent on consumerism as they once thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disused city garden. Peckham, London

Photo, my own.

 

(A soldier poses in his trench garden at Ploegsteert Wood in the Ypres Salient, the scene of many horrific battles. Photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.)

 

 

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/packaging1.shtml

 

Image:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/253/517090572_18a032e7d1_o.jpg