Pennsif’s Progress #570 – I am how I buy - my quest for organics
Whenever and wherever possible we eat organic food.
A lot of it we can grow, but alas some of it we can't.
What we can't grow we have to buy.
There lies a problem and a dilemma. We live in a very rural part of Wales. Our nearest large towns are over an hour away by car. So our shopping choices are limited.
Especially for organic products.
There are a couple of small independent organic stocking shops in the area. But they are very expensive, have a small range and require the consumption of at least 6 litres of petrol to get there and back.
I chose organic both for health and for environmental reasons. So burning a lot of fossil fuel to obtain organic food seems rather nonsensical.
There is a local food bulk buying group that buys from Suma (a large national ethical food co-operative) that we participate in but it only orders every two months and there are other restrictions with it as well.
So we have reluctantly defaulted to online shopping for a number of organic products. We have dabbled with various online eco-store type sites but with heavy delivery charges the costs have been prohibitive.
The only easy-to-use and easy-on-the-wallet online source we have found for our organic needs has been Amazon.
But this grates badly with my purchasing ethics. Amazon is super efficient at what it does in terms of ecommerce mechanics - but that is where my admiration ends.
So I have constantly been on the look-out for new online sources.
Now I think I may have found one - PremCrest Ltd based in Bradford in the north of England. They are wholesalers of ethical and organic products. They sell in bulk so that helps bring the prices down considerably. And I have managed to sign up for an account.
I cannot find much about the company other than basic details of their directors and their recent financial accounts through a company checking service, but they do have an Ethics and Environment Policy :
That is rather run of the mill though - with no real mention of fair trade with suppliers etc. I suspect I would find something not too dissimilar if I searched on the Amazon site.
I would love to buy from local, independent, family-run type shops. As long as it doesn't cost me too many arms and too many legs. Organic products are all at a premium as it is.
But the independent shops will buy from somewhere - so you can never be sure.
The only safe bet would be to buy from producers directly. I did have a project called "Eat Who You Know".
That was fun. More of that in another post...
For now I will try an order from PremCrest. Their prices are a good 40%+ cheaper than the nearest organic shops, and they tackle Amazon's Subscribe & Save bulk prices head-on.
Maybe if I buy in bulk from PremCrest I can share round with other local organic eaters. Payment with steem or SBD would be cool. But alas the venn diagrams of organic eaters and active steemians don't overlap round here.
More on PremCrest as the order unravels...
PROJECTS :
Five ways you can support A Dollar A Day
Pennsif's Sustainability Curation Digest for MSP - week ending 26 August 2018
BLOGS :
Pennsif’s Progress #572 – Last Duck Down
Pennsif’s Progress #573 – I go out to dine every day, and it doesn't cost me a penny
RADIO :
The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 24 August 2018 [recording]
My Life In 8 Songs - 23 August 2018 - @luzcypher, @prc & @inthenow [recording]
[ images by @pennsif ]
I hope that company works out well for you.
We've been looking, without any luck for something similar around here. I would love to buy some things in bulk to cut down on packaging and reduce the number of shops or rather the weight of each shop :)
I am very keen on bulk purchasing - it cuts out so much of the unnecessary 'middle processes'.
My ideal situation is connecting directly with the producers - which I have done for some products like cheese and sausages (before I became vegetarian).
I'd love that too. I know someone that gets a quarter of a cow. I'd love something like that.
I find the only ways I can get organic is if I grow it or if I look for a local grower. That doesn't always work out well. We can't buy from out of the country sellers, that has been banned for the moment. We have found a man who has found a way to cross, but he has strawberries, blackberries and peanuts only. So, for now, we are limited in the variety of food we eat but I refuse to put garbage food into my body.
You do indeed have a tricky situation there. Can you grow all year round there?
Host of The Alternative Lifestyle Show on MSP Waves Radio.
Founder of the A Dollar A Day charitable giving project.
Pretty much. There are some veggies that do better than others as an all year crop. So far I have I managed three crops in one year. Dry season can be brutal for watering and sometimes the rainy season washes out the seeds.
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