• Growing some of our own food and herbs
• Eliminating use of pesticides and herbicides (see Garden and Lawn Care)
• Buying nutrient-rich organic fruits and vegetables
• Using locally grown fresh produce to decrease use of fuel in delivery
• Buying food with as little packaging as possible and in bulk
• Varying our diet with lentils, beans, rices and nuts
• Eating more raw or lightly cooked foods ie. steamed, stir-fryed
• Cutting down on sugar, salt and caffeine, fats and heavy meats

Consider a commitment to eat only foods within a 100 mile radius of your home. Visit http://www.100milediet.org/getting-started-guide for tips from Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon who spent one year eating food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home. Use the mapping tool to find your 100 mile boundary and get started even it is just one day to begin with.

Ask your favourite restaurant if they use local and organic produce! It’s the next frontier of food and critical to sustaining our natural resources.

8 planet Earths’ worth of resources would be needed if every person worldwide lived like the average North American: Source – 100 mile diet.

Buying locally grown food, achieves one of the ten challenges in the David Suzuki Nature Challenge, an action list to most effectively protect the environment and improve our quality of life. Another challenge on this list involves eating meat-free meals one day a week. Most of the world’s water is used for agriculture. However, meat production and processing requires far more water compared to any other food process. Meat production is also the world’s largest user of land, for pastures and arable land.

Another item to look for if you are buying coffee is the Fair Trade certification logo to show that farmers and workers receive a fair price for their products. Often these products are organic as well.