GIFTS

Stuff vs Experience

What do the people in your life truly need? Is more stuff really the answer? This holiday season, consider giving experiences as gifts. This is no small request, as I think you’ll find. People are accustomed to giving and receiving STUFF, tangible, material, stuff. But most of us have more stuff than we know what to do with, and science and religion both tell us that what we really treasure, what truly brings us joy is experience.

Have you ever watched The Story of Stuff? It is an extraordinarily eye opening little video, and at only around 20 minutes it is very well worth the watch. And it may just change your thoughts on giving stuff this year.

Consider all the ways you can give experiences this year – and I’m not talking about giving gift cards!  Host a cooking party or wine tasting party for your friends.  Take your significant other to see their favorite sports team or to a concert.  Play golf with your brother (Heaven knows I wish I could).  Babysit for your friends so they can have a date, a spa day, a nap!

What is your favorite holiday memory?  Is it getting that bike you wanted, or is it learning to ride that bike and going on rides with your family?  Is it buying ornaments or is it decorating the tree with your loved ones?

Give coupons for you time.  Host.  Visit.  Help.  Even loved ones far away can receive gifts of experience.  Buy you health minded buddy some yoga sessions or send her to a cooking class.

Gifts of experience are the way to go, this holiday season and into the future (trust me, I know these things).  And as an added bonus, there is no waste left, only wonderful memories and maybe some pictures.  There’s no clutter, just love.

But sometimes a material gift is in order.  And for those times, use these tips to make the most out of you holiday giving.

Ordering Online
There are the obvious considerations when it comes to ordering gifts online: the environmental cost of shipping, packaging materials, and the source of the goods. These are pretty easy to grapple with.

Buy local as opposed to buying online if possible to avoid the shipping and packaging issues (as well as costs). Of course, sometimes online shopping offers the better option (especially if you’re going to have to ship the gift anyway).  If you are buying online, try to consolidate your online purchases into a single shipment. Shop small businesses online when possible. And keep in mind that you can “shop local” from afar by ordering gifts online from small businesses located near your recipient. For instance, last year I ordered a plant for my mom from local shop just down the street from her job.

It is so easy to do a little extra good with your online purchases; there’s no reason NOT to.  All you have to do is purchase your online gifts from a site that gives back.  Whether that means buying gifts from the store of a charity you support.

Then there are sites where you can shop a large selection of goods from various places with a portion of proceeds going to charity.  I wrote more about this in Don’t Send Flowers.  I recommend shopping The Animal Rescue Site, The Hunger Site, or The Rainforest Site stores – all part of the Greater Good Network.  Click these sites every day to send advertiser proceeds to charity (it takes less than 3 minutes).

There is also GoodShop, where part of your purchase proceeds go to charity and GoodDining where your dinner gift certificates can earn charitable donations.

Really, there is just no reason not to.

Buying In Person

Shop local – and I don’t mean your local Wal-Mart (or even Target).  The goods to be found at smaller local shops are of such better quality and are so much more unique than the mass produced garbage at the big chain stores, plus the shopping experience is so much more enjoyable, and your shopping dollars do so much more for your local community.  Plus, if you’re able to talk to the owner of a given shop, oftentimes you can get special deals, make specific requests, or find out about treasures that might be perfect that you otherwise would never have known about.

Hand-Made Gifts

The obvious benefit of hand-made gifts is the frugality and personal touch, but consider also the green potential.  Recycling, Reusing, Repurposing.  Those glass sauce jars you (er, we) have sitting around?  Give healthy read made soup mixes or mini terrariums.  There are literally hundreds of ideas out there for these projects, and as a bonus making them can be a great activity with your kids, spouse, or friends.  Holiday gift making party, anyone?  Check out this list of 101 Green Handmade Gifts or the source of all ideas, Pinterest.

CHARITABLE GIVING

It is a sad fact that charitable giving is expected to continue to decline this year.  The economy is still recovering from the recession, and many people are struggling.  This is more reason to give!  If you can’t afford to give money, consider donating your time or unused possessions.  Have you ever seen someone overjoyed to receive a shower curtain and rod from a local charity?  I’m certain that most of us can find something we can spare.  Growing up, we really didn’t have much, but we could usually find something to share.

I heard a story on NPR this morning that stated that the average age of a donor to charity this year is 65 years old.  My aim is to change that.

Tinkling Bells, Santa Hats, and Bigotry

Now, when I talk about charitable giving, I am NOT talking about dumping change in the Salvation Army bell ringer’s red tin.  The Salvation Army has refused assistance to gay couples unless they break up and go straight, Muslim families who refuse to attend “Christian Bible classes,”  kids who can’t prove their immigration status, and more.  The meaning of charity is truly lost on this bigoted, hate-filled organization, and I will not allow a cent of my money to fund hate this holiday season or ever.  Read more about the Salvation Army’s “mission” here.

Choosing a Charity

The Salvation Army issue should be your first hint that you should look into your charities a little before making your donation. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of charities for every cause you can think of, and some are better than others. The main things you want to look for are the transparency of the operation, the percentage of the funding that goes to overhead, and the good that is actually done by the charity – as well as being on the lookout for any hidden agendas like with the bell-ringers.

There are a number of non-profit organizations that compile all this data and rate charities for you, making the research step a whole lot easier. I also love visiting the sites because you can find out about new charities you may not have known about. Probably the largest is CharityNavigator.org, which considers all the above listed factors without overly penalizing companies who invest in significant programs (thereby putting more money toward overhead). In addition to Charity Navigator, you can research charities at the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (give.org), the American Institute of Philanthropy (charitywatch.org) and GiveWell (givewell.org). You can also find information on the charity’s website.

Maximize Your Gift

When it comes to charities, I can be a very indecisive and eclectic person.  There are so many wonderful charities and important causes.  I want to give to them all!  Heck, that’s why I practice Ethical Eating rather than just being vegan or something – I want to do the most good I can.

Giving a little to a lot of charities, however, may not be the best way to give.  While it may be true that “every little bit helps,” a lot still helps more.  Choosing one or two causes – and one or two charities – that you are particularly passionate about and giving larger gifts to those charities has the potential to do much more than could be done with many very small gifts to many charities.

While it may be hard (it certainly is for me), choosing just a couple charities to be an avid supporter of does much more good for those charities than simply being a vague supporter of many.

You might also consider making a repeating gift.  Instead of just giving one lump sum during the Holidays, consider making monthly donations.  Overall, you’ll probably be able to give more, and many charities really depend on repeating donations to know what sort of budget they have to work with and to get them through times of year when giving is less “popular.”

Some of my charitable donations are taken right out of my paycheck every month before I even see it – something I love, and money I don’t even miss (whereas I might be more aware that it was gone if I were writing a check).

Giving of Yourself

Not everyone has money to spare, or maybe you feel the money you have to spare isn’t as much as you have to give.  Maybe you want to experience a more personal connection to your giving.  I don’t know of a single charity that would turn away willing and enthusiastic volunteers.  Giving of your time can be more valuable and more fulfilling than giving money alone.  And if you’re like me, it can be a way to give to more charities without shrinking your financial donations.

We routinely volunteer with Family Promise, a charity that helps families who have lost their homes, while my financial donations go to animal welfare charities.

Do you have a special skill that you could donate?  A carpenter would obviously be an ideal volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, but those skills could be used at any number of charities – repairing animal kennels, fixing things in women’s shelters, etc.  If you have a talent for crafting, there are innumerable kids charities or homes for the elderly that would be happy to have you.  If you’re sociable, perhaps visiting hospitals or nursing homes.

Any skill can be donated, you may just have to get a little creative with it.  But there are few things more fulfilling than giving of your time.  And volunteering is a perfect way to develop:

SPIRIT OF GIVING FROM AN EARLY AGE

 I want giving and volunteering to be a way of life for my kids, not just during the holidays, but year round.  Including kids in volunteering and charity can be easy and fun.  My kids had a blast when we took out kayaks to clean litter out of the river.  They also enjoy playing with the other kids when we do Family Promise.

This year, the Religious Education (think Sunday School) class at our church is putting together boxes for operation Christmas Child, which is another fun opportunity for kids to really get involved in giving to others and to learn more about the different circumstances in which some people live.

No matter how or where you choose to give this year, have a wonderful and fulfilling season.  And please keep in mind those who have less and ways to give more.

The post On Giving and Caring: Conscious Consumerism appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

      I’ve mentioned Ethical Eating a number of times on this blog, and I wrote about it a good bit over at Cheap Wine and Cookies.  The Ethical Eating phenomenon is spreading fast around the world, but many people are still in the dark as to what, exactly, this movement entails.  I am here to tell you.

      Ethical Eating is NOT a diet.  It is not a “never eat this;” “only eat this;” “carbs are the devil;” “grapefruit is the answer;” or any other random consumerist weight loss phenomenon.  Weight loss is completely off the radar of Ethical Eating.  It isn’t a goal; it isn’t a discussion point; it barely even figures in.  Except that, when practiced with any degree of devotion, Ethical Eating does result in weight loss and increased health, but that is more of a bonus than an aim.

       Ethical Eating is a lifestyle of mindfulness of the effects our food choices have on us and the world around  us.  It is at once simple and exeptionally complicated.  It’s simplicity is in it’s personal nature.  You don’t need a book or a kit or an app (though there are plenty of apps you can use to help you out if you want; I’ve downloaded a couple, but always forget to use them).  You just think before you eat – or, I should say, consume – because really the decision should come even before you purchase the product,  not only before you eat it.  You look at the food and you are mindful of everything that went into bringing that product before you, and you consider whether you feel it is ethical to consume it based on those circumstances.

      The complexity comes in trying to wrap your brain around just how much STUFF there is behind every food or beverage you might consume: the health consequences for you and your family – is it covered in pesticides? Is it processed? Full of extra sugar, fat, salt, colors, and preservatives?  Has it been artificially ripened or had the nutritional value otherwise stripped away?  What about the producer?  Was it produced by a major corporation?  A sustainable farmer?  Local or far-flung?  How far was it transported to get to you?  How were the farm workers involved in it’s production treated?  Were they paid a fair wage?  Were they exposed to toxic chemicals?  Were they children?  If it contains animal products, how were the animals treated?  Were they tortured and pumped full of chemicals?  Were hundreds of thousands of baby chicks thrown into a grinder alive in the egg factory?  All that sort of fun stuff.

      And then the headache sets in.  This apple is local but not organic, but this one over here is organic, but was shipped from Mexico…

      Don’t worry; it’s not quite as mind numbing as it seems at first.  And once you actually start practicing Ethical Eating, you find yourself wondering how you ever consumed some of the things you once did.  It becomes second nature.

       And yet I still haven’t given you a great definition of Ethical Eating.  Truthfully, there isn’t one overall definition.  I haven’t even been able to find a reliable source for who invented the word, but it is clear and largely accepted that the UUA is responsible for fleshing out, implementing, and popularizing the Ethical Eating movement (in addition to probably coining the term).  They even published the FREE comprehensive Ethical Eating Guide – an beautiful Ethical Eating resource and the first step for anyone looking to eat more ethically.  Seriously, it’s free, and it’s amazing.  Download it now.  I’ll wait.

      Got it?  Ok, on we go…

      The UUA is the go-to source for Ethical Eating in formation.  It is not the only source.  Ethical Eating is not a fad or a consumer product, and as the movement grows, many people and organizations are jumping on board and adding their own take, but for my part – and I’ve been actively studying Ethical Eating for years – the UUA is the first and most complete source for Ethical Eating information. 

      It’s about mindfulness of food choices.  And it is a really beautiful thing.  It’s not a hassle.  It’s not a chore.  It is a to be more closely connected to your life, to your health, and to your world.  What starts out as a simple contemplation of where your food comes from opens doors to a connection with life many  “average Joe consumers” never contemplate or experience.  And it is different for everyone – another beauty of it!  Whether your food conscience leads you to be vegan or to visit your local pig farm, it doesn’t matter, the point is the awareness.

      I challenge anyone – everyone – to try it, wholeheartedly, for one month.  I promise it will change the way you look at a whole lot more than food.  And if you’re eating like “average Jane consumer” right now, you’ll probably get that added bonus I mentioned above (a slimmer waist).

      Some people feel like Ethical Eating is restrictive.  They get all focused on the “can’t.”  “I can’t have meat.”  “I can’t shop at my regular grocery store.”  And all sorts of similar nonsense.  And none of that “can’t” is true.  We still eat meat about once a week.  We are just very mindful of where it comes from.  We shop at a regular local grocery store, we just don’t buy things we think are unethical there.  We shop at the Farmer’s Market because we love it, not because it is some sort of “rule” of Ethical Eating.

      Some people worry that Ethical Eating will be too expensive.  It’s not.  Or, I should say, it doesn’t have to be.  I’m currently working on a much longer post on the ins and outs of Ethical Eating on a Budget, but for now, I’ll simply say that people who believe Ethical Eating is expensive are focusing too much on one part – whether that be organics, local, Fair Trade, humane meat, whatever.  They forget that by combining and balancing all those factors, Ethical Eating can actually be cheaper that standard consumerism – especially when you figure in the amount of nutrition you get from Ethical Eating compared to many of the alternatives.  And there are also reduced medical costs, but there will be more on that in the future post.

      This is taken from the UUA’s Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience:

“We acknowledge that aggressive action needs to be taken that will ensure an adequate food supply for the world population; reduce the use of energy, water, fertilizer, pesticides, and hormones in food production; mitigate climate change; and end the inhumane treatment of animals. These steps call for an evolution of our eating habits to include more locally grown, minimally processed whole foods. We acknowledge that this evolution must respect diversity in cultures, nutritional requirements, and religious practices.

Some of us believe that it is ethical only to eat plants while others of us believe that it is ethical to eat both plants and animals. We do not call here for a single dietary approach. We encourage a knowledgeable choice of food based on understanding the demands of feeding a growing world population, the health effects of particular foods, and the consequences of production, worker treatment, and transportation methods. We commit to applying this knowledge to both personal and public actions. […] Therefore, we affirm that the natural world exists not for the sole benefit of one nation, one race, one gender, one religion, or even one species, but for all. […]

As individuals and as congregations, we recognize the need to examine the impact of our food choices and our practices and make changes that will lighten the burden we place on the world. We also recognize that many food decisions will require us to make trade-offs between competing priorities. These priorities include: taste, selection, price, human health, environmental protection, sustainability, adequate food supply, humane treatment of animals used for food, and fair treatment of farm and food workers.”

       Please, please, visit this page for a plethora of Ethical Eating resources and mountains of information (most of it in simple, “bite sized” portions ;-P).

      Ethical Eating has it’s detractors.  There are people who (usually without doing any actual research into the subject) like to proclaim that Ethical Eating is elitist, hipster, hippie, or philosophical blather.  I’ve never found one of these people who actually gave Ethical Eating and honest try, or really did any actual research into it.  They read some book reviews, maybe maybe watched Food, Inc. and were made so insecure by the implications of it all, that they strike out against it.  Mostly, I feel sad for these people.  They are people afraid of change.  Afraid of truth.  And usually blatantly insecure about various things.

      And it is to those detractors in particular (as well as to everyone else!!!) that I recommend this enlightening and skillfully crafted article by Alan Richman.

      Alan Richman was not a detractor, but he was far from a believer.  He believed Ethical Eating to be elitist and hipster.  But instead of attacking the movement blindly or simply ignoring it as a fad, he took the 30 day challenge:

“I wasn’t seeking audiences with our Aristotles, writer-philosophers such as Michael Pollan. I wanted our artisans. My plan was to listen to them, ask to be led through the riot of morality that has overwhelmed this seemingly honorable cause, find a way to sort through a dizzying and growing array of ethical beliefs: local, seasonable, sustainable, organic, biodynamic, green, environmentally friendly, nontoxic, grass-fed, and labor-friendly, to note most. In addition, I decided that for the thirty days of my trip, I would try to eat not by whatever feeble guidelines of ethical eating I might have picked up in the past few years—primarily avoidance of mushy farm-raised fish—but by paying attention to those I met. No matter where I went, I asked this fundamental question: What does ethical eating mean to you?”

       The article is a wonderful read.  And come on; it’s Alan Richman.  Go.  Again, I’ll wait.

      So that, in a nutshell (a really, really big overstuffed nutshell) is what Ethical Eating is.  In the future, I’ll be writing about what Ethical Eating is to Me, how Ethical Eating Ties in to My Religion, and Ethical Eating on a Budget – for starters.  In the meantime, please do not hesitate to send me any questions, either as comments to this post or email them to TheUrbanEarthworm [atsymbol] gmail.

      I will leave you with this.  For those of you who think Ethical Eating is simply a trend or a fad, the global implications and the amount of suffering – human and animal – that is tied up in our way of eating is lost on you.  Ethical Eating is giving a name to a very old movement:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better.  It’s not.” Dr. Seuss

The American fast food diet and the meat eating habits of the wealthy around the world support a world food system that diverts food resources from the hungry. A diet higher in whole grains and legumes and lower in beef and other meat is not just healthier for ourselves but also contributes to changing the world system that feeds some people and leaves others hungry.
— Dr.Walden Bello

The post What is Ethical Eating? appeared first on Urban Earthworm.