Written – December 2023
As the author of a book about Climate Change (The Green IT Guide, cough!) I’m clearly thinking about the subject as world leaders meet for the COP28 summit to try and decide if they can ever be bothered to do anything about it.
For myself, I’m trying to be much more environmentally sustainable, which also happily means giving my money to local producers or small French businesses (often family-owned) instead of the corporations and supermarkets.
I’ve been able to add a few more items to the list of things I no longer buy from supermarkets recently 
the latest list is…
Meat including everything from joints to burgers, vegetables, fruit, milk, cheese, ice cream, crisps, eggs, fish, lasagne, quiche, bread, tea, coffee, soup, jam and honey, shower gel, hand soap, washing up liquid, washing liquid for clothes and fresh drinking water now comes from a local spring, completely free!
These goods are not just more sustainable because they’re not driven around the country and shipped around the world, but they’re healthier too because they’re far more fresh, not frozen, and better for me in almost every way.
In addition the biscuits for my three border collies Evan, Robbie and Téo are high-protein insect-based ones from a small French company and many of their treats come from the local Boucherie (butcher), their tinned meat also comes from a small French company. My toilet roll and kitchen roll is all from sustainable bamboo, and from a small (but rapidly growing) French company.
I’m still on the hunt for local or small businesses selling things like pasta, mayonnaise, butter and margarine, cleaning products, dishwasher tablets, bin bags, soft drinks and I want to buy much more local wine and beer.
I feel healthier and much happier for shopping and eating this way, and it’s great to know that I’m contributing to my local economy every week rather than just filling the greedy pockets of corporate shareholders.
There are a lot of things we can do. You might not have a farmers’ market near you, but there’s bound to be a market, and the meat, vegetables, and fruit there will not come from very far away and from a farm where a much fairer price is being paid than the pittance supermarkets demand they buy their food for.
So while we’re all thinking about the environment during COP28, let’s not just think globally, but for the small things we can do locally too, and how they can positively impact our communities 
