The Cost of Demand

Whether we were ready or not, the New Year is now in full swing. Are you a resolutions type of person? I’m not.  I feel like they are often surrounded by expectation and doomed from the start.  I am, though, all about a new habit, or way of thinking. Here’s something that’s been on my mind.

Think about all the consumable products that you buy. Including food. I want to challenge you on your way of thinking about these things. We live in a society that wants access to things 365 days a year. Yet, is this really what we want? When it comes to consumables, do we really always want access? Is the demand we’ve placed on companies and stores really for our good? Or, should we be OK with things being out of stock? Really think about this.

When it comes to consumables, even in products, shouldn’t we be dealing with natural ingredients? And if we are dealing with natural ingredients, shouldn’t they at times be unavailable? Think about weather patterns, drought, farming issues? All of these things could cause things to be unavailable at times.

Now, I am also a person who likes to have access to things that I am used to. Yet I’m challenging myself, to look at products being temporarily unavailable as a positive thing. If things are constantly available, does that mean that I am buying both food and consumable products, which are solely modified, synthetic, or artificially created? If I’m OK with this, then I can just keep doing what I’m doing. But personally, I am no longer comfortable with this. (I’ve already made changes to a number of our consumable personal and household products, if you’d like to know more, I’m happy to share.) Therefore, I’m challenging myself, and you, to think about availability of consumable products in a new light.

Even produce, for example. There should be seasons when we can’t get certain produce. Obviously, because it is the wrong season of the year. You may live in a place where this is still the case. Now while most of our major stores ship in produce from other parts of the world, we often don’t have to deal with this (seasons). Or, it seems that farming practices have become such that foods are forced to grow when they otherwise would not. And is this what we want? What we want to consume?

Demand. As far as consumable products go, is it really for our good? Maybe a new year is a good time to make a change. Food for thought, my friend. (Did you get what I did there…Pun intended.)

Let me know your thoughts.

Embrace Life

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