Redesign!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm overhauling my somewhat bloated blogger life. The first step is to do something a bit different with "The Tree of Knowledge," which will now become "Just Living," (it's a bit of a play on words). I will still be writing articles on grander issues like vegetarianism and feminism, and all those other lovely and not-so-lovely isms. However, I will also be trying to blog regularly about my efforts to live by the ethical guidelines that I think are worthy. This will feed into my efforts to start a magazine about the same sort of subject. The other blogs which are attached to Aine Bina will probably fall by the wayside, though I'm not deleting them just yet.

So, my first entry along these lines: I'm struggling at the moment, because I have recently uprooted myself and moved to London. Being a vegetarian here is generally easier than in the states. I am also traveling almost exclusively by train and underground, so that's something as well. I'm somewhat nomadic at the moment, so I've been eating in cafes, pubs, and restaurants with no attention paid to fair trade, organic, or locally grown. However, I am surprised by the number of times I've stumbled into some place and seen a sign saying the management strives to use fair trade, GMO free, locally produced, cage-free, etc. Not to sound like yet another liberal denigrating the US, but the UK is definitely a lot quicker to pick up on the new wave of progressiveness. And then the UK is somewhat more backward than some other countries in the EU.

The biggest issue I have been having is that there is a serious dearth of public recycling bins. This is especially problematic given that there are several free papers available every week day. I also receive daily candy emails, and I've noted that the London subscription is much more likely to feature sweatshop free or organic than the NYC or Washington, DC subscriptions were. Sadly, I've fallen very far behind in my Ideal Bite and Greenlife daily emails.

And so the struggle goes on. . .