A word about your power as a mindful consumer...

If you haven't already caught on, this is a concept I'll reference a lot, and something in which I'm a strong believer.

As a consumer, you vote. Every day. Constantly. All the time. What do I mean by that? When you decide to buy something - ANYTHING - when you put your hard-earned GREEN towards paying for it, that sends a message. For one thing, it sends a message to the store at which you're shopping to keep the item you're buying in stock, because people will buy it. Another thing, it sends a message to the company that manufactures that product to keep manufacturing it, because people are buying it...

This is also why boycotts work. When you don't put money towards a product of which you disapprove, the company gets less money as a result, and if the movement is strong enough, will stop selling the product.

For example. I am not a vegetarian or a vegan (this is an intense concept about which I'll write at a later date) but I'm taking steps towards eating as greenly as possible. For me, this includes not drinking cow milk anymore. I've never liked the taste, and now that I pay for my own food, I buy almond or soy milk. Effectively, I am boycotting cow milk. I buy milk about once every week and a half. It costs anywhere from $1.50-5 every time I buy milk (almond milk can be damn expensive and yet delicious), and that adds up. Subsequently, cow milk gets that much less money from me, a consumer that rejects that product. This is also why vegetarianism/veganism works, because those people are effectively boycotting meat/all animal products, and those industries get that much less money from them. Doesn't stop them, obviously, but it makes a difference.

WE tell companies what WE want.

As a consumer, you vote on what you want to see in the stores. All stores. Supermarkets, drugstores, clothing/shoe stores, jewelry stores, toy stores, must I go on forever? You think you can buy it, and you sure as hell can vote on it. Therefore you (at least, I believe) have an obligation to be skeptical, to be informed, to be scrutinizing, and above all, to be MINDFUL. You'll spend a lot of money in your lifetime. Make sure that money is funding environmentally and socially conscious things - if that's what you care about, which I believe you should, and which I hope you do if you're reading this blog.

That's right. Wield your power like a sword and shield. Or a pen, which is more powerful than either.