Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1982

Simplified Lifestyle
Rita Pluim

Living a simplified lifestyle means going back to basics. My initial motive was a very practical one, namely to save money. In the process of living this type of lifestyle, I have learned that it is not only cheaper, but also much healthier. I have come to the realization that mankind is slowly, but surely, destroying the world which God gave us to live in, and to take care of, and that I too am responsible for how I use or misuse the little comer on the earth where the Lord placed me which is our home. It is, therefore, obvious that the question "Why" deals very much with our priorities. What is important to us as individuals; is it money, time, personal pleasures, personal satisfaction or perhaps God's approval of the way we live. It also deals with our responsibility towards, firstly, our family and, secondly, our fellow man.

Food plays such a big part in our lives that it probably is a good starting point when one considers a simplified lifestyle. Most of our food comes from the supermarket. Let us take a close look at the supermarkets. There, seemingly, is quite a competition between all those stores. There are over 20 different supermarket chains in Canada. However, that picture changes when one realizes that the retail sector is, in fact, quite concentrated. To give an example: the Weston Empire alone controls seven or more chains, eg., Zehrs, Loblaws, Dionne, KMart, Super Value and others. Most of our supermarkets are controlled by three major chains. The smaller independent stores are gradually being bought out. Such concentration is not without consequence. These major chains have full control over prices and also dictate the products bought and sold. These chains are initially out to make money - not to feed us properly.

A great deal of money is being spent on research determining ways in which consumers are being encouraged to buy more, and particularly to buy more of the higher profit items. The lay-out of the store plays an important role in this. The traffic flow is directed to outside aisles, think of plants and produce. The location on the shelves is neither by accident nor for consumer convenience; it is merely done for profit. I could mention numerous other examples of manipulation in the stores of which most of us are not aware. In this way we have lost our freedom, unless we have been informed of it. How about our responsibility to our fellow man? Often it is heard that there are too many people to feed from available land; this is not true. It is expected that the world population will have tripled in the year 2000, and yet there could be enough food grown to feed everyone. Of course, as Christians, we may know that, even without it being proven by specialists. We know that our Great -God will provide.

Where and how do things go wrong? The Bible has an answer to this: namely that the love of money is evil. The following example will illustrate this: Many third world countries are locked into producing crops for export rather than domestic consumption. The bananas from Central America are a good example. It is argued they need the money. However, the grower country gets only approximately 11% of each dollar which we pay for bananas. At 290 per pound, the producing country receives 30 for these bananas, while the rest goes to the supermarkets. Another argument is that they need the jobs. This also is untrue. Due to modem equipment, the present number of labourers is one fourth of What it was 40 years ago. Wages of banana workers are $ 1.00 to $1.50 per day. An average family needs 70 per day for food alone. As one can easily see, there is moderate to severe malnutrition among the children of the plantation workers. How about government intervention? In 1974, the governments of Latin America's banana producing countries got together and tried to raise a tax of $1.00 per box of bananas. The companies involved conspired to break the Union of Banana Exporting Countries by letting hundreds of bananas rot on the docks.

This is just one example, there are many others. The question then arises: How can the way we live change all that? We cannot change that on our own, but we all know the saying "If you want to change the world start with yourself'. That is exactly where things start when one wants change.

Before going into this, a few more things should be said about food itself, which is an even more important reason for living a simplified lifestyle. It is easy to open up a can for meals or heat up some package food product, and yes, it saves time and effort. But WHAT are we feeding our families? One look at the ingredients listed on the label shows us what real food value is in the product, and it is often minimal. Our food producers are not interested in giving us wholesome food, their interest is primarily in making money.

The natural content of our food products are declining, while prices are increasing steadily. The process of substituting artificial ingredients for natural ones has become what modem food technology is all about. Most processed foods are prepared with preservatives or other artificial additives. We are being told that these are not harmful, but statistics prove otherwise. Research has shown that even though one kind of preservative may not be harmful, the combination of several kinds may cause cancer. The preservatives and other artificial additives are listed on the label this is required by law. However, the manufacturer does not, by law, have to mention what chemicals are used in the processing procedure. To illustrate this, let me take tomatoes as an example. The ones we buy in the winter are mechanically harvested when green, and then chemically ripened with ethylene gas. This gas speeds up the ripening process but at the same provides lower quality with less vitamins A and C and also an inferior taste. In order to improve taste, there is a choice of 70 chemicals available which artificially reintroduce the flavour. Another example is flour. Our flour is nice and white, which in earlier days was a matter of time. But time and storage are costly, therefore, benzoyl peroxide is blown through the flour as it is packaged. Another example is that all meats, including cold cuts, smoked sausages, etc. are treated with sodium and potassium nitrate. These are just a few illustrations of how some of our food is chemically processed, and which we would not normally know.

All this information might be helpful in motivating us to live more simply. But how is it done? I would like to make some suggestions, but there are many different ways of doing it. It is exciting to discover the numerous means on our own. The cookbook, "More With Less", by Doris Janzen Longacre, is a very helpful tool and most informative.

A good start on how to reduce the power that food chains have over us, and to improve the way we feed our families, is to grow your own vegetables and fruits. If this is not possible, a good alternative is to buy directly from the farmer, or buy at a local farmer's market. Also, inquire at an independent butcher shop how they prepare their meats some have smoke houses and smoke their meats naturally.

In addition to growing your fruits and vegetables, make as many as possible of your own food items and buy whole foods. These are food items free from chemical additives, colourants or artificial flavourings, left in a whole, unrefined state with little processing; i.e. brown rice, raw sugar, sea salt, etc.

Since basic food stores and health food stores have become popular, it is not too difficult to have access to these items.

Besides having nutritious, and cheaper food, I have discovered many advantages with the simplified way of life. There is, for instance, the joy and great sense of personal satisfaction when seeing those home-baked loaves of bread. Not to mention the children's shiny faces when they see their own creations with dough come out of the oven big, puffy and crunchy.

This way of life definitely develops our creativity; after all we are made in the image of the Creator, so we are all potentially creative, but do we use it?

Even though I have talked mainly about the food aspect, one soon discovers that once the simplified lifestyle is adopted in the way we eat, it permeates other areas of our lives as well.

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