Personal Degrowth Actions
You don't need to wait for permisson
Are you tired of housing insecurity or are you afraid for others? Are you tired of soaring grocery prices? Energy price gouging? Leaders who aren't concerned about your family's basic needs or simply aren't delivering?
Degrowth is about restructuring our economy to be focused on the needs of our people. We have enough wealth to keep every man, woman, and child in this country comfortably fed, housed and healed, but our system incentivizes the sale of goods and entertainment over our actual needs. It's bread and circuses without the bread.
But you can help. You can start today, now, with easy lifestyle changes. They might feel a little tough or uncomfortable at first, but they will also improve the health of your body and your wallet if you stick to them. If you'd like to do even more, we have other resources for middle-scale actions you can take to similarly strengthen your community. They are starving you and killing the planet to do so.
1) Eat beef only as a rare treat, if at all. It is the worst polluter of any food. Lamb and mutton is also fairly high. Eat pork instead.
2) Poultry is the least polluting meat. Eggs are the least polluting animal product. Replace as much red as you can with these.
3) Make as many of your meals meatless as you will realistically stick with. Meatless Mondays? Great! Half veg meals? Even better! Remember: Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.
4) The gold star in all food is buying from local, small-scale farmers and ranchers. This is best for your body, the community and the planet.
Does this purchase actually support my well-being? Do I really need this?
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Do I already have something that does this? Can a broken item be repaired?
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Can I get this second-hand?
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If buying new, can I support a small business?
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Only when the above has been exhausted should you consider purchasing from a big corporation. When you do, consider if you can buy a durable version that will continuously solve the problem or last to be traded or gifted when you no longer need it.
1) Bank local / invest local. Where you park your money matters.
2) Focus recreation on community and spending time with people you like. In person, if possible. This is healthier than the small bursts of dopamine from purchases.
3) Carry a collapsible, reusable versions of things you find yourself consuming on a single-use basis such as coffee cup and bags. It's really not that difficult when you get in the habit.
4) Aggressively ignore ads. Make a game of making fun of them. Dissect their empty promises of happiness through consumption. Avoid entirety if possible.
5) Do not doom scroll. Delete all algorithm-run social media. We are social animals and respond to social messages.