It’s the time of year when resolutions are both made and broken.  While I’m not one to set them, I do like to look ahead and give thought to the coming year and the shape it could take:  What I’d like to see happen or create, where I’d like to make changes, what I’d like to experience. More intentions than goals, really, because I know something about best laid plans…

So here are a few things I’m looking at as I consider a greener year.

It’s all about the chemicals.

What we eat is one of the most important choices we can make to live more lightly. I’m hardly a purist, but I like knowing that my food is real and nutrient-dense, not laden with synthetic food-like substances, hormones, or poisons. In Ballard we’re lucky to have many options to purchase food that’s harvested, foraged, or cultivated so close to home.  We also have a growing number of restaurants committed to locally produced food.

Linda, a farmer friend, tells me our local farmers, even if not officially organic, almost always use fewer chemicals to produce their crops. Many are designated “Salmon Safe,” which is a good indication. Hormone- and antibiotic-free, grass-fed beef is both healthier and more friendly to the environment – and it’s getting easier to find as awareness for its health benefits increases. If you haven’t yet read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, or Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, stop by our local bookseller and pick them up. Critical reading if you care about the environment, your food supply, or your health. I intend to eat more whole, minimally processed foods, especially Washington-grown lentils, chickpeas and wheat berries (did you know we’re the “pulse” capital of the states?), continue to grow some of my own vegetables, and put as little money as possible in the pockets of corporate agriculture.

Wellness and wellbeing are areas for continual improvement and are also “must do’s” for the environment. So next up, personal products. These are on my radar lately as dangers from chemicals in cosmetics make the news. And I’ve become a more frequent reader of Ballard resident Deana Duke’s The Crunchy Chicken blog as she researches a book project about the body toxics. While not up for her “detox challenge”, it’s fascinating to vicariously experience her detox program and consider how much *stuff* is in our own bodies just from daily living in our toxic world. I’ve read a little about what shows up in a personal chemical analysis, and it’s not pretty. Ugh.

Of her project, she says, “At the beginning of my book project, I had toxic body burden testing done (blood and urine tests) and was more than alarmed at the levels of phthalates and parabens in my body. This was shocking to me in light of the fact that I was using personal care products that were either organic or were otherwise purported to be natural. If my levels were so high with allegedly "clean" products, what does that say for the average person using commercial products?”

I’ve been a fan of Ballard Organics since they started selling their soaps at the Sunday market. But I haven’t tried many of the creams and lotions sold at the current stalls. I intend to try a few more this year. I’ve switched my cosmetics to be as low impact as possible, but it’s time for the next step. I’ll commit to trying a locally made potion if the ingredients make sense. Our skin sucks up whatever we put on it, so it’s important to pay attention to what goes into the product itself; it’s also important to consider where it comes from, who’s produced it, and how it’s packaged.

Same goes for household products. I’m painting several rooms in my house this year, so I’ll look for lower impact paints. Rhonda wrote previously in this column about the great low VOC products found at Miller Paint – and noted that Sustainable Ballard members also receive a discount (nice!). I’ll also take the antiquated cleaners, solvents, and various other products hanging around my house to a hazardous waste place. Decades old (most were here before me), after a solvent blew through a container and leaked last fall, I realize that just sitting around these things do damage.

My 97-year-old neighbor, Lois, attributes her longevity to having never relied on medications, whether over-the-counter or prescription. She grew up on a farm near Yelm, moving to the city as a young woman, and she’s rarely been ill. I don’t know how many make this connection, but to be unwell often means contributing to our chemical waste stream. Of course there are illnesses and issues we’re cursed with, genetically programmed for, or are forced upon us by some other means, but there are physical ailments that are completely preventable. So as the year progresses, I’ll look at what else I can do to lessen both the toxic overload on both my body and the planet.

So… my intentions for a greener year? Eat well, take key supplements (especially D3 5000), find new skincare products, clear out old stuff (probably literally and figuratively), take more beach walks, schedule dedicated writing time, play outdoors, try to meditate (I fail miserably here), and up my time at Stone Gardens and on Puget Sound.

What about you? What are yours? And while we’re on the subject of looking ahead, I’d like to know what you’d like to see in Green My Ballard this year. I started writing this column last spring, but I don’t know anything about you. Are you a committed environmentalist? Or green around the gills at all things green and just tipping your toe in the vast water of what’s possible? Skeptical? Activist? A Sustainable Ballard member? Are you, a friend or neighbor, doing something you’d like to spread the word about? Send me an email message at lauramcleodwrites@gmail.com. I’d really like to know.

Thanks!