Breakfast Monday 1 January 2007 - Last of the Quince Crumble

Happy New Year to all. I have rung in 2007 with the final portion of the Quince Crumble and some fresh coffee.

In the middle of last year, I ran across a group called the San Francisco Compact. I was interested by their idea and wrote about it here.

Their goal for 2006 was to not purchase anything new.

Why? Well, we all know reduce, reuse, recycle. But what a lot of us forget is that the one action you can take that has the greatest impact is simply to consume less.

I was intrigued and have been thinking about it for a few months, reading their blog etc and I have decided to give it a try.

So, my goal for 2007 is to buy absolutely nothing new, aside from food and essential medicines and toiletries (like soap).

You can read about the San Francisco Compact here.

I like their summary:
1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc. -- a step, we hope, inherits the revolutionary impulse of the Mayflower Compact;
2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er);
3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

For me, the goals of simplifying my life and reducing my environmental footprint are of equal size.

2007 is going to be the year where I pare everything down to what I really need and want and get rid of all the extraneous distractions of my life.