To the Overcoming Consumerism Index

Who we are and HOW THIS SITE GOT STARTED

The original material for this page was started as a synthesis of reading notes and material shared among friends as photocopies. It grew to include tips found in the Hands-on section and took off from there. We're self taught in HTML and know that the site is chaotic, sometimes disorganized and lacks overall structure and is just plain ugly: Our motto is "Substance over Style".

If you have concrete suggestions on design or if you have ideas, suggestions or information that you would like included in ongoing changes, please send them for review to

You're not trying to click on that are you? It's a graphic which you should copy into your e-mail.

Who to cite for school papers...this is what most of our e-mail is about:

John Verdant,

Dates: It's ongoing.

OUR CHOICES:

This is a illustrational listing of the ways that we spend our money in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is not a testimonial to the supreme quality of the things mentioned; rather it is just an example of our own choices so far. The selection of merchandise/ers is an evolving thing that means keeping informed and changing your mind while you push stores to carry the right things and switch allegiances with the overall goal of creating a large sustainable marketplace of organic foods and a return to a reasonable variety of quality American made goods instead of Chinese junk, which with supply chain issues, is not looking so good anymore, in spite of formerly low prices.

For example, we patronized and publicized the local Whole Foods when they first opened. What a wonderful alternative they were to Safeway and Albertsons and Cala Markets with their factory food and gimmicky coupons and club cards. But Whole Foods, having been bought out by Amazon is too big and corporate and has been dumping the small manufacturers of organic food that allowed them to attract new customers to start with. It [please note that semantic use, corporations are not people] has replaced them with it's own (often not organic) house brands as well as selling a higher proportion of expensive vanity foods such as avocados from Chile at $5.00 each or more. So we've decided to support another store, even if it's further away, Good Earth in Fairfax, also in Mill Valley, California. They have cheaper prices, avocados grown in Calfornia for lower prices, better selection and happier employees than Whole Foods.

When we just want to pick up a carton of organic milk or bread, we'll go to a high quality commercial chain store like Nugget Market for just that one thing, with the goal of encouraging them to carry even more organic products-which we ask for by filling out customer comment cards, or when we encounter a manager. Low quality stores like Safeway are boycotted as it has a pathetic selection of organic vegetables and some of it's own house brand organic milk which isn't very good. We do use Safeway's bathroom if we need one and we dump our plastic bags in their recycling bin.

Check out your own area for small merchants that have good services and high quality products. Can't find any?, perhaps you ought to start your own store or cooperative distributorship for more sustainable goods than are found where you live. If you are the only organic market within 100 miles, you will harvest a lot of customer spending.

We've produced a "Local Small Business List" of our favorite stores with locations, phone numbers, hours and products.

We print them, carry them with us and hand them out to people that have just moved to the area, ask for directions or whom we speak with during the day. Create one for your own area, help keep your local economy healthy, non-corporate and unique by publicizing local merchants that may not be able to afford advertising.

See the "Alternate Economy" page: Link

What we buy:

Gasoline, There are 8 brands to choose from in the San Francisco Bay Area. All are sold by billion Dollar corporations that at one time or another have done outrageous things to the environment above and beyond the usual petrochemical abuses, there's no way to avoid it.

However, we will never spend one cent in a Unocal 76 station because of this company's deliberate policy, boasted about in its annual report, of using dirty crude so as to maximize profits and thus create more Selenium pollution from its refineries of San Francisco Bay. Also, Chevron is under a long term boycott for their phony greenwashing media-ads belied by their active support of the corporate "wise use" movement. Do corporate "people" really think that we are that gullible? "People do"", to quote a tag line at the end of their commercials.

Please note CARS is where the rest of the automotive stuff is now.

FOOD As mentioned above, we buy exclusively organic products at Good Earth and grocery companies like Mill Valley Market, Molly Stone's or Nugget Markets, which carry some organic food.

We belong to a "subscription farming "service. A little more expensive but you get more nutrition from the recently harvested food and your long term health is priceless.

"A lifetime of savings from buying cheap non-organic food can be quickly spent on medical costs from lymphoma, breast cancer or some other pesticide triggered disease."

We grow/share/swap a lot of our own food but it is not reasonable to expect to grow everything. Some things are better left to farmers. Why buy apples or oranges or plums when with a few trees you can deluge your friends and neighbors with fruit?

*Frozen food: Vegetables: Sno-Pac Organic in Minnesota. 1-800-533-2215. We used to buy Amy's organic pizzas however, they stopped using organic cheese.

*Milk; Strauss Dairy in Marshall, California. Comes in returnable glass bottles with cream on the top. A bit pricey so now we've switched to Clover Dairy's organic line which is produced on their ever-expanding organic acreage.

*Pasta: Italian organic from Costco. STILL waiting for a US producer.

*Bread: Good Earth's own oven baked, Vital Vittles, Santa Rosa Baking company, Grace Baking, Judy's breadsticks. Dave's Killer Bread,100% organic.

*Cereal: Organic granola from Sunridge Farms in Santa Cruz or Kirland organic from Costco.

*Cocoa: No corporate cocoa for us. We dumped Carnation, (Nestle), for organic Ah!Laska brand, a little company in Anchorage. They also make a nice chocolate syrup.

*Jams: Cascadia Farms organic from Washington State. Welch's owns part of this company but there are no reasonably priced alternatives: late news, this company has been purchased by Small World Food company. Sound familiar? It's owned by The Walt Disney Corporation. Switched to Kirland (Costco).

Seeds of Change, once a progressive organic heirloom seed seller and then food marketer. They shafted Ken Wheatley, one of their founding members and are now owned by the billionaire Mars Family. So we've dumped Seeds of Change products. Tell your friends.

*Coffee, we explore different small brands of organic beans from small landholdings in Mexico and Peru. Peet's coffee has a good organic French Roast blend sold at Costco. However, Peet's is now owned by Dutch billionaires and after their abusive treatment of Kirsten, their manager in Mill Valley, fired for climbing a ladder and changing a lightbulb, we'll always boycott their retail stores, except to use their bathrooms and hang out with coffee bought elsewhere.

*Paper products Lately we've just been buying the cheapest stuff at Costco. We'll use the savings at one end to buy better food for the other.

*Bar Soap, we use EO (essential oils) brand, for bath, hands and shaving, made by a small company in Corte-Madera, just over the hill from us. Sold at Good Earth.

Shampoo and conditioner, Griffin Remedy, made in San Francisco, least toxic, buy in gallon jugs at Good Earth and refill small pump dispensers.

*Dishwashing Liquid, Planet, from Southern California. or whatever is on sale with the fewest ingredients and that works. All detergents are toxic to soil. Soap is not.

*Laundry Liquid. Oasis brand from Santa Barbara. Simple ingredients, clothes smell like citrus-look great. Not only biodegrades, but turns into plant nutrients which is good if you use your gray water in the garden.

Finding environmentally benign, effective and reasonably priced soaps or cleaners is a challenge. Let us know if you've found one.

Clothing: Garage sales, quirky secondhand stores. When buying new US-made merchandise we use the Real Goods Catalogue, Ukiah, California,(800-762-7325), for great books, energy-saving equipment, household products, also Land's End in Wisconsin because of their warranty.

Craig's List: You would have to be insane to buy furniture, cars, electronics etc without first looking at C.L.. It is the finest way to find, sell or give away used things, or connect with service providers FOR FREE. There is no charge except for business job postings or dealers, not individuals, selling things.

What Craigs List is about. Mission and History.

Opening page for the San Francisco Bay Area. The largest and most geographically parsed C.L. Lots of categories.

Other cities and urban areas are listed on the top right and far right. They may only have for sale or wanted categories for merchandise, check 'em out.

If you have ideas, suggestions or other things that you would like included in ongoing changes, please send them to
 e-mail :  

  All of the scans and icons on these pages are private material or were taken from public domain sources and it is assumed that they are in the public domain.

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To the Consumption Control Chart  A means of quantifying patterns and quantities of what you use.