introducing my heroine

I cannot remember how I first came across the zero waste home blog but I became hooked. After a while I ordered her book which quickly became my bible as I absorbed Bea's message. You can see how well read my copy is.  This woman has done her homework and I find her inspirational and credit her with giving me the incentive to start living according to my morals however misguided they might be.

So how easy is it in the UK to be as diligent as Bea? Truthfully?  It's hard. Walk around any of the main supermarkets or shops and you'll be hard pressed to find anything not wrapped or double wrapped in plastic. Bulk buying as Bea experiences in America is virtually unknown here. If you go to the counter with loose apples (for example) or present them in your own bag, the cashiers stare at you perplexed. I'm quite shy and to be labelled "weirdo" is challenging.
I did ask one approachable guy on the fish counter at Tesco if he would be prepared to serve me by placing my products in a glass jar and he said he would but he doubted anyone else would be so willing.  Bea is a confident sassy French lady and would be totally unfazed. As an inhibited English woman with decades of humility passed down the generations it's hard to go against "normality".

The best compromise I've found is a local farm shop at Battlefield ( Battlefield Farm Shop) near Shrewsbury where they are more encouraging and even provide paper bags instead of plastic but the prices are higher and for a single mum it's another consideration to make. So apologies Bea, I'm not there yet but working on it.  However one of the things she mentions I cannot ignore is the danger of canned food leaching BPA into our diets. Suddenly I'm filled with guilt and stare at the cans of tomatoes, beans and chick peas in the cupboards. Have I unknowingly been serving my daughters food laced with chemicals likely to increase their chance of breast cancer? Can you imagine the fear and upset the very idea creates? So a priority for me now is to research some of the online medical journals and see what a simple lay  person can find out for herself.  I've done a small amount of reading and some of it is indeed scary but is it fair or true?  Is it only in America that the concerns are felt?  I know food production methods vary between the UK and America but I'm thinking of animal welfare and the more humane methods which are enforced here not the chemistry of canning production.

Am I the only mother feeling inadequate against a mass of contradictory information? I believe we all want the best for our children but its hard when you suddenly have to confront the idea you may have been harming the ones you most wish to protect.