Summer Challenge: Be Better Consumers!

After seeing the documentary Food, Inc., I have been re-energized and motivated to be a better consumer. For the most part I shop responsibly but I could be doing so much more! I find it easy sometimes to get lazy about these things. So I am challenging myself this summer to improve my shopping habits. There are a few things I want to work on (suggestions for more are always appreciated):

1. Buy more locally grown food. Until now I told myself anything grown in North America counted as "local" or "in season". I live in Los Angeles so doing it that way allowed for produce grown in Mexico. I think I should limit it to produce grown in California for the most part.
2. Buy more organic items. I was buying some organic but I also was trying to stick to a budget which can make shopping for organic items more difficult. This is a challenge so I will have to find a way to make it work.
3. Avoid genetically modified food. I will blog more about the issues of genetically modified food later. I eat a lot of soy products (soy milk, soy yogurt, etc.) so I will have to read more labels and do more research to avoid genetically modified soybeans (currently, up to 85 percent of soybeans are genetically engineered).
4. Prepare more responsible and healthy dishes. I need to incorporate my locally grown, non genetically modified and organic items in to tasty dishes!
5. Get more involved in the food movement. There is so much we can be doing to improve food safety, school lunches, etc. I will be becoming more active and sharing ways for others to do so as well (I also would appreciate your ideas for ways to get involved).