Something struck me today when out shopping in Southampton and I thought I'd just pen a quick post about it. I've been a vegetarian for over thirty years and a vegan for some four or five. And I've noticed that the time I spend on food shopping has lessened as I have put more 'filters' over what I will and will not eat. Whole aisles in supermarkets can be passed by without so much as a glance and choices between products have become fewer so that there's much less time spent on deliberation.

What hit me today was that I can now see the same effect on other shopping trips. I'm no saint but I do try to go for goods and products that are 'green' or 'eco' etc and that includes, wherever my budget can stretch, buying organic cotton and other similar materials for clothing and household items etc. And the impact of this is that a) there are lots of shops that you don't need to go into because they don't stock such items and b) when you do find these products you often don't have much of a choice. Obviously this doesn't suit your average shopaholic but I like it. For example, today we needed to buy a new booking diary for The Barn's 2009 guests. Went into Staples to check out the range and found only one printed on recycled paper - choice made!

I often hear people bemoaning the fact that there's too much choice around. Our shops and food stores are just crammed with loads of different varieties of similar products. Do we need that? My involvement in the Transition movement has made me look at all sorts of ways that we can simplify our lives for the better and maybe this is one example. It probably seems a backwards step for many people but we can't keep on churning out so much stuff especially when you think about the enormous waste that it produces. So here's to less choice! I'll leave you with a current favourite quote of mine that is in this spirit....

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein