Joie Grandbois

I only recently have had access to a car regularly. I spent 30 years without one and relied on public transportation, carpooling, and my own two feet. Until having a car, time privilege was not something I was really aware of - planning was just something that was a part of not having a vehicle. I don't think people with cars give this much thought.
I still take public transportation or walk most of the time and I like it as I do find driving to be stressful. But I am much more aware of the time privilege that is part of having one.

I recently had to move as where I lived had become unaffordable. I had actually had a difficult time walking in my old city, not because it wasn't walkable, but because the gentrification that has occurred left me walking by homes that used to house friends but now provide rental space to visiting tourists. It just left my heart heavy and sad. I often found that I arrived home upset after a walk.

My new place is very walkable. I can walk to all of the essential places like the grocery and hardware store. There are plenty of sidewalks and well noted crosswalks. I am near many parks and green spaces. I am glad to be in a place where walking doesn't leave me sad. But I am still paying half my income in rent and I have fears that this place will also face similar gentrification issues.

I think part of this is cultural and also a question of access. Both of my parents have shared stories of how important it was to their parents to be able to put meat on the table. Many of the our celebratory dishes are tied to meat - boiled dinner on my dad's side and tortiere on my mothers for example. Even daily meals had meat as the center piece. Meat meant affluence.

I was lucky to grow up in a household with eclectic food tastes. We ate many meals that didn't have meat but were still delicious. We are vegetarian baked beans, falafel, vegetarian chili, rice and beans, vegetable soups, and others so I was exposed to it growing up.

There's a huge marketing campaign around meat too. I think of the "Beef. It's what's for dinner" and "Pork. The other white meat." campaigns from the 1990s. Meat is a whole industry hear where it isn't in other places.

The calculator that was linked to the action was a bit confusing and didn't seem to offer steps to reduce my footprint other than purchasing and offset which I am hesitant to do after reading the many reports lately that offsets don't seem to actually do what they say they will. However, I am already in the process of doing many things to reduce my footprint including eating less meat and animla products, driving less, walking more, and switching to a renewable energy supplier.