Tournée minérale is making way for a new popular challenge: a whole month without visiting a supermarket. People are being challenged to buy solely from local traders to create awareness and promote environmentally friendly consumption.
Not happy with the supermarkets
The challenge started in Switzerland and has spread through France to Belgium via social media. In Belgium it was launched by action group ‘En vert et contre tout’, which is calling people to spend the month of February without visiting a single supermarket. The idea is for people to start buying more at independent and local traders, or simply to buy less.
The organisers are hoping that people will become more mindful of what they consume, but they also want to send a message to the distribution industry. “This is also an opportunity to tell the supermarkets that we are not happy with excessive packaging, the extreme distances travelled by food or the pricing policies, which are crushing smaller producers,” states the website.
The people behind the initiative are stressing it is not a boycott, but rather an attempt to teach people to start stocking up in a more diverse way. Hopefully, it will also help local trade. The challenge began in France and Switzerland in 2018, and is now making its way to Belgium. Several Facebook pages and groups have been appearing where participants can share tips and recipes as well as local addresses in Brussels and throughout Wallonia. Last year, there were 20,000 registered participants in France.
