CHRONIC INDECISION

The hippies, were right

1 Make love, not war. It’s a cliché, but it’s as sensible as anything anyone ever said anywhere. The Vietnam of the past is the Iraq of the present. We’re still at war, and would prefer not to be.
2 Natural foods are a way of life, not a lifestyle. Natural foods are not a fad diet. When people eat natural foods, and eat slow food and cook at home, those people enjoy better health. We know that people are committed to eating healthy, natural food because Outpost owners stick around, even during a recession.
3 Buying bulk saves money & the planet. “Unpackaged,” a new store in London recently opened its doors, marketing itself on this premise: customers buy empty containers, fill them in the store and return to re-fill them when they are empty. This keeps prices down, and keeps bottles out of landfill. We agree, and it’s why we’ve been offering bulk grains, soup, tea and spices for decades.
4 Pesticides are harmful. We instinctively know this. A pesticide kills bugs, so why would we want to eat it?
5 Cooperation is better than corporation. It works for Outpost, of course, but consider others. Think about the recession. Think about the banks. Then think about the credit unions. The credit unions fared better because of their cooperative, less risky business model.
6 Knowing where your food comes from makes sense. “Know your farmer, know your food,”. Whether it was a slogan on a sandwich board in 1973 or a clever piece of copywriting out of Washington , the fact remains that consumers are less likely to suffer from food-borne illnesses if they know where their food comes from. This isn’t just about touchy-feely community relations. Recall the October New York Times article exposing how ground beef products can be made up of different cuts of meat from different slaughterhouses — impossible to trace. The reporter told the story of dance instructor Stephanie Smith, whose E.coli-tainted hamburger meat put her in a coma for nine weeks. How can we keep food safe when we don’t know where it came from? We can’t.
7 Herbs are nature’s pharmacy. If a natural remedy can cure what ails you, why use anything else?
8 Logo t-shirts are cool. Just ask Alterra or Milwaukee’s Teecycle Tim, who runs a business selling vintage logo shirts.
9 So are Red Wing boots with vibram soles. It’s how you wear ‘em.
10 Freedom. People everywhere just want to be free.
11 Yoga. People everywhere  just want to be flexible,  strong, calm and pretty.
12 Composting. Even hip NYC urbanites are composting in their teeny kitchens these days. And the mayor of  San Francisco made it a rule. If you don’t compost your food scraps, they smack your legs. Of course, San Francisco officials are now coming under attack for supplying residents with toxic composting material, so I guess they’re the ones getting their legs smacked. Lesson learned: It pays to research your compost.
13 Fair trade. It’s only fair.
14 Collecting rainwater. While this is outlawed in some western states, this makes common sense here. Protect that lake, people!
15 Growing our own food. There’s an amazing amount of satisfaction to be gained from eating food you grew out of your own spot of earth.
16 Meditation. This is going to keep on growing in popularity. We are information-saturated; imagine being able to empty your mind!
17 Joplin,Hendrix, Dylan the Stones and the Beatles.
Love them or not, there’s no denying the influence.
18 Community works.
Small-based businesses coming together as a community have pooled their talents and resources to promote themselves, each other, the city and the shop local ethos.