This week, we’re sharing 5 streaming documentaries about living sustainably that will make a stubborn friend or relative see that it may be worth her while to eat local, and ditch the Roundup.

Everyone has a friend, or a family member who is totally convinced that the world is fine. Global warming? NBD. Conservation? Don’t bother! Pesticide use? Well, it makes the grass greener, so I’m OK with it. But these documentaries illustrate another reality.

Streaming on Netflix

1. “Tiny: A Story About Living Small”: This documentary follows a young couple as they build a small house. Oh, and did I mention that the enviro-duo has absolutely no construction experience? Free streaming with a subscription.

Streaming on Amazon

2. “I Am”: This thoughtful documentary follows Tom Shadyac, the film’s director, as he travels the world to discover how humans can live better. He seeks advice from spiritual and intellectual leaders during his journey. This film is available to rent from $3.99-4.99.

3. “Ingredients”: This stellar doc examines the farm-to-table movement. It also examines how local food movements, typically supported by chefs, farmers and activists, are slowly but surly changing the food system for the better. Cut up some fresh veggies and chow down while watching this inspiring film.

Streaming on Vudu

4. “Food Stamped”: In this documentary, Shira Potash, nutritionist, and Yoav, her husband, try to eat a healthy diet on a food stamp budget. The duo speaks with members of congress, nutrition experts, food stamp recipients and food justice advocates to get the real scoop on the lifestyle they’re documenting. Available to rent for $2.99.

Streaming on Hulu

5. “Vanishing of the Bees”: In this documentary, David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes, commercial beekeepers, struggle to keep bees healthy as they trek across the United States to fulfill their pollination contracts. The film also examines why honeybees are disappearing all over the world. Scientists and organic beekeepers give their guesses as to what is causing the baffling disappearances, but no clear “final” answer is ever found. Streaming for free.

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Image: Paul Rollings

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EcoSalon’s favorite quotes about minimalism, downsizing, and living small.

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. -William Morris

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. -Henry David Thoreau

Poverty is my pride. -Muhammed

With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy. -Lope de Vega

You know you have reached perfection of design not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Live simply so that others may simply live. -Elizabeth Ann Seton

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. -Edwin Way Teale

Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it. -Leonardo Da Vinci

Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life. -Katharine Fullerton Gerould

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. -E.F. Schumacker

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. -Socrates

The simplest things are often the truest. -Richard Bach

Less is more. -Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. -Will Rogers

If one had taken what is necessary to cover one’s needs and had left the rest to those who are in need, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, no one would be in need. -Saint Basil

One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in. -Francis Jourdain

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. -Frederic Chopin

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. -Hans Hofmann

There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little. -Jackie French Koller

One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won’t solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside. -Tenzin Palmo

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. -Confucious

We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties. -Anna C. Brackett

You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied,’ you make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. -Charles Spurgeon

Any half-awake materialist well knows – that which you hold holds you. -Tom Robbins

The intention of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less. It’s a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence. -Duane Elgin

If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. -The Dalai Lama

The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. -Elise Boulding

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao Tzu

I bet most of us have experienced at some point the joys of less: college – in your dorm, traveling – in a hotel room, camping – rig up basically nothing, maybe a boat. Whatever it was for you, I bet that, among other things, this gave you a little more freedom, a little more time. -Graham Hill

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

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Images: D. Ferragamo, Tammy Strobel, Alexandre Dulaunoy, Baijg, Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, Johnrobertshepherd

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