You’ve heard of all these Buy Local campaigns to support growers, farmers, and producers.

Here’s mine: Take the Grocery Store Challenge. For all those products you need to have on hand for last minute meals and ease of life, limit the ingredient count to five.

When was the last time you looked at what’s in bread crumbs, pancake mix, syrup, or cake mix? Yes, four random products but each with the same story: Too many ingredients to tally; too many unknowns. If you need to put on your glasses to read what’s in a product, then you maybe should take a pass. Look at the 4 so-called staples, kitchen standards: Each could be made without too much effort, and with few ingredients. They may all be time-savers, but the ingredient list should frighten us into cracking crackers, working with flour, or buying all natural maple syrup.

As we take away the ingredients, we add to the healthy side of eating. What do these words mean anyway? What are all these ingredients?

Read the labels and take the grocery challenge: If there are too many ingredients, return the item to the shelf.

In some respects, I think Haagen-Dazs’s campaign sorted this out for me. Their ads now cleverly say there are actually six ingredients: You add the spoon!

Limit the confusing, unclear items that can help create a column of unknowns.

Join my campaign.