Feel Good About Your Shopping!

Been under a heavy weight of work for the last couple of days so sorry that there haven't been any posts for a while...

A new survey on ethical spending in the UK has just been released by the Co-operative Bank - and the headline statistic is that we now spend more on 'ethical' products that we do on tobacco and alcohol!

This is obviously terrific news - it means that more people are making consumption choices that are better for the environment, offer a fair deal for producers, and support human rights. We consume every day of our lives, and the growth of the ethical market offers great opportunities to raise concerns over international trade and the environment in an easily comprehendable way for the consumer. The hope is that buying ethical products helps to kick off a greater awareness of the broader issues behind the product and what is so unethical about the 'normal' products.

The entry of the big supermarkets, while crucial to mainstreaming ethical choices and making it easy for consumers to go ethical, does raise an important concern that standards need to be maintained and that supermarket power should not be used to squeeze even more profit out of ethical products while compromising the very values of the product itself. Organic farming is what is at the top of the mind, but a range of 'fairly-traded' labels appears the potential confusion for the consumer is growing. A supermarket 'own-brand' fairtrade label could have significantly different criteria than the general Fairtrade mark, but to the vast majority of people they will appear one and the same.

So while I do about half my shopping at the Co-op - which is already near the top of the heap for its existing ethical commitments - I do my very best to go to local bakeries, the Treehouse for fresh veg, the Oxfam shop for Fairtrade products, and the farmer's market when it rolls into town every couple of weeks. It may be a few pence more expensive (and always assume that it is) but it is about supporting local farmers and producers for whom it makes a difference - we do, after all, live in an agricultural-rich area of the country!!

I was glad to hear that Tyrrells, who grow their own potatoes to make crisps, refused to supply to Tesco earlier in the year because of the way in which Tesco has browbeaten potato farmers across the country into forcing prices down to the point where the business is no longer viable.