An Ethical Dilemma

Fairtrade products are good right? I'd say that's fairly universally acknowledged. After all it's about better prices, decent working conditions, land fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

And organic is pretty good too i'd say: sustainable farming practices, greater biodiversity and are being all round environmentally sound. That's good too.

So we should be supporting producers of Fairtrade and/ or organic products.

But what about when the producer of an organic and fairtrade products, in this case Green & Blacks, is owned by Cadbury's - they have just made their leading product line, Dairy Milk, Fairtrade in Australia and New Zealand, that's good too.

Looking at the Ethical Consumer Guide, Cadbury's don't appear too bad - either from the perspective of their Australian holding company, nor their parent company in the UK.

However, reading on, Cadbury is now owned by US giant Kraft, as a result of a recent high profile takeover. Those bad boys are a different proposition altogether: cited as payers of poor wages to coffee farmers, use of GM ingredients etc

So where do you draw the line? As I opened this post with, fairtrade and organic are good right? So how do you reconcile the support being provided to those farmers being paid under a fair trade scheme with the knowledge that the bottom line profits are going back to a behemoth multinational? Just think about the next time to tuck into your Vegemite on toast, or Mac n Cheese, or dunk an Oreo into your coffee.

Blogger in Vending Machine Scandal

So there was I thinking that i'd have a wee snack with my afternoon
cup of tea. The vending machine in the office was the obvious
convenient destination.

The usual item of choice is the Crunch Crisp - except it's made by
Nestle. OK how about a KitKat - goes great with a cup of tea....err
made by Nestle.

So a Snickers it was.....

But then I thought: who controls the vending machine? Upon closer
inspection: "Totalvend, a Division of Smith's". I knew that Smith's
was owned by Pepsico, a sure bet for a red flag on the Ethical
Consumer Guide. And yes, it is. For all manner of reasons.

As for the Snickers? Made by Mars. More red flags than at a Man Utd
match. It remains unopened on my desk. I'm going to offload it to a
colleague. Fact still remains I have purchased unethically. But at
least I am unformed and know for next time.

Ethical Consumer Guide

Some of the obvious outcomes of this undertaking are that it's making us think much more about business ownership models and the general provenance of consumer goods.

One useful aide we have stumbled across is the Ethical Consumer Guide from the Ethical Consumer Group. The Group states itself to be a "not-for-profit network set up to help facilitate more sustainable purchasing practices for the everyday consumer." Perfect!

The Guide itself is available in printed form but is also available as an iPhone app and is available as a reference tool via their website (see earlier link).

The Guide is exactly that - a Guide. If you choose - and remember as consumers choice is the greatest power we have - to use the Guide, I'd recommend reading up on the methodology of the Guide in order to understand how its ratings are derived. As an example Emma and I were surprised to learn that Ingham's were considered "Lesser Praise, No Criticism" by their legend. To us their intensive, factory farming, methods do not sit with our way of thinking sustainably and ethically.

I'll leave this post there. I'm not keen for this site to turn into a rant about sustainable farming practices - it's not about that and there are already plenty of resources on this. This is about two individuals trying to make the best choices possible and seeking to do this in a manner that is as independent i.e. "unchained" as possible.