Veena Annadana
Well-Known Member
Ethical shopping: The price of goodness
By Andrew Laxon
Can your grocery shop really save the world - and would you spend any more if it did? Andrew Laxon examines the pros and cons of ethical shopping
At least half the space on the egg shelf is now devoted to free range, organic and barn varieties. The bananas look just the same. One bunch promises to help third world farmers pay for their children to go to school. You can even swipe your smartphone on the label to find out more. The other bunch doesn't make any promises but is confusingly labelled Ethical Choice. It's also a dollar cheaper. Across the aisle, a slightly motley collection of organic vegetables offers pesticide-free goodness for you and your family. Except the carrots cost $6.99 a kilo instead of $2.99 and the asparagus looks shrivelled.
The tug-of-war between your conscience and your wallet continues all the way round the supermarket. Is it safe to buy fish? Understocked snapper is supposed to be an ethical no-no but at $37.99 a kilo, it's not so hard to give up. Fortunately gurnard - near the top of the ecological rankings - is on special today at $22.99.
At least half the space on the egg shelf is now devoted to free range, organic and barn varieties.The rest are labelled "caged eggs" - a helpful reminder of the gruesome pictures of battery hens you've seen on TV. A free range tray on special costs about 50 per cent more but you don't know what you are getting. Does free range really mean eggs from healthy hens pecking happily in an open yard? Or, as small producers claim, does it mean thousands of hens kept inside giant sheds now the big companies have picked up the brand?
Welcome to the battleground of ethical shopping, where the average consumer's good intentions can be shot down by a barrage of conflicting information or just a well-aimed scud missile on the price tag. To test the cost of following your conscience at the supermarket, we tried a weekly food run for a family of five, comparing regular prices with their ethical alternatives across a range of issues - mainly organic, free range and Fairtrade - at New World in Mt Roskill. The ethical shopping list cost $342 compared with $271 for the ordinary shopping trolley, a difference of $71 or 26 per cent. The biggest increases occurred in staple foods which most large households buy in bulk, such as milk, flour and sugar, which together cost an extra $22.64. Organic fruit and vegetables cost $13.60 more, mainly because of one good deal on strawberries. This turned out to be a common problem. All through the store, ethical shoppers tended to miss out on specials, which make a big difference to the final cost.
Yet there was no shortage of options for those willing to spend the extra money. Most canned products had organic alternatives and it was hard to miss the Fairtrade stickers and free range eggs, pork and chicken. As even the biggest sceptics admit, ethical consumerism is leaving its hippy, sandal-wearing image behind and going mainstream. One in four bananas sold in British supermarkets is now Fairtrade. Coles supermarkets in Australia are phasing out home brand eggs from caged hens and pork from producers who use sow stalls (cages barely bigger than the pigs). New Zealand supermarket operators say the market for ethical products here is small but gradually increasing. Foodstuffs' Auckland retail general manager Rob Chemaly says free range eggs now make up 15 per cent of sales at its Pak'n'Save, New World and Four Square stores and free range pork has become more popular since the sow stalls campaign. In response to customer demand, the company's Pams brand of tuna is no longer caught with Fish Aggregation Devices, which lure large schools of fish to one spot and then scoop up everything in giant nets - killing turtles, sharks, juvenile fish and other wildlife in the process. Progressive Enterprises, which owns Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets, says it started a home brand called Macro a year ago offering free range, organic and gluten-free products.
Spokesman Luke Schepen says sales of the brand's free range chicken, which can cost about $5 a kilo more, have grown steadily "which suggests customers are buying the product for reasons other than price - whether it's an ethical choice or one of taste". The ethical consumer movement officially began in 1989 with the launch of a British magazine bearing its name. From 1999 to 2010 the market grew from 3 per cent to 9 per cent of all consumer spending in Britain, according to the Co-operative Bank's Ethical Consumerism Report. New Zealand doesn't measure domestic sales in the same way but the overseas potential for more broadly defined ethical spending has caught the attention of exporters. A 2008 report by Moxie Design Group and NZ Trade and Enterprise puts the local market for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (Lohas) shoppers at $2 billion, based on a global estimate of US$550 billion ($720 billion). The report says Lohas consumers make decisions based on deep-seated individual, social and environmental values, ranging from healthy eating to saving the planet. "They are making a conscious decision to live differently, review and restructure their lives based on what is important and meaningful. They don't consider themselves as 'greens' and prefer to see themselves as mainstream consumers trying to make better decisions at a practical day to day level."
Source: Ethical shopping: The price of goodness - Health - NZ Herald News
By Andrew Laxon
Can your grocery shop really save the world - and would you spend any more if it did? Andrew Laxon examines the pros and cons of ethical shopping
At least half the space on the egg shelf is now devoted to free range, organic and barn varieties. The bananas look just the same. One bunch promises to help third world farmers pay for their children to go to school. You can even swipe your smartphone on the label to find out more. The other bunch doesn't make any promises but is confusingly labelled Ethical Choice. It's also a dollar cheaper. Across the aisle, a slightly motley collection of organic vegetables offers pesticide-free goodness for you and your family. Except the carrots cost $6.99 a kilo instead of $2.99 and the asparagus looks shrivelled.
The tug-of-war between your conscience and your wallet continues all the way round the supermarket. Is it safe to buy fish? Understocked snapper is supposed to be an ethical no-no but at $37.99 a kilo, it's not so hard to give up. Fortunately gurnard - near the top of the ecological rankings - is on special today at $22.99.
At least half the space on the egg shelf is now devoted to free range, organic and barn varieties.The rest are labelled "caged eggs" - a helpful reminder of the gruesome pictures of battery hens you've seen on TV. A free range tray on special costs about 50 per cent more but you don't know what you are getting. Does free range really mean eggs from healthy hens pecking happily in an open yard? Or, as small producers claim, does it mean thousands of hens kept inside giant sheds now the big companies have picked up the brand?
Welcome to the battleground of ethical shopping, where the average consumer's good intentions can be shot down by a barrage of conflicting information or just a well-aimed scud missile on the price tag. To test the cost of following your conscience at the supermarket, we tried a weekly food run for a family of five, comparing regular prices with their ethical alternatives across a range of issues - mainly organic, free range and Fairtrade - at New World in Mt Roskill. The ethical shopping list cost $342 compared with $271 for the ordinary shopping trolley, a difference of $71 or 26 per cent. The biggest increases occurred in staple foods which most large households buy in bulk, such as milk, flour and sugar, which together cost an extra $22.64. Organic fruit and vegetables cost $13.60 more, mainly because of one good deal on strawberries. This turned out to be a common problem. All through the store, ethical shoppers tended to miss out on specials, which make a big difference to the final cost.
Yet there was no shortage of options for those willing to spend the extra money. Most canned products had organic alternatives and it was hard to miss the Fairtrade stickers and free range eggs, pork and chicken. As even the biggest sceptics admit, ethical consumerism is leaving its hippy, sandal-wearing image behind and going mainstream. One in four bananas sold in British supermarkets is now Fairtrade. Coles supermarkets in Australia are phasing out home brand eggs from caged hens and pork from producers who use sow stalls (cages barely bigger than the pigs). New Zealand supermarket operators say the market for ethical products here is small but gradually increasing. Foodstuffs' Auckland retail general manager Rob Chemaly says free range eggs now make up 15 per cent of sales at its Pak'n'Save, New World and Four Square stores and free range pork has become more popular since the sow stalls campaign. In response to customer demand, the company's Pams brand of tuna is no longer caught with Fish Aggregation Devices, which lure large schools of fish to one spot and then scoop up everything in giant nets - killing turtles, sharks, juvenile fish and other wildlife in the process. Progressive Enterprises, which owns Countdown, Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets, says it started a home brand called Macro a year ago offering free range, organic and gluten-free products.
Spokesman Luke Schepen says sales of the brand's free range chicken, which can cost about $5 a kilo more, have grown steadily "which suggests customers are buying the product for reasons other than price - whether it's an ethical choice or one of taste". The ethical consumer movement officially began in 1989 with the launch of a British magazine bearing its name. From 1999 to 2010 the market grew from 3 per cent to 9 per cent of all consumer spending in Britain, according to the Co-operative Bank's Ethical Consumerism Report. New Zealand doesn't measure domestic sales in the same way but the overseas potential for more broadly defined ethical spending has caught the attention of exporters. A 2008 report by Moxie Design Group and NZ Trade and Enterprise puts the local market for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (Lohas) shoppers at $2 billion, based on a global estimate of US$550 billion ($720 billion). The report says Lohas consumers make decisions based on deep-seated individual, social and environmental values, ranging from healthy eating to saving the planet. "They are making a conscious decision to live differently, review and restructure their lives based on what is important and meaningful. They don't consider themselves as 'greens' and prefer to see themselves as mainstream consumers trying to make better decisions at a practical day to day level."
Source: Ethical shopping: The price of goodness - Health - NZ Herald News