Voting with your trolley
A summary
7 March 2007
Can you really change the world just by buying certain foods?
There is a growing tendency to believe that as a consumer we can make more of an impact on the world through the shopping choices we make than through politics. In the realm of food shopping it is popularly believed that we can make a positive impact through the choice to buy organic, fair trade, or local produce. This article suggests that these choices, can in fact have a negative impact, and that political action is still a more important force for change in the areas of the environment and global trade.
How green is your organic lettuce?
Organic food is generally bought for environmental concerns. But organic farming produces lower yields, so more land must be farmed to produce the same amount of food. The article quotes the research of Anthony Trewas of the University of Edinburgh who contends that organic farming is more energy intensive than traditional farming methods because of the lower yields it produces, and because it uses ploughing to control weed growth. « No till » farming is suggested as the most environmentally friendly form of farming; using cover crops, limited herbicides and little ploughing.
Fair enough
An economic argument presented against fair trade is that if there is a low market price for a product, a good example being coffee, the reason for this is that there is overproduction. Raising prices though fair trade continues to encourage more production, which has the result of pushing down prices for non Fair-trade producers. This also has the effect of reducing the incentive to diversify production and to improve quality within the fair trade sector.
Fair trade certification can also be criticized for making an assumption about the best form of organization, plantations and large family farms are not usually certified.
Retailers also use fair trade products to add mark-ups, so the price being paid at the supermarket does not get back to the producer.
Fair trade is also under attack due to the fact that the Nestlé brand now has fair-trade products. Nestlé is accused of using fair trade for good publicity rather than adhering to the ideas it represents, just as organic food is can now be seen as becoming part of big business.
Think globally, act locally?
The theory behind buying locally is to cut out middlemen, which can give a better price to the producer, and that it is less polluting due to the smaller amount of ‘food miles’ that products travel.
(This is a summary of the article entitled "Voting with Your Trolley," published in The Economist, December 7, 2006.)
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