Thursday 30 April 2009

Ethical Shopping


It's a minefield out there. I struggle with the balancing act of packaging, organic, whether it's local, Australian, fairtrade, whether they've animal tested,it's genetically modified, whether it's toxic, or has exposed foreign persons to toxicity, or knocked down rainforest - it really is hard. I've always wished someone would do the homework for me. They have!

Ethical Shopping Guide You can buy the guide at a newsagent for $5 - ours doesn't stock it so I went for a download from the site - it makes for interesting reading. Though I finally made a connection I should have years ago. When they say vegetable oil on the ingredients, that usually means palm oil. I've avoided palm oil for ages because of the deforestation that goes on in order to grow it. The resulting lack of habitat for the orangutan and other locals. Extrapolated that means anything that says vegetable oil without stating which oil is now in the growing 'can't buy' section of the supermarket. Most varieties of potato chips ...