Comments on: Foie Gras, Lululemon, Made in China. Do you take your conscience shopping?

By: brad

brad — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:09:30 +0000

I remember hearing Yvon Chouinard (CEO of Patagonia) explain that he has his clothes made in China because that’s the only place in the world he can find workers who can consistently meet his quality standards. One of Patagonia’s goals is to make the best-made clothing in the world, and in order to do that they need the best seamsters and seamstresses. And according to Chouinard those people are in China; he tried using factories in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world but switched to China based on the quality, not the price.

I do take my conscience shopping with me, but I don’t want to spend all my free time researching the products I want to buy. So I go with brands that I trust are trying to reduce their environmental and social impacts (MEC, Patagonia, etc.), buy local and organic when the choice is available, and look for recyclability and minimal packaging.

To guide some of my shopping I also use Ethiquette, a Canadian website that lists eco-friendly product that meet its standards:
http://www.ethiquette.ca/index.php?lang=en.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:37:53 +0000

Yes, lots of catch-22s with what we do with our money. Buy while pressuring to please increase our costs by giving more to the workers? The amount of self-imposed constraints can become paralyzing. I want to buy nothing overpackaged, nothing with meat, fish, factory farmed eggs, nor wrapped in plastic, coming from undercut farmers, no MSG or aspartame nor corn sugars. And not too pricey. And worse, I’m a lousy gardener. Doing a little helps tho. Reform the world thru the wallet is effective en masse.
Pearl´s last blog ..Onwards Canada and so on

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:04:53 +0000

Odd how I ended up here from NetChick. Have a good day!
Kyle´s last blog ..Just Launched: NWTers.com

By: angela

angela — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:46:08 +0000

Interesting posts Nancy. I absolutely agree with Isabella – I take my conscience with me when I shop. If we all did this, imagine the collective power we would have to change things? I think that’s the thing that people lose sight of – that small changes can make a huge difference. The consumer does have power – the power is in the thousands of decisions they take on a daily basis in respect of buying things. This is so counter to what we’re taught – that things are too big a problem to solve.

For example, my unhappiness with the banks and the financial meltdown made me rethink about where I wanted to put my money. I still have one account with a regular bank as it has a lot of branches and is handy for running my business account. But for my own personal bank account I switched to Citizens Bank – its values are much more in line with mine.

Similarly, I shop at a co-op and buy from small local stores where I can. I don’t shop at Walmart.

I recently discovered lunapads which are reusable menstrual pads made in canada. They are so comfy! And I’ve also bought a diva cup. And the bonus is that its made me realise that I will no longer have to pour money into paper products each month which are wasting valuable resources not to mention clogging up the environment. The cost savings over time are quite considerable. If every woman in Canada followed suit the effect would be considerable. But because people think it’s just a small change they negate the impact of it.

I also try and search out goods that are not manufactured in China where I can. This is very very difficult as practically everything seems to be manufactured there. But I take heart from the fact that more and more people are becoming aware of the dangers of buying imported goods with all the scares we regularly see in the media about them (toxic paint, toxic plastics etc).

And as for companies moving their manufacturing base around to get cheap labour – I completely disagree with it. At some point they are going to run out of countries and resources to exploit and then perhaps a more sustainable economy will start to develop.

By: Looby

Looby — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:43:18 +0000

Great conversation re: foie gras. I’m not a fan personally but I do love veal so I have to deal with some of the same attitudes. (what do you think happens to male dairy calves that aren’t used for veal?)
I do like to only buy free range chicken and eggs and try to source meat from farms with good animal husbandry practices (this was considerably easier in the UK!); but I cannot tolerate PETA and their ilk.

By: isabella mori

isabella mori — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:40:10 +0000

it’s pretty simple for me. i buy as much as possible used. try not to buy what i don’t need. don’t eat veal, not even dreaming of foie gras, try to eat free-range chicken eggs, buy veggies in locally owned stores. still a ways to go but yes, i always invite my conscience along for shopping (along with my own shopping bags). whether i always listen … well …