Consumerism (7) – it doesn’t matter to me

Posted on 10 April, 2012 by roughseasinthemed

The much-heralded post and the final one in the series. Perhaps the most important one too. Oh.

Why? Because it is the one where you can make a difference.

I was going to insert a terribly clever digression here to tell you about the latin phrase that means to vote with your feet, that originated in Rome when senators left the senate if they didn’t approve of the motion. Something to do with pes, or pedes.

But sadly the dear old internet has let me down and I can’t pretend to be as clever as I wished. So you will just have to take my word for it that I learned that one at university some 30 years or so ago. [ETA, see note in comments below about the Roman pedarii from someone who can search on the internet far better than I can!]

And the relevance is that you can vote with your feet or your wallet if you really want to try and make a difference at a personal level.

It is no good saying, well, it’s just me, what difference can I make? Because that is so negative, apathetic and irresponsible it is just not true. If more people thought I CAN make a difference, then perhaps the world wouldn’t be such a greedy grasping place.

OK, lectures on ancient history and morals now over.

I first got into ethical shopping years ago. Probably when as a teenager I didn’t want cosmetics that were tested on animals. I did have a mild twinge of conscience about eating the same dead animals but quickly brushed that one away.

When I say, got into it, I didn’t actually do anything. I just mean I thought it was wrong. So I still wore Lancome and painted my nails with Christian Dior’s incredible Train Bleu, (a deep blue-toned magenta), the best nail polish ever.

Let’s fast forward to where I started to buy Beauty Without Cruelty products (before they were taken over by L’Oreal, I think, from memory). And I started using Ecover, before they were taken over by Group Four.

The real push was becoming vegetarian, because if I wasn’t eating dead animals, why would I want any products I used to be tested on them? Doesn’t really hang together from an ethical perspective. I won’t make this a scientific lecture about how unnecessary and irrelevant some of those animal tests are, you can find the info out there if you are so interested.

It meant serious thinking about where my money went though. No flying Air France for example because at the time they were transporting primates for vivisection.

Oh wait!! Big bucks!! Nothing changed here. They still are. Now it’s Air France-KLM. That’s the only change.

Air France-KLM are the number one transporter of animals for the vivisection industry and are a vital link in the global supply of animals. They fly primates from Africa and Asia to Europe and the USA, as well as transporting dogs, cats and other animals from breeding facilities to laboratories around the world. If we are serious about ending vivisection then it is vital we cut off the supply of animals.
The heart of the matter is, the vivisection industry has grown into a huge, politically powerful conglomerate of institutions, experimenters, drug companies, animal-supply companies and medical-supply companies. Maintaining it now takes the obscene number of 21 million animals a year.

[my bolding]

Source:here

and from a couple of months ago:

This Wednesday, Air France plans to transport 60 monkeys from Africa to the U.S. for use in cruel and deadly experiments at the notorious Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL).

If Air France moves ahead with its plan, the monkeys will be crammed into tiny wooden crates and shipped first in the dark and terrifying cargo hold of a passenger flight from an African facility run by the infamous Bioculture to Paris. In total, these terrified monkeys will endure more than 80 hours of grueling transport before they arrive at SNBL, where they will likely be tormented and killed in cruel experiments.

Source:here

Apparently Air France shut down ‘phone lines and comments on its Facebook page, as a result of this protest.

Bad publicity hurts, but companies recover. What hurts just as much is not supporting them economically.

My ethical shopping initiation was completed when I discovered Ethical Consumer. Back in the 90s it was a magazine, now you get a choice of magazine or internet.

What was great about it (and still is), is the way they give you the choice to choose your most important concerns.

They review a product, give you some background, and then you can look at nuclear, environment, political contributions, boycotts, animal testing, human rights violations, trade union bans, etc etc

In a way, it is an ethical Which. It isn’t the traditional value for money (VFM), but to me, it is the way we should be regarding VFM. It’s much broader than ‘Is this Sanyo cheaper and better than this Toshiba?’ for example.

It is more on the lines of: how much am I supporting cruelty, slavery, degradation of the planet, armaments and war, if I buy certain products – and most importantly – what are my alternatives? Because there invariably are, one or more.

Check out their site, because you can read some reports for free.

Ethical Consumer

It tends to be focussed on global English-speaking countries so will be of interest to UK, North Americans, and maybe Australians and NZ too. It also focuses on global pollution and environmental damage.

There again, if you don’t give a shit about what a mess we all leave behind and you don’t care where you spend your money so long as you get cheap, it won’t suit you. But neither will this blog.

Let’s look at essentials. Food. Since when have we all been unable to live without asparagus all year round? This is one of my pet peeves living in Spain, as it is grown here and Granada asparagus is in season now. I totally object to buying asparagus when it is flown in from Peru. In fact I don’t buy it out of principle. Whether it helps the Peruvian economy is not the issue. The veg is being freighted thousands of miles by air and isn’t remotely fresh when it arrives. Added value there? Even better, in my pueblo in Spain, would be for me to try and beat the Spaniards who all know exactly when and where to look for the local wild asparagus. Free and local and fresh.

The same applies to everything else. Why buy stuff that is flown in from goodness knows where? My local veg shops in Gib get their produce shipped in from Morocco, and I buy what seasonal veg are available. Whatever happened to living with the seasons? I know there is a hungry gap in the UK, and there is a different one in Spain too. * Note to non-veg growers – a hungry gap is when you are struggling to get any crops from your ground so you need to have some laid by, or rely on basic staples. * The blunt truth is that you can live on limited veg and don’t need endless fancy goodies from the other side of the world.

One of the good things about getting an organic box in the UK (actually we used to get two) was the challenge of using the veg of the season. We did ask for less carrots though. What do people do with so many carrots? and NO, I did not want to make carrot cake.

Then there are all those pre-packed salads from the SM because you are too idle to wash a lettuce. Or all those pre-packed meals because you are too idle to cook. And don’t even dare tell me what it is like after a hard day at the office as I have come in (late), kneaded the dough, put it to rise, got on with tea, had a glass of wine (obviously), and usually managed to wait to fall asleep until after we had eaten tea and the bread was cooked. And got the salad or the brassicas or the potatoes in from the garden.

It may not be your choice to grow veg or cook your own food. Or consider how many animals are being killed every time you buy certain washing powders. Or think how many hours some Chinese are working in a clothing factory or an electronics factory so you can have cheap clothes that will fall apart or cheap goods that will pack up in a few years time.

The trouble is, we all want an easy life. With luxuries that we now take for necessities. Our priorities are wrong. Happiness and satisfaction don’t come from what we buy, and showing off.

Or do they?

People: please don’t think ‘I can’t make a difference’ or ‘It doesn’t matter to me.’ You can make a difference. That’s why changes happen in societies. At the very least, inform yourself about how and what you are buying and then, if you are happy with that – continue – if it doesn’t matter to you.

And – Redgum. Australian political folk rock band from – a long time ago.

It doesn’t matter to me.

Lyrics below, if you can’t be bothered with the song (or understand the Aussie accent). If nothing else, skim down to the last verse and remember how old this song is. (Album, 1983, Caught in the Act)

I’m in the RSL, I joined the Lions club Friday
My support of sport is thought of highly
I’m a Class 6 clerk in the PCD
And who the hell is Ayatollah Khomeni?