Shopping Fairtrade in Supermarkets

bob_the_tom8to

I want to change my shopping habits and always buy the fairtrade option where there is one, however this morning I was in Tesco and was appalled by the lack of fairtrade options. Does anyone have experience in this area? Which are the best supermarkets to go for fairtrade options? Is the difference in choice vastly different in other supermarkets?

The change is a challenge to me as our culture has ingrained in us 'always pick the cheapest option', however I was at a conference this week and the speaker said 'if you were faced in the supermarket with the poor farmer who has grown your food would you give him the 50p extra that the fairtrade option would cost?' I believe I would, as many would, however I think this is so easy to forget when stood in the supermarket with so many options, I know my first reaction is to choose the cheapest. I think if enough of us buy the fairtrade options it sends a powerful signal to the retail industry and will force them to invest in more fairtrade products.

Anyway, just my thoughts Would value the expertise of others in this area.

Hannah x

Ectophile

When interviewed, most people say that they would buy the fairtrade products, the ethically farmed meat, and so on.

In reality, when they go to the supermarket, what they really want is value for money.

Ben84

I quite like fairtrade. It was the first of its kind back then and was the first time many major companies actually engaged with the public on how much they really pay producers for things. However, fair trade is not the only scheme or even simply way to do business with a more ethical focus, it's one that happens to be very well recognised and popular. It also has some shortcommings, for example it applies only to individual products and some of these are from larger parent companies who raise ethical issues in their wider business. So keeping an open mind to alternatives is important too and I wouldn't for example suggest using fairtrade as the only measure of what to buy.

I also think that a major unrecognised problem is that not only do wealthy consumers (basically most people in the UK) buy things cheaply, they also buy so much stuff that important resources are effectively being hoovered out of poor countries to feed demand elsewhere. When I realised just how much paper is turned in to takeaway leaflets and junk mail in the UK, contrasted to how little paper some schools in Africa have, I started to see just what an incredible divide there is simply because of purchasing power. Buying less, so that there is more to go around, is as much a justifiable ethical choice as buying from suppliers who pay better prices to producers. I suspect a trolley overflowing with luxury fairtrade foods that are heavy on their energy, water, packaging and land use to produce and supply is likely to be as harmful as a more modest trolley filled with non fairtrade food.

Anyway, I buy a moderate amount of fairtrade stuff, most coffee and sugar is. It's actually now getting harder to avoid. I put in less effort to buy it than I did ten years ago and still buy fairtrade more often than I did back then. However, my major effort now is to avoid buying things I don't need. So, avoid food waste, packaging waste and short lived throw away stuff.

Also, I'd like to add slightly to your suggestion that our culture is to always pick the cheapest option. It seems to be more to always pick the biggest and seemingly cheapest option. I suspect in fact most people spend far more on shopping than they need to because of this. Cheaper options tend to be less resource demanding, but also less profitable for retailers, so much less promoted.

zeupater

Hi

A little bit of a quandary here .... "Fair-trade or Food-miles ?" - would the best and fairest ethical solution be to buy local goods without a logo, or ones which have been shipped across half of the globe which has a logo .... "seasonal local produce or year-round supply ?" - Fresh tomatoes in salads in the summer (as they used to be), or shipped in throughout the year ....

Take for example the sugar raised in an earlier post ... ship in cane sugar from the tropics which has been granted a 'fair-trade' status because of the price paid to the producer, but still results in the destruction of rainforest and the maintenance of unsustainable agricultural methods .... or buy beet-sugar from the east-midlands where it's been grown for decades thus choosing to ignore the logo but, in doing so, helping the environment, an essential UK industry and the balance-of-trade ....

Everything should be considered in context, not in isolation ...

HTH
Z

bob_the_tom8to

Brilliant responses, thank you. I totally agree with all stated above. Ben 84 you are so right, I not only look for best value but also how much I can get for my money. We try not to waste anything we buy but I think I could look differently at whether I need the quantities of what I purchase.

Again I agree with what you say about the wasted cardboard. I think there is something morally tragic about the fact that because our nation can afford to 'buy' land in Africa (land which African people have farmed for hundreds of years for food) and use the land to dig for petrol for our cars, whilst the people living there live in utter poverty and are desperate for food.

Zeupater, thanks for your input. Buying locally is generally much more sustainable for our planet and it definitely something I want to start looking into. I also personally believe that our society needs to change so that people are employed near to where they live to reduce our emissions and 'miles' spent travelling, although I think this is difficult given the current economy. On the note of buying fairtrade items that have been shipped from abroad, I also heard this last week that it takes 8 times less energy to buy fairtrade roses grown in Africa than it does to buy the same roses in Holland which are grown using artificial light and warmth!

jackyann

I have been attempting to shop ethically for 30 years, and like so many things, the choices are not simple. We all have things that mean more to us than others, and I decided long ago just to do the best I could and not get too tied up about it!
One of my dilemmas has been: if I shop in local Fairtrade shops & co-operatives, then the supermarkets don't get my message about fair trade! Over 30 years what I do has varied with circumstances.

At the moment I shop as much as possible at local shops & markets, buying local produce as much as I can. I go to a local co-operative (that enables vulnerable people to get in to work) for my coffee, cleaning stuff, dried fruit & nuts etc.
The rest of the time I use the Co-op (which is my local supermarket anyway)
Well done Bob for doing your best to spread the message!

zeupater

bob_the_tom8to wrote: »

... Zeupater, thanks for your input. Buying locally is generally much more sustainable for our planet and it definitely something I want to start looking into. I also personally believe that our society needs to change so that people are employed near to where they live to reduce our emissions and 'miles' spent travelling, although I think this is difficult given the current economy. On the note of buying fairtrade items that have been shipped from abroad, I also heard this last week that it takes 8 times less energy to buy fairtrade roses grown in Africa than it does to buy the same roses in Holland which are grown using artificial light and warmth!

Hi

We tend to source as much as possible locally, even to the point of knowing the farmer personally and buying direct or, for meat, through a local butcher who sources from them. Onions, carrots, swede etc are bought by the wholesale net ... potatoes by the sack, lamb & pork by the half and beef by the quarter ... it works out expensive for single purchases, but saves an incredible amount of money in the long-run.

To give an idea of what we consider as being local ... beef & eggs are from a farm less than a mile away, pork around 1.5miles with lamb & potatoes from the same farm about 3 miles away. We try to source as much bulk fresh produce from within 5 miles and rarely go more than 10.

We have a pretty large garden but have learned that growing much of what we eat is totally uneconomical and effectively a real waste of effort, hence the local sourcing, however we do grow much of what is generally hard to source locally and/or is expensive such as garlic, chillies, tomatoes, herbs etc ... we have our own apple, pear, plum & cherry trees and therefore have the usual autumn glut which, as anyone with fruit trees knows, forms the basis of a local currency/barter system or simply get distributed around neighbours, family & friends ...

I know that many use excuses based on supermarket convenience or not living in areas where this approach is possible, but believe me, it is possible even if it means that someone makes a specific trip to buy bulk locally and distributes around a group of friends/family .... there really aren't that many places where the countryside is more than a few miles away ....

HTH
Z

bob_the_tom8to

Z - amazing! You are an inspiration to me. I think for me personally I'm going to have to take this one step at a time but what you are doing is where I aspire to be. Thank you for the information. We started growing some food last year which worked well for some but not so well for others. We only have a small flowerbed for growing things but we enjoyed it!

Jacky - Thanks for your input. I totally understand your dilemma. I feel the same, but more on the fairtrade side. I want to support poverty-stricken farmers by buying their fairtrade options, but at the same time don't want to encourage the shipping of produce thousands of miles!