How to Live the Ethical Life
3 Top Tips on the Good Life through Ethical Shopping
More and more people want to live an ethical life - they know that millions are dying each year from easily preventable poverty-related causes and they see the effects of climate change around the world. However, consumers don't want it to cost a fortune, especially in a credit crunch with a recession looming. So let's look at how you can go about living the good, ethical life through ethical shopping, even if you're on a budget:
Buy Fairtrade
Everyone should have heard about Fairtrade goods, but if you're interested in living the good, ethical life through ethical shopping then this should be your first port of call. So what goods can the ethical shopper buy that have been fairly traded? Well, there's rice, pasta, chocolate, tea, honey, cereal, bananas and even beer, wine and ice cream. Yes, these can all be bought Fairtrade - just look for the "FAIRTRADE" logo.
If the logo is there then the product has met certain standards whereby all the people along the production chain have worked in reasonable conditions for reasonable pay, hence "fair trade". Other companies to look out for include Ecover, which does things like washing-up and laundry liquid and is (as the name suggests) eco-friendly.
You might be thinking that buying these goods doesn't apply to those wanting the ethical life on a budget, but they're usually not much more expensive than the top brands. Plus, every time you buy something Fairtrade the money is going to those in poverty. So it's like you're giving money to charity, except it's better than that because the person getting the money is working for it rather than having to beg for it, so they get some dignity as well.
Buy Homegrown
This is not xenophobia dressed up as living the good, ethical life through ethical shopping; it allows you to watch those food miles. A person in Britain buying a piece of lamb from New Zealand (nearly 12,000 miles away) is going to cause a lot of pollution, and most likely contribute to climate change as well.
Think about your holidays as well - rather than flying abroad you could save money and the planet by having a vacation at home. Not only is it the good, ethical thing to do, it's also likely to be less stressful as well.
Whilst you're at it, rather than always shopping at the big supermarket chains you could see what your corner-shop has to offer. They may not have as much variety or be as cheap as the big retailers, but it will stop the supermarket chains developing into monopolies that can give farmers a bad deal.
Buy from Local Charity Shops
OK, so you're buying Fairtrade goods and you're buying homegrown - helping the poor and saving the planet - but what else can you do to live a good, ethical life through ethical shopping? Well, you can buy from local charity shops. There are loads of them, especially in Britain - from Oxfam to Save the Children. If you want to buy some new clothes then they are a great place if you are on a budget and you can even pick up some decent quality stuff as well. You probably won't find any D&G but you might find some Next or Burtons. Plus, all the money you spend is going to charity, so you can't lose. They might even have someFairtrade clothes in there as well.
Do you do ethical shopping?
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