Sometimes I feel like Sherlock Holmes
I think other people at my supermarket think I’m a little bit strange: my muttering over the product labels is starting to attract stares! Do you do the label examination too? It goes a bit like this:
Step 1: pick up an item I might want to buy
Step 2: look for label - is it on the back, on a tag, on the bottom?
Step 3: squint at the fine-print, wonder if I need glasses
Step 4: ask the usual questions - is this organic? where’s it made? is it fair-trade? what are these weird ingredients? are they GM? are they toxic? I can’t even pronounce this one!
Step 5: put item back on the shelf
Step 6: pick up competing item, repeat from Step 2 until I either find a good product, or give up.
I want to buy food that’s good for the environment, or at least, not bad for it. But that means researching how things were made, who made them, what’s in them, what they’re wrapped in, if the wrapping is recyclable, and a bunch of other things. That ain’t easy on a Saturday morning shop, when it’s crowded and dozens of other people want to get to the same shelf, and I just want to get home in time to watch the footy.
Once I find a product I like, one that’s ethical or environmentally-friendly, I am so loyal you couldn’t pay me to change. This is partly because I think businesses who make an effort to reduce their eco-footprint deserve to be rewarded; and partly because I’m so damn tired of checking labels that I don’t want the hassle of doing it too often!
Lately, though, I’ve been trying to cut back on the hassle by using ethical shopping guides. These are made by organisations who have already put on their Sherlock Holmes hat and investigated the product details, and then write them up for us to use.
So far, I’ve found the AMCS Sustainable Seafood Guide and the Good Grocery Guide, a Perth-based shopping guide that lists Australian, organic, fair-trade and non-GMO products. I keep them in my handbag and whip them out when I spot a new product or food I want to try.
If you want to do the same, do look into the credentials of the group who write the guide: not everyone has the same idea of what’s environmentally-friendly, so you want to make sure that their decisions are a reasonable match to your own. But once you’ve picked your guide, you can save yourself a lot of research time, and can give up being a detective.
Do you know of any other guides like this? Let us all know in the comments if you recommend them!
July 31st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
To help you with a healty lifestyle in Perth there is an interesting book “The BIG 5 is alive” from Stephen Hooper with lots of info on local produce and places were you can buy them. The book is self published and the ISBN no. is 0-646-45482-x
August 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
That sounds great, Wilma, thanks!
December 9th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I like the ethical consumer guide that is available on the internet ( and buying) which tells you what products to boycott and others that have complaints from 25 sources (including greenpeace and the RSPCA). Hope this is useful.