Ecologic
It isn’t easy buying green
by Francesca Price
Organic, Fair Trade or local produce – what’s a conscientious consumer to do?
If you’re reading this, the chances are that you’re in one of New Zealand’s newest consumer groups – you’re a “solution seeker”. You’re interested in sustainability, the environment and you want East Timor’s coffee pickers to send their children to school. You want to do the right thing with your hard-earned cash. The problem is trying to decide the right thing to do.
On most supermarket shelves these days, Fair Trade produce competes alongside organic and local goods for a share of the “green” dollar. Each claims to be the right choice for the ethical consumer. Fair Trade supports small farmers disadvantaged by the global market; organic fosters a sustainable agricultural system that benefits the planet’s long-term health; buying local produce cuts carbon emissions and keeps home-grown businesses afloat. But when you’ve got three bars of chocolate beckoning from the shelves, which “feelgood” label do you go for?
Chris Morrison seems like a good man to ask. He co-founded Phoenix Organics and today has a foot in both the organic and Fair Trade camps.
“It all depends on the product,” he says. “If you’re buying onions then buy local and preferably organic. However, if it’s coffee you have to consider that the raw materials will always be coming from overseas, so choose Fair Trade organic coffee that will ensure the farmer is paid a fair price and will continue to be able to work the land in a sustainable way.”
As for the chocolate, that’s a little trickier. “You don’t want to be buying chocolate where the cocoa bean has been picked in Bali, shipped to Switzerland and then back to New Zealand to be consumed,” says Morrison.
However, if you don’t buy Fair Trade you have no guarantee that the chocolate wasn’t picked by child labour in unsafe conditions. The best combination is chocolate made in New Zealand from Fair Trade cocoa beans. If that’s hard to find and you’re desperate for a fix, locally made organic chocolate is a pretty good second-best. (Your contribution to the planet’s health eradicates all calories, honest.)
There is no definitive guide here; often it will come down to which system you decide is more worthy of support. Rachel Brown of the Sustainable Business Network says her motto is “buy local, buy organic, buy Fair Trade” in that order. “Especially when it comes to food, which tends to be air freighted, the impact of the transport is huge. So I tend to go for New Zealand products that I know are making an effort towards sustainability.”
Michelia Ward of Trade Aid has a different take. She buys her olive oil from Palestine rather than New Zealand as a gesture of solidarity. “If I support their last chance of making a living, I make it worthwhile for them to replant the land.” And, in turn, nurture the environment. Confused? Ward says, “As long as you’re thinking about where your food is coming from, you’re taking steps in the right direction.”
“Solution seekers” are said to account for 32 percent of New Zealand consumers. They are, according to Moxie, the design company that identified them, a powerful group “who are becoming more mainstream with a larger discretionary income than ever before”.
The US equivalent, LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), has revolutionised the American food market. Whole Foods, the only organic superstore in the US, generates twice the profit per square foot of any other supermarket.
With your choices lie the future profits of the New Zealand food industry; if you want something, ask for it. Only two percent of the coffee in New Zealand supermarkets is Fair Trade; in the UK, that figure is 30-35 percent, largely due to consumer pressure.
Hopefully, as business cottons on to the “solution seekers” as a market force, we won’t have to choose between the virtues of local, Fair Trade or organic goods – we will start to see more products featuring a combination of all three.
Email: ecologic@xtra.co.nz
