Slap a label on it

So it’s important to shop responsibly right? I need to make sure that all the products that enter my house or pass my lips are Fairly-Traded, FSC-certified, Soil Standards Association Accredited, Green-Seal, dolphin -friendly, eco-loving, against animal-testing, biodegradable. In other words, I will only buy a product that has been green-labeled within an inch of its life.

But in the frenzy for brands to slap an eco-label onto their products, and in our eagerness to buy them (and shine up our halos) are we in fact missing the point? Yes, it’s important to develop a care for the world in which we live, and yes, it’s the consumer demand for more responsible practices that propels the ethical shopping movement forward. But it’s also important a) not to take it so far that we find ourselves bound by an eco-warrior straightjacket as we suck on organic sprouts and b) that we aren’t so blind and blaze about taking things we see with a pretty logo and a mention of some kind of accreditation for gospel.

Because it seems everything’s labeled nowadays. There’s been an interesting blog in the Guardian about the Fair Trade labeling movement – arguing that, just because Cadbury has made Dairy Milk Fair-trade, doesn’t mean it is a Fair-trade company. Just because Coca-Cola has bought Innocent, doesn’t make it personal ethically-founded brand. An organic t-shirt might only have 5% organic cotton in it, the rest is anyone’s guess. ‘Against’ animal testing, that old debate, doesn’t necessarily mean a product has not been tested on animals.

Having said all that, I think it’s great that we’re moving in the direction where people care enough to demand that things are responsibly sourced and produced, and that companies care enough to respond. Perhaps labeling is just an indication that we aren’t turning a blind eye to what the real issues are, and that business needs to buck up and take some accountability for the products that it sells to us.

The great thing about sites like EcoMonkey is that it makes all those grey areas a little bit less murky. Having done all the research for you, it’s traffic light system (similar to the food labeling scheme that tells you whether there is more fat in a donut or a carrot baton) guides us as to how ‘green’ different items on the site are, and whether products really do what they say on the label.