KEY POINTS:
Doing the weekly shop used to be pretty straightforward, didn't it? We came, we shopped, we conquered. We didn't worry about where the stuff we bought came from. After all, when it's on the shelf in front of you, it's already done the hard part. All we had to do was pick it up and pop it in the trolley. Shop 'n' go, no questions asked. Why would you? If the supermarket's selling it, it must be okay, right?
I'm trying to remember back to that time of blissful ignorance when asparagus flown in from Peru was considered a delicacy, not an act of environmental delinquency and baby sweetcorn from the River Kwai wasn't a bridge too far in a stir-fry. There was none of this angsting in the aisles about farmed salmon or whether coffee growers were being exploited. We simply got on with it, glad of the convenience, and bought free-range eggs over the bog-standard ones if we were feeling conscientious.
To be fair we didn't know then what we know now. It took writers like Joanna Blythman, George Monboit and Felicity Lawrence, and investigative programmes like Panorama and pressure groups like Friends of the Earth to make us aware that there was a back story to all of these items and products that we took for granted. We didn't know, but then we didn't think to ask, either.
Still, there's no point in beating ourselves up any more than we do already. The weekly shopping trip is enough of a guilt trip as it is. Locally produced pesticides or far-flung organic? In season swede or unseasonal sweetcorn? Cheap whole chicken or two organic drumsticks? Cadbury's hot chocolate (daughter likes it) or that Fairtrade brand she never drinks? The kitchen roll that soaks up spills or the recycled stuff that dissolves? Small packets of environmentally friendly dishwasher tabs or the large box of polluting ones on special offer? How much sugar? Too much salt. Bad fats. No GM. Aspartame or tooth-rot? Economy brand crap or branded rip-off? Three for two or buy one get one half-price? Bulk buy? Bargain! Save! Indulge! Excuse me while my head explodes.
I don't hate supermarkets. They have their uses, and I can't see how we would manage without them now, but they've become too big, too dominant, too powerful. With the products arrayed in those endless aisles they are soulless places for production-line purchasing that offer no connection with what we buy, be it a 5kg chicken or jeans for a tenner. We've given the decisions over to them and, as a result, they've been allowed to ride roughshod over farmers and producers, pillage and plunder the environment and set their own agenda. That's why we need to be 'eco-smart', to gen up on the story behind the scenes, use our ecological intelligence.
Down the supermarket aisles
Personal Care Products: Do natural deodorants pass the salsa dancing test?
There's a plethora of health and environmental concerns about what we do to our underarms: plastic disposable razors and roll-ons clogging up landfill; foams and gels containing toxic chemicals; aluminium in antiperspirants and deodorants causing breast cancer; not to mention those nasty parabens. Can one really stay fresh `n' dry without harming ourselves or the planet? Or - I always see this as the test of an effective deodorant - putting off partners at a salsa class?
Shaving's a personal thing. I still do it, bit I use pure aloe vera gel instead of shaving foam to avoid the chemicals and I buy replacement blades so I'm not throwing the whole razor away. But if you shave your underarms, be aware of this: using an antiperspirant straight afterwards could put you at an increased risk of breast cancer.
A possible link between breast cancer and antiperspirants, based on the theory that nicks caused by shaving allow harmful substances in these products to enter the body, is relatively old news and has been the subject of several contradictory studies. However, at the time of writing _ indeed, the very day I took my antiperspirant-free pits to salsa dancing _ the story made headlines again, with statements such as, "I'm a breast cancer expert and I won't let my family use antiperspirants" splashed all over the Daily Mail. The writer, Professor Robert Thomas, who was named UK Oncologist of the Year 2006, stated that "Giving up using deodorant could be as effective in reducing cancer risk as a diet rich in disease-preventing antioxidants."
Cottoning On: Can you find out where your fabrics come from?
Cotton is the most used fibre in the world and accounts for 16 per cent of global insecticide releases, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (www.ejfoundation.org). In India, which is home to over one third of the world's cotton farmers, cotton accounts for just over half of all pesticides used annually, despite occupying just 5 per cent of land under crops. It's an incredibly toxic process that poisons the land and poisons the people who work on it.
The situation in India is compounded by the fact that the global market is weighted towards the US and the EU, where cotton is heavily subsidised so that producers receive prices that are effectively two to three times higher. Because of this, farmers in India get locked into an inescapable cycle of poverty and debt generated by using pesticides and fertilisers in attempts to up their yields. Between 1993 and 2003, driven by despair, 100,248 cotton farmers committed suicide. Eighty per cent of them were indebted. Many of them took their lives with the very stuff that had killed their livelihoods: by swallowing pesticides.
Checkout Challenges: Bags, Packaging and Recycling
Packaging frustrates me. Either I can't remove it or I can't get rid of it, particularly plastic packaging. (Thirteen billion plastic bags are issued in the UK each year.) According to WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) 50 per cent of household waste [in the UK], which ultimately ends up in landfill, has originated from a purchase from the main five retail supermarket chains. As WRAP points out "supermarkets link massive supply chains with households' behaviour and are therefore well placed to influence change'. I would add that supermarkets have quite frightening powers to influence the livelihoods of farmers, the fortunes of manufacturers, the futures of small businesses and even the incomes of small countries. How can it be beyond their reach to minimise packaging at the point of sale?
* Confessions of an Eco-Shopper by Kate Lock ($39.99: Hachette)
