In an article on 6 November in the Guardian, environmental activist and author George Monbiot argued that people who make ethical consumer choices may actually end up having a negative overall effect on the planet because they believe they have earned the right to opt out of more important ethical decisions. We don’t agree.
Monbiot bases his views on a report in Nature magazine, which you can see here. To summarise the study: participants were presented with either a green or a conventional online store and told to make purchases from a nominal $25 fund. The researchers then measured their responses to tasks carried out after the shopping task and studied the behaviour of the green shoppers as against the conventional shoppers.
After buying ethical products, the participants felt they had a greater right to cheat and lie in subsequent tasks. The study certainly throws up fascinating results about the “licence to misbehave” that a green purchase seems to grant individuals in this experiment.
These are certainly very interesting results, but in my opinion, it misses the point of ethical shopping and the people, like you, who choose to do it. Monbiot extrapolates from these findings that people who buy green and ethical products then feel they have done their bit and so don’t make the bigger changes they may otherwise do. Essentially, the argument runs that while the small choices are "good" choices, they actually don’t make a lot of difference and can in fact stand in the way of bigger changes.
I completely agree that the changes we need to see implemented to increase fairness and dramatically improve the environment must come from governments across the world. However, to say that making an ethical choice somehow diminishes a person’s commitment to this cause seems wrong. Unlike in the study, in the real world, people have a wide range of choice of what to buy and from where. So, whereas in the study the participants were effectively forced to shop ethically, in the real world, this isn’t the case. To make an ethical purchase involves an active choice. Sometimes it can be harder to find ethical products than mass-produced ones. People like you who visit This Fair Earth and other similar businesses do so because you believe in making an informed, fair choice about your decisions as a consumer, not because you are seeking some kind of carte blanche to act irresponsibly in relation to other decisions in the future.
While we need to put small, ethical choices in perspective, we should not underestimate the impact fair trade shopping can have on developing communities. Some of our suppliers have transformed their lives through stable employment and community support. Even if you shop with This Fair Earth simply because you want something unusual and handmade, then you are still opting to avoid mainstream, factory-made products that swamp the high street. It is my opinion that these decisions come from people most likely to engage in considered debate about our consumer society and more likely to build pressure on governments to make bigger changes for the benefit of the planet.
In short, you should feel good about your ethical shopping, it does make a difference and hopefully instead of offering a licence to do nothing, it acts as an inspiration to help change everything.
We would really welcome your thoughts on this topic – please post your comments and let us know how you view ethical shopping.