Where’s Your Money Going?

Green and Black’s

Green & Black’s sell very tasty organic chocolate and ice cream, and their Maya Gold range and cocoa carry the Fairtrade mark.  Excellent, so you can get organic and fair trade in one product.  Unfortunately, just over a year ago, Green & Black’s was bought by Cadbury Schweppes.  This information is available on a sub-page of the G&B website, but unsurprisingly, they’re not exactly shouting it from the rooftops.  As a result of the takeover, G&B’s ethical rating on ethiscore plummeted from 3rd to 12th, although it’s only fair to point out that Cadbury’s and G&B still score higher than nasty Mars (Mars, Milky Way, Twix, Snickers, Maltesers, M&M’s, Starburst and Skittles) and mega-nasty Nestle (Kit Kat, Yorkie, Aero, Toffee Crisp, Lion Bar, Milky Bar, Drifter, Caramac, Walnut Whip, Smarties, Rolo, Toffo, Munchies, After Eight, Black Magic, Quality Street, Matchmakers, Dairy Box, Blue Riband, Breakaway & Polo).  Admittedly founder Craig Sams has remained as Chairman and claims that G&B still operates as a stand alone business, but the fact is that the profit goes to its parent company which is not famous for selling anything vaguely organic or fair trade.  So the profit from each purchase of a Green & Black’s product feeds the monster which produces tons of chocolate (and other products) on a distinctly unfair trade basis (the same problem experienced by purchasers of Nestle’s fair trade coffee – some money goes to properly paid workers, the profit goes to the unfair trade beast).

Body Shop

This summer, Anita Roddick surprised the ethical shopping community by selling the Body Shop to L’Oreal, causing the company’s rating at ethiscore to slump from 11 out of 20 to just 2.5.  Ethical Consumer magazine called for a boycott of the Body Shop, partly because of Nestle’s 26% ownership of L’Oreal and partly because of L’Oreal’s stance on animal testing and its environmental irresponsibility.

Pret a Manger

Mmm, lovely freshly-made sandwiches using natural preservative-free ingredients.  The only problem being that one third of the profits go to one Mr Ronald McDonald as McDonald’s are a substantial shareholder.  Pret may have been started by Sinclair and Julian, two lean and hungry students, but now big fat American Ronald has his fingers well and truly in this particular pie.  And who’s going to bet that he’s got clean hands??

Ben & Jerry’s

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978.  The ice cream firm’s social mission is “to operate the company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally & internationally”.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that B&J is now owned by multinational nasty Unilever.  A recent social audit in the US highlighted a disappointing lack of social initiatives at the company and poor morale among the employees.  It also questioned whether the company was “simply a Unilever marketing operation using the brand’s reputation for social responsibility to promote sales”.  A pity really because the product itself has always been easy enough to swallow.

Tom’s of Maine

Tom’s of Maine, founded by Tom & Kate Chappell, make products like toothpaste, mouthwash, soap and deodorant using natural ingredients.  Trust me on this because Tom’s been under my armpits on more than one occasion (surely too much information).  Tragically, this is another nice fairy story that turns into a nightmare tale as Tom’s was sold to Colgate-Palmolive, its rating dropping from 16 to just 5 because of its new owners appalling record on environmental reporting and animal testing.  I don’t want Tom’s under my arms now as Colgate-Palmolive truly are the pits.

How Do I Decide What To Buy and What To Boycott??

There are a number of things to consider when asking these questions.  One is each company’s record on such issues as the environment, human rights, animal rights etc., but it’s not always straightforward.  For example, some ethical shopping experts have opposed Ethical Consumer’s boycott of the Body Shop because they want to show L’Oreal that ethical is what consumers want and that it can be profitable.  A bigger problem I have with the constant sell-outs to multinationals is the nature of these beasts themselves.  Multinationals buy in to the growth fetish of modern capitalism.  When it comes to profit, enough is never enough.  Wiser people realise, however, that the earth’s finite resources can’t sustain eternal profit growth and understand that in the future we will need to consume less.  Yes, the decisions are hard, but is that an excuse to avoid them?  As for me, I’m going to try to buy as many of the things that my family needs from the sources that are best for both people and planet which will mean mainly produce that is from local, organic and fair trade sources.

LINKED ARTICLES

Where's Your Money Going? Part 2

Another One Bites The Dust...