• Question: Do you believe in using fairtrade, organic or generally "green" food products?

    Asked by mrsrichards to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      I try and buy Fairtrade products when they are available and comparable to other products – I don’t mind paying a little more, but not a lot more. I always get fairtrade coffee, for example.

      I don’t bother with organic. Organic food is in many ways worse for the environment.
      Instead of using small amounts of effective synthetic fertilisers / pesticides / herbicides, farmers instead have to use much larger amounts of natural products, which can be less good at doing the same job. These large quantities then can have a significant effect on the local environment.

      This is a common problem when you’re trying to be environmentally friendly. Everything we make/buy has an effect on the environment in a different way, and it’s very difficult to know which effects are the most important. It makes being an environmentally friendly consumer incredibly difficult.

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Where I live there’s a great farmers market every fortnight, and a brilliant general market on the other weeks – whenever it’s physically possible I always try to by the majority of my fresh fruit/veg/meat/fish from these people.
      So it’s probably not fair trade in the sense of fair trade coffee etc, but I’m trying to do my bit to help the local farmers and growers to my region. I don’t tend to go out of my way to get the organic stuff, I just tend to go to the market stalls I know are most friendly and give me the best of what I want…

    • Photo: Andrew Cairns

      Andrew Cairns answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      I think that fairtrade is my first consideration when it comes to buying a product, especially in industries where traditionally there has been exploitation of workers – coffee, tea, chocolate I always try to buy fairtrade.

      Similarly, I always buy free-range and local food where possible. I disagree with importing products from the other side of the world just so the skin is a perfect colour, or the keeping of animals in horrible conditions.

      When it comes to Organic, really this is a consumer driven demand. I disagree (as Dan says) with the media reporting on “evil chemicals” and “good organic” – some fertilisers etc are perfectly safe and very effective.

      I don’t know if that makes sense! Basically, I buy local and fairtrade!

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