Introduction: Green Consumerism, Green Labelling?

Abstract

As increasingly conscientious ‘citizen-consumers’, many of us seek environmentally friendly alternatives to petrol. But how do we avoid farm workers producing these alternatives in slave-like conditions? We seek ways of reducing our carbon footprints. But can anyone estimate such footprints in an accurate way? We hear that it is ecologically sound to choose goods produced geographically close to us. But would it not be more humane to support local production in the poorer, southern countries? We proudly tell our friends that the animals that we eat have been raised on ecologically responsible farms. But does not all farm-based meat production use immense amounts of clean water that would be of better use for humans and for the production of vegetarian food?

He knows how easy it is to be bad, how one has only to relax for the badness to emerge.

(J.M. Coetzee, in Youth, 2003: 132)