The New Consumer's Ethical list celebrates some of the great people who are helping to make the world a better place. A few surprising entries but it was ever thus - who doesn't like a surprise? I notice that Anya Hindmarch made the cut for her bag and it would be churlish of me to deny her the glory but it does lead me onto thinking about the outsourcing to China issue.
The problem the way I see it is that each 'ethical' product that is made in bulk over there - no matter how convinced you are by their working practices and pay structures - is harming the environment and also people like me who want to build a successful ethical business but can't compete with those prices. China is building new coal fired power stations at an alarming rate to process the orders streaming into their country from the West. I am not impressed with the argument that goods travel by sea to save on their carbon footprint - maybe if they came on sailing boat there might be some truth in it.
What's wrong with making things here and paying people what they are worth?
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About Me
- CARRYABAG
- Hastings, East Sussex, United Kingdom
- Carry-a-bag began about five ago when I was fuming about plastic carrier bags stuck in trees, washed up on the beach and generally messing up the planet. It began as a little idea but one morning I woke up thinking "don't take a carrier bag just remember to carry a bag. And now I make bags all the time.
DIG YOUR VEG
Take it shopping or digging...
September 11th 2007
Blue sky day
Glastonbury
time to save the planet dudes + me in the hat
2 comments:
Hi there,
I've only just seen your blog, and I had to say how much I agree with your comments. (I also live in Hastings by the way!). I fume when I see this stuff that is produced and sold in shops as 'hand crafted'. It means that people like us find it hard to get a fair price for things we make here. Keep up the good work!
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