Ha ha! Now that song is stuck in your head!
For the past week I've been thinking about the extent of my veganism. Of course I wouldn't buy, eat or wear anything that harmed an animal, but what about a human? Sweat shops are making us cheap but stylish shoes, clothes and bags. Huge companies are making vegan food.
I've been trying to curb my consumerism and mostly buy second-hand vegan items, but there have been a few trips to SuperTarget and Old Navy that I'm not too proud of. Is this like saying that "I don't eat THAT much meat."?? I hope not.
I have the same problem when it comes to food. If I buy Silk soymilk or Boca Burgers, it somehow contributes to a larger company that is evil. (I'm too lazy to research this right now. Even if I'm wrong - you get the idea.)
Ideally, I would just buy thrift store clothes and eat fruits and veggies. Strange, as I'm typing this, it doesn't seem that difficult...
Stay tuned, dear reader. You may have just witnessed a life-changing epiphany. Cool. :)
4 comments:
what you have touched on is the problem of convenience. In their efforst to make more money from us, corporations have placed their products everywhere so that when that whim strikes we only have to turn the corner to find a mcdonalds/kmart/petrol station. So even for we city dwelling ethical consumers, the moment of weakness leads us to be very vulnerable to doing something against our principles when the urge overcomes us. It is the exact same principle with obesity, these people can diet and struggle for a week but the moment that compulsion to eat shit food arises there is a kfc or whatever right there and it is that much harder to fight.
For me, this is the problem behind climate change and it is not reducing our emissions which will make a difference, but reducing our consumption. Did you know that potato chips can be cooked in palm oil, which is produced in places like Indonesia and the Phillipines, where they are cutting down their forests to plant palm trees to supply western companies with cheap vegetable oil? This is driving the orang-utan to extinction, and countless other species we won't hear about. All because potato chip manufacturers (and many others) like to sell their products cheap so we buy more of them.
what you have touched on is the problem of convenience. In their efforst to make more money from us, corporations have placed their products everywhere so that when that whim strikes we only have to turn the corner to find a mcdonalds/kmart/petrol station. So even for we city dwelling ethical consumers, the moment of weakness leads us to be very vulnerable to doing something against our principles when the urge overcomes us. It is the exact same principle with obesity, these people can diet and struggle for a week but the moment that compulsion to eat shit food arises there is a kfc or whatever right there and it is that much harder to fight.
For me, this is the problem behind climate change and it is not reducing our emissions which will make a difference, but reducing our consumption. Did you know that potato chips can be cooked in palm oil, which is produced in places like Indonesia and the Phillipines, where they are cutting down their forests to plant palm trees to supply western companies with cheap vegetable oil? This is driving the orang-utan to extinction, and countless other species we won't hear about. All because potato chip manufacturers (and many others) like to sell their products cheap so we buy more of them.
It is very hard work being an ethical consumer, and we all slip up once in a while. The trick is to not feel bad when you do slip up, by only doing it very rarely.
If you can...
:)
I'm not gonna get as deep as Mr Antichrist there. I just wanted to say...
BIOTCH!! I'm going to be singing that for days. Yer lucky I'm not there to give you a titty twist!
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one to buy silk stuff and then feel horrible afterwards. :)
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