Book review
Leo Hickman in A Good Life: The Guide to Ethical Living points out that: “Ethical living means taking personal responsibility; considering ‘sustainability’ of everything you do; making sure that your actions do not have a negative influence on you or the wider world; reducing one’s demand for resources; consuming a fairer and more proportionate slice of the pie; leading more considerate, thoughtful lives by shopping/acting locally; rethinking the food you eat; reducing your energy demands; considering the impact of travel; donating your time and money; alleviating social injustice; encouraging companies to be more accountable for their actions; nurturing community spirit; reducing the impact of toxic chemicals.” “In 2001 humanity’s ecological footprint exceeded global biocapacity by 21%. If the whole world lived as Americans do we would need 6 Earths to meet the demand for natural resources.” “Farming subsidies make up about half the entire EU budget, 40% of haulage on our roads is food related, and supermarkets and agribusiness giants are now among the world’s largest and most powerful companies.” “For each cow raised within the EU, the farmer receives about €2 a day in subsidies – more than the daily income of 75% of Africans. In addition the taxpayer pays for the land and waterways to be cleaned due to pesticide run-off from farms. £120 million is spent annually removing pesticides from drinking water. For every pound spent on food at supermarkets, just 9p makes it back to the farmer compared with 50-60p fifty years ago.” “It is morally and economically mad to pay farmers to produce unwanted surpluses that are dumped, thanks to export subsidies, at artificially low prices on the Third World, thereby putting their farmers out of business.” “UK subsidies exceed the total income from farming. Globally agriculture receives $300 billion a year in subsidies, which if abolished would give everyone in the OECD a cashback of $200 and the developing world would get the biggest economic boost it has ever had. The real solution is to abolish all agricultural subsidies.” “Our choice about what we eat is one of the most important, and most frequent, ethical decisions we can make. Every time you sit down to a meal, ask yourself 5 key questions: how was this food produced? How did it get on my plate? What did it ‘cost’ me? Why did I buy it? Is there an alternative?” “The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that worldwide 220,000 deaths a year are directly caused by pesticide poisoning, with a further 67 million migratory birds being killed.” “Some pesticides banned 15 –20 years ago are still detectable in our blood today. The underground water that feeds our springs and rivers and provides a third of our drinking water is becoming seriously polluted with nitrates which must be removed as they cause ‘blue baby’ syndrome and prevent the blood from carrying oxygen.” “As a consumer it is best practice to make every effort not only to exclude pesticide residues from your diet, but also to boycott the multi-billion-pound agrochemical industry that produces and markets them.” “About 51 billion animals were slaughtered in 2003 – 10 animals a year for every person on the planet. 70% of the world’s agricultural land and one third of the world’s grain crop is used to rear livestock.” “It takes 24 acres (9.7 hectares) of land to sustain an American, 9 acres (3.6 hectares) an Italian and just under an acre (0.4 hectares) for an Indian.” “A kiwi fruit flown from New Zealand to Britain leads to 5 times its own weight in greenhouse gas emissions. One sixth of what we pay for food goes on packaging.” “In 2003 the Guardian bought a basket of fresh food containing 20 items and found that the cumulative distance travelled by the contents was 100,943 miles. The food chain’s contribution to the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions is at least 20%.” “For every calorie of carrot flown in from South Africa, 66 calories of fuel is expended. For every 100 items of fruit consumed in a day, only five are grown in the UK. The answer is to buy local produce.” “With about 30% of cancers in the west linked to dietary factors, it is clear the food we are eating is literally killing us. In the US, 325,000 deaths a year are attributed to obesity.” “Four key things should be in the forefront of your mind: Pesticide residues; food miles; grower and picker rights; and seasonality.” “Putting more thought and effort into what you eat is a vital, if not inseparable, part of ethical living. This begins with shopping, and choosing more fair-trade, seasonal, organic products grown locally.” “Boycott firms you know use unethical practices; support firms who are now trying to improve their practices; choose local shops over giant supermarket chains.” “To support British farmers it is best to buy directly and as locally as possible. As consumers we would all benefit from a return to eating seasonal, local food.”
A GOOD LIFE
THE GUIDE TO ETHICAL LIVING
LEO HICKMAN
EDEN PROJECT BOOKS THE GUARDIAN 2005
What is Ethical Living?
• We should be the happiest generation ever; we work fewer hours than ever before; we have more disposable income; we are better educated; we have access to cheap and plentiful food supplies; we are spared many mundane chores by technology; we have the cushion of a vast social welfare system to catch us when we fall; we have the freedom and means to travel on a whim; we are living longer and we reside in a mature, stable democracy. We have never had it so good.
• Why is it that ‘happiness’ levels have not risen in the past 50 years? Some of us seem to be asking whether we are really sure that, as a society, we’re moving in the right direction.
• Ethical living is an attempt to address this paradox. In the context of this book, ‘ethical’ means, above all, taking personal responsibility. This, in turn, means considering ‘sustainability’ of everything you do – making sure that your actions do not have a negative influence on you or, more importantly, the wider world.
• In 2001 humanity’s ecological footprint exceeded global biocapacity by 21%. If the whole world lived as Americans do we would need 6 Earths to meet the demand for natural resources.
• As more people aspire to and obtain western lifestyles, the pressure on natural resources will become more intense. Therefore a major tenet of ethical living is to attempt, wherever possible, to reduce one’s own demand for resources; it is a call to consume a fairer and more proportionate slice of the pie.
• The measure of domestic progress (MDP) aims to reflect progress in the quality of life as well as progress towards a sustainable economy. While GDP per capital in the UK rose by 80% over the past 30 years, MDP fell and has yet to recapture its 1976 peak. Another sign that all is not well.
• Ethical living is a call to counter this trend by leading more considerate, thoughtful lives. But running through the book are some other recurrent themes: shopping/acting locally; rethinking the food you eat; reducing your energy demands; considering the impact of travel; donating your time and money; alleviating social injustice; encouraging companies to be more accountable for their actions; nurturing community spirit; reducing the impact of toxic chemicals.
• This book explains some of the problems and injustices our habits and lifestyles are causing and then presenting practical solutions to reducing their impact, from eating less meat and lowering car emissions to domestic cleaning advice and ways to volunteer.
• But it also aims to instill the belief that rather than being passive automatons pushing trolleys mindlessly around the supermarket, we can actually wield incredible power as shoppers and force positive change.
• The ‘Best Buys’ in the directories at the end of each chapter are compiled by Ethical Consumer magazine which judges performance by a company against 16 ethical criteria: environmental reporting; pollution; nuclear power; ‘other’ environment; oppressive regimes; workers’ rights; supplier code of conduct; irresponsible marketing; armaments; animal testing; factory farming; ‘other’ animal rights; genetic engineering; boycott call; political activity; and ‘alert’ (including excessive directors’ pay; tax havens and human rights abuses).
Chapter 1: Food and Drink
Introduction
• A classic cooked breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, buttered toast, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms all washed down with coffee and orange juice illustrates much about what’s wrong with the food we eat.
• The north African migrant workers who picked heavily sprayed tomato in a Spanish field for a pittance; the cows fed GM maize then intensively milked to make the butter; the illegal traces of antibiotics hidden within the battery-farmed egg; the high levels of salt and sugar in the breakfast cereal that’s aggressively marketed at children; the artificial ‘smoky’ flavourings; preservatives and water injected into the bacon to increase profit margins; the greenhouse gases emitted while air-freighting the orange juice; the loss of biodiversity caused by growing wheat on an industrial scale for the bread; the coffee farmer in Africa put out of business by giant food companies using their muscle to artificially depress bean prices to keep their shareholders happy; the pressure put on the local landfill site by excessive food packaging; the kipper made from herring stocks exhausted by overfishing, polluted with dioxins and PCBs from the North Sea; the hydrogenated fat used to bulk up the croissant.
• Farming subsidies make up about half the entire EU budget, 40% of haulage on our roads is food related, and supermarkets and agribusiness giants are now among the world’s largest and most powerful companies.
• The driving force behind this behemoth is, of course, profit, but where corners have to be cut to increase profit flow, with the food industry this invariably leads to problems for the consumer, the producer and the environment.
• Little good has arisen out of use of harsh pesticides, artificial additives or flying vegetables across the globe except shareholder glee or consumer convenience.
• Our choice about what we eat is one of the most important, and most frequent, ethical decisions we can make. Every time you sit down to a meal, ask yourself 5 key questions: how was this food produced? How did it get on my plate? What did it ‘cost’ me? Why did I buy it? Is there an alternative?
How was this food produced?
• The production of food has become so industrialised that many of us have little idea about how food is grown, reared or processed.
• The steak wrapped in plastic on the supermarket shelf tells nothing of the diet of antibiotics and pesticide-laden hay fed to cattle and the EU subsidies that keep this unsustainable cycle in motion.
• The wholesale use of pesticides on farms, worth over $30 billion, is a good example of where we’re going wrong, with the UK pouring twice the EU average onto crops.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that worldwide 220,000 deaths a year are directly caused by pesticide poisoning, with a further 67 million migratory birds being killed. But it is only when pesticide residues are found in human breast milk that the problem makes headlines.
• While individual pesticides may be passed as safe within strictly controlled levels, little is known about the ‘cocktail effect’ (see page 106) – their cumulative reaction with other chemicals, such as artificial food additives – when inside the body.
• We are the lab rats and it will be future generations who will truly know the test results.
• About 51 billion animals were slaughtered in 2003 – 10 animals a year for every person on the planet. 70% of the world’s agricultural land and one third of the world’s grain crop is used to rear livestock.
• 50,000-100,000 litres of water is needed to produce one kilo of meat (compared with 900 litres to produce one kilo of wheat).
• It takes 24 acres (9.7 hectares) of land to sustain an American, 9 acres (3.6 hectares) an Italian and just under an acre (0.4 hectares) for an Indian.
• A third of the world’s obese people – a strong indicator of heavy consumption of highly processed foods – are in the developing world, due to the addictive levels of salt, sugar and saturated animal fat and a panoply of artificial additives found in most convenience foods. Children are especially vulnerable, with many suffering allergic reactions, hypertension and asthma attacks.
How did it get on my plate?
• The problem of food miles-related pollution is clear: a kiwi fruit flown from New Zealand to Britain leads to 5 times its own weight in greenhouse gas emissions.
• One sixth of what we pay for food goes on packaging. Even food grown next door may travel hundreds of miles due to packaging, processing and redistribution.
What did it ‘cost’ me?
• Campaigners are raising awareness about the hidden costs of much of our food – obesity and other health concerns, price-inflating cartels, subsidies and monopolies, the cost of cleaning up pesticide pollution, wasteful and expensive packaging and the expenditure and pollution of excessive transportation.
• For each cow raised within the EU, the farmer receives about €2 a day in subsidies – more than the daily income of 75% of Africans. In addition the taxpayer pays for the land and waterways to be cleaned due to pesticide run-off from farms. £120 million is spent annually removing pesticides from drinking water. For every pound spent on food at supermarkets, just 9p makes it back to the farmer compared with 50-60p fifty years ago.
• With about 30% of cancers in the west linked to dietary factors, it is clear the food we are eating is literally killing us. In the US, 325,000 deaths a year are attributed to obesity. Never have we been further from the maxim, ‘Eat yourself well.’
Why did I buy it?
• The ‘readymeal’ is the answer to every time-poor, stressed-out worker, who has little time in the evening to bath their children, let alone prepare a meal from scratch.
Is there an alternative?
• Putting more thought and effort into what you eat is a vital, if not inseparable, part of ethical living. This begins with shopping, and choosing more fair-trade, seasonal, organic products grown locally.
• Boycott firms you know use unethical practices; support firms who are now trying to improve their practices; choose local shops over giant supermarket chains.
Fruit and veg
• The advice from health professionals is consistent and straightforward: eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day – equal to 400g – to help yourself stay healthy.
• According to nutrition researchers at Cambridge University we should be eating nine portions a day, while we eat, on average, nearer three.
• Rule number one when it comes to eating fruit and vegetables is quite simple – just eat more of the stuff.
• To eat ethically, it’s not just a case of consuming more fruit and vegetables, but also asking other questions of the produce we eat: Who grew my apple? Who picked it? Where and how was it transported? Was it sprayed with pesticides? Is it currently the right season to produce?
• Four key things should be in the forefront of your mind: Pesticide residues; food miles; grower and picker rights; and seasonality.
Pesticide residues
• To reduce the risk of blemishes and misshapen produce, farmers typically rely on a range of pesticides. To keep yields up, fertilisers are also used.
• As the years have gone on, the more damaging these chemicals appear to be – to the farmers who handle them, to the environment to which they are applied, and to the consumers who eat them via their food.
• Some pesticides banned 15 –20 years ago are still detectable in our blood today. A North Carolina study of over 700 women living near crops sprayed with certain pesticides found they faced a 40-120% increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects.
• The baby of a woman who walked past a field being sprayed with Benlate when seven weeks pregnant was born with empty eye sockets.
• The underground water that feeds our springs and rivers and provides a third of our drinking water is becoming seriously polluted with nitrates which must be removed as they cause ‘blue baby’ syndrome and prevent the blood from carrying oxygen.
• As a consumer it is best practice to make every effort not only to exclude pesticide residues from your diet, but also to boycott the multi-billion-pound agrochemical industry that produces and markets them.
Food miles
• In 2003 the Guardian bought a basket of fresh food containing 20 items and found that the cumulative distance travelled by the contents was 100,943 miles.
• The food chain’s contribution to the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions is at least 20%.
• For every calorie of carrot flown in from South Africa, 66 calories of fuel is expended. For every 100 items of fruit consumed in a day, only five are grown in the UK.
• The answer is to buy local produce. Spinach can lose up to 90% of its vitamin C in 24 hours after harvest.
• If part of ethical living is to shun companies that are acting in a negative way, then consider avoiding food grown in countries ruled by oppressive regimes, commit human rights abuses or act aggressively towards others, but remember that your actions may simply punish the country’s farmers and not its leaders.
Grower and picker rights
• In 2003, the average income for farmers in the north-east of England fell beneath £10,000 a year although half of the entire EU budget is spent on agricultural subsidies. Some of the country’s richest landowners receive hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in subsidies.
• It is morally and economically mad to pay farmers to produce unwanted surpluses that are dumped, thanks to export subsidies, at artificially low prices on the Third World, thereby putting their farmers out of business.
• UK subsidies exceed the total income from farming. Globally agriculture receives $300 billion a year in subsidies, which if abolished would give everyone in the OECD a cashback of $200 and the developing world would get the biggest economic boost it has ever had.
• The real solution is to abolish all agricultural subsidies.
• Hunting down the Fairtrade mark when shopping is a big step in helping to end the oppression on many of the world’s farmers. To support British farmers it is best to buy directly and as locally as possible.
• In 2004 migrant workers packing fruit for a supermarket were left with wages of just 78p a week after their gangmaster had deducted ‘rent and transport costs’.
Seasonality
• While we may have access to all manner of fruit and vegetables at all times, by the time it reaches us from the other side of the globe it has lost much of its taste and nutrients.
• As consumers we would all benefit from a return to eating seasonal, local food.