Are you a label conscious shopper?
But working on this series has made me realise just how little I knew about labels and what they actually mean. For example, I never knew that there are no rules on what dishes restaurants and caterers can call organic. Or that some economists have argued that . Like many people I didn't realise that Freedom Food meat and poultry is not necessarily free-range (although some of it is).
So, how has what I've learnt changed my behaviour? Well, I still buy organic dairy products and Fairtrade goods but I'm definitely less evangelical about what Fairtrade actually means.
I've also started buying some free-range products because I now know that the large premium you pay for organic food isn't all about animal welfare. While I still believe in the principles of organic farming I now feel able to sometimes choose the cheaper option of Freedom Food free-range confident that its welfare standards are significantly better than the minimum legal requirements.
But the biggest change is that while I still think it's sometimes worth choosing products with ethical labels, I'm a lot less smug about the difference my choice is making. Many of those I interviewed argued that the most effective way of making sure products meet environmental or ethical standards is through regulation. And as one of the co-authors of into environmental labels told me, you can't rely on labels to save the planet.
Sharmini Selvarajah is a reporter on You and Yours
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