Monday, December 1, 2008

Grocery shopping

I decided to follow up on yesterday's investigation into eco/health logos by inspecting the groceries I bought today.

Unpeeled potato chips with sunflower oil - no mark
Economy corn flakes - no mark
3 personal care products - none had marks
Grana Padano Italian cheese - it had a stamp to show it was "genuine", but no eco-logo

Hmmm... I've emptied the first of my two bags and haven't found a single mark! Moving on to the rest of the groceries:

Coffee beans - Fair Trade. I wouldn't have bought the beans without the mark, but I had to pay 20% more than I would have for the "unfair" beans.
Liquid laundry detergent - Bra Miljöval (good environmental choice). This was a surprise, since I had grabbed what I thought was some economy brand.
Milk - Svenskt Sigill (Swedish environment). Again a surprise, since I'd picked up the most "common" milk.
Oranges - two marks, the keyhole because they're healthy and the European ecological. I had purposely looked for ecological, which I tend to when buying fresh produce. I also decided not to look at the price.
Liquid acacia honey from Hungary - no mark. I bought it because it was cheap.
White flour - no mark. It was the most common brand.
Oats - two marks, the keyhole and the European ecological. I had deliberately chosen ecological at a 20% higher price.

I'm not sure how I did, but it was well enough to feel a certain amount of smug satisfaction. Of course, I don't really know how much better humanity is for the choices I made this evening.

My dinner tonight consisted of split pea soup left over from the weekend, several glasses of water and some of the potato chips. Well, actually about half the 200g bag of chips. A dubiously healthy portion of self-indulgence to accompany the smug satisfaction.

No comments: