• Should I take out and products that support workers in Third World countries by buying Fairtrade labelled products albeit these goods normally travel thousands of miles from Asia, Africa, South America or South East Asia?
  • What if these foods were produced with the utilization of pesticides and additives? It is sensible than to buy Fairtrade, organic food to both help the producers within the Third World and fulfil my lifestyle option to eat healthy and additive, pesticide-free food.

Thankfully, many producers are now wising up to the present dilemma by increasingly producing organic and Fairtrade labelled products.

I’m currently using Fairtrade, organic t-bags at home! Now comes another important question, should I buy Fairly Traded organic sugar from Kenya that has travelled thousands of miles, or should I buy apples grown within the UK (ideally from a farmers market) that have only travelled only a couple of hundred miles which suggests less CO2 and other nasty emissions from the lorries that you simply see constantly on the motorways within the UK?

Buying products produced in the United Kingdom, not only ensures fewer food miles but also supports local farmers, communities and economies. Unfortunately, the choice is usually limited and may be costlier than food produced in other countries.

But I can safely say that I make attempts to avoid food or products that have travelled from distant destinations like Australia or New Zealand albeit they’re organic! Next time you’re within the supermarket or wherever you purchase your food from,  check the labels and you’ll be surprised by how far your food has travelled. Also check out the quantity of unnecessary wrapping like individually wrapped peppers, mushrooms and kiwi in wrapped boxes.

Usually, I buy from the local market I tell them to throw it all into one bag, the customer next to me often has 10 individually wrapped portions of fruit and vegetables. That’s 11 (10 plus one big plastic bags) bags into the landfill site that day. For better efficiency, we’d like to be using jute or other bags made up of recycled materials and putting all the loose food into that. For recycled bags, Fairtrade and Organic companies, products and food see GuideMeGreen’s Green Directory.