As a consumer how do you feel about this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/27/tesco

Are you happy to buy clothes that people have been paid on 16p an hour to produce?

Are you happy to eat animals that are kept inhumanely?

Tesco seem to be saying that all consumers are bothered about is having cheap clothes and food. Yes it needs to be affordable but why dont they plough some of their massive profits into better conditions for people and animals so keeping prices low aswell as acting as ethical 'producers'?

Or am I wrong?

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StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
(George Eliot, 1860)

No, you're not wrong. I am on a low wage and would rather buy proper food and fairtrade goods, and have a clear conscience. However, I realise some people cannot do this as easily as me as it's not that widely available. It all goes back to being fair - on people, animals, the land and our environment and i think those things are worth sacrificing a few luxuries for!!
(Sorry - me on my high horse here as it's something i feel strongly about!)

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Frizzy bizzy and dizzy!

i just hate tesco - I dunno why they are all as bad as each other

I protest in my own way - I avoid meat which is a statement really I also avoid dairy whenever I can

I can remember feeling very 'jaded' discussing the issue of capitalism in Sociology I fell so so so strongly about it.... The world is so unequal its wrong, I read that the IMF place blocks on certain exports from Africa (rice) why? because America would lose money.... and it would not be the richest place ever.....its a sad world I will join you on your horse DG!!!!!

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CCCU - Chatham Campus September 2008

tesco= evilness.

The amount of profit they make they could easily meet the RSPCA standard and absorb any additional costs with the profits and buying power they have.

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'Do or Do Not. There is no Try.' Yoda
Applying to UWS Hamilton Campus for 2009 entry!

I have to admit i shop at tesco, havent bought eggs for years as have me own chooks. But now will only buy organic or wye valley chicken. Dont eat much other meat but the meat we do is from the butchers rather than a supermarket. I have the bonus of farms with a butchery(?) where I am.

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I must admit I am a bit of a functionalist and feel that's it's unfortunate but that is how the world works, it's never going to be fair.

Having said that I only buy free range eggs, I would love to have my own chickens but, although hubby has finally come around to the idea, we have a neighbour with a dog and a low fence between us so it's not fair, but I digress.

I buy meat I can afford and try not to think about where it comes from.

I haven't bought Nike shoes for a great many years because of their unethical production. The other week when it was found out about some of Primark's clothes being embroidered by children, I said 'that's it I'm not buying Primark clothes any more' to which my hubby laughed and pointed out that everyone uses third world manufacturing and it's impossible to avoid, it's not even just the cheap clothes, it's designer clothes too.

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Throughout the ages, the rainbow has been the symbol of hope, a promise of better things to come. The ancients greeks personified the rainbow as the goddess Iris.
Student Midwife!!
Moderator
SMNet University Student Representative


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PS I particularly hate Tesco too especially since, when we lived in Water Orton, a village in the West midlands, they took over the local Dillons with a post office and decided there simply wasn't room for the post office leaving all the pensioners (of which there were many) having to catch a bus to collect their pension thus having to spend money they probably couldn't afford.

Also the Tesco Express was very expensive and never had the things we needed despite having all the extra room, the Dillons always had whatever you nipped around for in stock. Bloody Tesco hmmmph!

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Throughout the ages, the rainbow has been the symbol of hope, a promise of better things to come. The ancients greeks personified the rainbow as the goddess Iris.
Student Midwife!!
Moderator
SMNet University Student Representative


Do you want to write for the newsletter?? PM me, Karrierbag or Butterfly, opportunity is knocking.........

People may tell me I'm very wrong and I may be being very naiive and ignorant but as Rachel said, most clothes are made in third world countries, 16p a day may be worth a lot more to them than us?

If they didn't have the work from our country how would they survive?
There was a quote on the primark programme which said something like 3 quarters of the population of India work in factories making these clothes. So that's basically most people's only source of income. I definitely think that the companies should provide proper working conditions and not the horrific conditions they work in now. proper hours etc.

As for chickens and meat etc, I only buy free range eggs and I do always try to buy better meat x x x

Im sure 16p must mean more to them than it does to us as would you work for 16p? But relative or not its exploitative as it is with the chickens.

Id love to be in a position to buy organic or free range meat all the time to feed my family but its just too expensive atm on our meagre budget, so we eat meat rarely.

We grow our own organic fruit, veg and herbs in the middle of a town in your standard city size garden - ie not exactly large but at least I know Im putting the best I can into my kids.

If everyone was apathetic nothing would ever change, us women for one wouldnt be able to vote. Thanks to Emmeline Pankhurt and other suffragettes like Millicent Fawcett our lives are now different. Just think if they hadnt campaigned against anti womens vote views like the famous one of Frederick Rylands in 1896 "Political power in many large cities would chiefly be in the hands of young, ill-educated, giddy, and often ill-conducted (badly behaved) girls."

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StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
(George Eliot, 1860)

Same here, we are really struggling financially atm too:-(

I LOVE the idea of growing your own vegetables TallPoppy.
Our garden is a state because our dog has completely trashed it, we bought a lovely, big pot plant once and it lasted about 2hrs!! suppose we could maybe fence a bit off. Something to talk to OH about tomorrow!!

Would be fun for my daughter too, awww.

I think a few programmes have highlighted a lot of the main issues well, with regard to clothes and chickens, but there should definitely be more done.

Farmers make something like 2p PER CHICKEN (was on that programme which Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall did) which is absolutely shocking!!