I just read this article about the ethical-food movement (i.e. organic, fairtrade and local).
The aims of much of the ethical-food movement -- to protect the environment, to encourage development and to redress the distortions in global trade -- are admirable. The problems lie in the means, not the ends. No amount of Fairtrade coffee will eliminate world poverty, and all the organic asparagus in the world will not save the planet. Some of the stuff sold under an ethical label may even leave the world in a worse state and its poor farmers poorer than they otherwise would be.
-The Economist Dec 9, 2006
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