Issue 395 of New Internationalist

November 2006

Ethical shopping

A revolution is occurring in shopping malls across the western world. Having once been the sole preserve of hippies, lefties, church-goers and *NI* readers, all of a sudden ‘ethical’ is in. With sales of organic, fair trade, sweatshop-free, eco-friendly products shooting up year on year, ‘ethical consumerism’ is becoming big business. Even the most hard-nosed transnationals are falling over themselves to show consumers just how planet-conscious they really are. As this once-minuscule market goes mainstream, *NI* takes a look at the implications and asks some big questions.