I recently did a review of Raw Gaia products and I was pleased to discover that following a recent packaging overhaul, they are taking any mention of de-aging, wrinkles, rejuvenation and such like, off their products, in a stand against the traditional marketing tactics of beauty product manufacturers.
Women are constantly made to feel inadequate about their appearance and advertising regularly reinforces these feelings, by supposing that we are all appearance obsessed. The sad reality is that many women are, because we live in a society that propagates stereotypes. We are exposed to adverts of preposterously unblemished air-brushed models and given the stark message that ageing skin is unsightly. In fact, one natural skin care company actually refers to wrinkles as being unsightly. One famous brand mentions the “fight against wrinkles” in their product blurb. Can we not just grow old gracefully?
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Every week now we seem to be getting press releases from major corporations and businesses telling us about their new green initiatives and strategies. The latest is Waitrose supermarket’s commitment to the environment. Waitrose has pledged that by 2010 all fruit, vegetables and flowers that are non-organic will be farmed to high environmental standards and will carry the LEAF Marque to certify this. This ensures farmers are working with the environment rather than against it. Good on Waitrose I say.
Whether it’s supermarkets telling us how they are saving the planet, or banks telling us about their eco-friendly credit cards, the list goes on. Does this show a genuine concern for the environment or is this merely a marketing exercise dreamt up by some smug advertising executive? Has big business acquired a conscience? I find that hard to believe, maybe I’m just an old cynic, but I am pretty sure there are very real financial incentives pushing this rush to go green, but I am equally sure there must be some very genuine individuals in many organisations pushing for change because they care about the environment.
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Yesterday, I opened up a bit of a can of worms when I tried to find cheap ways of dressing in an eco friendly and ethical way. And I'll be honest; the cheaper the items - whether organic, 'sweatshop free' or laying claim to any other eco-buzzword - the harder it is to find out just how green they really are. Organic certification, the Fairtrade logo and the new standards coming in for beauty products and restaurants do command a higher price-tag, and it's therefore no wonder we want to believe it when a shop offers us organic clothing for a tenner.
So what I want to put to you is that being green is a luxury. Much as we may want to do something, those of us on a tight budget will have to accept that until the excitement about being green dies down and it stops being fashionable again, we'll have to occasionally make choices we disagree with.
Or, are those who can afford to pay extra missing the point and forgetting that - with a bit of extra effort - it's quite possible to be green without falling for the hype. What have you done to go green that actually saved you money, or at least didn't leave you out of pocket?
Sainsbury's is really flying the green flag just now, particularly with regard to ethical issues; it recently became the first supermarket to stock only fairtrade bananas, and now the chain has opted to lead the way on another big wellfare concern: eggs.
Trading Director Miles Coupe (I'm sure there's a pun in there somewhere) has announced that the store will sell only free range eggs by 2012, and is doing all it can to phase out eggs from battery hens long before that date.
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Last week's C4 documentary, which questioned mankind's role in climate change, seems to have left a greater impression than I'd suspected, and I stumbled across a fresh crop of blog posts after it was repeated on Monday night. It seems to have divided opinions pretty starkly. Read on to see the different arguments, and tell me which side you fall on...
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We started the day at Shiny Towers in a way we often do; by putting the world to rights in the way that only six women in an office are capable of. And since the topic seemed to provoke vigorous nods of agreement all round, it seemed only fair to put the proposition to a wider audience: People who won't eat vegetables are stupid. Agree or disagree?
Let's illustrate the statement with a bit of background. We've all met the guy who thinks vegetables are 'scary'. Let's call him 'Simon'. Simon hasn't touched broccoli (or peas, or carrots, or indeed anything containing vitamin C) since his Mum stopped nagging him about eating it when he was 20. He can't tell an artichoke from an aubergine and thinks 'kale' is a sort of dance. Simon's in his late twenties or early thirties; (it's hard to tell since he looks so tired and unhealthy). He likes tomatoes, but only if they're on pizza or in some other sanitised form, and if it wasn't for Ribena, he'd probably have died of scurvy by now. If Simon had a girlfriend, she'd probably nag him in the way he's used to his mother doing, but let's face it - it's not an immediate liklihood...
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...OK, that may be taking things a bit far. Alternatively, go vegetarian, or preferably vegan, if you can manage it, because according to the latest statistics, cows are bad news for the environment.
Their endearing habits of farting and belching as they chew their cud are to blame, since this produces methane gas, which is 23 times more potent than our old friend C02 as a heat-trapping gas. According to a study by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, this makes cows (and bulls - let's not get sexist about this, it's International Women's Day tomorrow folks) responsible for a staggering 18 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas problem, a greater share than that of transport.
So, if we were to all reduce or cut out our consumption of meat altogether (it's not just beef - sheep and other ruminants are just as guilty), breed fewer cattle and drastically cut down the amount of methane produced globally, we'd be making a significant improvement to the climate change problem. As a committed veggie, I may be biased, but I think that giving up meat for most people is a far less of a dramatic lifestyle than making the transport-related sacrifices it would take to get the same effects...
This weeks proposition: Going veggie (or preferably vegan) is the best thing we can do for the environment just now. Agree or disagree.
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