The Voyeur Green Issue and A Real Food Challenge - Trying to Eat Ethically for a Weekend

We are irregular air travellers, however when we do fly, we have Virgin Blue as our airline of choice. We do this for a number of reasons; we've always been fans of Sir Richard Branson and his cavalier and irreverent attitude to business; it's a long held Australian tradition to support the underdog, and as new entrants into the domestic air travel market here, they fit that bill; and recently Virgin Blue has commenced a regular service to our regional centre of Port Macquarie, finally giving rival Qantas some competition on this sector.

This last week my wife Therese flew from Port Macquarie to Melbourne and return on Virgin Blue, and in the process collected and read the current issue of the in-flight magazine, Voyeur, proudly published by specialist advertising/publishing house, Text Pacific. 

The July 2008 issue of Voyeur is a special Green Issue, and amongst other things, the issue allows advertisers to on-goingly offset carbon emissions associated with publishing their advertisements by way of payment of an additional fee that goes to purchasing certified carbon credits.We admire Virgin Blue and their associated business partners for the lead that they take in the green arena, and this initiative is to be applauded. The more of these type of triple bottom-line options that exist the better off we will all be. Virgin Blue have a similar program set up for when you purchase your air travel ticket with them, offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions that your travel will create. 

In his opening piece for this issue, Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey claimed the reason for the issue was - "we are trying to do our bit for the environment, and we hope this special 'green' issue of Voyeur will encourage you to do the same".

However, it is clear that not all Text Pacific's journalistic staff were aligned with that initiative.

We refer to a piece titled "Real Food Challenge - How easy is it to eat ethically? Nicole Demovic tries it for a Weekend."

In this article, the Editorial Assistant detailed her activities over a weekend, declaring "Feeling inspired to eat with a clearer conscience, I devised some ethical 'rules' to follow. Armed with my plan, a hessian bag, and a shopping list scribbled on the back of a used envelope, I rose to the challenge." 

Nicole's plan had the following rules - Eat organic; Eat welfare friendly; Minimise food miles; Buy Fairtrade; and Minimise food packaging. Genuinely a noble set to follow. The story then proceeded to track Nicole's ethical food activities over the ensuing weekend, and included visits to Sonoma Bakery, Saltbush Meats at the Orange Grove Farmers Market, Macro Whole Foods, and The Peasants Feast Organic Restaurant. All in all, these vendors presented a fair if limited cross-section of what is available in suburban Sydney without digging too deeply into a specialist field that is now breaking into the mainstream. For example, Ms Demovic claims that she was unable to find any organic wine nearby the restaurant she ate in - the bottle shops in Newtown must have an extremely limited range to choose from for this to be the case.

It was the underlying attitude of the whole story that beggared belief. To conclude that "I couldn't change my habits permanently  - I don't have the time or the money" shows how little understanding Ms Demovic has of the issues involved in the complex area of food production, and the impacts that everyone's purchasing habits have on the environment. In the not too distant future, Ms Demovic may not have the ability to decide what type of food products she purchases.

What is really upsetting is the glibness with which Ms Demovic dismisses the issue with such little research, and given the quality of other articles in the issue, how the editorial team let this one slip through. Other articles show real authenticity about their subject matter and a commitment to the environment - in Ms Demovic's story, she does not. Trying to eat ethically for a weekend, and have it go smoothly, is like trying to master skiing in 48 hrs, and expecting to nail a black run by the end of the weekend. That probably won't go smoothly either.

The reality about food prices is that they will continue to rise, and with increasing regularity as transport costs and other oil based production inputs, like fertilisers and chemicals, keep rising, regardless of whether they are organically grown or not.

Whilst we appreciate that the articles in the Voyeur publication are relatively short and far from in depth, a little more balance from the editorial staff may prove worthwhile. We are certain that travellers to Sydney this weekend to the annual 2008 Organics Expo at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre who use Virgin Blue will agree.

We wish Text Pacific every continued success with their publication, and trust in future that Ms Demovic researches the meaning of objective research, like her fellow contributors have.

Comments

[Andrew the Organic Maven]

Thanks Val D, we weren't aware Qantas had a carbon offset scheme.

Perhaps they should tell the world about it and gain some positive publicity.

And thanks also for the warning about greenwashing - we're very clear about that topic.

Cheers.

[Val D]

1. Beware of green washing.
2. Having said that Virgin is undoubtably pro green.
3. To be fair on Qantas they do have a carbon offset program. The cost is simply factored into the ticket price, so your not aware of it.

[Andrew the Organic Maven]

Hello Jansy, I get that the cost of organic food can seem as an impediment to eating nutritious food, particularly when your on a budget with a young family.

Organic foods are priced the way they are for a number of reasons, the primary one being that additional costs are incurred in their production, usually labour, as chemicals cannot be used for weed and pest control.

As the price of oil and oil-based chemicals continues to increase, 'conventional produced chemical' foods will rise in price, making organic foods a more viable alternative economically.

Until then, I suggest you find and use your local organic farmers markets, which in Australia can be found at http://www.organicfoodmarkets.com.au/Organic-Food-Markets.aspx

Thanks for your comment and I look forward to seeing you again

[Jansy]

Hi Andrew

Just reading the blog. The cost of eating organic is a real hard one.

We try to eat organic whenever possible, especially with our fruit & veg. We are happy to travel further for it & I know the more people that buy it the more mainstream it will become & hopefully the cheaper it will become. But for us to eat organically it costs more than double. We are even happier to buy less and more selectively & more frequently, minimising the rotting veg in the fridge scenario. But some weeks its just too expensive. For example a bag of oranges(non organic) is $3.99 or a bag of organic oranges is $9.50.

We want to the best for the health of our family & the environment but find ourselves caught between balancing the budget of the day to day and trying to live in a way where there will still be an environment for our children's families.

How do we make it work?