Your favourite ethical snack?
27 May 2010 by Paul Northup
Back in February, BBC News reported that Gordon Brown had reportedly weaning himself off his four-KitKats-a-day habit and was now eating nine bananas instead to get fit for the election.
We know now that it was a switch that didn’t quite pay off – election-wise, at least. But it got us to thinking: *what is your favourite ethical snack? *
(Of course, there has also been loads in the news about the evils of KitKat since then too – along with many chocolate products which use Palm Oil. See this Guardian article for the background and click here to register your disapproval via the GreenPeace campaign against Kitkat.)
We’d like to hear from you about your favourite ethical snack (The Ethical Consumer site might help you decide what are truly worthy of the tag.) I’m still partial to a Geobar myself! Leave your comments below and let’s build up a picture of the Generous community’s leanings.
Flickr photo source – thanks es_possible.
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About the Blogger
Paul Northup
Reading a few lines before sleep, listening to Elbow, inspired by Stanley Hauerwas, on the way down with the Rams, trying to hardly ever use the car, hopeful and fearful for my children, tired but usually happy.
Godalming, GB , 30 May 2010
Monday, 17 May 2010
Chocolate giant Nestle has agreed to stop using palm oil and other ingredients from suppliers that destroy the rainforest home of the last remaining orangutans in its popular snacks such as KitKat.
The move to cut deforestation out of the supply chain of the world’s largest food and drink company comes just two months after Greenpeace launched a campaign urging Nestle to stop using palm oil and pulp and paper products from companies trashing rainforests in Indonesia.
More here http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/kit-kat-maker-drops-suppliers-who-wreck-orang-utan-habitat-20100517
Luton, GB , 30 May 2010
My favourite – but probably not healthy (though there have been claims about plain chocolate reducing the risk of heart attacks etc!) – snack has to be a mini bar of Divine plain chocolate. There is something so satisfying about the thickness of those bars that just isn’t the same with the bigger but thinner bars (and anyway even I couldn’t eat a whole large bar as a snack!)
02 Jun 2010
Karin’s right – Nestle agreed to Greenpeace demands about their palm oil a few weeks ago. We’ve now moved on to HSBC which is investing in palm oil companies like Sinar Mas which are doing horrible things to the Indonesian rainforest. Help us out here – http://bit.ly/c26I20.
Jamie
Greenpeace UK
Stafford, GB , 03 Jun 2010
My favourite snack is ’Harry’s Nuts’. Completely gorgeous cashew nuts, fairly traded. They’re really big and succulent, and I can eat a whole bag in one sitting – not good for the waistline, but someone somewhere is seeing the benefit! You can get them in Sainsbury’s. Not sure where else tho
Godalming, GB , 03 Jun 2010
Ah yes, Harry’s nuts, peanuts or cashews, are very nice, but I try not to buy them as salted nuts aren’t very good for you and they are rather more-ish. I can buy them in Waitrose. There are quite a lot of yummy Fairtrade snacks around these days. I’m fairly sure Doves Farm did some yummy cereal/biscuit bars which had Fairtrade ingredients, but I haven’t bought them lately so am not sure they are still around.
06 Jun 2010
My favourite snack used to be apricot Geobars – but recently they seem to have changed the formula. And the chocolate one I tried last week was a real disappointment, with a very sawdusty texture.
Whether this is a result of product-fiddling inspired by market research and focus groups or just difficulty in maintaining quality/consistency with small producers, I don’t know – but it’s very disappointing when a winning Fairtrade product goes downhill.