Cheerful chooks

Thanks in large part to Our Pam I always buy Free Range eggs. I see this mundane, apparently abstract consumer choice as an clear opportunity to take moral action. I'm so convinced of this that I'll happily pay extra money and not purchase any eggs if my corner shop doesn't stock Free Range.

This was all good and fine until I realised I was inconsistent in buying Fair Trade chocolate. An egg is an egg, but all chocolate is not equal. Turned out that I cared more about taste than I did about the lives of very poor people. How could I act on behalf of chickens but not on behalf of people?

Since then, I've been more consistent in my purchase of Fair Trade chocolate, coffee and tea . . . But I'm very happy to report that the dichotomy between taste and social justice has just become a false one.