“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better"-Maya Angelou
Being a consumer is no easy feat, with all the many choices available on the market. Do we choose heels or sneakers, neutral or colourful, soy milk or almond milk?
✔️It gets even harder when we want to check the "ethical" boxes as well. We know that ethical fashion > fast fashion, organic food > conventional food, family farm > factory farm etc; but when we consider the invisible barriers such as accessibility & knowledge—things become complicated.
The question is no longer do I choose the ethical option or the unethical option? It's more—is it accessible to me? Can i afford it? Do I know the side effects/consequences etc.?
If the answers are "no", the question then becomes "why?"—why is the ethical option only accessible, affordable, known to a select group of people?
“It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel & what's kind, what's environmentally destructive & what's sustainable. Cruel & destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with CFCs, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. & we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.”- Jonathan Safran Foer
The above quote perfectly captures the systemic flaw that creates barriers for ethical consumption, when ethical option should be the DEFAULT & ONLY option.
& so I want to share my input, how i move forward from this:
While it's tempting to want to rely on our governments/corporations to solve environmental problems & end human/animal exploitations, know that we can also own some of the responsibility.
Using clothing as an example—It's not your fault if you can't afford a 250$ "ethical" dress, not many people can. So if you can only afford fast fashion, I say buy fast fashion—just not in the way that they market them to you. This means not buying into the "trend" or "season"—wear it after their imposed trend "expiration date", & only buying what you need.
This is what I mean by doing the best we can. When we do the best that we can, even in an impossible situation, it's empowering.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better"-Maya Angelou