Nobody needs a degree on environmental issues to know that organic, fairtrade, green, natural, are categories being used as marketing strategies to sell certain products. Mostly related with food.

I want to gather the most unexpected and dubious products tagged as ethical in order to rise the sells. But as well I would like to make a category of products that are obviously organic or nature that some retailers just put the tag only to rise the prices.

The tags consumers recognise

This two category list just came out of the fact that recently I was walking with a friend in a very trendy neighbour and there was this pretty hemp bag, which price was £18 just for the fact of being “organic” and “fairtrade”. 

It wasn’t a design bag nor a fashion store, it was a simple fancy grocery store with the most simple grocery bag. But the clerk make a very clear point with those tags being the main reason. Not letting any space to question to the high price nor the reasons why he said so.

Ethical products associations problems

• Posh.
• Expensive.
• Excentric.
• Snob.
• Pretentious.

What is to be said when as Mark Morford writes “This is the harsh reality, the real cost of mainstream organic. There apparently aren’t enough happy small, Earth-conscious local farms around to produce this stuff in sufficient quantities to feed the entire Wal-Mart nation. Massive compromises have been made. And those compromises mean “organic” is a shell of its former self.” 

Just that this situation in one form or another leads to reduce the amount of chemicals in mainstream products?