Ethical & Environmental Concerns (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Benefits

Costs

Many small farms in the UK grown organic produce, using fewer pesticides, which could have health benefits

Local sourcing of meat and vegetables can be expensive

UK farmers earn more by manufacturing goods such as jams, fruit juices and wine

Less demand from the UK for food from developing countries can have a negative impact on their economic growth

Local sourcing can help people to reduce their carbon footprint

Some products e.g., tomatoes, are grown in heated greenhouses during winter in the UK which produces a larger carbon footprint than if they were imported from Spain

Strategy

Actions

Advantages

Disadvantages

Fairtrade

The Fairtrade certification scheme offers a guaranteed higher income to farmers

Examples of Fair trade products: coffee, bananas, chocolate,clothes

Fair trade goods inform consumers that what they have spent on the product will reach the farmers

Not all consumers will pay more for Fair trade products

It is impossible for all farmers in the world to join this scheme

Supply Chain Monitoring

Large businesses start to accept the need for social responsibility

TNCs have thousands of suppliers which increases the risk of branded products being associated with exploitation

Some TNCs such as Gap and Nike not ban worker exploitation in their own factories overseas

Difficult to monitor working conditions

Especially difficult to control working conditions in factories of their suppliers’ suppliers

NGO Action

Charity War on Want helped South African fruit pickers by flying a worker to a Tesco shareholder meeting in London. 

Tesco told the farm it would use a different supplier if working conditions did not improve

Raise awareness of ethical issues 

NGOs have limited financial resources which can limit the scale of their impact

People still remain unaware or are not concerned with worker exploitation