I’m a few weeks into this month’s change; to be more ethical in my milk choices. I wrote in my last blog about attempting to buy local in the hope of guaranteeing I’m paying a fair price for my milk, cutting down on my carbon footprint whilst choosing a fresher, more healthy option. This led me to buy Our Cow Molly milk which is made at a great local dairy.
‘Is ethical ever an option for those on a budget?’ – this was the question I posed at the end of my last blog. Well let’s just take milk, I was spending £1 on four pints of milk, I’m now spending £1.80. So the simple answer is yes, this is costing me significantly more. We have a pretty strict budget (as an aside we use a budgeting app called MoneyWiz) but I can honestly say that we haven’t spent more on food over these few weeks. I think this is simply down to the fact that we have made other choices to enable us to spend more on milk. The reality is that saving 80p hasn’t been too hard but it has been a conscious decision. Last week I chose not to buy an extra treat at the supermarket because I knew we needed some money left in the budget for buying milk the following day. The most helpful thing I’ve found is to buy milk first then adjust my budget, this way my (somewhat feeble) attempts to be ethical are slowly being made a priority in my consumer choices.
And I suppose that’s what it comes down to…choices. I realise that I’m privileged that our budget allows us to not have to cut other essentials from my weekly shop in order to support local businesses and farmers. Having worked for a charity that does great things with the homeless and vulnerable I have seen first hand that this is not a choice for many.
But therein lies another challenge, while those of us who have the ability to make more ethically conscious choices don’t, we put no pressure on producers to start being more ethical which in turn results in the ethical option being priced out of the market. Who knew the milk month would get this deep!?
When it comes to the money my choice to go local comes down to two things;
Firstly financially, I want to make a choice that preferences paying the correct price over paying the cheapest. Farmers deserve to be paid a fair price, if I can’t afford it, I should probably still buy local but just drink less.
Secondly I’m putting my money where my mouth is and choosing to vote with my pound, the more of us who do this, who knows, we could make a change!
Next week I’ll be reviewing, honestly, how I’ve done and sharing my reflections on what milk has taught me!