Dealing with our disorders : Spirituality : Psychology : Society

Moving amongst so much materialistic junk & ideology it's very hard to be in a place of spirituality. Great interview. Thanks for sharing this Claire.
Posted by Sandra Ann Jobling on Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Consumer question of the day --- do you do know what FMCG stands for?

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer packaged goods (CPG) are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, toiletries, over-the-counter drugs, processed foods and many other consumables.^[1][2]

In contrast, durable goods or major appliances such as kitchen appliances are generally replaced over a period of several years. The term was coined by Neil H. Borden in The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1965 (1996, Prentice-Hall, Inc.).

FMCG have a short shelf life, either as a result of high consumer demand or because the product deteriorates rapidly. Some FMCGs, such as meat, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and baked goods, are highly perishable. Other goods, such as alcohol, toiletries, pre-packaged foods, soft drinks, and cleaning products, have high turnover rates.

Though the profit margin made on FMCG products is relatively small (more so for retailers than the producers/suppliers), they are generally sold in large quantities; thus, the cumulative profit on such products can be substantial. FMCG is probably the most classic case of low margin and high volume business. (This information is from Wikipedia)

To be a pro-active consumer has always taken quite a bit of thought. 

Consumer boycotts have a long history:

1.   Boycotts as we know them today began in the nineteenth century and had quite an effect.

• Boycotting goods produced by slaves
• Blood-stained goods: the transatlantic boycott of slave labor

2.   In modern times, we are concerned about what is being added to or put into the food we purchase. As well, we are concerned about chemicals in our cleaning products and our cosmetics.

3.   We are concerned about animal welfare - cruelty, experimental research etc., lack of humane guidelines for industrial animals.  

4.   Some of us, but not enough, want to purchase Australian products.  The time has long since gone (probably late 1960s/early 1970s) when a consumer could purchase in a supermarket a trolley full of products which were produced wholly in Australia by Australian labour employed by Australian-owned companies.  

5.   Labelling is often far from truthful and/or transparent.  Major powerful food and grocery organisations such as the Australian Food & Grocery Council lobby strongly against simpler and easily understood labelling which is honest about point of origin.  So one is left to think that in the confusion there is profit!  Perhaps even an escape from Australian standards?

6.  Consumers in the 21st century have now to be conscious of Fair Trade and trade in goods produced by forced, exploited and/or slave labour --- even when those goods are made in Australia.
Major corporations are not necessarily cleanskins on this issue.  Some of these are multi-national corporations who do one thing in Australia and another in countries where they can get away with less stringent watchfulness and where consumers are unable to demand high standards.

Like this case involving Nestle. 

This corporation has a significant production presence in Australia, including in Victoria.

There are no consumer visits to the Nestle factory in Tongala.
The person interested in how these well-known commonly used products
and would like to see how they are produced -
well, you won't get past the reception office and the security there.
Considering that generations of Australians have been supporting
the Tongala community, this seems a bit rich.

Make your Christmas shopping Fair Trade shopping

Keep an eye out for the Fairtrade Mark when Christmas shopping this weekend and give a gift that changes lives!

— Fairtrade Australia (@FairtradeAU) December 18, 2015

From The Simplicity Institute ... Sam Alexander speaks in Castlemaine

What is Degrowth? Envisioning a Prosperous Descent

This is a transcript of my keynote address presented at the ‘Local Lives, Global Matters’ conference in Castlemaine, Victoria, 16-18 October 2015.Other keynote speakers included Rob Hopkins, David Holmgren, and Helena Norberg-Hodge.

Introduction

Thank you for that introduction, Jacinta, good morning everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land and to recognise that these have always been spaces of teaching, learning, sharing, and conversation. It is a real honour to be part of this conversation today.

When I was a boy, if ever I were amongst a group of people congregating at 9am on a Sunday morning it was because I was at Church. For better or for worse, I am now a lapsed, or rather, I should say, a collapsed Catholic, although I remain a seeker. But as I look around the world today, especially from my Western perspective, it seems clear enough that God, if he is not yet dead, as Friedrich Nietzsche declared, is, at least, increasingly absent. There seems to be a tension between our spiritual sensibilities and the cultures and systems within which we live. As the poet-musician, Tom Waits, would shout in the voice of a husky wolf: ‘God’s away on business.’

But the absence of God should not imply an absence of religious thinking in our culture or cultures. In fact, I would argue quite the opposite; that our Western religiosity has become ever more intense in recent decades, and what has happened is that we simply switched idols, no longer worshipping the God of Christianity, and instead worshipping at the alter of growth, singing praises to the God of GDP, our saviour, for only in growth will we find redemption. Our high priests now take the peculiar form of neoclassical economists, bankers, and national treasurers. Daniel Bell once wrote in his landmark text, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism: ‘Economic growth is the secular religion of advancing industrial nations.’

 The above is from the transcript of Sam Alexander's speech recently given in Castlemaine. 

Sam is the founder of The Simplicity Insitute.  You can read Sam's speech in its entirety here.

We need to get our mind off our waist lines and on to the lines of waste that we are creating

Post by 1 Million Women.