Empowering The Consumer To Make Better Choices

It's easy, as a consumer, to pass the responsibility onto retailers, and simply trust the marketing material that they push to you. In this era we live in, where we have copious amounts of information, we need to double check what we are fed.  If we want to put our conscience at ease in terms of the choices we make based on the information we trusted, we have to also make an effort to learn. I can hear you thinking "I don't have time for that"! Be honest, not having time and not wishing to make time available are two different scenarios.

Food debates seem to have become as divisive as race or religion it would seem. When I discovered the world of  "organic" and "free range", I didn't know enough about the differences and benefits. I trusted my gut feeling, that I should lean towards what my forefathers ate, including mimicking how the food they ate got to their table. It's not about going and hunting the food myself, it's about understanding who is involved from the farmer, the distributor, the retailer and the consumer.

Bear in mind, my view is there are many ailments that I see people having to live with today, that generations ago did not exist. Yes, I know that just because generations ago we had not defined the ailments, and measured them, it didn't mean they did not exist. If you believe that the severity of these problems then was the same as today, then you can stop reading this post now, as my thinking will not be of any use to you.

How much will it cost you to sit and look at the labelling on the food that you buy? Empower yourself, because leaving that to the retailer who is looking to sell you the goods is making yourself vulnerable to the "buyer beware" clause. I prefer bringing getting closer to information parity, where I will be closer to knowing what the seller knows, giving them little wiggle room to lie, mislead or manipulate me unfairly.

A classic case in point is the Grass Action Consumer Group work on Woolworths and their marketing of their organic and free range dairy products. Free Range and Organic is not legislated in South Africa, leaving producers and retailers to set their own standards as to what that is. To put it another, would you trust the integrity of someone's test results if they told you they marked their own test?

Dan Pink talks of Caveat Emptor, in his book To Sell Is Human. I opt for Caveat Venditor! The former refers to buyer beware, the latter refers to seller beware. Depending on which side of the fence you are transacting from, I get that you might choose differently. If that is not enough to drive you to action, then maybe watch this video on The Secret Of Food Marketing by Kate Cooper.