Masterfoods: Not evil, merely stupid

[matgb]

Hmm, good news for a change, Masterfoods no longer evil:Mars said it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.
Merely very very stupid. Was going to post about the sheer idiocy when mooism first posted on the 8th (note, that was 6 days before the BBC caught up), but things got lost in the shuffle. They were using the excuse that "

Comments

[paulatpingu]

It's a good move, the right move, and shows how much the Vegetarian Society and vegetarianism as a whole has progressed that it can force a major company to rethink it's plans, and so quickly too.

Pro or anti about Vegetarianism doesn't matter. this is all about consumer power and market forces. People trying to promote or slight vegetarianism based on this outcome will just end up looking stupid...

PS You do know G&B is owned by Cadbury's, right? Not that that's a bad thing, 'M just saying.

[matgb]

Yup, can remember the fuss and all the interviews when they got bought out; Cadbury were making a thing about 'we always were an ethical company and we'd like to go back to that', and G&Bs were all 'we can concentrate on making good chocolate and worry less about the crap'.

But yeah; much more about market forces being used for good than anything else, it always surprises me when people on the left whinge about markets and the right say they're in favour of them, it really ought to be the other way around.

[davegodfrey]

The founder of G&B is a little odd especially if you criticise his mate Mrs McKeith.

And the only chocolate in the range that is actually fair trade is the Maya Gold one. How ethical the others are is not entirely clear.

[matgb]

From what I remember last time this was discussed, without opening yet more tabs (because I just shut loads to get it down to 15), they buy something like 80% of the entire worlds supply of organic chocolate, because all their products are organic. They also buy 95% of all the fair trade organic chocolate, which is enough for them to make Maya Gold.

They're working on making more organice chocolate fair trade, but the fair trade marque itself isn't needed to make it ethical stuff, in fact, some firms, such as Whittards, use a different scheme which they argue is better than Fair Trade.

But yeah, he's president of the soil association, therefore I mark him as loon anyway. He's just a loon on my side of the big picture stuff, and is entitled to think the poo lady is valid, just as we're entitled to side with Dr Ben and laugh at both of them.

[tyrell]

Ah, the old "Vegetarian / Fish" debate...

[matgb]

??? Why for a week, are you just joining in for the hell of it or something?

Plus, £13? That's crazy good. Marie not working or something?

*ducks, hides, runs a bit more*

[matgb]

Fair enough, hope she's OK.

I think the ethics of it are important, my main objection to meat production is factory farming; I've got a huge amount of time for traditional and organic farmers who look after their animals properly.

[lostinarden]

I don't think I knew you were veggie as well.

The whole "I'm a vegitarian but I eat fish sometimes" makes me twitch. I correct people who assume that about me, but when someone tells me that I reply, "Oh, so you're not a vegitarian then."

[matgb]

15 years now, but it's not something I tend to go on about; I had the same reaction from two LJ friends I went out for a meal with, I had no idea they were both veggie and they didn't know I was, despite us all having it listed in the profiles. If it's acheived anything, the masterfoods thing has informed me of more veggie friends than I knew I had...

But yeah, I do that at times, I had to stop myself at work because it tended to offend the hosts a bit when I told them off, but I don't work there any more. The Vegsoc link to the fish campaign is in my regular use bookmarks, so useful to just be able to tell people to go read.

[caseytalk]

I'm not a vegetarian as I do eat fish, but no other meats. However, I have a tendency to say I'm vegetarian when some one asks me to dinner or whatever as I end up having to spend less time explaining my dietary restrictions than if I say I'm kosher.

It turns out that the easiest way to keep kosher is to be a vegetarian. Fish with fins and scales are considered neither meat nor dairy, which is why I eat it.

Did you know that the Book of Mormon says that Mormons should not eat meat or, if they do, to limit it as much as possible? Most Mormons don't follow that one, but it's in there. Muslims have dietary restrictions, too, of course. Interesting that most religions with dietary restrictions could meet their requirements most easily by becoming vegetarians.

[matgb]

I have a couple religious friends who find it easier to declare themselves vege, and visiting two_brains for a meal was cool, not sure they're strictly kosher but they had a huge variety of non-meat options I'd nver even heard of before.

I don't know much about the religious strictures of many faiths; background, history and core belief, yes, I'm normally fairly strong, but what the faith requires I'm vague about; doesn't affect me, so it matters not.