The superficial consumer

1409: 

We love to go shopping, imitating the carefree hedonism of the rich, buying almost anything that takes our fancy.  It's the nearest some people get to living ‘life to the full’.  If we can afford to buy what we want, then nothing else should stand in our way.  If it's animal-based food, then it’s essential to give no thought to ethics or environment and minimal thought to health - when buying ‘animal’.  Today, going shopping is a favourite sport.  The more freely we take part in the sheer fun of it, the better it feels.

         

But today nothing concerning animal-based foods is straightforward.  It should be impossible to sustain that carefree-no-thinking when buying many products on the food market.  The link between animal products and cruelty is obvious and well known, certainly known about enough for people to think twice before buying.

Seventy years ago people would have been horrified at the thought of putting hens in tiny cages for their whole life in order to produce eggs.  It would have been considered diabolical, and yet today we accept it.  We eat eggs and products containing eggs, and think nothing of it.  If we thought about it we’d have to question our very humanity.  Thinking about the ‘rights of animals’, and then voluntarily restricting our choices, would seem ridiculous to the majority of food shoppers.  They believe that if we want it and it’s available and if we have the money for it we buy it - no questions asked.