What brands/products do you avoid and why?

[BellyBelly]

Share with us the brands and products you avoid and why.

[Roryrory]

Anything with ridiculous packaging - so no dippity bix, indiviually wrapped cakes, multi packs of chips, and so on. Also I avoid things that are inherently aimed at a consumer-driven, fast paced society - pre-cooked rice for example.

[luna moth]

I'd love to say I avoid anything with more than 4 ingredients in the list, but that hasn't been true since I discovered vegan Gingernut biscuits Yes, I should make my own.

I avoid:
Flavour Enhancer number anything (allergy)
Palm oil (habitat destruction)
Animal Products (environmental costs)
Nestle (partly because everything they sell has animal products, also because of the story i posted in brontide's boo hoo thread)

[LimeSlice]

Not sure as there are a few threads going related at the moment, but there was a VERY interesting Question Time in the Senate over the last week about Food Labelling Laws and the requirements to use the phrases "Australian Owned" and "Australian Made"

Will find the transcripts and post here - I was alarmed to say the least at what the minimum requirements are to actually put that on your label...

For example - a company can put "australian owned" on a product, even if all of its manufacturing and produce comes from OS...And only 50% of the product needs to be grown and/or processed in Australia to warrant an "Australian Made" label...

[Nelle]

Aieee Lime!

For me it's partly about avoiding products, and also going for what I see to be positive (even in part) products. And it gets compromised by budget sometimes.

I try to avoid Nestle owned products, because I'm passionately against their unethical practices.

I try to avoid cage eggs.

I try to go for fair trade products, like chocolate, tea and clothes.

I try to support Australian business, particularly local where I can afford to.

My personal choices tend to favour fair trade stuff first of all, I'm into humanity before I'm into the environment.

[Phteven]

Nelle, fair trade stuff tends to favour the environment as well as humanity. So often people are forced to trash their environments to meet the demands of mono-cropping although they would prefer to farm in more sustainable ways. By paying people a fair price we reduce that pressure.

[christy]

Whew its hard to narrow down for us...

We don't buy Nestle, J & J, or Proctor & Gamble products.

We have multiple food allergies and some intolerances so we have to avoid all dairy, some chemicals and preservatives.

We have our own chickens because I can't stand eggs that I don't know where they have come from.

I buy my meat from a butcher who can tell me where the cow or chicken was before it came to them & the conditions the animals lived in. I will not eat meat from a caged animal.