Ethical Consumerism

So, I’ve been thinking lately about the ideas of ethical consumerism and over-consumption.
It seems a hip thing these days for products to be marked “fair trade” or “ethical” or “organic,” creating a dilemma for those of us—and I believe we are many—who genuinely wish to make wise, ethical decisions with our purchases: suddenly, a distinction is a buzzword is a marketing ploy, and the already difficult task of ethically navigating the globalised marketplace feels nigh impossible.
But I’m beginning to wonder, perhaps instead of fretting over the question of whether to buy organically-grown-fair-trade variety X or independently-produced-ecologically-packaged variety Y, I would do better to ask whether I need the thing—the coffee, the fruit, the hoody, the whatever—in the first place.
So often, the answer is no (or would be, if I took the time to stop and ask it).
-pause-
Sometimes it seems impossible to buy anything—to move, to breathe—without finding out it is indirectly exploiting someone somewhere. And, at least for me, facing this can be paralyzing, almost despair-inducing at times. I want so much to demonstrate God’s love for His people and His earth through what I choose to do with the resources He gives me, and so often it seems to be a lose-lose situation.
I still don’t have it figured out. I still eat bananas (which can’t be grown locally in the Northwest) and go out for coffee with my friends, and buy the occasional clothing item and wonder every time I do where it came from and how I can know for sure.
(And even when I know, it’s complicated, hey? When I was in Kenya this last summer, one day I heard people lamenting that Europeans were supporting the exploitive, worker-poisoning Kenyan flower industry and should buy locally, and the next day I heard people lamenting that Europeans were withdrawing their support from the sustaining, job-giving Kenyan flower industry by buying too much locally.)
I guess for now, I’m going to continue, whenever possible, to buy things which were produced exploitation-free, and prayerfully to evaluate whether I need to buy them at all. But I mostly pray that some day it will all become clearer to me what living ethically actually looks like.