Meredith's Reviews > The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience 1

Horribly disappointing. I was looking for a balanced, research-based discussion of ethical consumerism, and most of the book was an extremely biased, zealous, one-sided tome on how George W. Bush was the closest thing we've every had to an antiChrist (the book repeatedly refers to him as "our simplest president." I don't care if that's what the author thinks -- but I DO care that the book is presented as a balanced reference guide, and it simply isn't balanced), and how the world is full of unethical people. And a lot of research and factoids won't hide narrow-minded presentation.

Not that it didn't have some interesting points. I thought the chapters on parent companies were extremely enlightening -- Did YOU know that Phillip Morris owns Kraft? -- and I appreciated that the author said that you didn't have to boycott every unethical company to be an ethical consumer. But he most of what he said didn't really support that idea. And he didn't really address any of the counter arguments to his viewpoints -- which is what I was really looking for. I think I'll stick with Pollan's views on consumerism.