Companies without clearly defined policies and programmes on labour standards in their supply chains could soon be excluded from the FTSE4Good family of ethical indices.
Proposed new criteria state that companies in the retail, household goods, textiles and food sectors will not be allowed in the indices unless they have public policies covering supply chain labour standards backed by management systems, training, a monitoring regime to handle policy breaches, and regular progress reports.
Seven out of ten members of the UK public are unable to name a single company they consider to be particularly socially, environmentally or ethically responsible, says a Mori poll. Jenny Dawkins, director of Mori's Corporate Social Responsibility study, said the survey suggested companies need to improve their communication on CSR.
Three-quarters of the British population say more information on a company's social and ethical behaviour would influence their purchasing decisions, according to the poll. Furthermore, nearly nine in 10 people (86%) think companies should actively communicate their community activities and six in 10 (59%) say it is acceptable for companies to benefit from these activities.
Raising a hand for the pro-GM camp, UK scientists assert that there is an ethical obligation to explore the benefits that genetically modified crops could offer people in developing countries. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics argues that GM crops could significantly improve agriculture in developing countries but it warns against considering GM technology in isolation.
The recently-updated discussion paper warns that "Britain is ignoring a moral imperative to promote GM foods suitable for tropical and sub-tropical nations." However, African and Indian experts disagree.
"...the moral imperative is in fact the opposite. The policy of drawing of funds away from low-cost sustainable agriculture research, towards hi-tech, exclusive, expensive and unsafe technology is itself ethically questionable" -- Dr Tewolde Egziabher, Ethiopia.
"The newfound morality is merely a smokescreen. Nuffield Council is actually making a strong plea for GM research so as to provide job security to its scientists. If the shutter is pulled on GM research in UK, joblessness in scientific field will multiply. The Nuffield Council is therefore equally guilty of exploiting hunger for the sake of providing employment to British science graduates." -- Dr Devinder Sharma, India.
The major high-street supermarkets, including Asda, Sainsbury's, Safeway and Tesco are using eggs from hens kept in cruel battery cages in their own-brand vegetarian products, according to the RSPCA.
The RSPCA questioned 11 retailers and five major food manufacturers about whether they use battery eggs in their vegetarian goods and used the findings to produce a guide of those products that contain only free-range or barn eggs. The survey found that nine out of the 11 supermarkets' own-brand vegetarian products contain battery eggs.
Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is also the biggest private employer in Mexico, with over 100,164 workers on its payroll there. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions -- nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country.
Wal-Mart's power is changing Mexico in the same way it changed the economic landscape of the United States, and with the same formula: cut prices relentlessly, pump up productivity, pay low wages, ban unions, give suppliers the tightest possible profit margins and sell everything under the sun for less than the guy next door.
