The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World [Paperback]

Leslie Garrett (Author), Peter Greenberg (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2007

Sure, there are people who chain themselves to old-growth trees, raise their one child diaper-free, and make their own soap. The Virtuous Consumer is for the rest of us, struggling to make choices that are better for the planet — and for us. Leslie Garrett has created a comprehensive reference guide that — like a smart, funny, and eco-conscious friend — will steer you toward ethical purchases for everything from lipstick to cars, kids' toys to a new mattress. The Virtuous Consumer is your key to shopping consciously and creating a simpler, greener lifestyle.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The right book at the right time! Garrett's accessible and informative book is a road map for how we can use our power as shoppers and citizens to shape a better future for the planet and our children." — Stacy Malkan, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics "A guide for the green, and the green at heart....Enjoyable and non-guilt-inducing, this book helps us protect the planet by separating the hydrocarbons from the hydrogenated fats." — Dan Becker, Sierra Club's Global Warming Program "Leslie Garrett brings consumer choice to the table with a pragmatic, light heart in The Virtuous Consumer. In a time when consumerism and lifestyle have a momentous impact on our planet and in our homes, this book offers information, options, and solutions for shaping change." — Renée Loux, author of The Balanced Plate, celebrity chef, and TV personality --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Back Cover

"The right book at the right time! Garrett's accessible and informative book is a road map for how we can use our power as shoppers and citizens to shape a better future for the planet and our children."
-- Stacy Malkan, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

"A guide for the green, and the green at heart. . . . Enjoyable and non-guilt-inducing, this book helps us protect the planet by separating the hydrocarbons from the hydrogenated fats."
-- Dan Becker, Sierra Club's Global Warming Program

"Leslie Garrett brings consumer choice to the table with a pragmatic, light heart in The Virtuous Consumer. In a time when consumerism and lifestyle have a momentous impact on our planet and in our homes, this book offers information, options, and solutions for shaping change."
-- Renée Loux, author of The Balanced Plate, celebrity chef, and TV personality

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: New World Library (June 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930722745
• ISBN-13: 978-1930722743
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Idea that Whimpers to an End, October 21, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (Paperback)

Halfway through the book I wrote "superb, clear-cut," and then the book whimpered to an end. This is a very good idea, it was offered for sale at Bioneers 2007, so I have left it at four stars in part because of that and in part because I liked the specifications of brands that made the grade.

The book consists of 11 short parts with the first six being fairly robust and useful, and the last five whimpering to an end, rather pedestrian and not as illuminating or diverse as the earlier sections.

1) PERSONAL: Cosmetics, tampons and pads, sex toys, all toxic if you buy the wrong brands. Woman's pee going into the oceans with artificial estrogen lowering the sperm count of ocean animals (this at the same time that human male sperm count is nose-diving for varied other reasons).

2) ECO-CHIC covers clothing and does a good job of outlining vitual water, sweatshop costs, and (new to me) the dry cleaning implications when wash and wear is not the default option. Similarly, jewlery is rife with blood diamonds and so on, new to me was the integrity of Canadian jewlery, the value of synthetic, and used jewlery.

3) FOOD advises among many other things to avoid farm fish (I would add, avoid Wal-Wart fish as their practices are destroying the South Pacific), be conscious of genetic and pesticide hand-me-downs (arsenic in fast food chicken from the feed seeking to kill worms in the chickens). Pays tribute to the "slow food" movement (something my wife and I are designing the new kitchen toward, inspired by the week I spent in a French country kitchen in Provance).

4) KIDS, avoid plastic, plastic, plastic. I was very surprised to learn about the relatively toxic nature of most plastic. I knew about the arsenic in the old wood playground sets. Wood toys recommended, used toys recommended. Excellent emphasis on how asthma in kids is sky-rocketing (and I would add, especially in low income neighborhoods with little green and excessive idling trucks) from pollution. Good emphasis on how many countries are forbidding advertising toward children.

5) CLEAN LIVING focuses on the relative toxicity of specific cleaners, many of which increase the oil in the water downstream. Suggests that one read and sort all items by the relative danger warnings on the labels, cut use fo detergent in half, buy a front loader washer for dramatic energy and water savings. Encourages the washing and re-use of zip lock bags, the elmination of seran wrap (and my wife told me tonight, now known to transfer toxicity to food when used in the microwave). Recommends trash triage, home compost hear. Useful pointer to web site 41pounds.org where for $41 a year, they will do all the work needed to eliminate all jumk mail (I sealed my office mail address and got a post box, achieved the same effect but at a higher cost). As with most Bioneers, the book is very strongly against buying water in plastic bottles, pointing out that most such water is tap water, and that the plastic bottles are one of the greatest threats we impose on the ocean. In this section, I have the notation, "superb list of web sites" largely in relation to computer take-back programs.

6) HOME is a lot of common sense, including no carpets, wood suspect because of toxicity of the sealants, cork and bamboo tops (I was enchanted by bamboo home and furniture exhibits at Bioneers). Green your home room by room, do NOT use petroleum-based candles, insist on beeswax or soy-based candles, don't use chlorine for pools and cleaning.

7) ENERGY, standard stuff.

8) GARDEN. basic.

9) CAR. Pedestrian.

10) Pets, ho hom.

11) Holidays, cute, some interesting detail.

Bottom line: I read it to the very end and I recommend it for buying, but this is a book that could be executed better, and it could be converted into a website in which one can select where they want to be on the greenness meter, and then print out a list of recommended everything by clicking on categories of interest. I think of this as a superb first generation effort, and look forward to seventh generation variations. In that vein, I am very excited by the possibilties of combining the "true cost" information being gradually built up within the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER), and the ability to use a cell phone to read a bar code, send it to WISER (eventually, not today) and get back the "true cost" as well as the txicity of the item, with alteranatives recommended by price and store.

Good book on balance, a fine use of my time on the flight back.

See also:
Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy
Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and funny., November 8, 2007

By 

Lori Hill "Geeky Green Gal" (Burtonsville, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (Paperback)

My boyfriend bought this book for me and I've since bought 5 copies that I have passed on to friends! It is VERY informative and makes you aware of why you should and should not use certain products. While it makes you concerned about our future, it doesn't have too much of an alarmist attitude and throws in HILARIOUS comic relief. I LOVE Leslie Garrett's tone!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virtuous Consumer 07, October 3, 2007

By 

natvh (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (Paperback)

I love this book! I wanted to get back into being eco-conscious (fell out during those wild years of college in the mid-90s, I'm so ashamed) and this book was a wonderful jumping off point. Sections on clothes, cosmetics, house products, kids, cars, gardening, etc. are thorough and fun to read. I will use it as a reference forever! In fact, I'll re-read it before I get pregnant and before I buy a house.

While I want to buy another copy of this book to inspire my not-so-eco-conscious but very pregnant cousin, my granola brother would find it too basic. That is NOT to say it is armchair environmentalism. Ms. Garrett is serious about being green in every way she can be without disengaging from popular culture: she has switched to a green power provider and composts, etc. And while she may not be 100%, her quest is inspirational. I just hope she updates every few years because I want to know more places to turn to for products and ideas.

I also bought and recommend "Clean House, Clean Planet" by Logan and "Living Green" by Horn.