some companies claim to use ‘ethical’ down, which means the geese are killed first. How many geese for a duvet?
I think ethical down generally is a byproduct of the food industry, so the geese are killed to be eaten and then plucked rather than being killed and not being plucked. In an ideal world the geese have a nice life roaming free and eating natural stuff before being killed and eaten. I doubt they care what happens to their feathers once they’re dead.
The whole ethical down thing is a nightmare. Mountain Equipment did a huge amount of work to audit their down process to make sure it was as humane and ethical as possible – http://www.thedownproject.me.uk – but it’s really hard to keep control of that, how do you know, for example, that your down processor only ever sources down from the farms it says it does?
That’s a specialist outdoors company with a relatively small appetite for down, but a proper conscience, mass-produced duvet brands, you have to think, just aren’t going to go into that level of scrutiny. On top of that, apparently the Chinese have discovered duvets, cue more demand for down, higher prices, potentially even less care.
Interestingly a few outdoors companies are starting to use synthetics designed to perform to similar levels as down, though I doubt that stuff’s out in the duvet market yet.
