Ahhh, smell that schadenfreude. George Clooney, the cow-eyed Hollywood heart-throb and activist, has declared himself "surprised and saddened" by the revelation that Nespresso may have been using child labour.

Clooney has been "global ambassador" for the coffee company for 14 years, and sits on its "sustainability advisory board" to help keep it ethical. But a new Channel 4 investigation has found that children as young as 11 are working on some Guatemalan farms that may supply Nespresso.

Why would a man with such a prominent social conscience, so prone to moralising, get into bed with Nespresso in the first place? The company – owned by Nestle, of baby milk infamy – single-handedly reinvented coffee-making to introduce a new form of superfluous packaging. Less than a third of its single-use capsules ever make it to one of Nespresso's specialist recycling centres. In Britain alone, around 350 million coffee pods (including those of copycat brands) get swept into landfill every year.

"He does not believe who does not live according to his belief," wrote the English cleric Thomas Fuller. If your deeds don't match your words, you will face accusations of being a hypocrite. And yet, I feel for Clooney. Because I am a hypocrite myself, and so are you. Living virtuously – an arduous task under any circumstances – is next to impossible when everything you eat, drink, wear and do depends on the complex supply lines of global capitalism.