Green Options » Equal Exchange

Three Reasons Why Homemade Hot Cocoa Saves Time, Money and the Planet (Recipe Included)

Lisa Kivirist — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:59:04 +0000

We cranked up the woodstove for the first time this season last night at Inn Serendipity. The cool, fall nighttime breezes have arrived here in Wisconsin, and that means just one thing: time for hot cocoa. But not just any hot cocoa. When my husband, John Ivanko, and I moved from Chicago apartments to our Wisconsin farm, we traded convenience for countryside. No more quick runs to the mini mart store at the end of the urban block for a missing ingredient. . With civilization now a fifteen-minute drive away, I’ve learned the art of self-sufficiency by creatively making store bought mixes with pantry ingredients.

Hot cocoa serves up a good example of how making your own mixes from pantry staples deliver benefits on multiple fronts:

Almond Butter Oaties and an Earth Balance Give Away

Jamie Ervin — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:41:28 +0000

My favorite vegan, GMO free margarine is Earth Balance. It works well with the many allergies and celiac in our family. Because soy is among the eight most common allergens, Earth Balance now has a soy free spread and to get the word out we get to give some free coupons away.

Earth Balance Soy Free Spread is vegan, all natural, free of gluten, lactose and soy, has zero grams of transfat and is a great source of omega 3’s.

Here’s our favorite recipe for a gluten free, dairy free, vegan treat which everyone loves. We always bake with Earth Balance. The best part is no one knows these goodies are healthy (sweet, yes… but also chock full of good stuff) unless you tell them!

Stimulate Cheap Valentine’s Day Fun: Recipe for Organic, Fair Trade Chocolate Body Paint

Lisa Kivirist — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:52:21 +0000

What do you get when you mix the red of Valentine’s Day with some green? Not green as in heaps of cash. Think green as in feel-good, save the planet – with a dash of that other green message the M&M market lustfully embraced this V-Day. Ahem.

Red and green blended make brown – think brown as in rich, sweet chocolate. And in the spirit of the love season, think chocolate served as body paint, Valentine’s Day art supplies for grown-ups served naked with a warm smile. Yummy.

Perhaps you’re searching fro a new way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Instead of an expensive dinner out or a bouquet of imported flowers from thousands of miles away, try chocolate. Au naturale.

Love and sustainability mix well, especially when you cook up the (vegan!) recipe for I Love You Freely and Fairly Eco Chocolate Body Paint below. What makes this recipe different than the commercial body paint stuff you see floating around this time of year? True love, baby, true love. Love for the planet, your pocketbook and, as an extra bonus, the long-term health of your sweetie:

Handmade Holiday: The Fair Trade Craft Fair

Julie Finn — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:09:36 +0000

Like to shop Fair Trade? Like to shop handmade? Consider combining the two this holiday season by finding and supporting a local craft fair that supports Fair Trade and Equal Exchange practices.

A Fair Trade craft fair will likely include the following components:

1. craft makers and handmade artisans who utilize eco-conscious materials and practices, and, where relevant, Fair Trade and Equal Exchange principles.

2. third-party or larger vendors selling only Fair Trade or Equal Exchange products.

3. food vendors offering local and artisanal products or imported Fair Trade or Equal Exchange products.

Or, you can make your own Fair Trade craft fair by visiting any traditional holiday craft fair and only buying items that fit within a worldwide eco-friendly and Fair Trade ethic.

If you do, be sure to tell the vendors you bought from why they got your love!

Celebrate Fair Trade Month

Brady Swenson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:27:56 +0000

As I continue to write and think about the issue
of Fair Trade, it becomes more and more apparent to me that our economic system is a root cause for a wide array of our world’s woes. Instances of poverty, disease, wars (and the dehumanization that accompanies all three), and our quickly degrading environment occuring all over the world (but especially in the poorer Southern hemisphere) can all be traced back to an economic system that prizes pure economic profit above all else: above fairer distribution of the world’s wealth, above the health of the world’s poor, above the lives of those unfortunate enough to live in resource-rich regions targeted by corporations (and therefore governments and militaries) and even, amazingly, above nature and its delicate environment that produces these economically valuable resources. This economic system, very obviously, is unfair and unsustainable. We can do better.

Fair Trade is proving that an economic system that focuses on a triple-bottom line (considering people, planet and profit as equally important outcomes of business operation) can work, and work better, for everyone and everything involved. October is Fair Trade Month and Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Month page says it best: this is indeed "a great opportunity for people throughout the United States to support, promote and celebrate a socially responsible system of trade that prioritizes the needs of human beings and the environment over the drive for profits."

So this is the month to get involved and make some collective noise about economic justice and sustainability. One great way to shout out is to direct a video about Fair Trade for the Connect with Fair Trade Video Contest. Doing so could just end in your visiting a Peruvian Fair Trade farming co-operative courtesy of TransFair. If you make a great video and end up winning, I also suggest you write to GO editor Jeff McIntire-Strasburg and offer to do a write-up of your experience in Peru.

According to TransFair, 56% of people who are aware of Fair Trade make a point to purchase Fair Trade certified products whenever available. Help increase awareness and availability of Fair Trade products by encouraging your local grocery market to carry Fair Trade and participate in the Fair Trade month celebration. TransFair makes it easy with educational marketing materials and contest promotions to intrigue customers.

Perhaps my favorite Fair Trade month promotion joins activism and a great holiday, Halloween. Order your Fair Trade Trick or Treat action kit from Global Exchange, and you’ll have everything you need to tell others just how boo-tiful(!) trade can be: tasty chocolate from Equal Exchange, and knowledge of a better way to trade.

At the very least, talk to your friends and family about this idea, email this article around, whatever little bit you can do to just keep the Fair Trade buzz growing.

Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade Revival

Brady Swenson — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:59:58 +0000

As any movement for change develops and grows, it will face challenges to its original intentions. When a movement grows to the point that it begins to move from the fringes into the mainstream, as the Fair Trade movement has, it will face a host of difficult challenges. Most dramatically, the Fair Trade movement faces a trial of integrity as some of the largest corporations in the world are trying to take advantage of growing market interest in Fair Trade, and Fair Trade production begins to shift more and more to large farms and large organizations to meet demand.

The Fair Trade movement began in North America with small non-profit and church-affiliated organizations buying high-quality hancrafted goods from small cooperating groups of women, and bringing them directly to market in the U.S. and Canada. At the same time in Eurpoe, Dutch organization Max Havelaar began importing coffee from small coffee co-operatives in the South. The emphasis was on direct, long-term trade relationships with small, democratically organized co-operatives. The mere size of the organizations involved in these relationships acted as a guradian of integrity. Now that larger organizations with different core values are involved on both sides, some in the Fair Trade movement are worried that it will no longer be able to deliver on its promises to producers and consumers.

Equal Exchange, a pioneer and Fair Trade market leader in the U.S. since 1986, is trying to remind the newcomers to the movement of its heritage. The small vs. large producer dichotomy is most pronounced in the Fair Trade tea market, where 99% of Fair Trade tea is sourced from large plantations. In a move it says is "intended to catalyze changes in the tea industry", Equal Exchange announced on Wednesday the availability of seven new organic, Fair Trade teas sourced almost entirely from democratic co-operatives of small-scale growers in India, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Equal Exchange says it "seeks to demonstrate to both the tea industry and the tea-drinking public that small farmers, and their co-operatives, can produce a variety of excellent, organic teas."

Co-founder and Executive Director Rink Dickinson recently visited two of Equal Exchange's tea partners in India and South Africa, and described the new initiative this way:

Unlike with some other foods or beverages, the small-scale tea grower continues to be overlooked and is never thought about. Our goals are to put the small farmer back into the picture, create an alternative economic model with them, and to show the wider world just how wonderful their tea can be.

Equal Exchange will also show the wider world just how a large wholesaler such as itself can sucessfully source tea from many small cooperatives. De-centralizing production by working with small cooperatives will de-centralize wealth, which is exactly one end the Fair Trade movement has sought since its inception. I applaud Equal Exchange for reminding us all of that goal at this critical time in the evolution of Fair Trade.