There is a rather large difference between fair trade products and fair trade companies, says Mary Morison, executive director of the Fair Trade Resource Network. Large corporations that sell or promote individual products are likely to have a weaker effect on their overseas labor practice or at least are not dedicated to effecting reform. “Large companies are counting on consumers to make the leap so they look good and can access a particular market segment they’ve been unsuccessful in reaching,” she says. On the positive end, by providing fair trade options in big box stores, more people have access to making responsible decisions and voting with their dollars.

While some debate that big can also be fair, others work hard to keep fair trade small and protect the purity of fair trade programs. Some support the efforts of McDonald’s, for example, which purchase coffee from the fair trade company Green Mountain Roasting Company. This type of opportunity sustains the jobs and wages of those who grow the coffee. On the other hand, some say it dilutes the standards and morals of the movement.

This debate on how far to go with sustainable and healthy products and services is the topic of the decade. Do we go big with organics? Are we willing to sacrifice the intensity of the source to make the product/service accessible to more consumers who could benefit from healthier food?

When I think about fair trade, I think of model companies such as Equal Exchange that goes above and beyond the fair trade model. Since 1986, the company imports organic coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars. With all their ingredients grown on democratically run farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Equal Exchange is able to play a large role in building democracy in these areas. They are equally passionate about building a fair and responsible work environment as they are supplying great coffee and chocolate to American consumers. “We want more profound transformations than just a kinder, gentler version of the status quo,” says Rodney North, spokesperson for Equal Exchange. “Fair trade’s historic focus has been on bottom-up economic development.”

Rodney North of Equal Exchange also argues that the “entrée of multinational corporations threatens the original goal of the fair trade movement, which was to build an alternative approach to international trade that addresses the endemic poverty, economic vulnerability, and isolation for the millions of small scale farmers who grow most of the world’s tropical agricultural commodities”.

It is hard to say what is good or bad. If we keep in mind that in supporting fair trade practices we are respecting our food and thus respecting all of those involved who bring it to us. This movement is meant to allow consumers to simply and consciously vote with their dollars, and provide fair opportunities worldwide. With this in mind, and we can help to keep the potency of the movement strong.

The majority of these quotes were taken from the Utne Reader’s Fair Trade Tradeoffs

Editor’s note: We’re very happy to welcome Lisa Kivirist to the Green Options writing team! Lisa, along with husband John Ivanko, is the author of Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life (which we reviewed), and Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity. Lisa and John own and run Inn Serendipity, a central Wisconsin bed and breakfast.

Like clockwork, three opportunities come our way every day to make the world a better place: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Add in snacks, and our daily eating choices can collectively add up to significant impact on our planetary tides.

But with the buffet of eating options – from mega supermarket aisles to lengthy restaurant menus that resemble encyclopedias — making educated food choices can border on overwhelming. Simple strategies help.

Being from Wisconsin, we feel compelled to sprinkle in some cheese references, and frankly, we first encountered the "Eat High, Use Less" strategy in our local cheese store. Bruno, a Swiss cheesemaker who runs Alp and Dell, the cheese store adjacent to the Roth Kase cheese factory here in Monroe, shared this insight with us: In Europe, where folks arguably know their fine cheeses, they eat about eighty percent of their cheese. By "eat," he means savoring a nice slice of cheese, perhaps accompanied with some bread or fruit. The focus is on the flavor. The remaining twenty percent gets used in cooking. In the United States, the opposite rough statistic holds true: we cook with about eighty percent of our cheese and eat only twenty percent; with gobs of it on pizza, the focus is on our enjoyment of the fat.

Bruno helped shift our thinking that day, prompting us to focus on eating less, but eating better. Quality versus quantity. A fine-quality hard parmesan cheese may cost more, but just a few grates of such a flavorful cheese can dress up a whole bowl of pasta or Caesar salad. Rather than guzzling whatever java was on sale, savor one flavorful cup of Equal Exchange Sumatra, a fair trade, organic coffee.

Some tips on eating better by using less:

• Cut back on quantity. Flavor tends to increase with higher quality foods, so you may find you can get away with less quantity, which adds up to cost savings. We found this to be the case with coffee. We just needed to just fill our coffee maker two thirds full with Equal Exchange Sumatra, yet the coffee brewed was nicely full flavored.
• Upgrade slowly. Every year we pick a handful of food items we regularly use and see if the “eat high, use less” theory can apply. Chocolate readily fell into this category, but we were discouraged by the pricey fair trade, organic offerings. Undaunted to cut back on chocolate, we found that dry, unsweetene baking cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix) – still fair trade and organic – delivered a cost savings when mixed with sugar or other ingredients as needed in recipes. When a recipe calls for a one-ounce unsweetened baking chocolate square, simply and economically substitute three tablespoons unsweetened cocoa mixed with one tablespoon of vegetable oil.

Confession: This moist, richly flavored chocolate muffin is really a cupcake in disguise. These vegan muffins use cocoa powder and is from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity:

Cocoa Muffins

Ingredients:

1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
3 T. cocoa powder
1 t. vinegar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla
1 c. water

Directions:

• Grease 12 standard size muffin cups.
• Mix together all ingredients.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 12 muffins.

London-based brand Hug, well known for their womens wear, recently re-released their unique children's line called Little Green Radicals. Available for babies and toddlers, all items are made from organic, certified Fair Trade, and sweatshop-free cotton in Egypt and India. Also noted on the brand's website: all prints "have been produced using the most ecological water based inks available."

While basic items like bibs, t-shirts, playsuits, denim are available, they are beyond boring. Graphics featuring phrases like "panda-monium," "I recycle my tantrums," "I only eat organic turnips," and "give peas a chance" come in vibrant shades of red, pink, blue, green, and yellow. Prices range from £5-£28 (roughly $10-$55) and items are available on the company's website. I did some searching and have not yet found an online store in the States that sells the line, so unfortunately, items would still have to be shipped from the UK.

As the Fair Trade movement continued to grow the idea of a certified label spread to other countries participating in the movement until most countries in Europe, the U.S. and Canada had established third-party labelling organizations. In 1997 these labelers created an umbrella organization, the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, with the mission to "set the Fairtrade Standards, support, inspect and certify disadvantaged producers and harmonize the Fairtrade message across the movement."

Today 20 independent labelling organizations are members of FLO, in the U.S. TransFair USA is the FLO certifying organization. These organizations certify an ever growing list of commodities including coffee, tea, sugar, fresh fruits, cocoa, rice and vanilla. These products are certified before they are imported into participating markets and are then given the right to use the Fair Trade label on packaging.

However, not all products lend themselves to Fair Trade certification the way farmed commodities do. Although coffee has been Fair Trade's flagship product, sales of fairly traded arts and handcrafts have grown significantly over the past five years. These products are not certified by a member of FLO and do not carry a Fair Trade label.

Instead organizations of retailers and wholesalers who offer goods that adhere to the clearly established Fair Trade criteria have been formed to monitor businesses as opposed to products. For example the Fair Trade Federation in the U.S. is an association of hundreds of businesses that have agreed to follow the principles of Fair Trade for 100% of their inventory.

All this means that, as a consumer, you need to look or ask for one of two guarantees that the product you are thinking of purchasing is indeed Fair Trade. Look for either the FLO or TransFairUSA certification mark on the packaging of the product or, if you are shopping for arts and crafts in the U.S., look for the Fair Trade Federation logo in the window of the business or ask the owner if the shop is a member of the Fair Trade Federation.

Sources: FLO International, Fair Trade Federation, TransFairUSA

Equal Exchange has started a "Bringing Fair Trade Home" program which seeks to extend the "model of partnership to family farmers, farm workers, and farmer co-operatives." There are small co-op farms which produce their organic almonds, organic cranberries and pecans. "All are family farmers, and people with a commitment to their communities, to growing delicious, nutritious crops, and to stewardship of the land they work." With U.S. farmers falling from 6.5 million in 1935 to 1.9 million by 2003, and "over 50% of the revenue generated globally by food retailing is accounted for by just 10 corporations", there is a similar need of support to small family farms regardless of their location.

In 2005 Equal Exchange partnered with Organic Valley, the Farmer Direct Co-operative and RAFI-USA, to create the Domestic Fair Trade Working Group with the goal to gather people of similar beliefs from the US and Canada and develop a set of Principles for Domestic Fair Trade "which translates the goals and priorities of the international Fair Trade movement into the regional, domestic and local spheres."
The principles created are similar to the international Fair Trade criteria but tailored to fit small domestic farms: family scale farming, capacity building, democratic co-ops which have participatory ownership and control, rights of labor, equality and opportunity, direct trade, fair and stable pricing, shared risk and affordable credit, long term trade relationships, sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology, indigenous peoples' rights, transparency and accountability, education and advocacy.

Wholesome Harvest, a coalition of farmers in the Midwest, also seeks to bring Fair Trade principles home. Through a network of forty farms, Wholesome Harvest raises organic meat and sells it only to member approved supermarkets. The goal is "to provide absolute traceability, transparency and access to backstory for their customers — a particularly important set of values in the meat industry, where bacterial contamination is more common than in produce, and often can't be traced to the source due to complex networks of national and international distribution." Wholesome Harvest is not limited to farming: they also have several consumer activism projects, including seeking to raise US organic standards, implementing domestic Fair Trade criteria that is as stringent as international standards, buying local meat, labelling products by country of origin, and lifting the limitations on Mad Cow Disease testing in livestock.

Implementing Fair Trade criteria with both international and domestic trade benefits all parties involved. Fair Trade does not help US based workers only when applied domestically, for if it is applied to all countries it would create a level playing field. This means that poor workers in other countries will have a chance to earn a living wage, and domestic workers will be able to compete for jobs as corporation will not be able to move overseas to exploit a lack of workers rights and standards.

Thanks to World Changing.

In March, I wrote Whole Foods would usher in “trickle-down organics”. By emphasizing the luxury in eco luxury, Whole Foods would only encourage growth in the growing organics sections of Marks and Spenser, Tesco and Sainsbury. Within public dialog, we are seeing this. However, it’s not necessarily being seen as an elevation of non-ethical supermarkets. As one reporter from the Times pointed out, it’s more about the downfall of Whole Foods and other social entrepreneurs:

But however socially responsible these entrepreneurs remain as individuals, we can’t pretend that, once a critical mass has been reached, and they go public, that their companies are that different from say, Wal-Mart or Tesco (especially now that Sir Terry (Leahy) is so competitive, I mean so green, that he is carbon-labelling and has copyrighted the Tesco Wholefoods brand).

This could all be semantics you say, but we think it’s indicative of a larger issue amongst at least Londoners. At the moment, the ethical consumption world looks quite rosy. The Daily Mail reported last week, spending is on the rise:

The report, by analysts Mintel, shows an increasing number of shoppers are prepared to pay extra. The proportion agreeing with the statement "it's worth paying more for organic food"; has risen from 24.3 per cent in 2002 to 33.4 per cent this year.

Spending on organic food has soared from £849 million in 2004 to £1.23 billion last year, and is forecast to hit £1.7 billion this year.

The proportion of people buying Fairtrade products "whenever possible"; has increased from 26 per cent to 34.7 per cent. The study found attitudes to recycling were changing. In 2002, 64.5 per cent felt it was their "duty" to recycle rubbish such as packaging, compared with 75.6 per cent.

However, Whole Foods’ model in the store alone is daunting as the Observer reports:

It is, says food critic AA Gill, 'a very American approach to food'. I know this, because I encounter him and his girlfriend, Nicola Formby, stalking around the top floor. 'I'm slightly daunted by the sheer volume of products,' Gill says. 'That's very American, though. Americans like volume. I find it slightly off-putting. Who's going to eat all that? And what happens to the waste? There must be piles at the end of the day. Kensington is going to have the best-fed tramps in London.'

So while it might seem like semantics, the sheer scale of an organic world seems overwhelming. Added to that is recent media speculation of “good” labels like the fair trade and organic. In May Channel 4 produced a report on the Fair Trade’s true merits, while the British Soil Association recently launched a campaign to better understand the ecological impact of freight shipping on the virtues of buying organic.

This doesn’t mean either label is bad or either label will be rejected in the near future. It does mean that at the same time the mainstream British public is gaining greater awareness (these labels have been popular in the UK for over 10 years), it is also learning these labels are complex and difficult to scale at mass.

The result? As demand is soon to exceed supply, we might see the growing green bubble burst. Best case scenario is a renewed focus on government to begin developing better incentives, standards and regulation to help scale these operations. Worst case scenario is an exacerbation of the status quo: a hyper polarized world where true organic products are sold at an even greater premium followed by hybrids which border on “greenwash” and arguably bad products for the poor.

Just for the record, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What goes up must go down. Hopefully we will learn moderation in time and arrive at a more considered and culturally natural strategy for addressing global warming.

The Eightfold: Trickle Down Organics

The Times

The Daily Mail

The Observer

Channel 4 Fair Trade

British Soil Association

Having looked at the various criteria for Fair Trade products (transparency, environment, wages and financial and technical assistance) the natural question is how do we monitor these? As Brady pointed out, one of the biggest failures in the Fair Trade movement occurs when only the initial producer is certified but subsequent steps are not. This is especially possible in products which require several steps, such as banana ripening and coffee roasting, and is one of the main reasons labeling organizations have been hesitant to certify the complex process of clothing production.

One group seeking a solution is the Fair Tracing Project. Their aim is to “support Ethical Trade by implementing IT Tracking and Tracing Technologies in supply chains to provide consumers and producers with enhanced information.” Developed as an extension of the Fair Trade movement, the Project is working towards technology that “enables each individual product to be both given a unique identity and tracked throughout the value chain from producer to consumer.” All information, from the producer's working conditions and pay to packaging to transportation, will be available at the point of sale, eliminating a consumer's need to delve into extensive research before shopping. This information will create not only an opportunity for consumers to purchase products which reflect their personal values, but create a competitive market in which companies are required to parallel their customers beliefs.

In sum, just as Fair Trade works on different levels, so too will Fair Tracing. It will (1) give producers a better overview of the value chain and price structures along it and valuable market information; (2) empower consumers by allowing them to trace the product’s origin and value chain on which they can base their ethical choice when shopping; (3) allow Fair Trade companies to demonstrate how to do business differently/they can prove the technical feasibility of tracing and demonstrate that these devices can be used not just for companies to gather information about consumers, but for consumers to scrutinize companies; (4) be used as an exciting new campaign tool to be used to lobby for a different kind of globalisation; and (5) offer an innovative idea to retail companies interested in improving their ethical sourcing and corporate responsibility guidelines.

There are many different incarnations being developed to offer this information to customers at the point of sale. In Japan they are already using cell phones for food traceability. There is also a cart attachment that offers the customer information on a product while simultaneously giving advertising opportunities for the companies, which would help offset the cost of implementing this technology. The question is raised as to how much information consumers would be willing to sift through while on their typical shopping excursion. A simple solution that conveys ideas quickly would be a rating system, but there is the unfortunate potential for corruption in any such centralized system. Perhaps with the success of such applications as Wikipedia, we could take this to the next level and have a combined effort of third party raters, consumer ratings and producer input to create a system of different ratings that would appeal to customers unique values.

A quick look at a possible template for this tracing offers a quick visual reference that communicates the origin, fair trade & organic components, the money trail and supply chain of the product. The Project is still designing this interface so be sure to jump over and give suggestions. It is on our shoulders as consumers to ensure that companies conduct themselves honestly and faithfully by their proclaimed ideals, and Fair Tracing offers that tool.

Editor's note: Fair Trade is a topic that GreenOptions.com has been covering for some time now, so we thought it might be interesting to debate from the progressive vs. conservative perspective. Brady and Alicia offer us some excellent background on the discussion. Now, it's Jimmy and Shirley's turn…

Jimmy: Although I am generally conservative on fiscal matters and would normally lean toward unfettered free trade, I understand the importance of Fair Trade to our country’s interest and as a humanitarian influence on the world. Fair Trade levels the playing field. Where we have certain standards for the treatment of our workers and environmental restrictions, while other countries do not; therefore, they have a competitive advantage. In circumstances where slave and prison labor is used to compete with American labor the need for Fair Trade standards is obvious. But what about circumstances where the cost of living in undeveloped countries is simply so much lower that this allows the country to clobber the US with low cost labor?

Free trade would seem only fair given willing workers and willing employers. Also many of our increasingly stringent environmental standards are a testimony of our wealth. Although basic health and sanitation standards are a must, do we hold other developing countries to the high environmental standards that only our wealth can support?

These are important questions that we will consider. Please add your thoughts as well so that we can determine what might be the best form of Fair Trade policy to live and support.

For example, the most recognizable poster child of Fair Trade the delicious coffee. In the 1970's coffee demand grew and a high-yield tree was developed that flourishes in direct sunlight but requires heavy pesticide use to do so. Many coffee producing countries have no laws regulating the use of these pesticides and the effect on local communities and the environement can be devastating. In Columbia in 1993 &1994 “the insecticide endosulfan resulted in more than 100 poisonings each year, and four deaths."

Conversely certified Fair Trade coffee requires farmers to use eco-friendly practices, with 60% having already achieved organic certification and the remaining utilizing organic practices such as integrated pest management. Not only are many crops organic, but the coffee is frequently shade grown, which allows natural habitats beneficial for wildlife to grow around and amongst the coffee crop. According to the Sierra Club, rainforests are vanishing at 40 million acres a year, which makes these habitats increasingly vital to tropical wildlife. Small traditional coffee farms also cultivate other crops such as fruit, cacao and trees used for firewood creating a diversity which benefits both farmer and land. Fair Trade also offers social premiums and resources for “organic conversion, reforestation, water conservation and environmental education.” These benefits are found through all Fair Trade agricultural products, including chocolate, tea and bananas.

Mother Nature is not only being helped by Fair Trade produce. Many crafts produced by Fair Trade artisans are created from recycled materials; intricate purses are made from salvaged sari’s which would otherwise be burned, totes made from recycled rice bags and juice wrappers, floor mats from old flip flops. There are fun decorative chickens formed from old plastic bags and jewelry from melted old coins. Frames and coasters from rolled paper and cards from recycled pulp.

And most importantly, Fair Trade is about a sustainable trade system that is fair to all parties. It offers people in poverty a chance at a secure future, so that they may look forward and invest in the betterment of their community and land. A sustainable and fair economy cannot be acheived without environmentally sustainable production methods.

This is the third in a series of posts discussing the Fair Trade criteria. Also check out Fair Trade: Transparency and Fair Trade: Fair Wages.

“Trade is neither inherently good nor bad. But how it is conducted is a matter of great concern-and an unprecedented opportunity. Trade can either contribute to the process of sustainable development or undermine it. Given the rapidly accelerating destruction of the earth’s natural resource base, there is no question what the choice must be.” -Hilary French, author of Costly Tradeoffs: Reconciling Trade and the Environment.

It is common to hear Free and Fair Trade used interchangeably, yet they function in constant opposition.

Free trade is based on the conventional economic idea that “international trade without the interference of tariffs, subsidies, price controls and pork-barrel politics is by far the most efficient way of matching global supply to demand while making all the participants more prosperous.” In theory this is a wonderful concept; however, the chasm from theory to reality is quite broad.

Free trade in practice has proven detrimental to the poor and beneficial to the powerful. It is not surprising that the latter strive to expand this system, with the current fast track negotiating authority making this all too easy. Under this speedy version enacted in 2002, Congress has enacted seven free trade agreements (United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement, the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement, and the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement), with five (Colombia, Peru, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand) being heavily endorsed before the fast track expires this year. Free trade agreements are done behind closed doors between the president and the potential countries equivalent positions, and can not be amended.

Theorists claim that removing all barriers and tariffs to trade will “be beneficial for workers, whose wages and benefits can rise as foreign markets expand for their goods.” However, when free trade practices are implemented it is usually the opposite that occurs. Large corporations push out smaller, locally-owned businesses. US jobs are lost to overseas production where labor and safety laws are non-existent or not well enforced (879,280 U.S. jobs moved overseas after NAFTA). The money is drained from the poorer countries as corporations fail to reinvest locally. Slave labor conditions abound which do not differentiate between adults and children.

We have found it necessary in the US to outlaw child labor, require safe working conditions, and set a minimum wage. Why then do we take advantage of the non-existence of these laws in other countries to produce cheap goods? We have placed a value on human life and a standard treatment as such, now we must extend that to people other than US citizens and stop conflating profits with human rights.

And to directly counter the exploitation of Free Trade, there is Fair Trade. At its core Fair Trade is remembering the value of people. It is not simply an attempt to set a price floor. Rather it is placing the value of human life and environment equal to profit. We have found cause to implement this within our borders and there is no reason this should be an arrangement exclusive to 1^st world citizens. The Fair Trade criteria (from the Fair Trade Federation) are:

• Paying fair wages in local context;
• Supporting participatory workplaces;
• Ensuring environmental sustainability;
• Supplying financial and technical support;
• Respecting cultural identity;
• Offering public accountability; and,
• Educating consumers.

The Fair Trade system is not perfect. It faces legitimate criticisms and challenges, and through this scrutiny is kept honest to its values. Nor should Fair Trade be the ultimate solution but rather a necessary step towards improvement. It strives to establish a new basic economic imperative; the realization that trade is fundamentally a human interaction, with respect for all people involved in the trade.

Editor's note: We're also pleased to welcome Alicia Erickson to the writing team. Alicia, along with her husband Brady Swenson, will be covering Fair Trade issues for us. Alicia and Brady live in Lawrence, Kansas, where they own and operate Two Hands Worldshop.

Saturday May 12th is the third global World Fair Trade Day. This day of celebration is an opportunity to increase Fair Trade awareness and expand understanding of the benefits it provides to poor families, deteriorating cultures and the environment. It also happens to be just before Mother’s Day, which offers a great chance to give your mom a gift that is also a gift to mothers across the world.

This year World Fair Trade Day will focus on children, with the motto “Kids Need Fair Trade.” Children are deeply affected by unfair trade policies. They become trapped in the cycle of poverty with little to no access to healthcare or education. Children in poor households are forced to work simply to eat. The World Fair Trade Day website claims “Coffee, cocoa (chocolate), bananas, oranges and sugar are among the food sectors that most exploit child labour.” Most of these products have a Fair Trade alternative.

Fair Trade requires, among other stipulations, that workers are paid a fair wage in the local context making parents more able to support families. Fair Trade also provides a social premium, such as ten cents per pound of coffee sold that is then used by producer cooperatives to build schools and health centers, and pay teachers and clinicians.

Fair Trade is also committed to gender equality, an idea that is being passed down to young girls and cultivated in these strongly patriarchal societies. The opportunity for women to provide for their families not only allows their daughters to attend school, but also instills in them a sense of empowerment and independence. This increased self worth is helping to create a generation of women who will question and change their oppression in these cultures.

There are many ways to raise awareness for this celebration:

• Transfair is sponsoring an art contest about Fair Trade for children 3rd – 12th grade, entries due May 15th
• Purchase Fair Trade gifts this mother’s day and start the conversation. I encourage you to support your local fair trade establishment or you can peruse my fair trade shop, Two Hands Worldshop.
• Host a Global Trade Soccer Game and get a Fair Trade Soccer ball with donations.
• Bake Mom a delicious dessert with Fair Trade chocolate. You can find tasty recipes at Divine & Equal Exchange. Enjoy it with some delicious Fair Trade coffee or tea.
• Support Fair Trade, check out the Fair Trade Federation to find a business which carries Fair Trade near you or look for World Fair Trade Day events close by at the World Fair Trade Day site or the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Seeing this as an issue, several organizations and businesses have arrived to the market to work with local farmers and establish fair trade practices. This should be the first thing you look for when looking at chocolate - Fair Trade.

Additionally, organic chocolate is becoming more and more available. This guarantees that the beans have not been fumigated with dangerous pesticides for the workers and the ozone layer. Plus, organic chocolate has a double benefit - it's typically fair trade, as well.

So this year, if you are planning on getting sweets for your sweet, think organic, think fair trade, and think chocolate! Not sure where to start looking? Try Dagoba, Terra Nostra, or Theo Chocolate.

Resources:

Unchain Your Heart

Wikipedia: Cocoa

World Cocoa Foundation

Reusable Filters

I first started greening my coffee by addressing how I make it. I prefer to use a coffee maker, which generates a small amount of trash daily—coffee filters. First, a few years ago, I switched to unbleached filters. I thought that this was an important step forward. However just this year, I’ve switched to a permanent filter. Now I don’t produce garbage at all!

There are two types of permanent filters: Steel and Gold. The stainless steel type are less expensive, and are treated in such a way as to not transfer a metallic taste. What exactly this treatment is, I could not find out, so I decided to go with Gold. Gold filters are made from 23-karat gold plated stainless steel. The gold keeps the filter from transferring a metallic taste, and they are made with an extra fine mesh to keep grounds out of your coffee. I’ve been using mine for 3 months now—that’s 90 fewer disposable coffee filters in the garbage!

Selecting the Bean

The more obvious way to limit one’s environmental impact with coffee is in selecting your beans. Coffee production in our modern world has spawned a variety of environmental problems: clear-cutting the rain forest; polluting the areas near plantations due to waste products; habitat loss of birds and other fauna due to increase production; not to mention incredible amounts of pesticides used in production.

Proposed solutions for the aforementioned problems abound. It’s common to hear phrases like Fair Trade and Shade Grown tossed around. Organic coffee eliminates the pesticide problem. My local coffee shop imports Fair Trade, Shade Grown, Organic coffees which they then roast themselves.

While I’ve increased the amount that I spend on coffee exponentially (a pound of Folger’s costs a couple of bucks, a pound of the good stuff is more like $12), I feel good taking that first sip of the day: because of the rush of caffeine to my brain but also because I know I’m reducing my footprint each and every morning.