Readers: I am interested in your opinions!  (I have my own ideas, but I will wait a few days to post them so I don’t influence anyone’s comments.)

A few guidelines:  any insults, flaming, trolling, etc. will not be tolerated.  This is a heated issue (that’s the second time I’ve used that adjective.  Get the joke?  Har!).  If you’re being a jerk, I will warn you.  After that, I will cavalierly and cheerfully delete your rudeness while drinking mint juleps and eating bon-bons.  (Ok, not really about the mint juleps and bon-bons part.  But I will TOTALLY delete any rudeness.  Seriously).

I look forward to your responses!

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So, we’ve already talked about what sweatshops are, and some ways to fight against them.  But Joe has another question:

“oooh…another has to do with the fact that greedy business people are slashing and burning the rainforest at an incredible rate so they can turn it into inexpensive grazing ground for beef.

In turn, countries off the coast of Africa are experiencing significantly increased drought conditions and thus poor harvest. As a Christian put here by God with part of my job being to have dominion over the earth, is this action right or wrong? Should I take a stand against it? Is there a balance, and if so, where is that balance?”

I think that we definitely have a responsibility, as Christians, to make sure that God’s Creation is being used responsibly.  In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14 - 28) Jesus makes it pretty clear that we are to use the gifts we are given wisely.  And we are also told that, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:34 -40).  So again, I think we have a moral imperative to safeguard God’s Creation while at the same time ensuring to the best of our ability that all people are treated well.

Now, what are some other ways we can help?  By shopping with responsible retailers, we can, in a sense, “vote with our dollars”.  By supporting retailers that employ responsible business practices, we are taking revenue from those business that exploit their workers and the environment.  If enough consumers do thisthose businesses will be hurting, and will have to change their practices to stay in business.

For more information, Co-op America has some great resources for battling sweatshops.  Click here for their excellent guide to sweatshops.

By understanding our buying choices, and how those choices can adversely affect people living in other countries, we can take small steps toward ensuring fair treatment for workers.  And many small steps put together can equal great change.

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In yesterday’s post, we had an introduction to what sweatshops are and why they exist.  Today I’m going to talk a bit about reader Joe’s comments and questions.

Joe said:

“ok, here’s a thought that has been troubling me for sometime:
I am a sting [sic] supporter of fair treatment of worker’s rights in
the Third World. However, when a company runs a sweat shop it provides
indigenous people with jobs and income that they would otherwise
not have, even if it is an unfair wage or poor working conditions.

If I fight against such an atrocity, and the company reacts by closing
the sweat shop, then my attempt to help has really caused more harm
than good…

So, do I choose the lesser of two evils, or are there other options?”

Joe asks some excellent questions.  But  I think that he’s making a very common mistake about third-world countries:  imposing his own views of what a successful society looks like onto a completely different society.  The first question we need to ask about a sweatshop in Honduras, for example, is this:  What does the sweatshop represent?

I think it represents a move to further industrialization, and a move further away from traditional ways of life.  And a Western-Industrialized culture is not necessarily the epitome of civilization (quite the opposite, in my opinion).  So, we need to ask “what benefit do the workers gain from having this income, no matter how small?”  Does it improve the quality of life?  Are the people healthier and happier this way?  Or are there better ways to give them opportunities to improve the quality of life (which may mean something different to others than it does to us)?

The answer is that yes, there are better options.  First, much of the reason indigenous peoples need an income is because their society has already been invaded by Western ideas about money and profit.  Second, instead of exploiting them (every time we purchase an item that has been produced unfairly, we take a hand in exploiting the worker!), we can help them break the cycle of poverty.  A great way to do this is through micro-lending.  Micro-loans are small loans given to people in developing nations for education, start-up capital for a small business, or capital to expand a small business.  Most micro-lenders have stipulations on the loan such as required attendance at financial management classes or training opportunities to ensure the success of the borrower.  Kiva is one that I really like, because you get to choose to whom you lend.  Then you get email updates on the status of the loan, and how the borrower is progressing in his or her business or education.  I really like this because it adds a personal dimension to the process.  Here is an article from the New York Times about micro-lending.  Another option is Microplace.com, which is owned by eBay.  The concept is the same, but lenders can earn interest through this site.  Currently, you cannot with Kiva (due to complex SEC regulations).

So there is one way to fight back against sweatshops.  On Monday, we’ll look at some more ways, and address another of Joe’s questions.  Thanks for reading!

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed., 2004) a sweatshop is, “ A shop or factory in which employees work long hours at low wages under poor conditions.”

So, a sweatshop is a place where the workers are forced to endure terrible working conditions for ridiculously low pay, often for less than a dollar per hour.  Some of these terrible conditions include:  sexual assault, especially on young women, including gang-rape; very short or non-existent breaks; not being allowed to use a restroom for an entire shift; long shifts up to 17 hours; and all for less money than most of us would find under our couch cushions.

Why are there sweatshops?  I believe there are two main reasons:  greedy companies and greedy, lazy consumers.   The greedy companies want to make the maximum profit possible, even if they have to abuse their workers to do it.   By paying their workers very little, forcing them to work long shifts under horrific conditions, these companies save money on their overhead while still allowing them to undercut prices of items that were produced responsibly.  Wal-Mart (which I term “The Evil Empire”) is one of the worst offenders.  Click here to go to Wal-Mart Watch, a non-profit group that seeks to hold Wal-Mart accountable for it’s business practices.  But massive (and not-so-massive) companies are not the only problem.  The other half of the equation is us.

Most Americans have such a consumption-minded mindset.  Rather than repair or re-use something, we throw it out and go buy a new one.  Or instead of spending $30 for a quality shirt that will last several years, we spend $10 for a junk one that wears out in six months.  Rather than support responsible businesses, who buy their products from fair-trade (fair-trade means that it was produced according to ethical standards) factories, we buy everything from these huge companies because they have the lowest prices.  But price isn’t the only factor in determining the cost of an item.  We have to think of the cost to the worker who made it.

Hopefully, this post has given you some idea of what a sweatshop is and why it’s such a terrible thing, both for the workers and those who buy the products.  Especially as Christians, we need to think long and hard about where we buy products, and how we use them, because the world is watching.  And they will judge Christ by His followers.

In the next post, I’ll actually address some of Joe’s comments, and give some concrete tips that we can all do to make sweatshops a thing of the past.

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do.“  Edward Everett Hale

I have some ideas for stuff I’d like to write about, but I’d also like your input.  What kinds of things would you like to see here?

I’ve recently found a new love.  If you’ve never looked at a Foxfire anthology, you are missing out.  Foxfire was a magazine started by a high school English class in Southern Appalachia in 1966.  The magazine began when high school teacher Elliot Wiggington was almost ready to give up on his first semester teaching.  The students were unruly and uninterested in learning.  But rather than resort to punishments and insults to force the students into obedience, he decided to try something different.  By offering the students the opportunity to choose a project to work on, Wiggington was able to generate interest and give the students the chance to learn what he needed to teach while also learning leadership and other skills.  The Foxfire Project was a smashing success.  You can read the full story of how it got started by clicking here.

Many of the articles in the anthologies are how-tos about lost skills, such as log cabin building, hog butchering, and other things related to self-sufficiency (which is itself a lost art).  But there are also many human interest articles, and these shatter the myth that the people of Appalachia are nothing more than crude, uncivilized, inbred freaks.  Sure, they speak with a different dialect than many of us, they may have less education than some of us, but they are every bit as human, every bit as intelligent, and every bit as compassionate (in some cases, more) as we are.  But most of all, the image gained from these articles are of a people with a rich, deep, though difficult, life spent living close to the land.

I believe these books are relevant to the mission of this site, namely exploring a sustainable, biblically based lifestyle, for several reasons.  First, these books can teach skills that will enable us to make or find many items that we currently purchase, thus saving money and reducing the amount of resources used in manufacturing.  Second, the lifestyle of the people of the region, though difficult, has much to teach us about cooperating to help each other.  Neighbors share food, share work, and share fun times much more than those of us who sit at home each night, glued to our computers or television sets.  Third, the simplicity of their lives has much to teach those of us who are engaged in a quest for more money, more stuff, rather than the truly important things like quality relationships and healthy lives.

So, like I said, I highly recommend these anthologies.  They are available at amazon.com (search for “Foxfire”) which is great because you can purchase books that are used, thus getting more use out of resources and preventing more landfill waste, or you can purchase them directly from the Foxfire Fund (click here for their online storefront), which is great because your purchase supports the Foxfire Fund directly.  Or, you can simply get borrow them from your local library.  Whichever way you choose, I hope you enjoy them, and learn as much from them as I have!

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More garden pics!  Yay!

I chose to plant bush beans instead of pole beans.  Next year, I think I will borrow a technique from the Iroquois.  They used to plant their corn, beans, and squash (known as the “Three Sisters”, click the link for a neat article about them at Nativetech.org) all together.  The corn stalk served as a pole for the beans to climb, the beans put nitrogen in the soil for the corn to use, and the squash vines and leaves served as a groundcover, helping to keep moisture in the soil and prevent erosion.  Pretty cool, huh? It makes me sad when I think of how much we could have learned from the Native Americans when the first Europeans came here, but instead they were killed off and forced off their land.  A truly tragic chapter in our history.

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Here is my pride and joy: my quinoa plants!!  Quinoa is a South American grain that is closely related to amaranth and lamb’s quarter (in fact, a gardener friend of mine very dolefully informed me the other day that my quinoa had been overtaken by weeds because she thought the quinoa plants were lamb’s quarter!  I was so relieved she was wrong!).  The Inca used quinoa extensively.  Quinoa isn’t really a grain, because it didn’t derive from a grass.  It is highly nutritous, and contains some amino acids that are usually only found in meats so it is great for vegetarians and Vegans.

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This is a close-up of some quinoa grains.  They’re not ready to harvest until the leaves fall off.  Quinoa grains are coated with a very bitter, waxy substance, so they need to be rinsed extensively before eating.

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These are some freaky beetles I found eating my plants.  I knocked ‘em off and haven’t seen too many since.  If anyone knows what they are, and how to control them without chemicals, I’d appreciate it if you let me know!

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Well, that’s all the pics for now.  I will have more later, though!

The neighborhood kids won’t have to buy pumpkins to carve this year!

These are my mom and dad’s three tomato plants.  I only planted them because they asked me to.  I kept bugging dad to bring his cages over, because they were spreading like crazy.  He finally came over with some stakes and string.  In the bottom right you can see my sad cucumber plant.  He sent out a vine to get some sun because the evil tomatoes were choking him.

Here’s my scrawny little cucumber plant.  He’s already doing much better since we rescued him from the Killer Tomatoes.  I have affectionately named him, “Tiny Tim.”

Here is an actual ripe tomato.  There are TONS of green ones, but only three ripe ones so far.  I’m mystified.

Here’s a question:  Would it be better if I put the caption for the photos above the photos instead of below them?

I had a bunch of leftover crud from when I made my wife’s flowerbeds, so it became my compost pile!

Some of my baby corn plants.  Aren’t they adorable?  :)  I chose to plant them in 12 six-foot rows instead of fewer long rows.  It took a bit more space, but I think they pollinated better.  I mean, most sweet corn doesn’t get this high…

These are some of my baby honeydew melon plants.  This is actually from my second planting.  The first planting didn’t come up for some reason.  Hopefully we have an easy September so I still get some melons!!

This is what my cute baby corn plants look like now.  This photo is two weeks old, though.  They’ve (finally) started to tassle.  I was getting nervous…

I have no shortage of zucchini.  I planted four seeds in this hill.  Holy cow.

As you can see.  I now have seven of these guys on my counter.  Good thing the family campout is this weekend!  I’ll foist some off on my aunts!

Here’s a look at my pumpkin and zucchini vines.  They’re now spreading into the yard.  My wife hits them with the lawnmower because she forgets they’re there.

More pics to come!