Named after Juno, the ancient Roman goddess and protector of women, the month of June has long held the title of the most popular month for weddings.   But according to the Wedding Planning website, June is no longer the most popular month for weddings.  In recent years has been surpassed by the months of July and August as the month popular months to say I DO.

It should come as no surprise that an overwhelming number of Americans say I DO in the state of Nevada with a staggering 41% tying the knot there.  While Hawaii and Arkansas trail behind with nearly 20%  and 11% respectively.  The rest of the 47 states average about 6% each, according to the National Center for Statistics.

One little fact that you may not know is that the Fair Trade Federation this past spring published it’s first ever, Fair Trade Wedding Guide.   Very convenient indeed for those Americans saying I DO this summer! (especially for those in Nevada !)

So what’s inside the Fair Trade Wedding Guide:

• first of all the cover of the guide features an actual wedding featuring bridesmaid’s dresses from Mata Trader!
• has 10 gift categories to help you find the right gift for the right occasion – from invites to gifts for the Bride & Groom!
• features 68 quality handmade products from 25 different countries ! (talk about a Global Wedding!)
• last but not least, it has stories to share, one gives us a glimpse on how a bride was able to have a truly Fair Trade Wedding – thank you Jen for sharing!

One of the most amazing “features” of the Wedding Guide is one not obviously stated, but upon digging deeper can be quite interesting.  Until sitting down to count the number of countries represented in the guide (to write this blog), I was utterly surprised to find so many diverse countries.  Countries that seem so far away, distant places ravaged by natural disasters, riots, or war, including Sri Lanka, Tunisa, and the West Bank.  Or countries that infrequently make the news, seldom coming to the forefront of our awareness, such as: Mali, Mozambique, or Ecuador.  Or those that have suffered greatly, yet give us all hope through their collective contributions to our spiritual well-being and Buddhism, such as Nepal and Vietnam.

With so many I DOs taking place at this time of the year, maybe the Fair Trade Wedding Guide in it’s own little way serves two purposes:  one is to aid those seeking to make a lifelong commitment to another person, but equally important, to remind us all of the commitment we have to each other if we choose to say I DO to Fair Trade!

Are you ready to say I DO to Fair Trade?

Tell me your thoughts.

First, we would like to thank everyone who participated in our $250 Shopping Spree !  There were many entries from Fair Trade enthusiasts far and wide.  But as all contests go, there could only be one winner.

Jennifer Caperton from Warrenton Virgina was randomly selected from the many entries we received.  Jen, as Latitudes’ owner Lee Owsley calls her, has been volunteering at Latitudes since their brick and mortar store opened last December after several successful craft shows and fiestas.

When we asked Jen about her involvement in the Fair Trade movement, and why she purchased Fair Trade products, she said:

“Ever since I found out a Fair Trade store was coming to my town I was elated that others were creating opportunities and jobs for men and women throughout the globe in order to help end poverty.  Fair Trade doesn’t force codependency, but creates sustainable jobs, and a stable economy, for men and women.   It makes you feel like you can make a difference by purchasing something as simplistic as a bracelet.  Whenever I buy something from Fair Trade I know I’m helping my thousands of brothers and sisters in different countries succeed and live the life of stability that we sometimes take for granted.”

Outside of the movement Jen has also been working with a local NGO in which she plans to make her fifth trip to Haiti this Thanksgiving, where her group works in a free clinic, and is in the process of rebuilding an orphanage, and sponsors families throughout the community.  The NGO she works with strives to create opportunities for men and women in the community, “just like Fair Trade does throughout the world.”

We know where Jen will be shopping, as she chose to receive her $250 gift card from Latitudes. 

All of us at Fairtrade.us wish both Jen and the folks at Latitudes all the best in their future Fair Trade endeavours!

Read more about Latitudes Fair Trade Store here.

Fair trade chocolate supports women's and children's rights

Everyone loves chocolates. We consume more than 3 million tons a year. Many holidays throughout the year provide a spike in sales of the delicious treat, including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween and Christmas. Most, however, don’t consider the fact that 200,000 children in West Africa work under forced labor conditions on cocoa farms to help produce those chocolates we enjoy, according to the United Nation’s Children’s Fund.

Pamper your pooch

with this beautifully handcrafted Beaded Dog Collar!  Today is National Pet Owner Day, so why not splurge a bit to show how much you love man’s best friend.

This collar features vibrant glass beads in a classic African design with a sturdy leather backing.  Save it for Sunday walks in the park, or spruce your pooch every day – it is sure to last a while!  It is 22″ long and has 4 closure sizes.

Made by beaders in the Maasai Women Development  Organization in Tanzania.

Retails for $55

Available online from Global Goods Partners.

Learning in the Shade at a Guatemalan Coffee Farm

Fresh off the heels of my first visit to Guatemala, I can’t stop thinking about the coffee producers I met while traveling with Cooperative Coffees.   It’s as though my first experience in the country is the new lens through which I see life.  So, as we prepare to celebrate Earth Day back at Café Campesino in the U.S., I realize that some of the basic tenets I associate with environmentally responsibility are now translated through my “Guatemala experience.”

Let me explain-

1- Buy Shade Grown- This is the real deal, folks.  And, (as the Audubon Society would so desperately hope) it’s for the birds! Natural habitat, local ecosystems, diversity of wildlife and birds- are seemingly thriving.  The farms we visited with the APECAFORM cooperative in Pueblo Nuevo, and the Associacion Chajulense in Chel, Guatemala, were vibrant habitats for birds, plants, bugs and a whole host of who knows what else.

Lobricompost! Or Worm Compost from the FEDEPMA cooperative near Lake Atitlan.

2-Compost More- The biggest handful of worms I’ve ever seen was certainly on the shores of Lake Atitlan. Our group visited FEDEPMA, a small farming cooperative in San Pedro de Laguna that uses worms and hundreds of pounds of depulped coffee cherries to produce a rich, deep dark compost.  This is pretty common in organic coffee production, but it was the first time I had ever seen it wriggling in action on the producer-side.  It reminded me of the coffee grounds- to-compost procedure that many coffee roasters (and consumers) do state-side.  Heine Brothers Coffee Co. has a great composting program in Louisville, Ky., and Café Campesino’s own Atlanta coffee shop started donating its spent coffee grounds to the Old Wheat Street Gardens in downtown Atlanta for this purpose.

3- Reduce Waste & Plastics Use- An Atlanta-based non-profit, Greenplate, is promoting a seven-day get-off-plastic challenge in the Southeast.  It’s hard to read Greenplate’s statistics about plastics in the world’s oceans (some marine samples show that plastics outweight plankton 6:1) without thinking about the plastics that were littered throughout so many Guatemalan towns.  One small town on the road to Chajul had a recycling center, and we heard that some communities were using compressed recycled plastic bottles for brick-like building materials, but single-use plastics and food packaging waste were littered throughout many streets.  It was clear that recycling is not a priority for people whose main concern is everyday survival.

Tepejilote- we peeled off the skin of this local vegetable and ate the interior with other locally grown vegetables. Very tasty with other fresh veggies.

4-Eat Local- Boy, did we eat local.  And it was fantastic!  Some of the most remote places we visited had some of the best food.  Things we recognized- potatoes and broccoli- were delicious – but other things that were completely new- tepejilote, malanga, boshboles.  Many of us came back wondering if we could use collard or mustard greens to make our own version of boshboles- corn cakes wrapped in a dark, leafy green and boiled.

5- Stop Climate Change- This was perhaps the greatest “environmental message” that we returned with. Climate change is real in Guatemala.  The Western Highlands of the country had eight meters or 24 feet of rain last year.  Shortly before our trip, The New York Times published an article about how changing temperatures are affecting coffee crop yields around the world.  And during our trip, locals would tell you that this had become an obvious trend for the past few years.   “Thirty years ago, there were storms, but nothing like what we’ve seen in the past 6 or 7 years,” said Carlos Reynoso, General Manager of Manos Campesinas, an umbrella organization that helps farming cooperatives find buyers for their products.

So, with Earth Day quickly approaching, I’ve enjoyed framing environmental responsibility in the context of the “Guatemala Experience.”  It’s a reminder that we’re all interconnected, struggling with and celebrating some of the same issues- and in many ways “in it” together.

What’s your thoughts?



As we continue our month long theme of taking a Refreshing Look at Fair Trade, I wanted to bring your attention to ways in which Fair Traders live and breathe environmental sustainability.

There are many ways to describe eco-products: Earth-friendly, green, organic, recycled, and sustainable.  The marketplace is full of companies that make claims to be green.  So it might be hard to decipher which products or businesses are really green.

Some products are both Green and Fair Trade.  Yet these terms refer to completely different movements, and have completely different purposes – however, they both nestle nicely under the Social Responsibility canopy.  In a way they are like sister movements, one was designed to uplift people, while the other to conserve the planet, both aim to improve the quality of life.

While environmental conversationalists in the1860s began efforts to establish the national park systems, the Green movement really began to take shape in the 1960s-70s with Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, which is attributed to launching the movement.  What followed was the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act, Earth Day and pesticide bans.

Fair Trade had its earliest roots in the 1940s, when faith-based organizations began opening markets to impoverished women artisans.  However, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the Fair Trade movement fully cross-fertilized with the green movement, primarily facilitated by the inclusion of the new merging Fair Trade commodities sector.  This period being the modern Fair Trade movement in which formal codes of conduct and certification processes were established.   The Fair Trade movement today has 9 internationally recognized Fair Trade Principles which are used to determine whether an organization is Fair Trade.

One principle refers to “Cultivating Environmental Stewardship”.   Don’t be fooled by its brevity, there’s a lot of power packed into those 3 words.  What it means is that Fair Traders have to consider the needs of future generations when meeting their current needs by taking responsibility and demonstrating accountability through stewardship!

There are as many ways to demonstrate stewardship, as there are Fair Trade businesses.  There is no one right way.  But since I’m writing a blog and not a white paper, I’ve summarized the 3 primary ways Fair Trader cultivate environmental stewardship.

1.  In how they operate their businesses.
Fair Traders have found creative ways to be green everyday while operating their businesses.  It may take extra time or costs for the Fair Trader, but most importantly benefits are shared by all.

Baksheesh St. Helena Store

Here’s a few examples:

• Getting an invoice with a 1^st grade class curriculum on the back is not uncommon if you do business with Ganesh Himal Trading.  Recycling (other organization’s) paper is how they save on trees!
• For years Global Exchange has used recycled shipping materials.  They even developed a recycling program around collecting it from others!
• Years before it was common practice to take your own bag shopping, Baksheesh began a bag reduction program.  The program rewarded customers depending on how much they spent.  All customers get a choice of a bag or a free chocolate mini (as you can image, folks love the “emergency sized” chocolate minis!).
• Larry’s Beans have woven sustainability throughout their entire roasting process, with solar panels, wind powered vents, fruit brushes, and dual flush toilets!

Many Fair Traders are also members of Green America and have furthered their commitment to the environment.  Joining local green initiatives is another way to demonstrate the strength of their commitment.  For example, clothing company Avatar Imports became a Certified Green Business in Santa Cruz, CA.

Making elephant dung paper

2.     In how they make (or grow) their products
We’ll be covering this topic in such detail that all things Green will soon have its own section – keep an eye out for it!  In the meantime, here are a few examples:

• We all DO it!  But Mr. Elle Pooh has paper made from his!  Take a look at this sustainable alternative paper made from elephant pooh! (yes, it’s made from manure!)
• In response to fed up retailers using plastic displays, the folks at dzi Tibet Collection began a line of sustainable retail displays using Lokta, a reed that grows in the Himalayas.  It’s completely sustainable and tree free!
• Equal Exchange led efforts in the mid-1980s to help small farmers grow coffee, the world’s second most traded commodity, in an earth healthy way.  By getting rid of pesticides, herbicides, and toxic chemicals, all of which are still used in industrialized farming, 25 years later they are indeed making a Big Change for Small Farmers (and for the environment) !

3.    In supporting environment projects!
Although not specifically a requirement, many Fair Traders do more than is required.  Here are 3 that are doing just that:

Artisan home to get solar panels by Handmade Expressions

• Madagascar Hats states upfront that a portion of its sales is donated to Hope for Madagascar, a charitable organization helping both to elevate poverty while preserving the islands’ delicate rainforest.
• Handmade Expressions has an Artisans Community Development Project which provides solar panels to the artisans community.  1% of their sales is donated to the project when customers order reach $500.
• Guayaki has a big mission, “to steward and restore, 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020…”

Our sweet world

The Fair Trade movement requires businesses to delicately balance the needs of people to earn a living with the need for ALL to have a healthy planet.  To do this it requires extra time, money, and planning.  If it were easy, well let’s just say we wouldn’t be were we are now or having this discussion.  The point is, it’s not easy, but necessary for future generations.

As I write this blog, I am reminded of one of my favourite singers, Marvin Gaye.  Marvin sang about many social issues we see today.  And although he didn’t live long enough to see how the Green movement has grown, he asked us two important questions in his song Save the Children:

Who really cares?

Who is willing to try?

To save our sweet world…

I know my answer, what’s yours?

If you need a reason

to take time out for yourself, look no further!

April is National Stress Awareness Month (and Day is April 16th).  Stress can disrupt sleep, make it difficult to loose weight, raise blood pressure and cause many other health problems.  It should come as no surprise that money is (the world’s) number one cause of stress.

So (as I think outloud)… if it’s money that connects our worries, and causes stress, then Fair Trade stress-relieving products, should have double the impact!

HandCrafting Justice has come to the rescue with their Modern Oil Burner.   Made of clay and water from Thailand’s Isan plateau, it features naturally occurring gold flecks throughout.   I love its curvaceous shape and the Star Wars-like futuristic earthy design.   I can almost imagine it being used by Princess Leia !  Fill it with a spot of chamomile, rose, lavender or jasmine to melt your worries away and at only $11 that should be a little easier to do.  The Isan Pottery center is a project of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and provides training to many of the jewelry maker’s children (mostly young boys).  After completing 6 months of training each potter is given a wheel of their own  – and a way to lessen their stressful worries about money!!

Measures 4″ w x 3″ h

Retails for $11

Available online from HandCrafting Justice

Modern Oil Burner

As most of us prepare to shed our winter layers as the seasons change, women are getting ready to store their dark and muted color handbags to more fun and bold colors. Thankfully, fair trade and fashionable handbags in the hottest patterns and styles are abundant this season. Here are just a few of our current favorites:

For those of us who like a little structure and style to our bag, this Dsenyo bag gives you the best of both worlds.

Featuring a bell and yolk shape, the style allows a generous interior while still giving the bag a sense of structure and style with the six pleats on either side. The African wax-print textile gives the bag instant color while the 100% organic cotton canvas support and hemp herringbone trim temper what may otherwise be a bit too much color for this bag.

Snag it now as it’s on sale for just $95 at Shop Metro Now.

The Zambian Chitenge Sling Bag is handmade by women in Zambia and available through Bridge for Africa. This sling bag style comes in a host of various African printed designs on the exterior with a solid interior (which makes it a whole lot easier to find your wallet!). And at $18, it’s a fun and easy way to add a lot of color without a lot of money.

Trade As One’s Dulce Bag is handmade in Guatemala and both casual and spacious, always a bonus for those of us who seem to carry more than we need to.

The women designers behind Mata Traders never disappoint us when it comes to fashionable fair trade apparel and accessories and this sophisticated block print designed handbag is no exception. We love the intricate sparrow applique and are even more impressed that it’s large enough to fit a laptop computer. Three large interior pockets and a zipper closure makes it easy to stay organized and in style at the same time.

And when the day calls for a more structured bag or you want to step it up a notch, the Savannah Leather Shopper Tote from Nkuku is both stylish and practical. Made by a cooperative of 40 families in Rajasthan, India, the bag was dyed using extracts of tree barks and plants.

Find it at Greenheart.

What are some of the bags you’ve been coveting lately?

-Megy

Provinssirock festival, Seinäjoki, Finland, June 16, 2007 Credit: Beni Köhler

We recently had a retail store call to cancel an order.  The reason? They said they were a “hipster, rock and roll store and they didn’t think Fair Trade was rock and roll.”  What??? In my mind, Fair Trade is completely rock and roll! It’s about rebellion and going against the grain – an anti-big corporation kind of movement!   It’s all about leveling the playing field, and providing opportunities to those unable to stand up for themselves!

They must not have known that top rockers like Bono, Paul McCartney, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and Annie Lennox have donated their time and celebrity status to give media attention and credibility to Fair Trade.  Other celebrities like Colin Firth have actually started a Eco/Fair Trade business, while stars like Harry Potter’s Emma Watson are lending their names and design talents to established Fair Trade clothing companies like People Tree UK.

But does that make Fair Trade rock and roll?

Fair Trade itself makes a statement against traditional trade. Where large corporations benefit from huge profits gotten from factory workers paid low wages, Fair Trade was set up to throw change in the face of conventional trade.  It is meant to give the workers a voice and equalize the path from the first world to the developing one.

Muse just produced a thought-provoking video for their song “Some Things Cost More Than You Realise” available on MTV’s Exit channel.  Our Fair Trade products were on tour with The Cure during their summer 2008 tour thanks to our friends at Pacha World, and Lollapalooza has had eco/Fair Trade sections at their last few annual events as well.

Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders sings about “Boots of Chinese Plastic” in their 2008 single of the same name.  But it has been an uphill battle in a landscape where getting a good deal at Wal-Mart often trumps compassionate purchasing.

Others have eagerly jumped on the eco bandwagon. Willie Nelson’s tour bus runs on cooking oil supplied by diners’ enroute, and Dave Mathews and Sheryl Crow have contributed to green efforts and also use biodiesel fuel.  So why haven’t more rockers aligned themselves with Fair Trade? Does Fair Trade inherently go against the excesses of a rock and roll lifestyle?

Rock music has certainly provided the soundtrack to a number of social movements in recent history. The first was probably the Age of Aquarius “free love” movement in the late sixties, filled with counter-culture lyrics and calls of change. This led to the late sixties/early seventies Neil Young anti-Vietnam War protest songs. Margaret Thatcher’s depressed 1970’s England sparked the original punk rock movement. So why not a soundtrack to the Fair Trade movement?

One would think the last few years of economic hardships would have spawned more protests and uprisings in general. Do things need to get worse, or does the information need to be more pervasive in order for economic inequalities to become the catalyst for a new movement?  Maybe we just need more activists to bring the movement together and ignite rockers of all genres to climb on the Fair Trade movement.

Patti Smith, Provinssirock festival, Seinäjoki, Finland, June 16, 2007 Credit: Beni Köhler

Perhaps Patti Smith said it best – People Have the Power – and we just need to remember it’s up to us to change the system by seeking out and purchasing Fair Trade whenever possible.

And if that isn’t rock and roll, I’m not sure what is?

Kelly Weinberger, Founder, WorldFinds Fair Trade,  is just as passionate about her music as she is about Fair Trade!

Kelly Weinberger

MTV Exit have created this video to promote their campaign against human trafficking, which features MK Ultra as the soundtrack.

NOTE from Editor:

This video might be SHOCKING for some!  Or lead to spontaneous crying.  I won’t dare say to enjoy it.   Be mad!  Get angry if you want! But whatever you feel, let it MOTIVATE you to ACT !  Do Change!