Knew Better, Did Better: Fair Trade Buying

Janee Payne:  Freshly-picked coffee beans

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."  -- Maya Angelou


October is Fair Trade Month.  The "special month" is ending, but the opportunity continues year-round to buy with justice in mind by seeking out fair trade products.


ABOUT FAIR TRADE, from the Fair Trade USA web site:  "The Fair Trade Certified™ Label guarantees consumers that strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product. Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla." 


TWO KINDRED SPIRITS:
This week (Oct. 25-31) is International Nestle-Free Week.  Once again, coincidentally, my thoughts are swimming in the same stream as my amazing youngest at Anktangle.  She makes a convincing case for staying away from all things produced by Nestle, and she details how difficult that is to actually do.  Shameless, totally biased plug:  Amy's blog is special (like she is!) and her activism is filled with love for her family, for justice, and for life itself.  Spend a few minutes browsing!


I have been inspired by Jan at Yearning for God who has written regularly about Fair Trade products, especially fair trade chocolate.  Pay her a visit today and wish her a very "Happy Birthday!"


SOURCES FOR FAIR TRADE PRODUCTS:
Equal Exchange:  Fairly Traded Coffee, Tea, Chocolate and Snacks.

Green Mountain Coffee has a fairly extensive selection of fair trade (many are organic) coffees and teas.

Small Farmers, Big Change:  "A green and more just food system starts with small farmers."

Divine Chocolate:  "Divine is the only Fairtrade chocolate company which is 45% owned by the farmers. While Fairtrade ensures farmers receive a better deal for their cocoa and additional income to invest in their community, company ownership gives farmers a share of Divine’s profits and a stronger voice in the cocoa industry."

Sweet Earth Chocolates: This company's "organic fair trade confections for chocolate lovers everywhere" includes wedding favors and bulk ingredients.

Mountain Rose Herbs (also teas, spices and essential oils) is committed to sustainability and ethical stewardship.  A significant number of their products are fair trade and part of the standards and values of their business.


DOING BETTER:  Some of my favorite things are coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla.  I will enjoy them all the more by doing justice in the buying of them.

Color Me Happy!

Today's day-dreams are brought to you by the color ... green? ... red? ... mauve?  I don't know what color. And that's my dilemma.

I have been dreaming of paint. My day-dreaming was inspired by an 87-year old woman I visited recently whose home is sweet, small and impeccably painted in white -- yes, white! -- and she does the painting herself. Regularly. Still. At age 87.

I confess that, before home Communion was served, I interrogated her at length about painting. I was hoping that she could infuse me with some of her expertise in painting and some of her quiet confidence about style. I'm sure she would laugh if she heard me say that she has style, but, in my eyes, she does. All of her walls and woodwork are painted white and yet still her house is cozy and not at all stark. She used color in beautiful ways.  She used, tastefully, a color I love:  red.  I was inspired.

So color me HAPPY that I found a fellow blogger who also delights in finding her decorating colors. She recently posted something really fun over at This, That, and The Other which she got from Lisa Clarke's blog, Polka Dot Cottage. What total serendipity! For I am pretty sure that "Cottage" would be somewhere close to a label for what might loosely be called my "personal home decorating style." "Shabby Chic" is casual and tattered enough but a little too soft and too pastel. I'm only a little bit "Country" and, beyond that, I'm not sure what the categories of decorating style even are.   But I digress ... !

About finding those colors: Check out both blogs for a cool tool called The Color Palette Generator. You can use your own photo from a vacation spot you loved or choose a photo that gives you a good feeling -- say, happy and content, or energized, or inspired.  This tool lets you see the individual colors that could make little parts of your world feel the same way.

Enjoy!  

News Fast, Day 4: The Joy of Limitations

Here I am on Day 4 of my self-imposed news fast.

What I miss the most:  Commenting on Facebook posts about news or news-related things.

What I don't miss at all:  Morning TV.  I have replaced that with music and podcasts from my iPod.  Nice!

What I love the most:  The limitation!

With "news" off the table, there are actually more things to explore.  I have downloaded podcasts to my iPod that I am now listening to when I would have been listening to, watching or reading the news.  I recommend Stuff You Missed in History Class.  (The link is to some top podcasts, including that one.)  OK, so I'm technically listening to old news!  How about A Crash Course in Miracles?  (Future news?)

Another limitation I have learned to truly enjoy is living gluten free.  There are so many things in the grocery store I just don't have to look at now.  I have enjoyed getting to know much better the international foods aisle and the health food aisles.  I didn't miss anything delicious in last night's dinner of Spicy eggs diablo on polenta.

Imagine other possibilities for creative limitations:

• Calorie limitations:  Dr. Oz promotes "extreme life extension" through a limited calorie life-style.  He calls it a "diet"; I prefer to adopt a "life-style."  Think of it as life extension rather than deprivation!

• The ability to say no:  Seven Simple Ways to Say No (from Zen Habits blog)

• Edited to add:  Haiku Productivity:  The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential (also from Zen Habits blog)

To be continued ...

Word Wonders: Univocal vs. Equivocal

My niece Laura took this pic

I may have been the only person in the RevGalBlogPals "Friday Five" game this week who chose "univocal" instead of "equivocal" given that choice.  I've had some fun thinking about my process in making what was, for me, a very surprising choice.  The way it went: