Friday, February 5, 2010

Fair-Trade Friday


I know, the blog has been slow lately.  I've been busy, but I promise, there's some good stuff coming up next week.  For now though, I wanted to encourage you to take part in the one month challenge and purchase fair-trade products.  The Fair-Trade Manitoba one-month challenge begins on February 14th.  The goal is to purchase only fair-trade tea, coffee, and chocolate for 30 days.  You can go here to sign up and learn more about the challenge and why you should be purchasing fair-trade products.

For home consumption, we only buy fair-trade coffee, tea, and chocolate.  It's easy.  We go to Ten Thousand Villages, Blue Earth Organics, Vita Health, or even Safeway to pick up these items.  The catch is that it must be fair-trade certified.  Many companies are selling "fair trade" or "community trade" products.  There is no regulation of these words, so anyone can use them even if there products are not fair-trade.  Certified fair trade products have this symbol:

So, as I was saying, it's easy to find fair-trade products to eat/drink at home.  The problem for me is, I'm not always at home.  Some weeks I pretty much live in coffee shops because that's where I meet clients.  There are obvious perks to this (great tasting treats and low office overhead, for example), but I don't always ask if my beverage uses fair-trade certified ingredients.  So my personal challenge for the next month is to be really conscious of what I'm eating/drinking when I'm not at home.  I'll compile a list of the best coffee shops/restaurants for fair-trade products and post them on the blog as I find them!

3 comments:

Cheryl said...

I have decided to take the challenge also. It'll be tough for a Timmie's lover like me but since I have become hooked on the Ethiopian coffee from Ten Thousand Villages I don't enjoy Tim's as much as I used to. Plus I like the feeling of doing something positive by buying Fair Trade Certified coffee and tea. Good luck with your challenge!

From The Heart Online said...

Good challenge! I normally buy fair trade certified coffee and chocolate, but never thought of seeking fair trade coffee in restaurants...

Jess Ehlers said...

Thanks for the comments Mom and Kim. I usually consider restaurants my "guilt-free zone"...and I'm not looking forward to asking if the coffee is fair-trade in my favourite Starbucks white chocolate mocha. I might have to learn to make fancy drinks at home!