One of the most important goals at Two Hands Worldshop is to bring back the human aspect of trade. Our consumerism has successfully removed all elements of the person behind the products we purchase. It is the dismemberment that allows people to support such human rights violations as slavery, child labor, and deathly working conditions. We have rid ourselves of such atrocities (mostly) close to home, as we were directly confronted by what our actions did to others. Yet somehow the people behind international production are drowned as their products cross the ocean to our eager hands. The right choice should be the easy choice, yet our current market is topsy-turvy, which is why these next few ideas have the possibility to revolutionize how we shop, and through that how we interact with our shared world.

Fair Tracing, which aims 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, they are 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 producers working conditions and pay to packaging to transportation, will be available at the point of sale, eliminating a consumers need to delve into extensive research before shopping. This information will create not only an opportunity for consumer to purchase products which reflect their personal values, but create a competitive market in which companies are not trying to simply make the most money but rather are forced to adhere to their consumers values and 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.

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Paper or Plastic? No thank you!

Here are even more inexpensive options to kick the plastic habit.

Easy and free, just grab a bag laying around your house.

For those craftily inclined, simply make your own bag!

Find some fabric from old cloths or linens and sew a couple squares together. Add an old belt for the handle and viola! you’ve got the one of a kind shopping bag that will turn everyone green.

Put on your knitting/crocheting cap and recycle your old bags. Simply collect the old plastic bags, cut into strips, and go crazy. Your new plastic bag will be sturdy, reusable, compact and easily rinsed out. Here’s just one easy pattern, there a many others out there, or make your own and share.

Shopping list for the shopping bag:

1. Reusable Bags have a huge array in all price ranges. They’ve got a recycled cotton tote at $7.95 which holds a full load and is fair trade!

2. Don’t forget to grab some small guys for produce.

3. Grab a workhorse for $9.95, that folds into it’s own attached bag and fits in your palm, perfect to carry in your purse or throw in the dashboard.

4. Or make your statement with this BYOB (bring your own bag).

5. If you’d rather reuse your current bags, check out this guy at $9.95, which allows you to wash easily in the dishwasher.

6. As Peggy pointed out the key to success is keeping “reusable containers handy” and Ecoezi has a great solutions. For $21.95 “compact, convenient, stylish wallet, with 10 sturdy, easy to use machine washable bags.”

7. Envirosax has beautiful prints with a set of in a carry pouch for $31.

8. For some fun prints check out b. happybags. The bags are organic and made in the US and are each $24.

If you want the nano of the bag, check out Onya, which is stuffed into a bag on your key chain.

San Fransisco isn’t the only place to grasp the severity of our waste, IKEA “Ikea has begun charging U.S. customers for plastic shopping bags in an effort to improve environmental responsibility, the home-furnishings chain says,” we’ll all be carrying our own bags soon enough, why not lead the pack with some cheap style!

What’s all the hullaballo?

~500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
The average American family of four throws away about 1,500 single-use plastic bags per year
Less than 1% are recycled. Most are used for trash bags which take ~1,000 years to degrade in the landfill. Wow, isn’t that scary

An interesting new approach has been to biodegradable plastics which can be tossed into the sea. While biodegradable is certainly better, where in the world are they planning on dumping all of these?!?

In an exciting development for the fair trade movement progressive grocer Whole Foods announced today that it will partner with US fair trade certifier TransFairUSA in a program it calls the Whole Trade Guarantee.

“With our shoppers’ growing concern about ethical and responsible trade and with our Company’s increasing scale and scope, the time is right for Whole Foods Market to help make more of an impact,” said Whole Foods Market’s co-founder and CEO John Mackey. “We have a long track record concerning ethical business practices, equitable pay for Team Members and suppliers, safe working environments, and love and respect for all people and the Earth. We are extending that concern to the global community by bringing products from developing areas to the marketplace in a way that is a win for the producers and their families, for our shoppers, for the environment, and for poverty stricken communities where we do business.”

The fair trade commitment was informally announced a little over a month ago during a sold-out discussion between author and food activist Michael Pollan and John Mackey at UC Berkeley. I mentioned this discussion in a previous post and I highly recommend watching it.

It appears that San Francisco will be the first city in the US to ban plastic shopping bags. The Reuters article says San Franciscans use an astonishing 181 million plastic bags per year. That’s about 120 bags per person per year. This works out to saving “450,000 gallons of oil a year and (will) remove the need to send 1,400 tons of debris now sent annually to landfills.” Imagine the cumulative impact as similar bans spread around the planet and begin to reduce the 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags we use globally every year!

The goals are to stop using the non-biodegradable bags and cut down on oil consumption but it is certainly not to switch back to using paper bags. Remember those comes from trees. Instead the ban hopes to motivate shoppers to start using reusable canvas shopping bags. The city of San Francisco gave out free canvas bags to residents the day it voted to ban plastic bags.

So, why wait for a ban in your city? Pickup a few fair trade canvas shopping bags for yourself.

One of the major components of fair trade is transparency. In order to obtain Fair Trade certification, the producer must, among others, be “organized into cooperatives or associations that are transparent, accountable and democratic.” IFAT defines transparency and accountability as “transparent management and commercial relations to deal fairly and respectfully with trading partners.” To me these seem like obvious business practices which should be followed by all. If you need to cover your operations, then you have something to hide, right? And now Wired magazine agrees.

Wired used a very literal take on transparency with their lead article “Get Naked and Rule the World” with a transparent cover that pulls away to reveal a naked Jenna Fisher from The Office, along with a strategically placed sign. While it is the image that is getting the most attention, it is the article which is truly controversial. The article “features a package of stories about radical transparency, our notion that the next model of business success is laying your company bare to the world—sharing secrets with your rivals, blogging about ideas as you have them, and copping to fumbles and foibles as you make them.”
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The guarantee of a “fair wage in the local context” is one of the most often publicized of the fair trade criteria. Fair trade exists to protect and empower disadvantaged producers in countries that often do not have workers’ rights laws. Fair trade gurantees at least the minimum wage in countries that have a minimum wage law but do not enforce it. In countries that do not have a minimum wage the buyer of the product is still bound by the fair trade criteria to pay a fair wage in the local context. World of Good Development has created an online fair wage calculator to help determine what a fair wage might be in any given local context.

I input the required information for Teddy Exports’ Floral Tote that we offer over at the shop into the calculator. I found that the women making the Floral Totes are making roughly four times the minimum wage of 2.15 USD per day in India. This wage is in addition to the free health care, daily meal, child care and schooling each artisan is entitled to at Teddy. The wage is also two times the Acumen Fund poverty line for urban India.

The tool simply aggregates all the freely available economic information necessary to determine a fair price for goods. But it makes the process of determining a fair price price more streamlined and accessible. A big thanks to World of Good Development Organization for building this tool.

Along our quest of being cheap world-savers I came upon the CFL light bulb. We needed a light bulb anyway, so I decided to give it a try. The packaging proclaimed it would last for 5 years. I was doubtful but had heard these were better so we put it in and I had put it out of my mind for a bit.

Today I stumbled upon No Impact Man and some facts about the CFL bulb. To say a light bulb went on is modest, the old bulb exploded in a burst of glass and inefficiency! And on the selfish note, these things are going to save us some serious cash.

“Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescent but use 75% or 80% less electricity.”

The bulbs, even with heavy use, last around can last 5, 7 and 10 years!

These run more expensive than the traditional bulbs, we spent about $8 for a set of two. But this will balance out about 5 months of savings, and after that we’ll still have at least 55 months to go!

If every one of the 110 million American households replaced just one “ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out is enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.”

These are not the perfect solution, so there are a few things to keep in mind. First, don’t turn your house into stadium lighting, your mother’s was right, always turn the light off. Second, there is about 5 mg of mercury in them which means never handle the glass with your bare hands if the bulb breaks, and dispose of them properly through your local household hazardous waste collection site (find yours here). That way the mercury will be reclaimed so it won’t harm the environment.

While they are not a ultimate answer to reducing the amount of energy we use, they are moving along that path. So the next time your light burns out remember to grab one of these guys, and then forget about it for a nice long time.

World Water Day was March 22. Over 1 billion people worldwide lack clean drinking water. This is a statistic which is easily removed for our consciousness, as we are rarely more than a few feet from a chilled drinking fountain, sinks with hot or cold, toilets flushing gallons away a day and hot showers. But if we continue with our current water guzzling, these might become precious commodities.

Worldwide, 54 per cent of the annual available fresh water is being used. If consumption per person remains steady, by 2025 we could be using 70 per cent of the total because of population growth alone. If per capita consumption everywhere reached the level of more developed countries we could be using 90 per cent of the available water by 2025.”

This map presented at the 2006 World Water Forum in Mexico City, shows the relative “risk status” of 162 countries regarding access to safe drinking water and sanitation. (from here)

“Fortune magazine calls water the oil of the 21st century — ‘the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations.’”–Food & Water Watch

Here are some simple things you can do to conserve water everday:

* Run the dishwasher only when it is full. Hand wash dishes by filling the sink or a dishpan with water, rather than running water continuously.
* Turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth or shave.
* Take short showers and turn off the water while you soap.
* Choose appropriate water levels for your laundry load size.
* Water your garden or lawn early in the morning, or late at night, to reduce evaporation.
* Allow your grass to grow a little taller to provide shade and prevent water loss.
* Grow plants native to your area’s climate.
* Turn off the hose between rinses when you wash your car.
* Sweep, rather than hose off, your sidewalk.
* Cover your outdoor pool when it isn’t in use.

You can also put an old milk jug in the tank of our toilet, as this helps to reduce the amount of water used with each flush.

Check out h2ouse.org for an interactive home tour that demonstrates water saving tips throughout your house and garden.

Ok, sometimes mushing words can end up with leaving an unpleasant image! But the good news is Hogwarts has gone green!

I am a very big Harry Potter fan, and with the last book in the series due out this summer it’s great to hear that Scholastic is taking a more environmentally friendly approach for the US release. The US has fallen behind in this effort, as some previous Canada & European versions were printed on forest friendly paper, per the author’s wishes.

For the US release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scholastic has teamed with the Rainforest Alliance for a more responsible press run. Some of the details are:

* The paper used will contain “a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer waste (pcw) fiber.”

* Nearly two-thirds of the 16,700 tons of paper will be approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization with a mission to “promote environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.”

* A “deluxe” edition of the new book, which has a first printing of 100,000, will be printed on paper that contains “100 percent post-consumer waste fiber.”

Considering the first printing will run in the realm of 12 million copies, this is certainly a step in the right direction. It is unfortunate that only the deluxe edition will contain 100% recycled materials, as it seems they could feasibly offer this as an option for all copies. To put in perspective, the earth savings for using the greenest production methods and 100% recycled paper for 2.5 million copies would be about:

• 89,200 trees felled
• Enough water used to fill 105 Olympic-sized pools
• Production of greenhouse gases equivalent a car being driven 8m miles
• Electricity to power an average home for 610 years

Of course, the best way to reduce waste is to check it out from your local library, but if you can not resist the temptation to get your own copy be sure to become your own library and get some more people hooked on Potter-mania!

“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

One of the most common confusions the Fair Trade movement has to contend with is that of Free Trade. In essence, Free Trade sounds great (hey, it’s free!). Not surprisingly, the US tends to use its power to bully poor countries into joining Free Trade agreements which are far from fair and balanced.

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 gap from theory to reality is quite broad. George W. Bush made the proclamation shortly after securing the presidency for the first time that “open trade is not just an economic opportunity, it is a moral imperative.” It is not surprising then, that the current white house has been eager to fast track all free trade agreements during it’s remaining time, after all, W. is simply following his moral imperative, right? However, free trade initiatives are not a partisan issue, they have been embraced by both sides to appease large corporate benefactors, at expense of US jobs and workers overseas.

Theorist’s claim that removing all barrier’s 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 what often follows is the opposite of this prediciton. Large corporation push out smaller 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), money is drained from the poorer countries as corporations fail to reinvest locally and all but forced servitude is common and even children are forced into hard labor conditions to survive. This has only furthered the gap between the rich and poor as “the richest 20% of the world’s population has 60 times the income of the poorest 20%.” Our moral imperative should not be to the profits earned but rather to the people. 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 lack 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.

At its core remembering the value of the people is the ultimate goal of Fair Trade. It is not, as some propose, simply an attempt to set a price floor which will destroy the natural flow of supply and demand. Rather it is placing the value of human life and labor above the value (but not at the expense of) profit. We have found cause to implement this within our borders and there is no true reason, moral or otherwise, to make this an exclusive arrangement.

Similarly a new economic theory has been proposed by Frank Rotering, which he terms Human Economics. “The objective of human economics is to formulate economic concepts and analytical tools that permit the maximization of human well-being subject to ecological constraints.” There is extreme poverty, death and suffering in today’s world, to the extent which we must re-evaluate our current policies and approach, because as dominant countries we are frequently the cause to, and continuation of, these problems.

Fair Trade is not perfect, there are legitimate criticisms and challenges it faces, nor should it be the ultimate solution. Rather Fair Trade is a necessary step towards improvement as it helps establish a new basic economic imperative, the realization that trade is fundamentally a human interaction. If we ever cease taking these steps toward something better it will not be the Fair Trade movement that fails but rather us that has failed ourselves.