Ok, I promise that our writing for Green Options will not keep us from publishing original content here on the Two Hands blog. It’s just that this week has been relatively crazy as we are beginning to meet with accountants, lawyers and bankers about financing the opening of the storefront in downtown Lawrence. In fact, if you’re interested in investing in a venture that will provide a reasonable financial return along with a significant social return, please, by all means contact us and we will send you a copy of the business plan and make arrangements to talk. In any case with all this going on we’ve only had time to fulfill our Green Options writing obligations this week.

Today Alicia has a great post up on Green Options that serves well as an introduction to the intersection of international trade, human rights and sustainable development. Please go give it a read.

This post was originally published on Green Options.

The Fair Trade coffee documentary Black Gold has been screening for over a year now but becasue it wasn't released widely I had not had a chance to see it until it was shown at the Chicago Green Festival a couple weeks ago - and I was impressed. The Village Voice called it "a model of patient storytelling," which is just what you should want from a good documentary. The movie opens with starkly contrasting images of rural Ethipoian coffee farmers and urban swarms of coffee drinkers, the effect of which lingers for the duration of the movie. Black Gold then goes into patient storytelling mode and methodically describes the international coffee industry and how it effects producers of coffee.

The economic scope of in the international coffee industry is jarring. It is dominated by four multinational corporations: Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Kraft and Starbucks. Coffee is the second most actively traded commodity in the world and two billions cups of coffee are consumed every day on planet Earth. In Europe and the US a cup of brewed coffee sells for an average of $2.90. Using the standard 7 grams of ground coffee per cup companies like Starbucks are making about $188.50 per pound of cofee. Depending on the volatile price of coffee on the international market farmers rerceive between $0.60 and $1.40 per pound.

The movie's main storyline follows the inspiring Tedesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union in Ethiopia. The union represents 101 Co-operatives and over 74,000 coffee farmers. I was fortunate enough to meet Tedesse in Chicago and I asked him about the union's progress since the movie was filmed. Oromia now sells about 2%, or 2,500 pounds, per year of its organic shade grown coffee to the Fair Trade market. Making use the $0.10 per pound social premium of Fair Trade coffee (to be used for community development) Oromia has built 4 schools and 26 water sanitation stations and 10 more schools are planned for construction. He noted that the guranteed price and long-term trading relationships he has developed with importers like Peace Coffee and Higher Grounds has helped to stabilize life for farmers.

Asked about African development in general Tedesse echoed the sentiments of the Malawian trade minister in the movie, "Trade is more important to Africa than aid." While aid to Africa has increased recently Africa's share of global trade continues to decline. The continent's share in global exports in 2005 was only 2.8%, roughly equivalent to its 1991 share and less than half its peak value in 1980 (6.0%). A mere one percent increase in trade would generate 70 billion dollars annually or five tmies the aid Africa receives now. Black Gold argues that trading fairly with disadvantaged African producers could be one step toward increasing Africa's inclusion in the global marketplace and spurring meaningful and sustainable development.

Black Gold is still gaining steam. It's being screened more and more aorund the world and has been picked up for cinema distribution in Ireland and the UK. Look for upcoming screenings in your area.

Starting today Brady and I will be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the Green Options blog. This is the first installment and can be found on Green Options here.

Saturday May 12th is the third global World Fair Trade Day. This day of celebration is an opportunity to increase Fair Trade awareness and expand understanding of the benefits it provides to poor families, deteriorating cultures and the environment. It also happens to be just before Mother’s Day, which offers a great chance to give your mom a gift that is also a gift to mothers across the world.

This year World Fair Trade Day will focus on children, with the motto “Kids Need Fair Trade.” Children are deeply affected by unfair trade policies. They become trapped in the cycle of poverty with little to no access to healthcare or education. Children in poor households are forced to work simply to eat. The World Fair Trade Day website claims “Coffee, cocoa (chocolate), bananas, oranges and sugar are among the food sectors that most exploit child labour.” Most of these products have a Fair Trade alternative.

Fair Trade requires, among other stipulations, that workers are paid a fair wage in the local context making parents more able to support families. Fair Trade also provides a social premium, such as ten cents per pound of coffee sold that is then used by producer cooperatives to build schools and health centers, and pay teachers and clinicians.

Fair Trade is also committed to gender equality, an idea that is being passed down to young girls and cultivated in these strongly patriarchal societies. The opportunity for women to provide for their families not only allows their daughters to attend school, but also instills in them a sense of empowerment and independence. This increased self worth is helping to create a generation of women who will question and change their oppression in these cultures.

There are many ways to raise awareness for this celebration:

• Transfair is sponsoring an art contest about Fair Trade for children 3rd – 12th grade, entries due May 15th
• Purchase Fair Trade gifts this mother’s day and start the conversation. I encourage you to support your local fair trade establishment or you can peruse my fair trade shop, Two Hands Worldshop.
• Host a Global Trade Soccer Game and get a Fair Trade Soccer ball with donations.
• Bake Mom a delicious dessert with Fair Trade chocolate. You can find tasty recipes at Divine & Equal Exchange. Enjoy it with some delicious Fair Trade coffee or tea.
• Support Fair Trade, check out the Fair Trade Federation to find a business which carries Fair Trade near you or look for World Fair Trade Day events close by at the World Fair Trade Day site or the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Please welcome Celeste Hamilton to the Two Hands blog. She’s a dear friend of ours from Peace Corps Guyana who now spends her time working for Idealist.org. Celeste will be contributing pieces to the blog from time to time and we’re very excited about that. Today she introduces us to GOOD magazine. Enjoy!

Alas, a magazine has come along that gives those that are tired of looking at highly airbrushed cleavage and beautiful faces something else (okay, maybe something in addition) to ponder over. Sandwiched in between the throngs of magazines that clutter racks everywhere from your local convenience store to the huge bookstore chain at the mall, if you’re lucky to find it, is a magazine called GOOD.

When I first heard of GOOD, I was intrigued. Was this a publication filled with instructions on how to decorate peanuts with googly eyes and sappy stories that catered to the church crowd? An extension of Gallant, of Goofus and Gallant fame, from the children’s magazine Highlights? Or a snarky, ironic take on society?

Turns out, it’s neither of those things. The first issue I saw had humorist John Hodgman from the Daily Show on it’s cover. Points. I opened it and read a lively article about couchsurfing.com, a site that connects thrifty travelers to a stranger’s couch, and a surprisingly engaging piece on a seed preservation vault in Norway. Did I capture your interest yet? Because GOOD immediately got me. Good. I’m hooked.

If you go to their website, www.goodmagazine.com, you’ll find back articles and illustrations on just about anything that interests you all in the range of sustainable living. There’s advice on how to turn your old vinyl records into dishes and where to recycle your out of date laptop. Musings on the demise of the farm and why we should care. A piece about a drive-in movie theatre at Kakuma, the Sudanese refugee camp where the protagonist of Dave Egger’s What is the What lived for nearly a decade. Inspiration from clowns who are sharing their funny with the developing world. Why an afternoon nap can save your life. A list of the top Green Buildings of 2007. Urban planning cues from the naked-streets movement in the Netherlands. Etc., etc., etc…

More than finally a publication about well, all things good, this is a magazine that frees activists and do-gooders from the socially awkward, uncool stereotype. We listen to Spankrock AND advocate for alternative fuel sources. We’re passionate about fair trade AND have a crush on Zak Galifinakis. We’re in love with all things organic AND This American Life. This magazine finally puts it out to society that yes, we can dork out on saving the world and be hip at the same time.

A subscription to GOOD costs a mere $20. And all of your subscription money goes to one of twelve charities of your choice. What, you’re thinking? How is that possible? Basically, GOOD explains that they’re undertaking this experiment because 1) it’s smart business and 2) they believe in it.

But just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, every issue they embark on consists of an interactive project for its readers. Right now, they’re calling for submissions for a care package like the ones mom used to send you in college to a person or organization of your choice. In the running right now is a range of people from an overworked mom to a lunch program in Madagascar to detained children of immigrants to Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes. The best item I’ve seen so far? A Skoal tin for Dennis Kucinich.

So go ahead. Give GOOD a try. There’s not another publication out there that makes socially conscious issues easily accessible—and fun to read about—while sincerely believing in the idea that collective creative concern is possible. And for nerds like me there’s the potential for infinite puns, all of which I’m eagerly awaiting.

I wrote a while back about the USDA’s impending decision to require annual certification for every small organic coffee farm outside the US. I explain in the previous post how the current certification system works for small family farms:

The USDA’s National Organic Program includes farming cooperatives, made up of hundreds and sometimes thousands of small family farms, in its organic certification process by randomly inspecting 20% of each cooperative’s farms every year. By the end of a five year cycle every farm would be inspected and a liaison appointed to monitor the 80% of farms that would not be inspected every year. This provision for “grower groups” allows small farms in the poorer rural areas of poor nations to take part in the booming organics industry by making time consuming and costly inspections feasible for the cooperatives.

Annual certification for every small farm would have been impossible for cooperatives. First they simply would not have enough time to reliably inspect thousands of farms every year and second they could not afford the cost. The USDA’s National Organic Program has released a statement that will maintain its current certification program for grower groups and revisit the issue in the fall after further consideration. Good news for the small farmer.

Write a letter or call the National Organic Program to let them know what you think:

Mark Bradley
Associate Deputy Administrator
USDA-AMS-TMP-NOP
Room 4008-South Building
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250-0020
Telephone: (202) 720-3252
Fax: (202) 205-7808

Hat tip to Sam Fromartz at Chews Wise (check out his original article on the issue at Salon.com) and the Coffee and Conservation blog.

Slate recently reviewed various types of micro-lending organizations. As Brady previously posted, micro-lending has a very low default rate, in Grameen Bank’s case in particular as low as 2% (compared to 4.5% default on the first two years of student loan repayment). As consumer consciousness becomes more aware of social return, through such ideas as triple bottom lines and Fair Trade, it is not surprising that micro-financing also finds popularity and support. Micro-financing fills a niche in providing very low loans to the asset-less poor, a concept not considered viable by standard banking institutions.

Jude Stewart’s reviews are based on a rating system which considers user experience, trust, and effectiveness and includes details about each. There is a selection ranging from general donations to organizations which then determine how the funds are distributed, to groups which allow direct lender / recipient relations. The common factor through each is the low dollar amount, both in what is being requested for the loan and required minimum donations (generally $5 - $25).
Read more…