Green America: Who's the Fairest?

Can't see this email? Links don't work? Click here to view it online.

Dear Daniel A Stafford, It's been a decade since Fair Trade coffee made its first appearance in the US marketplace. At the time, it was the only fairly traded product available in this country, and as many of us remember, it was hard to find. Big thanks to the Green Americans who have consistently asked for more Fair Trade products, driving demand for Fair Trade such that today, shoppers can easily find a wide range of Fair Trade products – chocolate, tea, rice, sugar, and more – on supermarket shelves, with more to come. Globally, Fair Trade sales hit the $5 billion mark last year, helping more than one million producers and their families lift themselves out of poverty. This is a huge achievement (from $0 to $5 billion in ten years!) that we're acknowledging here at Green America in several ways: First, our editors used this milestone as a jumping-off point for the first issue of our newly redesigned Green American magazine – which makes its debut online as a downloadable PDF this week. In the 1990s, the organic market skyrocketed. Our editors tackle the question of whether Fair Trade is poised for the same level of growth in this decade. Second, because we know that consumer demand has been a driving force behind the growth of Fair Trade in the first decade of the 21 st-century, we're keeping the momentum moving for the next decade with our Fair Trade Your Supermarket campaign. We provide you with the tools to help get more Fair Trade products into more and more stores. Help us reach our goal of consumers requesting Fair Trade products in all 50 states! Finally, we've got many more ways for you to take action on Fair Trade coming up this fall, including our annual Reverse Trick-or-Treat project and home screenings of the film the Dark Side of Chocolate. Get your free trick-or-treating kit now, while supplies last. See below for more on these action opportunities – and for this month's Faces of the Green Pages interview with Fair Trade leader Rishi Tea. Thanks for all you do for people and the planet, Alisa Gravitz, Executive Director, Green America P.S. September is Green Giveaway month at Green America. Support Green America's programs, and get your choice of a great green thank-you gift from one of our Green Business Network™ members – including Fair Trade gifts like beaded bracelets from Rainforest Native, Fair Trade coffee from Velasquez Maximo, and more. Check out Green Giveaway Month » P.P.S. Stay tuned to your e-newsletter … we and our allies are launching a major campaign within the next two weeks to convince a huge conventional chocolate company to clean up its supply chain. We want you to help us. Don't miss it. Reverse Trick-or-Treating & The Dark Side of Chocolate (Get your free trick-or-treat kit while supplies last.) Again this year, Green America is teaming up with our allies at Global Exchange for reverse trick-or-treating, the Halloween tradition of children handing Fair Trade chocolate back to their neighbors – and we want you to join us! It works like this: The chocolate is attached to a card detailing the social and environmental justice issues in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade chocolate helps cocoa farmers across the world. You can order the free (plus shipping costs) Fair Trade chocolate kits from the "reverse trick-or-treating" Web site. Please note that you were referred by Green America. Individuals can begin ordering kits immediately (deadline October 8), and be sure to order soon, because kits always run out long before deadline - be sure to use the coupon code GREENAMERICA! (While supplies last, businesses and institutions may take part by purchasing their kits.) Order your Reverse Trick-or-Treat kit here » Also for Halloween, consider hosting a screening of the Dark Side of Chocolate. The national screening week for this film by Miki Mistrati and U. Robin Romano is scheduled for October 23 – 31. Green Americans across the country can host events to share the news of the sad state of the conventional cocoa supply chain. Filmmakers Mistrati and Romano traveled to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, and found that numerous labor rights abuses continue, years after major chocolate companies committed to ending exploitation. With 70 percent of the world's chocolate grown in West Africa, the conditions the filmmakers found on their journeys represent serious concerns for those trying to avoid chocolate tainted by abusive child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. Sign up to host a screening » Meet Joshua Kaiser of Rishi Tea For more than 1,000 years, tea has been the most consumed beverage next to water. Rishi Tea has a commitment to both. Since 2008, Rishi Tea has partnered with Clean Water Fund donating more than $10,000 to their efforts of cleaning and restoring North America's waters through the sales of their Organic Cinnamon Plum seasonal blend. That's on top of their commitment to Fair Trade and direct sourcing, and their status as a winner of eleven First Place Awards for Best Tea at the 2009 World Tea Championship. We asked Rishi Tea founder Joshua Kaiser to tell us more about his commitment to Fair Trade tea, clean water, and -- bonus -- a third beverage, his favorite organic soy milk, for blending the perfect chai. Read our interview with Joshua » Our new Green American debuts online With the online debut of our July/August Green American, find articles about the current boom in Fair Trade activism, and resources for how you can get involved in raising consumer consciousness, making your town a Fair Trade town, and taking action with your local supermarket (see our Fair Trade Your Supermarket campaign for more). In her feature article "It's Only Fair," our editor Tracy Fernandez Rysavy tells the story of Florence, orphaned by the Rwandan genocidal war in 1994, who turned her life around by joining Cards from Africa, a Kigali-based Fair Trade company and member of our Green Business Network™. Our September/October Green American is in the mail, in which we tackle the Number One question our members ask us to take on: When it comes to food, if you have to choose, should you go local or organic? And we're hard at work on November/December, in which we update the most strategic ways to address the climate crisis, and how you can reduce your energy use (and bills) by 50 percent in five years. Read "It's Only Fair" »

September 7, 2010 Action · Reverse Trick-or-Treating and The Dark Side of Chocolate News · Meet Joshua Kaiser of Rishi Tea Resources · Our new Green American debuts online (All advertisements are from approved Green America Business Network™ members.) 20% off on green back-to-school ... Use code GREENGIFT » Help us lower a charity's energy costs forever. Click here to see how you can make clean energy a reality for a deserving organization in your community » Your choice of gift from our Green Business Network when you donate to Green America in September » Green America receives a 20% donation from subscriptions to recycled-paper magazines that are endorsed by our Better Paper Project... Further news from our Better Paper Project: During Sept. all Books-a-Million stores and 240 of the largest Barnes & Nobles are promoting magazines identified by our Better Paper Project that use recycled paper. Please support these magazines and tell the manager how you appreciate this environmental promotion. (We'd love to collect photos of our Better Paper exhibits from coast to coast. If you see one in a store near you, please send a photo to Better Paper director Frank Locantore.) Help us show Congress that Americans everywhere want to invest in cleaner energy ... Get resources for taking action for Fair Trade in your local community » Sept. 10-12, Quincy, MA The Fair Trade Futures Conference schedule has been announced. Register Today » Green America executive director Alisa Gravitz will be speaking at the Mother Earth News Fair, Sept. 25 - 26, in Seven Springs Mtn., PA. Two-day tickets, $25; single-day, $15 » Get your networks involved. Fan us on Facebook » Forward this e-mail »

Send to a Friend | Donate Now | Join Green America

Subscribe to this list