Fair Trade Blog

Now you can add Fair Trade Flowers to your shopping list!  TransFair, the only Fair Trade certification organisation in the United States, now certifies producers of the roses you give on Valentine’s Day, or that fall bouquet for grandma’s house at Thanksgiving.

The transition to Fair Trade production by growers, mainly in Colombia, Kenya, and Ecuador, is a huge improvement for workers at large flower plantations.

Production to satisfy the 19.5 billion dollar cut flower and plant market is labor and chemical intensive.  Workers at non-certified plantations often suffer from repeated exposure to toxic insecticides and herbicides.  When the crush for holiday shipments is at it’s peak, workers can be forced to work up to 18 hours without overtime pay to deliver flowers in time for big days like Valentine’s Day. 

Did you know that 90 percent of all gift flowers purchased in the US are given to women and that most of the floriculture workers on Fair Trade plantations are women?  It’s a parallel that demands mention.

Fair Trade in flower production directly benefits the women who make it successful.  In additon to a living wage for all it’s workers, certification requires employee benefits including 12 weeks paid maternity leave and childcare. 

Certification also alleviates a heinous practice common in modern agriculture — exposing workers to toxic chemicals.  Floriculture is the most chemical intensive agricultural practice in the world.  Studies have found over half of flower plantation workers showed signs of chemcial poisoning in countries like Ecuador. 

Plantations engaged in Fair Trade commit to reducing chemical use and provide saftey measures for workers like protective clothing.  Organic practices are becoming more widely used, but since flowers are simply admired instead of consumed, the transition has been slow in taking root.  While organic practice has not even been tried in production of the most common crops like carnations and lillies, organic practices continue to spread.

Fair Trade Flowers are readily available.  FTD, 1-800-FLOWERS, and even Sam’s Club offer them online.  Grocery chains including GIANT Food Stores, King’s Super Markets, and Whole Foods Market, offer them in their Floral sections. 

So the next time you want to say something nice, say it with Fair Trade flowers!

Keep shopping your good values!

It’s not always easy to become greener,  but we all recognize that it’s important to reuse, recycle, and restore in our personal environs as well as our businesses.  That, of course, is easier said then done. 

Businesess, as I have discovered, can be a huge consumer of all kinds of things from paper products to electricity and water.  In the shipping industry, for example, nearly every finished good you can think of is transported in a cardboard box.  Empty cardboard boxes can pile up at an astonishing rate.  

We keep a good number of the boxes we receive from wholesalers and use them to pack up customer’s purchases or ship orders we receive over the internet.  And they come in handy to store merchandize and supplies.  We do our best not to contribute to our local landfill. 

Even one of our wholesalers helped me out last week.  Minga Fair Trade Imports is in constant need of boxes for shipping.  So, after a visit, they were kind enough to take some of our largest boxes and bubble wrap off my hands.  Our back room is a little tidier and I feel better about not throwing away more boxes and packing.  

Almost exactly two years ago, when we were getting ready to open the store, we needed fixtures on a shoestring budget.   Mostly out of necessity, but also out of a desire to tackle waste, we went dumpster diving across the street behind a clothing store that was closing.

Dumpster diving is hard, dirty work, but we snagged some real finds.  Though you probably could not tell just by wandering around our store, many of the fixtures we use were saved from the landfill.   A little cleaning, imagination, and some paint worked wonders. 

An old vanity topped with discarded shutters became a jewelry display, while an abandoned tie rack is now a beautiful scarf display.  With a little care and creativity, a stack of dusty relics became valued display pieces. 

It takes constant effort.  This year I found great printed shopping bags made from recycled paper, but it required some thought and research.   But I’m happy to know that our customers will walk out of our store just as green as they came in. 

Keep shopping your good values! 

People are increasingly shopping with their principals as well as their pocketbooks in mind.  It’s not always easy to match your values with the places you shop or the things you buy.  We live in a fast paced and complex world.  It’s hard to keep up with what’s available and the busineses that provide them. 

There are tools that can help.   One great example, (one I use myself) is the Fair Trade Federation.   Not only does their website have current information about fair trade, but you can search for specific fair trade products under their “Find Products” heading on their homepage.

Want someone you can empathize with?  WalletMouth (Aptly named, don’t you think?), maintained by Bronwyn Ximm, documents her personal struggle to put her money where her mouth is.  The conversational way she presents information and tools she has tested herself makes this folksy site fun and valuable.  My favorite is her “Buycotts & Boycotts” section.

For a more interactive experience, check out dotherightthing.com.  Here you can help rate businesses on their social responsibility by submitting news articles about specific companies.  Visitors to the site rank the importance of the news and companies get a rating.   Currently, their top rated company is Seventh Generation, maker of green household products.  

In this political season the big issues are on everyone’s mind — global warming, the environment, social justice, and lately, race relations. We all get reminded more and more that our purchases count — they have an impact.  I want to know how you are making a difference with your pocketbook.  Drop us a comment on this post.

Of course, we are here to help you with new spring arrivals.  We look forward to seeing you in the shop and online. 

Keep shopping your good values!

Kile