Just a few years ago, I never thought twice about buying a piece of jewelry, or a hat, or a sweater, off the shelf. If it was cool, and it struck my fancy, then it came home with me. End of story. I never gave it much thought.
Everything began to change when I discovered Etsy. [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on February 22nd, 2011 | 1 Comment »
So, I finally got an update from Ed, the owner of Earth Divas, who is travelling through India and Nepal right now meeting with new vendors and coming up with some really exciting new bags. I can’t wait until we get these made and up on the site for all of you to see!
Today he’s [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on August 24th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Many people don’t think twice about buying leather shoes, leather handbags, leather jackets and leather belts. Leather’s everywhere, and it’s easy to let this material slip into our closets without giving it a second thought.
But, we really should be giving leather a second thought. Why?
Because leather is really, really bad for the environment.
First, let’s start [...]
Filed under: Eco Fashion, Fair Trade Living on August 13th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I know that many of us have been feeling the pinch of the recession lately. But it’s easy to forget that there is an entire world out there, full of people who are also being affected.
One group who are feeling the effects of the global downturn are fair trade artisans.
What’s happened that as the recession [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on August 10th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
So, we’ve talked about fair trade bags, fair trade fashion, fair trade coffee, and fair trade chocolate.
But what about fair trade beauty products?
Many people aren’t aware that fair trade beauty products exist. But they do, thanks in large part to main ingredients like cocoa butter and shea butter, which can be fairly traded from countries [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on June 8th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
When most people think of sweatshops, they picture women and children behind row after row of sewing machines. The sweat is beaded on their brow, the air is hot and stuffy, and they stay that way for 12-14 hours per day.
The reality is actually pretty close to this, actually. Sweatshops are awful places, and the [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on May 24th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
We’ve all heard about how bad sweatshops are. But, what does that really mean? I mean, what is a sweatshop, and who works there? What do they make?
I started wondering this today because of Wal-Mart. Did you know that, according to PBS, Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the United States outside the Federal Government?
They’re [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on May 20th, 2010 | 11 Comments »
Did you know that silver mining, which is lumped under the heading of “industrial mining”, is one of the world’s most destructive industries? It’s highly polluting to the environment, and the industry often engages in labor practices that practically mimic slavery. Many mining companies use child labor in their mines.
Most of the world’s silver comes [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on May 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
World Fair Trade Day is tomorrow! This celebration is a relatively new movement to help raise awareness of Fair Trade around the world.
Basically, it’s a series of events taking place all over the world to help people understand how powerful Fair Trade is, and how they can help change the world simply by buying Fair [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on May 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
Many people haven’t heard of fair trade wine. I consider myself to be pretty “fair trade” savvy, but even I didn’t know about it until a few weeks ago!
As you can imagine, however, I was thrilled to learn about it, especially since fair trade wine is still fairly new here in the States.
How big is [...]
Filed under: Fair Trade Living on March 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »
