Fair Trade Beats Free Trade

Socially responsible consumers want imported products produced under fair working conditions. The Fair Trade Federation [FTF, PO Box 126, Barre, MA 01005] encourages worker-seller partnerships that provide a living wage to artisans and farmers. Producers, wholesalers and retailers belonging to the FTF promise to provide: a fair local wage, advancement opportunities, equal employment, environmentally sustainable practices and safe working conditions.

Got Eco-activism?

Yogurt is a product of milk, bacteria and, in the case of one organic dairy in New Hampshire, ecological responsibility. Stonyfield Farms [Ten Burton Drive, Londonderry, NH 03053, 800-PRO-COWS] fights global warming with every pint. Stoneyfield has reduced energy use per-yogurt-pound by 9 percent and cut CO2 emissions by 15 percent, through hot water recovery, lighting retrofits and other upgrades. The farm also recycles and/or reuses over 60 percent of its otherwise burnable waste.

An EPA for Kids

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has introduced legislation (S 599) to protect children from "unnecessary and preventable health risks" not addressed by existing EPA standards. No US environmental law (including the Pollution Prevention Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act and Ocean Dumping Act) specifically addresses the health needs of children. The "Kids' EPA" would require published lists of products deemed child-safe, as well as research on the effects of pesticides and pollutants on children. S 599 has four sponsors - all Democrats.

Swords into Sunflowers

The sunflower has become the symbol of a nuclear-free world. During the dismantling of a Cold War missile site in Ukraine, then-US Defense Secretary Wm. Perry and Ukrainian military officers scattered helianthus seeds over the ground as Perry declared: "Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil would ensure peace for future generations." The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation [NAPF, 1187 Coast Village Rd., Suite 123, Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794] is asking people to send letters containing sunflower seeds to world leaders as part of Abolition 2000, a citizens' campaign calling for a nuclear-world free by the year 2000, to world leaders. Sunflower Seeds of Peace (unroasted and fit for planting) are available for $2.50 per packet (ten packets for $20) from NAPF.

Of Wine, Bugs and Other Bugs

Beckstoffer Vineyards, a 2000-acre vineyard in the California winery hubs of Napa and Mendocino counties, has unleashed the forces of nature in the form of pest-eating insects. The winery was recently honored with an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Innovator Award for conscientious management of natural resources in the farming of wine grapes. Says Andy Beckstoffer, "It is not enough to grow great grapes or make great wine … we must also be sensitive and responsible to the environment in which we live."

A Post-Grad Green Guide

The road to college-level environmental programs just grew smoother, thanks to the publication of the Student Conservation Association's Guide to Graduate Environmental Programs [Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20009-1148], which lists more than 160 graduate environmental programs nationwide.

Antarctica: Earth's Biggest Park

On December 16, 1997, Japan became the 26th and crucial signer of the Environmental Protection Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, thereby activating a treaty that bans all oil and mineral exploration and mining in the polar continent for a minimum of 50 years. The treaty, which took more than six years to ratify, entered into force on January 15. "The Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty" designates the continent "a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science." Future human activities will be regulated to protect Antarctic ecosystems, which in turn effect the entire global system.

Saving Unsolds

Where should unsold, magazines go - into landfills, recycling bins or the eager hands of new readers? Seattle magazine distributor David Spiekerman has organized a network of 40 community programs that accept unsold periodicals as reading (or collage) material. Spiekerman diverts nearly 4,000 magazines per month to schools, food banks, parenting programs and people with AIDS/HIV. Among the resurrected publications are Earth Island Journal, Ms., Tikkun, Psychology Today and Utne Reader. "This is a service that our industry can and should provide," Spiekerman insists.

Biodiesel - Such a Trip

The Veggie Van runs on biodiesel fuel derived from used vegetable oil instead of gasoline. Last year, Joshua and Kaia Tickell [(941) 356-1483, email: tickel@virtu.sar.usf.edu] crossed the US from Florida to California towing a small biodiesel distillery behind their van. Stopping to refuel at fast-food joints along the way, they showed astonished burger-lovers how leftover french-fry grease could be transformed into auto fuel [See "Fat of the Land," Fall '94 EIJ]

Green Biz is Good Biz

Business and ethics can co-exist. Business Ethics magazine [2845 Harriet Ave., No. 207, PO Box 8439, Minneapolis, MN 55408, fax (612) 879-0699] reports that the socially-screened Domini Index has outperformed the Standard & Poor's Index for five years; three out of four consumers polled prefer products associated with a good cause; 60 percent of companies with employee ownership show increased productivity; and, in eight out of ten cases, low-polluters make more profit than high-polluters.

Grabbing a (Veg-O) Bite

Combining vegetarian eating and fast-food convenience is less of a challenge nowadays with the Vegetarian Resource Group survey as a guide[$4 from PO Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203]. Seventy US restaurant chains now offer vegetarian or vegan options. Taco Bell has vegetarian burritos without animal fat or dairy, Subway features veggie sandwiches and the occasional meatless burger and TGI Friday offers garden burgers and veggie wraps.

This Spring, Plant Endangered Seeds

Championing the continued existence of the planet's endangered traditional food plants, several innovative US mail-order seed companies offer home gardeners a tantalizing array of "rare jewels of the vegetable kingdom" for spring planting. If you want to enjoy the spectacle of a summer garden bursting with exotic fruiting plants - Navajo melon, mira sol hot peppers, Uncle E watermelon, New Mexico cave beans, popping amaranth or St. Pierre tomato - request a catalog from Seed Dreams [231 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, (408) 458-9252], Redwood City Seed Company [PO Box 361, Redwood City, CA 94064, www.batnet.com/rwc-seed] or Seeds of Change [PO Box 15700, Santa Fe, NM 87506-5700, (888) 762-7333], Native Harvest [(PO Box 428, Bemidji, MI 56601, 800) 294-2433]. These catalogs offer a grad school course's-worth of obscure historic info, colorful descriptions and tips for successful growing. Dig in and grow something old this season!

British Press Unpens Porkers

Last winter, two pigs broke away from a slaughterhouse 90 miles north of London, squeezed under a fence and swam across a river (doubtless oinking encouragement to one another). The subsequent media frenzy had millions of avid newspaper readers rooting for the fleeing pigs. The press dubbed the escapees Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig. Their owner experienced a change of heart after the British tabloids started a bidding war to buy the errant porkers' freedom. The Daily Mail won and forked over a rumored $24,000. Butch, a 110-lb 5-month-old female was cornered by a reporter who proclaimed the capture a "world oinksclusive." Sundance was brought down by a tranquilizer dart. The four-hoofed celebrities will spend the rest of their lives at an animal sanctuary. The pro-pig hullabaloo was credited with a surge in vegetarian conversions.

As Goes Maine?

Last November, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the removal of the 160-year-old Edwards Dam in Augusta, Maine - the first time in history that the US has dismantled a dam. Edwards Dam ("a scruffy hump of timber and stone" in the words of the Washington Post) was demolished to restore the Kennebec River as a habitat for sea-run fish.

Rocky Mountain High

Colorado Governor Roy Romer has a ten-point plan to turn his state into "a world center for renewable energy industries" capable of generating "250 megawatts of renewable energy in the next decade." The state Office of Energy Conservation is promoting the purchase of "green power" by state agencies, encouraging home loans for renewable energy systems and push for renewable energy education in Colorado's schools.

- SRS