Celebrate Fair Trade

As the holidays start approaching, it's a good idea to begin looking for some great eco-friendly gifts. How about buying some fair trade gifts? Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods.

Fair trade's intent is to work with international workers and producers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to one of security through self-sufficiency.

Here are some websites to check out that sell fair trade goods:
www.globalexchangestore.org
www.tenthousandvillages.com/home.php
www.globalstewards.org/fairtradeshops.htm

Organic labels

Organic-sounding labels can be confusing, or even meaningless. Below are examples of labels that are meaningful because there are government standards to back them up. You’ll also find a couple of examples of meaningless labels. For more information on food labels, go to www.eco-labels.org .


MEANINGFUL

“100% Organic.” No synthetic ingredients are allowed by law. Also, production processes must meet federal organic standards and must have been independently verified by accredited inspectors.

“Organic.” At least 95 percent of ingredients are organically produced. The remainder can be nonorganic or synthetic ingredients. One exception: Organic labels on seafood are meaningless because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has no standards to back them up.


“Made with Organic Ingredients.” At least 70 percent of ingredients are organic. The remaining 30 percent must come from the USDA’s approved list.



MEANINGLESS

“Free-range” or “free-roaming.” Stamped on eggs, chicken, and other meat, this label suggests that an animal has spent a good portion of its life outdoors. But U.S. government standards are weak. The rule for the label’s use on poultry products, for example, is merely that outdoor access be made available for “an undetermined period each day.” In other words, if a coop door was open for just 5 minutes a day, regardless of whether the chickens went outside, the animals’ meat and eggs could legally be labeled “free-range.”

“Natural” or “All Natural.” This label does not mean organic. The reason is that no standard definition for this term exists except when it’s applied to meat and poultry products, which the USDA defines as not containing any artificial flavoring, colors, chemical preservatives, or synthetic ingredients. And the claim is not verified. The producer or manufacturer alone decides whether to use it.

Skin Deep

Have you ever wondered what goes into your cosmetic products? What ingredients are truly safe? and what ones have been blown out of proportion by the media? Well, the website, Skin Deep, has over 32,295 products that they have reviewed and ranked according to safety levels. There aim is as follows, "To fill in where companies and the government leave off: companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish, and our government doesn't require companies to test products for safety before they're sold. (Our) scientists built Skin Deep to be a one-of-a-kind resource, integrating our in-house collection of personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases."

So next time you put that shaving cream, soap, deodorant or make-up on- check out their website and see how safe it truly is.