Since I’ve become totally disillusioned by The Body Shop’s products — and a lil bewildered by the bizzare ways its sale to L’Oreal is affecting the fair trade movement — I’m putting a new, healthier face forward.

Now this whole process took me a while, cuz I decided to finish off my old stuff before moving on to the new ones. Below: My before and after products, each with a report from EWG (Environmental Working Group) rating its safety from 0 (low concern) to 5 (high concern).

Before: The Body Shop Vitamin E Facial Day Lotion with SPF 15: Score 3.9 :(
After: Avalon Organics Vitamin C Moisture Plus Lotion with SPF 15: Score 1.4 :)

Before: The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream: Score 3.8 :(
After: Avalon Organics Daily Moisturiser, Lavender: Score 1.6 :)

Before: The Body Shop’s facial wash: Score 3.1 :(
After: Avalon Organics Facial Cleansing Gel: Score 1.7 :)

Before: Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cream: Score 2.8 :(
After: Aubrey Lumessence rejuvenating eye creme: Score 0.5

I got everything at Co-opportunity, now just a short bike ride from my place –

Tags: coopportunity, aubrey, avalon, organic, face, cosmetics

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That’s right — The 100% fair trade Equal Exchange was the official coffee sponsor for the American Pavilion at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival :)

Julia of Equal Exchange (right) says Equal Exchange was invited to be the coffee sponsor, mainly cuz the American Pavilion — the HQ for the American movie industry people at the festival — was doing a greening initiative to coincide with the screening of An Inconvenient Truth.

According to the American Pavilion’s website, it’s working “in partnership with Native Energy, Stop Global Warming and Global Green” to stop global warming.

How? Through “a Pavilion-wide recycling program in addition to using recycled paper and reusable carpeting at this year’s Festival.” And of course, Equal Exchange’s coffee :)

Equal Exchange’s inclusion was well deserved; most recently, this fair trade co-op’s been raising awareness about unfair taxes against small-scale farmers in the Dominican Republic, and offering the first chocolates made with both fair trade cocoa AND fair trade sugar.

Tags: fairtrade, coffee, equalexchange, cannes, americanpavilion, france, film

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Last month, I gave a presentation called “How You Can Change the World with Your Morning Cup of Coffee.” at Cal State Fullerton’s Social Justice Summit.

An overly sensational title? I think not. Fair trade coffee really has much bigger ramifications than its soundbyte description: “fair prices to farmers.”

But first — back to the Summit. Held just a few days before the May 1 demonstrations, immigration was on everyone’s mind, including mine.

Immigration’s relation to coffee? Well, the coffee crisis itself is causing a lot of the immigration. Many of immigrants are coffee farmers who’ve either lost or abandoned their land due to the coffee crisis.

According to a 2002 MSNBC article, “many workers are abandoning their villages to look for a better life in Mexico’s cities and in the United States. Half the 14 undocumented Mexican migrants who died in May 2001 trying to cross Arizona’s brutal desert together after their guide abandoned them were coffee workers from Veracruz state.” (via Two Heroes). Writes Gregory Dicum for SF Gate: “They had been trying to cross the border in hopes of a better life as illegal laborers in a country where coffee sold for 20 times what they could have earned for it on the farm.”

The poverty on these farms is often a effect of our corporations, our trade policies. Writes David Kennedy, after a Global Exchange Reality Tour to Chiapas, Mexico last July: “Officially, government statistics say migration to the U.S. from Mexico has, at the very least, tripled in the last decade… Could it be just a coincidence this has occurred since NAFTA was enacted? The root causes of migration, mainly failed policies promoted by NAFTA and the structure of the economic system, create the economic destitution that generates, predictably, mass departure…” (via Fair Trade Coffee News)

What I said at the Summit was that I support progressive immigration laws — I’m an immigrant myself. But I’m against policies and structures that effectively make immigration the ONLY option for people made destitute by those policies and structures.

Many argue that today’s immigrants would rather stay on their land, given the choice. Writes Robert Steinback in the Arizona Daily Star: “I operate from the premise that nobody really wants to leave home; they only migrate when the quality-of-life imbalance between home and another location is so great that the home-bias attraction is overcome. The crisis over illegal immigration obscures this premise.”

So what can fair trade coffee do? It gives coffee farmers fair prices for their coffee, letting them stay on the land. Steinback profiles one fair trade co-op, Just Coffee in Chiapas — where fair trade is “diminishing the incentive for impoverished Mexicans to seek a livelihood elsewhere,” much more effectively than a $2 billion wall and a beefed up US Border Patrol.

Writes David Kennedy, “To “secure” borders, the incredible wealth disparity between (and within) rich and poor nations must be narrowed. If we are to truly address immigration, we can not allow human beings to live in economic misery and exploitation, at best, and economic slavery at worst.”

Wanna go beyond changing your morning dose of caffeine to fair trade? Go to Global Exchange to find out more about the global economy and what you can do to influence it.

Update, 6/1/06: A timely article from Yes!: “If we fail to recognize the connections between migration and globalization, our policies will provide a temporary Band-Aid solution at best. And yet U.S. politicians have not only failed to recognize these global links, they have also scapegoated immigrants for domestic policy failures.”

Tags: fairtrade, coffee, immigration

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A series that runs every Tuesday, where I ask questions unrelated to the environment, fair trade, or local politics that I’ve been wondering about but haven’t been able to google the answers to. Any advice is appreciated.

3 of the positions I’ll be voting on June 6 have only a lone Democrat running. Does bubbling or not bubbling in for that uncontested race make any kind of difference?

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[Update, 6/7/06: The primary election results are in!]

First step to voting for the environment in California: Finding out who and what I’m to be voting for, come the primary elections on June 6, 2006.

Since my paper sample ballot’s MIA, I went to LA Vote’s sample ballot lookup, which gives you PDFs of each page of your sample ballot. (Non-LA people can get a quick & dirty list at Smart Voter.)

For voting newbies: June 6 is a primary election — aka a nominating election — meaning that you’re voting from among the candidates WITHIN your party, to help decide who will get to run in the general elections.

That general election is the final election which’ll decide who actually gets the office. That’ll take place in Nov.; you’ll vote between the candidates that won their party’s nomination in the primaries. More info about the difference between primary and general elections here (PDF).

I’ll update this page with names of who I plan to vote for in the next week or so. I’m a registered Democrat, BTW, so the info here for the primaries will be limited to the Democratic party — specifically for my old zip, 90035.

Calif. Governor: Phil Angelides

Calif. Lieutenant Governor: [update, 6/5/06] John Garamendi

Calif. Secretary of State: Debra Bowen

Calif. Controller: John Chiang

Calif. Treasurer: Bill Lockyer (only Dem running)

Calif. Attorney General: Jerry Brown

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: NO VOTE

Calif. State Board of Equalization, district 4: Judy Chu

US Senator: Dianne Feinstein

US Representative, District 30: Henry A. Waxman (Incumbent; only Dem running)

Calif. State Senator, district 26: Mark Ridley-Thomas

Calif. State Assemblywoman, district 47: Karen Bass (incumbent; only Dem running)

Dem Party Central Committee Member, assembly district 47:
* Jimmie Woods-Gray
* Mollie “Lee” Welinsky
* Ruth Weisman
* David L. Weisman
* Evelyn Metoyer-Williams
* Terrence Montgomery
* Robert L. Jones

LA County Superior Court, Judges:
* Office 8: Alan H. Friedenthal
* Office 18: Daviann Mitchell
* Office 28: Judith L. Meyer
* Office 95: Richard Kraft
* Office 102: C. Edward Mack
* Office 120: Dzintra Janavs
* Office 122: Daniel J. Lowenthal
* Office 144: Janis Levart Barquist

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Jack O’Connell

LA County Assessor: Rick Auerbach

LA County Sheriff: Lee Baca

Proposition 81, Public libraries: Yes

Proposition 82, Preschool Ed: Yes

[Update, 6/7/06: The primary election results are in!]

Tags: vote, voting, losangeles, democrat, california, losangeles

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Equal Exchange, being the fair trade forward biz it is, is urging Dominican Republic’s prez to repeal an illegal and discriminatory tax imposed against fair trade coca farmers (via Two Heroes).

Apparently, a small group of wealthy families and trading firms, which traditionally dominated the Dominican cocoa industry, were unhappy that the less wealthy, such as CONACADO, a fair trade co-op, started making money.

CONACADO, a democratically organized farmer cooperative founded in 1988 and owned by 15,000 small scale Dominican farmers, is now the world’s largest exporter of certified organic cocoa and exports 20% of Dominican cocoa.

So the wealthy people asked the National Cocoa Commission — comprised primarily of themselves and members of the Agricultural Department — to impose a tax on small-scale cocoa producers. This tax went into effect in May 2004; since then, small farmers have paid $9.86 million in taxes.

CONACADO and others have tried to repeal the tax, unsuccessfully. So they’re asking small-scale Dominican farmers to speak out on this issue and asking Prez Leonel Fernández Reyna to intervene.

Equal Exchange, for its part, is asking partners and peers to ask Prez Fernandez to repeal this tax by calling the Embassy of the Dominican Republic at 202.332.6280 x 2523, faxing 202.265.8057, or emailing embdomrepusa@msn.com — except that email address isn’t working. AND, the DR Embassy’s website’s down.

So I called and left a message, and am now sending a snail mail letter; the text’s below. Feel free to copy, paste, and mail. More deets directly from Equal Exchange here.
______

Embassy, The Dominican Republic
1715 22nd Street, NW
Washington DC 20008

To President Leonel Fernández Reyna, c/o the Embassy of the Dominican Republic:

I’m writing to urge you to repeal the so-called “Solidarity” tax that places an illegal and discriminatory burden on small-scale coca farmers.

As a US citizen who often buys cocoa products originating in the Dominican Republic, I was both shocked and disheartened to find out that a small group of wealthy individuals and companies have, in order to line their own pockets, successfully levied a tax on small-scale cocoa producers.

I’m especially concerned that CONACADO, a democratically organized farmer cooperative, is now required to pay an unfair tax.

Please repeal this “Solidarity” tax, allowing for fair trade between our countries.

Sincerely,
Siel

Tags: equalexchange, cocoa, chocolate, dominicanrepublic

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No — Nestle didn’t change their ways due to my costumed protest earlier this year. Nestle’s product line remains adamnantly fair trade chocolate-less: “A Nestlé spokeswoman said it had no plans to bring out its own fair-trade chocolate products.”

But this megacorp, often-boycotted for — among other things — using child labor to make its choco bars, has gotten into the fair trade choco biz through a weirdity in the way corporations work these days.

From The Guardian: “Nestlé will this week acquire a stake in a leading independent British supplier of fair-trade chocolate as part of L’Oréal’s purchase of Body Shop.”

Nestle owns more than a quarter of L’Oreal, which is buying Body Shop, which owns 14% of Day Chocolate Company, which makes Divine chocolate, Dubble bars, and Co-operative Group’s brand of fair trade chocolate.

Writes the Guardian: “Now experts in ethical trading are watching how Nestlé will use its muscle in the fair-trade chocolate sector.” The Day Chocolate Company says it doesn’t know what’ll happen, and the Co-operative Group, Day’s largest customer, won’t comment as of yet.

These chocolate products are just in the UK, so part-Nestle-owned fair trade chocos won’t be in the US anytime soon, as far as I can tell…

Update, 7/13/06: Nestle’s now gotten outta fair trade chocolate.

Tags: fairtrade, chocolate, nestle, bodyshop, loreal

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Yesterday it suddenly occurred to me that I haven’t received my sample ballot in the mail yet, and frantically called a bunch of my LA-based friends to see if they’d gotten theirs.

Most had — which made me think that my recent move to Santa Monica caused the probs. So I called the LA County Registrar of Voters: Dial 800.815.2666, then press 3 to “verify voter status or inquire about a sample ballot.”

A woman took my name and verified that I was registered — and that my sample ballot had been sent to my old address :(

Her: “You need to fill out a new voter registration form when you move.”
Me: “Really? I thought I could just fill out a new DMV Change of Address form and my voting address would get updated…”
Her: “Um, no. You need to fill out a new voter registration form. You can find them at the post office or library…”

Why did I think I could just fill out the DMV Change of Address Form? I quote here the second item on the form (PDF):

Voter Change of Address: We will change your address if you have moved and still live in the same county. If you have moved to a new county or are not registered to vote, you must complete a new voter registration card.

Somewhere in the DMV or the LA County Registrar of voters, something’s gone wrong…

In any case, it’s clearly too late for me to vote at my new Santa Monica precinct — so voting info on green LA girl will be specified for zip 90035… And I plan to take the #7 Big Blue Bus to vote on June 6 :)

And the next time I move, even if I’m a registered voter moving within LA County, I’ll be sure to fill out a new voter registration card.

Tags: vote, voterregistration, losangeles, dmv, registrar

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Went to the 4 pm showing yesterday — which was totally packed! I took pics of the line, which I’ll upload later cuz I accidentally left my camera at Summer’s after happy hour after the movie —

Not sure I have much to add to everything that’s been posted about An Inconvenient Truth, except to say that I heart Al and want everyone to go see this movie –

After the showing, Summer and I went to happy hour and started making some serious eco-resolutions.

Summer’s gonna look into selling a car and carbon neutralizing the shipping for BTC Elements. I’m gonna get super serious about voting for environmentally forward candidates, researching for the June elections and posting my findings here for perusal and discussion.

Go see An Inconvenient Truth. The movie blog’s here.

Update, 9/6/06: When An Inconvenient Truth comes out on DVD this November, “The DVD packaging consists entirely of waste products that have been recycled, including paper, inks and coatings formulated to emit virtually no volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere. That means no plastics and no laminates.”

Tags: environment, inconvenienttruth, algore,

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“New” computer desk: $10

“New” fax: $15

Saving money while keeping stuff from landfills and curbing the consumer demand for more new stuff: Priceless.

* No Mastercards were used or abused in the research or writing of this post.

Tags: craigslist, fax, desk

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