I have a hard time buying jewelry. Often, I get into an either-or situation.

Meaning: I find jewelry that purports to be crafted under fair labor conditions — but with no guarantee as to how the gold, silver, or jewels were begotten — or else, I find jewelry that purports to be eco-friendly — with no fair labor guarantees.

Which is why I was happy to run into Moonrise Jewelry at Green Fest. We’re talking pretty jewelry made with untreated, sustainably mined gemstones cut in fair trade facilities. The sterling silver’s fair trade. And some of the stuff’s made of recycled and renewable organic materials.

The jewelry’s gorgeous. The orchid collection actually incorporates real orchid blossoms preserved in resin.

Prices range from the totally reasonable ($14 for a pair of earrings) to couture ($130 for a pair of specialty earrings).

I have a habit of getting up late, so that getting dressed in itself is a time-consuming chore, let alone putting on earrings and other jewelry.

But if I ever get outta that mode, I’ll browse through the Moonstone stuff –

Do you need the best wedding rings?  If you love jewelry but find the selection in stores to be minimal, sign online.  Our selection of beautiful diamond jewelry cannot be beat.  We have the best selection of engagement rings at affordable prices.  Sign online today for the best in jewelry!

Tags: fairtrade, jewelry

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I actually didn’t buy much at Green Fest. I got the WorldChanging Book, I ate food, and I got a subscription to Plenty. Besides those, the only thing I bought was some very pretty paper from Twisted Limb.

Twisted Limb creates unique cards and invitations from 100% recycled paper. But me, I didn’t buy any cards or invitations.

Instead, I bought paper scraps — a whole bunch of ‘em, for just $8. A bag full of pretty paper scraps, perfect for any DIY project –

And with it, I made myself a buncha 100% recycled nametags, using old business cards.

That’s right — All I used was recycled paper from Twisted Limb, old biz cards, some nontoxic glue, and a hole punch. And I still have a lotta bigger pieces of pretty paper left over, pictured left –

Now, I’m totally ready for the holidays. At least gift-tag wise.

For the less DIY inclined: All the Twisted Limb cards were v. pretty. And if you’re a wannabe DIYer who needs instructions, you might opt for one of Twisted Limb’s DIY kits :)

Otherwise, just get the cheap scraps, like I did. The websites a bit unfriendly, but if you just email them at info@twistedlimbpaper.com and tell ‘em you want the scraps, I’m sure they’ll help you out :)

Tags: paper, recycled, sanfrancisco

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Something I don’t see too often in Los Angeles: A Black Gold film poster at a jazz club / cafe.

That pic was taken at Papa Toby’s Revolution Cafe, a lil place in San Francisco that Nina and Gregory — authors of The Coffee Book — introduced me to on Saturday.

A night of lovely live music, a relaxed crowd, and an intense ginger beer — a nonalcoholic brew with a serious ginger kick!

Anyway — I got curious and called Papa Toby’s yesterday to find out where they got their coffee.

Moschetti, said the nice guy who answered the phone. He even spelled it for me.

Moschetti doesn’t appear to be a fair trade licensed roaster, though their coffee is organic….

I’d like to think that, since they put up a Black Gold poster and all, that Papa Toby’s checked with Moschetti to make sure they were sourcing their coffee beans ethically. However, I need more proof — and I encourage regular Papa Toby’s patrons to ask –

I didn’t drink any coffee at Papa Toby’s though — just the ginger beer.

A lot of people are shocked to find out that I drink only about 2 cups of coffee a day, and rarely drink coffee after noon. I have enough trouble falling asleep as it is –

Couldn’t function without my morning cups of coffee though –

Tags: sanfrancisco, jazz, papatobys

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If you’re drinking pre-ground coffee, beware, beware. You could be downing twigs, dust and floor sweepings — especially if you got yr coffee from the big four.

The big four, BTW, are Kraft, Nestle, Sara Lee, and Procter & Gamble. Today, I found out from reading The Coffee Book that in the 1960s, we were getting 45 cups per lb of coffee. By the early 1990, each lb meant nearly 100 cups. Guess where that extra 50 or so cups of “coffee” came from!

I’ve mentioned The Coffee Book a couple times, but here’s an actual review (left: Me and Nina, one of the writers of The Coffee Book).

In just 210 pages (plus notes and bibliography), you get a super-readable history of coffee and coffee trade, as well as a quick and dirty review of the state of all things coffee today. (right: me and Gregory, the other author of The Coffee Book).

Read it, and you’ll get a clear idea of why “technifying” coffee production — something advocated by many detractors of fair trade practices who find organic farming too crunchy for their tastes — often does more harm than good.

Technification tends to destroy forests and natural habitats for birds and animals. Technification adds agrochemicals, which’re of course bad for the health of both the farm worker and the end drinker, but also for the financial survival of the once-independent, organic farmer who’ll have to resort to buying petrochemicals every year:

Instead of providing poor farmers with a steady, higher income, crops such as technified coffee have encouraged unsustainable practices and have often dragged farmers into endless cycles of overproduction followed by precipitious price drops — all dictated by the whims of world coffee prices. Under these circumstances, their very lives are at the mercy of those with little regard for the small farmer — coffee-consuming nations, transnational corporations, and the governmnets of large producing nations — entities far removed from matters on the farm.

In fact, un-technified coffee’s usually best for the coffee farmer, cuz it’s better at bringing capital into less developed nations, and is more redistributive.

As you can imagine, The Coffee Book has a lil something to say about Starbucks too: “Starbucks’ tactic of partially acceding to activists’ demands — or, to put it more charitably, listening to activist concerns as important feedback about its performance — is dramatically different from the no-negotiation policy of Old Coffee.”

Whether this listening tactic’s a step in the right direction — or simple greenwashing — is up to the consumer to decide. What’s clear, however, is that Starbucks certainly has changed the landscape not only of the US, but now of many other countries:

Coffeehouses themselves have even assumed imperialist roles that harken back to early colonial history. When large retail coffeehouse chains such as Starbucks move into a neighborhood, they tend to take over the local coffeehouse scene — and, like a real colonial power, Starbucks’ sphere of influence is spreading insidiously and growing richer all the time … homogenizing the once diverse coffeehouse experience.

A highly recommended read. And I’m not just saying that cuz Nina and Gregory took me to Rube Waddell’s gig at Leed’s (now Sketchers). There I am to the left, in front of the 12 planets dude –

Enter your zip here to find a local bookstore carrying The Coffee Book :)

Tags: coffee, fairtrade, thecoffeebook

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We now have fair trade chocolate cake :)

To the left’s a pic of the TransFair USA booth at Green Fest. They gave away lil slices of this choco cake, which I tried — yum!

I’m gonna try and find out which San Francisco bakery actually made this cake, so the locals can indulge –

Lotsa choco fun in general at Green Fest — Alter Eco and Equal Exchange both sampled their tasty choco bars.

Even The San Francisco Chocolate Company showed off its new Gaia line (PDF) — all organic, fair trade choco bars in recycled packaging printed with soy-based inks (right).

Which makes me wonder why fair trade chocos are still so hard for the average would-be fair trade consumer to find at nearby stores….

A piece of good news for Angelenos — Mathieu of Alter Eco sez that their goodies — from fair trade chocos to fair trade quinoa — should be showcased at Erewhon in a week or two –

But back to San Francisco — On Saturday, Jean of TransFair USA (left) arranged for a buncha coffee people to get together for drinks and fries at Frijtz.

We actually didn’t talk that much about coffee, but it was a fun — and a rather fattening — time.

People made fun of me cuz I got 2 glasses of wine at once, both for myself — cuz I didn’t wanna get in line again for the 2nd glass …

Update, 11/19/06: The fair trade chocolate cake’s baked by Rubicon Bakery in Richmond, CA, which delivers yummy baked goods if you’re in the Bay area. Thanks to Demian for the info :)

Update, 12/8/06: Here’s Rubicon’s press release about its fair trade cake :)

Tags: fairtrade, chocolate, greenfest

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So you know my balcony garden to-be is still to-be. But at Green Fest, I found a solution for my gardening naivete: The eggling.

Eggling 101: Buy it, crack the top, and water — and herbs and flowers will grow. They were nested at the booth for Branch, a sustainable design / living store.

In fact, I pretty much liked everything in this lil booth. Modular pillows, curvelinear handbags, etc — all of which’re eco in some way.

And Branch has lil garden stuff other than egglings too — Check out the Prairie in a Can, Garden in a Bag, and Plant me Pets in the garden section :)

Tags: egg, greenfest, herb

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I’m at the Green Fest sitting in front of the Cafe Mam booth — and the stream of coffee drinkers is neverending –

That’s good news for an all organic, all fair trade certified company based in Eugene, Oregon. The coffee beans come from organic, fair trade Mayan farmer co-ops in Chiapas, Mexico.

And Cafe Mam even donates money to pesticide reform to get rid of toxic chemicals used in coffee farming.

From the Cafe Mam’s website, I found at least one place in San Francisco that serves Cafe Mam’s coffee: Feel Real Organic Vegan Cafe. Don’t think I’ll be able to make it there this time around, but it sounds like a yummy place –

Tags: coffee, fairtrade, sanfrancisco

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After a brief stop at Green Fest, which I’ll write more ’bout later, we went to the Grist party for organic booze —

Square One organic vodka was one of the sponsors :) Everyone got 3 tickets, good for a drink each, though I managed to finagle a few more from generous green people drinking less than me.

Left: Gregory Dicum, author of The Coffee Book, with Anna in the background.

David Roberts of Grist, right.

Left: Elsa of The Greener Side, who I went shopping with the last time I was in San Francisco :)

After that, we went to a Common Visions party, where I sorta fit in a lot less, due to lack of dreads.

To the right — some of the chilled out party people there.

I tried to braid myself some ad hoc dreads to blend in –

Thanks to Ross Evans, xtracycle dude, for giving Anna and me a ride to the hotel on the back of his Xtracycle :)

Tags: grist, party

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San Francisco’s beautiful this Green Fest weekend :)

Got here around 3 pm yesterday, in a carpool with Anna, Hannah, and Robin :)

And we rode up in a biodiesel car! A friend of Anna’s in Santa Cruz bought the car via eBay, sight unseen, from someone in LA — so we drove it up for her!

Overall, the car ran nicely, just like any other normal old car, albeit tinged with a slight french-fry scent. There were some cosmetic quirks, however. Pics of the door we had to hold shut with bungee cords to come –

To the left — a building in San Francisco with furniture stuck on it… An art exhibit?

Tags: sanfrancisco, biodiesel

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Goin’ to San Francisco again — this time for Green Fest! Will you be there?

In anticipation, here’s a list of fair trade coffee shops in San Francisco :) Know one I’ve missed? Lemme know, and I’ll add it on!
__

Blue Bottle Coffee Co. 315 Linden St. 510.653.3394. A coffee stand, located next to a corset store on Linden. My review: It’s a grab-n-go place in an alley, but it’s so, so yummy.

Cafe Gratitude. 2 locations: 2400 Harrison St. 9 am - 10 pm.; 1336 9th Ave. 10 am - 10 pm. This cafe brews organic, fair-trade, and shade grown — and boasts a yum, local and organic menu :) There’s also a Berkeley location. Thanks to Britt for the tip!

Capricorn Coffees. 353 10th St. 415.621.8500. This fair trade coffee roasters has a cafe. It’s only open during business hours, but still –

Central Station Deli and Coffee. 1401 Powell St. This place serves fair trade coffee from de la Paz :)

Coffee to the People. 1206 Masonic Avenue. 415.626.2435. All fair trade, all organic, with a dose of political activism in the decorations. Owners Karyn and Bob even run a blog, Peace, Love, and Coffee.

Feel Real Organic Vegan Cafe. 4001 Judah St. 415.504.7325. This organic, vegan restaurant serves fair trade, organic coffee from Cafe Mam :)

Jays Deli and Wine Bar. 503 Connecticut St. 415.824.5297. A sandwich joint/wine bar with a coffee shop vibe — with fair trade coffee.

Organic Coffee Company. 88 4th Street. 415.512.7436. Mo-Sa, 6 am-8 pm; Su, 7 am - 3:30 pm. According to the OCC’s website, “all of our coffees are crafted with concern for nature, care for people, and respect for the environment – none were grown harmful pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers.” The coffee comes from the San Leandro-based Rogers Family Co.’s organic coffee farms in Panama, Pastries and sandwiches are prepared daily by City College culinary arts students.

Quetzal Internet Cafe. 1234 Polk St. 415.673.4181. Organic fair trade coffee and yummy smoothies with Mac internet access at 16 cents per minute.

Ritual Coffee. 1026 Valencia. 415.641.1024. A coffee shop with free wifi that serves Stumpton Coffee’s fairly traded coffee, according to coffee fan.

Rockin’ Java. 1821 Haight. 415.831.8842. This 100% organic & fair trade coffee shop has a pool table!

Sundance Coffee Company. 2 locations: 2295 Third St. 415.503.1446; 3000 24th St. 415.824.1706. Both locations offer 4 organic, fair trade coffee blends alongside pastries and organic chocolate bars.

[Here’s the US-wide list of fair trade coffee shops.]

Tags: sanfrancisco, coffee, fairtrade

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