This blog first appeared at www.greenamerica.org and offers great information about having a Thanksgiving that takes care of humanity and the planet.
This Thanksgiving, many of us will take a moment before our meal to consider all the human connections involved in assembling the holiday. Maybe your cranberries, or potatoes, or turkey came from a farmer you know at your local market, or maybe you traveled to a locally owned pumpkin patch to pick the perfect main ingredient for your pie.
For other ingredients that aren’t so easy to find locally, there are often Fair Trade options that you can choose. The Fair Trade premium associated with these products helps producers build a better life for their families and communities.
The first Fair Trade products to be certified in the US — coffee, tea, and chocolate — are getting easier to find, even in conventional grocery stores. If you don’t see them, please ask for them. Below, please find links to companies in our Green Business Network™ who supply some harder-to-find Fair Trade products. Look for additional green and Fair Trade options at our Green Pages online.
1. Spices
This past September, Frontier Natural Products Co-op greatly expanded its offering of Fair Trade spices. In addition to the vanilla (beans and extract) already available, Frontier worked closely with Sri Lankan growers to add whole cloves, ginger root powder, cinnamon sticks and powder, whole black peppercorns, ground white and black pepper, ground nutmeg, and ground turmeric root.
2. Olive oil
Two companies in our business network offer Fair Trade olive oil from the Palestinian territories. Canaan Fair Trade works directly with the cooperatives of the Palestine Fair Trade Organization to offer not only olive oil, but also whole olives, tapenade, couscous, and thyme.
3. Rice and quinoa
For your side dishes, consider creations made with Fair Trade rice from the producer cooperatives of rural northeastern Thailand. Alter-Eco offers heirloom grains of rice from Thailand and four kinds of Fair Trade quinoa from Bolivia.
4. Sugar
For your Thanksgiving baking, consider sugar from Fair Trade farmers. Find sugar from Paraguay from Dean’s Beans, and sugar from the Philippines from Alter-Eco . SimplyOrganic offers baking mixes — carrot cake, brownie mix, spice cookies — that incorporate Fair Trade sugar or cocoa.
5. Soap
Okay, so this one’s not exactly a Fair Trade item for your dining room table, but you’ll need it for cleaning house before the guests arrive, and after they leave. Dr. Bronner’s soaps are made with all Fair Trade oils.
Find more fairly traded products in the Fair Trade category at Green Pages online, and have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving