Trying to follow

Corporate Responsibility Mondays continue as we discuss your ever so addictive and greedy sweet tooth. As we’ve done before, Josh will be discussing a corporation whose history is nothing to be proud of, and I’ll be talking about a company that is worth supporting. Sort of like Good cop, Bad cop. So be sure to check out Josh’s post about a not so equal food company.

I was first introduced to Equal Exchange when our Food Not Bombs group received a donation of a couple boxes of their dark chocolate candy bars. The label told a wonderful story of ethical and fair consumerism. Like Maggie’s last week, they run as a co-op:

Our Mission

Equal Exchange’s mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

Our Guiding Principles

* Trade directly with democratically organized small farmer cooperatives.
* Facilitate access to credit for producer organizations.
* Pay producers a guaranteed minimum price that provides a stable source of income as well as improved social services.
* Provide high quality food products.
* Support sustainable farming practices.
* Build a democratically-run cooperative workplace.
* Develop more environmentally-sound business practices.

All in all the goals and motives behind Equal Exchange are a beautiful example of ethical and responsible Corporate practice. The difficult part is making the decision that buying something is more then just getting the “best value” as in, the most goods for the least money.

Equal Exchange products are just that, an equal exchange. Too often we face products, side by side, aisle by aisle, in the grocery store with no knowledge or story behind how they got there. Our only concern usually is which one has the best price per ounce (they’ve made it so easy now). The unfortunate thing is there is a lot of unequal, unfair, and irresponsible ways that those chocolate bars, candies and other items end up the shelf.
Equal Exchange chocolate bars will run you about $3 a piece, a bit more then the ones in the checkout aisle. And unfortunately it’s way too easy to justify spending 50 cents on the chocolate and saying to yourself you’ll donate the difference later (if you’ve ever done that before, here’s your chance to make amends and make that donation now). The other option you have, is simply not to buy chocolate, your sweet tooth isn’t an essential part of your balanced diet.

Equal Exchange also has a neat video that talks about their coffee and fair trade process. Here’s a trailer:

Now that your throughly convinced Fair Trade is the way to go, step up to the plate and spread the word about Equal Exchange.

1. Convince a Local Business to Offer Equal Exchange Products
2. Host a House Party
3. Student’s can be involved too!
4. even churches.
5. Or you could just buy some chocolate or Coffee

Oh, and be sure to check out Josh’s post about a not so equal food company.

I don’t even eat Oreos anymore, so you don’t have to worry about me cashing in on these cookies.
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, explains the Federal budget with desserts. Here is the direct link so that you can actually sign up after the video.
But if you’d rather watch it right here without clicking through, here’s the video:

ht. Josh

I found this article, about a town not to far from the town I went to college in, a place where there are supposedly a lot of practicing Christians…

From Daily Southtown: Residents oppose shelter for immigrant children

The children rarely leave the federal immigrant shelter, a former nursing home near the city’s lakefront that houses undocumented children found alone in the United States.

Teachers and doctors are brought to them. And aside from occasional field trips or visits to a nearby park, the children spend almost all their time indoors — although it may be months before they know whether they will be deported or allowed to stay.

But plans to provide more room by converting a 2.5-acre estate near Naperville — with an 11,000-square-foot house, tennis court and swimming pool — into a first-of-its-kind shelter for undocumented Indian and Chinese children hit a snag:

Neighbors in wealthy Lisle Township don’t want them.

They say the shelter, which would house as many as 30 children, could create traffic problems, lower property values and strain water and sewer services.

But some also worry that the children could escape and pose a threat to their own children. A flier circulated throughout the neighborhood said the shelter would be “WORSE than a halfway house!”

I think this is one of the most brilliant statements about the current state of Christians and the church today.

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”
-Soren Kierkegaard

I’m glad to say I’m pretty much over my scrabble addiction, and the community as a whole has found a healthy balance of scrabble. But at one point I envied the guy who got the highest scrabble score ever:

Highest feasible possible Scrabble words

Guy who actually got the highest score in a game