By Catherine Colbert

Organic products are much easier to come by these days. Items with the Fair Trade Certified label also are expanding and taking up more precious real estate on store shelves.

So far this year, more than twice as many Fair Trade Certified products have been introduced in the U.S. compared to last year. Some 284 products with the Fair Trade Certified designation have been launched compared to 130 in 2007, and as few as 17 in 2003, according to a report this month by Mintel, Chicago - a market researcher focused on consumer behavior and product innovation.

The Fair Trade food items include a virtual gift basket of treats: a variety of teas, cocoa, fruits, flowers and chocolates.

TransFair USA, headquartered in Oakland, California, is the governing entity in the U.S. behind products deemed Fair Trade Certified. The nonprofit is one of 20 member organizations worldwide that comprises the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International. TransFair audits agreements between U.S. companies and international suppliers to guarantee that farmers in developing countries around the world use environmentally friendly practices and are paid a fair price for their goods. Farmers in Costa Rica and Ghana have reinvested profits in their communities to build schools, develop improved sustainability practices, and establish health clinics.

Since its founding in 1998, TransFair USA has certified more than 74 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee, which in turn has given coffee farmers in Latin America and Africa more than $60 million more than if they had sold their coffee locally, according to the organization.

Most U.S. consumers were introduced to the concept of Fair Trade Certified products with the help of coffee marketers. Fair Trade, which asks consumers to buy products at a “fair price” to be socially responsible, initially seemed like a niche market. But it has gone mainstream. From 2001 to 2006, retail sales of coffee grew tenfold to $730 million, cites TransFair USA, in a recent Brandweek article. When worldwide retailer Wal-Mart joined the fold, Fair Trade Certified coffee sales really began to percolate.

Fair Trade products were available only at specialty retailers, such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, as well as online, when they were introduced to the U.S. In recent years, however, Fair Trade products have moved onto store shelves in big-box discounters Costco and Target, and mainline grocery stores like Kroger. See the Transfair website for where to buy products.

After more than a decade in existence, TransFair USA now certifies tea, cocoa, sugar, fruit, rice, and flowers. With the organization’s fifth annual Fair Trade Month, held in October 2008, it’s counting wine among the products it recognizes and certifies. Certified chocolate bars are available in many grocery stores, as well. Look for Green and Black’s chocolate made in the Dominican Republic and Belize, El Rey from Venezuela, and Valhrhona from Trinidad.

For consumers who are taking copious notes on the growth of Fair Trade, there are businesses like Divine Chocolate, based in the United Kingdom, that are entirely farmer-owned.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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By Barbara Kessler

As if we needed another scare this week, the tainted milk scandal in China continues to slip its moorings, with melamine, an industrial chemical never intended for human consumption, turning up Lipton brand “milk tea powder” products destined for Asian markets as well as in good ol’ Nabisco Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches.

International food giant Unilever announced today it was recalling certain Lipton milk teas from Hong Kong and Macau shelves because internal tests found melamine contamination.

Meanwhile, South Korea officials reported finding melamine in Nabisco’s Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches and said they were banning imports of all Chinese-made food products containing powdered milk. (No calls back yet from Lipton or Nabisco.)

Earlier, Cadbury also recalled 11 chocolate bars after tests found a small amount of melamine in six chocolate samples. Hong Kong authorities declared the contamination to be at a “safe level” - but Cadbury said it was still withdrawing the candy, made in Beijing.

Before that it was Mr. Brown Blend Instant Coffee and Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee on the hook for contamination, and…well, the list goes on.

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By Catherine Girardeau

This coming Labor Day Weekend, San Francisco will celebrate the intersection of taste, sustainability and social justice that is the Slow Food movement. Non-profit educational organization Slow Food USA is throwing a four-day party they’re calling Slow Food Nation.

SFN’s Executive Director Anya Fernald hopes the debut event, expected to draw some 50,000 people, will reach out beyond the obvious coalition of foodies, health-nuts and environmentalists to, “build momentum and demand for an American food system that is safer, healthier and more socially just.” Highlights of the festival, which runs Friday through Monday, will include the:

• “Slow Food Rocks” concert, serving up not only Gnarls Barkley and the New Pornographers but gourmet beer and locally-grown and locally-produced food;

• 50,000 square feet of “taste pavilions” for which nationally-recognized regional food experts have hand-picked authentic gastronomic specialities from every state;

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By John DeFore

Just because a green initiative pops up in the news doesn’t mean it’s new. Take a blurb in this month’s Food & Wine that puts Rhum Clément’s Première Canne Rum at the head of a list of eco-friendly spirits.

The item touted a green-extreme sounding manufacturing process that is powered by its own waste materials. What it doesn’t mention is that this is the way Clément has done things for at least seven decades.

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By John DeFore

Conservation minded farmers might naturally assume it’s wise to get the most out of what’s available; if post-harvest waste material can be used in biofuel production, it seems to make financial and ecological use to sell it.

Not necessarily, according to a scientist at Washington State University who is urging farmers in her region to leave the waste where it falls.

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By Julie Bonnin

There are many reasons to grow your own food, and recent unresolved food safety concerns about summer favorites like tomatoes and cilantro, the official herb of Tex-Mex cooking – are likely to have more folks cultivating an interest in growing edible plants.

Herbs are the perfect entry-level plant for first-time food growers. Given the right conditions and a minimum of care, they’re quite easy to grow, even if your outdoor space is limited to a small patio.

There are many more fringe benefits — the taste and scent of fresh herbs can’t be beat. You’ll never again pay grocery store prices for a bunch of past-their-prime herbs. Often those prices are only a little less than you’d pay for the plant itself, though growing your own, you will have to invest in pots, good soil and a few other necessities, as well as make a small investment in time.

But perhaps the biggest advantage of growing herbs is what people have known for centuries – that they have considerable health benefits to give.

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By John DeFore

Vegetarians and concerned carnivores alike have long protested the way livestock is raised at many large farms. But it’s taking some time for Americans to view this not only as an animal-mistreatment issue but one that directly affects human health. The Union of Concerned Scientists has taken the issue up, and is driving its point home by citing a recent event in which rural Minnesotans actually fled their homes as a result of animal crowding’s side-effects.

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By Nima Kapadia

Wal-Mart, once criticized for pushing local merchants out of the picture as it installed itself in every burg and hamlet in America, has now launched an effort that could build up some local businesses, namely those run by local farmers. The world’s largest retailer has announced plans to purchase $400 million worth of local fruits and vegetables to sell in its “Supercenters” and neighborhood stores this year.

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By Catherine Colbert

Photo: Veruska 1960 | Dreamstime.com

Backyard barbecues and Shakespeare in the Park picnics are the perfect opportunities to whet one’s whistle. But before you pack your cooler or portable wine or tea party, consider ways you can enjoy your favorite beverages – during the holidays and yearlong – while also caring for the environment.

More from GRN
Sample These Organic Beverages

A growing number of companies and suppliers are tapping into the beverages market with an eye toward serving up green options. Consumers, and the environment, stand to benefit greatly from their increased focus. By purchasing organic and eco-friendly products, we’re casting our votes for the environment and ensuring that those who are devoted to organic and sustainable farming are able to maintain their commitment and thrive.

With the recent resurgence of Biodynamic farming, wine drinkers can uncork some unique wines made from holistically grown wine grapes. Biodynamics, a step beyond organic farming toward a more personal interpretation, was introduced in 1924 by Austrian philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner through his lectures and book, Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture.

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By Catherine Colbert

You sent out your Evite and now you’re working hard to make sure your house is ready for the crowd. Before you put pen to paper to create the menu for your next get-together, pour yourself a tall one, sip some Syrah, or have a spot of tea and relax. Beverage manufacturers have taken several steps toward catering to the eco-conscious. Their pertinent offerings make it an excuse, in itself, to get friends, family, and colleagues together.

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By Barbara Kessler

If you’ve been wondering about all the buzz over honeybees, here is some food for thought – or rather some thought about food: Bees play a role in one out of every three bites of food Americans eat.

Pollinators, mainly bees, but also butterflies, songbirds and even bats, perform such a critical function in the food chain that their absence threatens everything from the viability of vast fields of commercial corn and other crops to the tomatoes in your garden. Without the bees and other pollinators, plants can fail to produce the fruits and seeds we eat.

Which is why a San Francisco-based group called the Pollinator Partnership has dedicated itself to the survival of pollinators — from hummingbirds to small mammals to the fragile and busiest pollinators of them all, the bees. Partnership members, along with beekeepers and researchers testified before Congress last week to lobby lawmakers for more funding to research the decline of many pollinators, particularly the loss of millions of bees around the world to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

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By John DeFore
It may sound like a no-brainer to say that threatened fish populations stand to benefit when governments establish havens where fishing is prohibited. But since taking such actions can harm human livelihoods, proving they will have significant ecological benefit is a political must. That’s just what Australian researchers have done in a [...]

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