Today’s my 14th birthday and the last day of the project! Don’t forget to send a donation of $14 through PayPal to pgordis@comcast.net and we’ll send you a bar of delicious Fair Trade chocolate. If you already have, thank you! You’ll chocolate will be in the mail very soon. I want to thank you all for reading these past two weeks and send you off with clips from one of my favorite movies…
Day 13: Take Action and Sign the Petition
Print this petition around pass it around to all your friends. When it’s full, send it to the Not For Sale Campaign. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/PetitionPDF1.pdf
Tomorrow is the final day of the campaign! Check back for a special send-off and don’t forget to donate!
Day 12: So why did you choose this cause?
There are so many worthy causes out there, so why have I chosen this one? It’s a cause that really speaks to me. I’ve grown up in the United States, which is an incredibly privileged and wealthy country. Our corporations are immensely successful and yet they continue to make their products in incredibly poor countries with slave and child labor not to mention toxic ingredients and a very low standard for products that are then hugely marked up and sold in the US. We see it in so many industries. Like many of you, I love chocolate. So just like I want to know where my beloved iPod Touch comes from, I want to know where my chocolate comes from and I want to take a stand against injustice.
Day 11: What are some good Fair Trade brands?
There’s a misconception that you have to sacrifice taste and variety when shopping “better”. It’s not true at all! I tasted five Fair Trade chocolate bars when deciding which one to send to donors and was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of flavor. Here are some great options:
- Trader Joe’s Fair Trade Chocolate
- Theo Chocolate
- Equal Exchange Chocolate
- Divine Chocolate
- Alce Nero Chocolate
Day 10: What do I look for when I’m shopping for chocolate?
Look for a Fair Trade certification. There are several reliable certifications which I have images of below.
Check back tomorrow for some great Fair Trade chocolate brands…
Day 9: Make Fair Trade Brownies!
Chocolate bars aren’t the only thing that come Fair Trade. You can also buy Fair Trade cocoa and chocolate chips… and you’ll need them to make my brownie recipe, which is utterly delicious, quick and easy.
You will need:
• 1 cup of butter (melted)
• 2 ¼ cups of sugar
• 1 ¼ cups of Fair Trade cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups of flour
• 2 cups of Fair Trade chocolate chips
How to make it:
Preheat the oven 350 °F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch pan. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to heat briefly- just till it’s hot, not bubbling- and it will become shiny looking as your stir it. Heating the butter and sugar a second time will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add to the main bowl and fold in. Add the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into a prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean or with a few crumbs. You can dust the top with powdered sugar, if you’d like. Cool completely before cutting and serving. Makes two dozen brownies.
Check back tomorrow for a guide on what to look for when shopping for chocolate…
Day 8: What is mindful shopping and why is it so important?
As middle class consumers, we carry all the power. That fact is that if a sizable percentage of consumers stop buying a product, the company will make changes. If the consumers state a reason for not buying it, the company will address that reason.
Another fact is that fair trade/eco-friendly products are more expensive and this is a hard time economically for us all.
So while we can’t (and might not want to) switch all out buying to “better” brands, we can all contribute to a certain extent by always being mindful shoppers and exploring options.
Say next Halloween you decide to skip the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, but can’t afford to buy that much fair trade chocolate, why not put out candied fruit or make cookies and brownies? Or next time you buy a computer, look into the environmental history of a few equivalently priced companies. You might be surprised to see some big differences. That was how we ended up with the computer I am typing on right now.
There are so many brands and so many issues to consider that it’s overwhelming. Really, it’s just about keeping your eyes and ears open.
Check back tomorrow for a delicious brownies recipe… to use with Fair Trade chocolate, of course!
