We all want to live in an equitable world where everyone has the same opportunities to achieve happiness and freedom. But unfortunately, many governments fail to protect their citizens, allowing big corporations to set up shop without proper guidelines to ensure fair wages, benefits, and basic human rights.

The practice of fair trade works to help communities being taken advantage of by corporate greed. It aims to fight for fair wages, humane labour conditions, and environmental sustainability. Some of the industries most affected by unfair labour practices are coffee, tea, chocolate, cut flowers, fruit, jewelry, and apparel.

Garstang fairtrade town

There are many organizations fighting for fair trade practices around the world, but mostly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa:
â?¢ Equal Exchange: Certifies chocolate, tea, almonds, pecans, cranberries, and sugar
â?¢ Fair Trade Federation: Covers almost any imaginable product, including food, flowers, jewelry, clothing, and more
â?¢ TransFairUSA: Certifies coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, fruit, rice, flowers, and wine
â?¢ VeriFlora: Certifies cut flowers that are also sustainably grown
â?¢ World Fair Trade Organization: Certifies a very wide range of products, including clothing, food, beverages, jewelry, and so on

Unfortunately, not all is crystal clear in the world of fair trade. Fair Trade Certified coffee in particular has been attacked by some who suggest that coffeeâ??s low price is a result of overproduction and not unfair labour practices. They claim that by focusing on fair trade rather than finding other crops for farmers to grow, fair trade organizations are perpetuating a broken system. Itâ??s hard to say whether these problems are true. Most still believe that purchasing fair trade at least means their personal dollars are going to support ethical companies. Weâ??ll leave it to you to decide for yourself.

Want one source for all of your Fair Trade goods? Check out the Fair Trade Online Store that sells coffee, chocolate, tea, food, clothing and accessories, jewelry, and more, all from various fair trade organizations. And for more information on fair trade labels, go to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International site.

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A look at the offline and online offering of Vbites

I popped down to the opening of Heather Mills Vegan cafe ‘Vbites‘ on Saturday as Iâ??d heard whispers of its opening for a few months and fancied seeing what she had done with the old fish eatery that used to be there before. Another think that I wanted to see was how ‘Vbites’ was promoting itself, being interested in media and the way ethical ventures make that leap from hippy idealism (something I have struggled with myself) to cool rich media and an understanding of social capitol.

The opening itself was as my actor friend pointed out “a little frayed around its vegan edges”, with a very loud Glenn Miller band for the old folks, a dodgy microphone for Heathers opening speech and more ‘old media’ journalists that you could shake a stick at.

Heather however looks superb and I was at the front cheering her on as she appeared on top of the building relaxing against the ‘Vbites’ diner style sign. I’ve been an admirer of Heather for years, ever since she appeared on the Big Breakfast and described how she lost her leg by being hit by a police motorcycle. The fact that she was married to a pop star bla bla, doesnâ??t really interest me and I much prefer to read about her animal welfare exploits.

As I was leaving I collared one of their PR girls and said that Iâ??d like her to guest blog and that she needed some advice on her website. I was tempted to grab Heather as she popped out the back of Vbites and beg her to get a new developer, but she was on the phone so I thought Iâ??d leave it.

Now, the Vbites website:

Vbites website

Whatâ??s wrong with the website:

• The menu does not contain keywords specific to the campaign
• The content has not real direction on any of the pages
• No specific menu pages
• Their are no social networking links on the homepage
• No RSS feed for subscriptions to the newsletter
• No real calls to action
• No SEO across the site based on the lack on title tags, keyword inclusion etc
• Lack of pages on the site, if the sitemap is to be trusted
• The press and media page has no rich media or any real content
• The lack of humanity on the site is frightening - add some images of the place, the workers, heather, kids eating lunches, the skaters outside
• There are so many opportunities here for some great social media, so many aspects to the cafe that can be drawn upon to make it both an on and offline success.
• No internal linking
• More inbound links from relevant sources

I do find it unfortunate that allot of vegan and ethical sites are missing the basics of good design and SEO, it doesnâ??t seam important in the grand scheme of things but it does make a profound difference as to how users see you. Any site, no matter what it is saying needs to be making a media statement about its efforts, services or products… it is the fundamentals of it being a website and with all the competition out there, sites like Vbites need to stand out from the crowd or risk just becoming a dead weight online page that tarnishes the offline appeal of a great concept.

I’ll think of a few nice little ideas for Vbites social media and see if we canâ??t get it moving.

One last thing that I think would be nice for Vbites to is to add ‘deliveries’ to its offerings, swift deliveries of ‘Mrs. swirly’ vegan ice cream for example.

I did have difficulty finding any articles to add below this, as it seams most of the press that turned up were only there to slag her off, a bit pathetic on a sunny day to head down there just for that, but … who am i to judge.

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For just the price of a weekly shop … you can protect an area of Rainforest from deforestation

Why do we need to save rainforests?

Because in the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO₂ into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Thatâ??s about 100 acres cleared every minute to create farmland for crops such as soya or palm oil, or for cattle ranching.

By buying up an affordable piece of land, you are securing 130 tons of CO2 within the trees that would otherwise be cut down by illegal loggers. You will also be protecting the local wildlife such as, the puma, the brown toed sloth and the jaguar.

The Peruvian Amazon is experiencing rapid deforestation. As you read, illegal loggers are devastating the rainforest resources of many tribal communities. Cool Earth’s project with the Ashaninka tribe at Cutivireni prevents loggers from entering the community’s forests and the neighbouring Ashaninka Communal Reserve which form a buffer zone for Otishi National Park. In collaboration with our local partners Ecotribal, the Ashaninka chiefs at Cutivireni have offered their land for sponsorship through Cool Earth, allowing them to keep their forests in tact and continue to live sustainably from their own land.

All you have to do is donate to www.coolearth.org and select which area of rainforest you would like to preserve. I chose the Ashaninka region, where people from Coolearth are helping the Ashaninka trabe to protect their forests with bio-diversity management, giving them and the animals around them a brighter future.

Here is our little piece of the Peruvian Amazon saved rainforest:

If you want to read about the work that these guys do out there, go to their amazon rainforest projects or call them on 0800 093 0624.

Cool Earth is a UK based international charity that is super-charging everyone’s efforts to halt climate change. By donating funds you give us the tools to protect the world’s most endangered pieces of rainforest, acre by acre we will help to halt climate change.

Buy some land… its worth it and it helps the people of the rainforest get their lives back as well as protecting the planet.

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Leather and environmental issues

I’m sitting here in my leather office chair and in my leather workboots with my leather wallet in my back pocket - comfy chair, Internet, comfy boots; what more could a guy want aside from a never-ending pizza?

I started thinking more about leather the other day after seeing the most horrible video of an animal that was skinned alive for the fur/skin trade.

I can’t relay in mere words how horrific it was to see this animal after the process - the poor creature seemed fully conscious and the look on its face was just incredibly heartbreaking. Without its skin, I couldn’t even recognize what sort of animal it was. It looked so forlorn, confused and in so much pain, I nearly cried.

It’s incidents like these that really make me question the concept of we humans as evolved and “superior” beings.

The practices of some in the fur and skin trade have gained a lot of media coverage to the point that wearing of fur as a fashion statement is generally frowned upon these days.

Leather is another story - I guess that most of us like to think that the leather goods we buy - shoes, furnishing, clothing, bags etc. - have come from animals that have been humanely slaughtered and that the leather is more of a by-product rather than the focus; i.e. from animals used for meat.

Even if that is the case, and the term “humane” when it comes to slaughter is subject to a lot of controversy, what about the other environmental impacts from our desire for leather?

Leather’s chemical cocktail

As leather is basically just skin, the base component (rawhide) is fully biodegradable. Without some form of treatment, known as tanning, it would simply fall apart.

Back in the old, old days, smoke was often used to cure leather as were vegetable tannins, salt, urine and animal faeces or animal brains - it was a rather smelly and messy affair, so most tanneries were situated outside towns.

These days, here’s how most tanning occurs:

- Hides are first prepared by by curing them with salt

- The hides are then soaked in clean water to remove the salt

- The hides are treated with one or more of the following as part of the de-hairing process:

* Sodium sulfide
* Sodium hydroxide
* Sodium hydrosulfite
* Arsenic sulfide
* Calcium hydrosulfide
* Dimethyl amine
* Sodium sulphydrate

- Once the hair is removed, the hides are then treated with a mixture salt and sulphuric acid if mineral tanning is to be done.

- The hides are soaked in water once again and biocides such as pentachlorophenol may be used to prevent bacterial growth.

- Tanning can be performed, and usually this is via mineral methods that uses chromium in the form of basic chromium sulfate

Modern tanning is still a messy and smelly affair with a ton of extra energy, water and toxic chemicals thrown in. The process is so toxic that many old tannery sites cannot be used for agriculture. Tanneries not only often poison the land they are situated on, but also the waterways into which they discharge effluent.

Given all that, I’m left wondering if modern leather tanning processes are just as environmentally damaging as some of the plastics we use in clothing and furnishings such as polyester and nylon.

Imported leather

But surely if the toxicity of the process is well known, our governments have taken steps to address it, right? Yes, that’s often the case in places like the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK - but here’s a quote in regards to a tannery in Australia fined for environmental issues that sums up where the problem lies:

“…told the court the business would not operate as a tannery in the future, but would move to importing sheepskins”

Our desire for cheap leather coupled with tightening local government regulations is not solving the problem, but simply moving the environmental issues overseas to countries where controls are more lax - not only on the pollution side of things, but in relation to animal welfare.

So, even if the boots or coat you buy says “Made in Australia” or “Made in the USA”; there’s a very real possibility that the actual leather used in the product was imported from overseas.

So what’s a leather lover to do?

Firstly, we need to look at our consumption - do we really need 10 pairs of leather shoes, 5 wallets or 8 handbags? Every leather item you don’t buy mean less toxic waste entering into the environment and perhaps an animal not killed - you’ll save some cash as well.

We can also reduce our associated impact by asking companies where they source their leather - if it’s outside “developed” countries, assume the worst.

Additionally, if you’re prepared to spend a few more bucks, consider organic leather. Organic leather comes from animals that have been raised and slaughtered humanely and the tanning uses more environmentally friendly processes such as smoke and plant based tannins. You can find these products simply by typing: organic leather X into your favorite search engine, where X is the type of product you are wanting.

Leather alternatives

After you watch a few videos and read a bit more about the treatment of animals destined to become leather products, it does tend to work away at your conscience; but the alternatives also present a minefield for the environmentally conscious consumer.

You could just turn your back on leather altogether, but so many of our fabrics are petro-chemical based or use incredibly environmentally destructive and energy intensive processes.

This is where we need to start looking more towards organic cotton, soy, hemp, bamboo and other forms of organic clothing. Most of these are still terribly expensive and I must admit I’m guilty of leaning towards cheaper and very non-green clothes - even if I do manage to squeeze a decade out of a t-shirt :). It’s a habit I’m trying to kick.

If you just love the look and feel of leather, consider pleather, which is just a slang term for synthetic leather made out of plastic; but just be aware of the associated impacts - not all pleather is created equal and some plastics will be worse than others. These range from calico coated with boiled linseed oil mixed with dryers and pigments to fabric bases coated with plastic, to 100% plastic substitutes.

Unfortunately for the leather lover - it’s a case of abstinence or choosing the lesser of the environmental and humanitarian “evils”; but a reduction in impact is certainly better than taking no action at all.

Article written by Michael Bloch of Green Living Tips.com

Michael has been active in green business for 6 years and currently work for an Australian company that sells solar and wind power equipment energymatters

Flickr image by Barnaby

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If your concerned about the environment and you need to move house which we all do from time to time, you don’t have to break your carbon foot print to do so.

A removal company in London now offer carbon free removals, they have a fleet of electric vans ready to move your house hold goods at any time.

The company have been recently appeared in the news if you fancy reading up on them, so anyway.. hope this helped

Can the Green pound quash the Red recession Blues

In a recent report by Ernst & Young (the London Development Agency), London’s Mayor Boris Johnson is said to be looking at not only improving energy efficiency in buildings, introducing low carbon vehicles and developing new waste and recycling infrastructure in London, but the bi-product of this will be the possible creation of around 15,000 blue collar, or as they have been called ‘green collar’ jobs in the capitol by 2025.

Of the green plans the Major has said: “I see the green economy as an unprecedented opportunity not only to improve our planet and our quality of life, but to develop new industries and create new jobs in an economic climate that is otherwise extremely difficult”.

London already has 80 university departments focused on climate-change research and development, and other projects such as hybrid buses and a massive tree planting scheme go ahead, London could be set to become the ‘low carbon capital’ of Europe.

I like The Green People Company and I have enjoyed the other products of theirs that I have used, for example their toothpastes. However this Organic Peppermint Mouth Wash left a nasty taste in my mouth. I know that it’s not its job to taste nice, but rather to kill of  any lingering bacteria. But it’s also supposed to make my breath fresh and I’m not sure that The Green Company’s Organic Peppermint Mouth Wash does such a great job in that department. Not if my breath smells how this mouth wash tastes.

The Green People's Organic Peppermint Mouth Wash

I am used to having my head blown off by mouthwash that is so enthusiastically minty and antibacterial that it seems to want to melt my teeth rather than simply help to keep them clean. So Iâ??m no mouthwash wuss. But this is a bad taste. I have used it for over a week now, and each time I tell myself â??It canâ??t be that bad.â?� But it is.  It really is.

It starts off as neither good nor bad, as you swill it around your mouth. This lulled me into a false sense of security. The worst part occurs when you spit â?? there is a sudden and (for me) quite intense and unpleasant taste.

Itâ??s a hard taste to describe but I would say that it tastes of carrots, tainted with a taste that is reminiscent of the chemical smell you get often find at a vetâ??s surgery. There is also mint in the mix, but itâ??s one of the last and the faintest tastes you get, before youâ??re left with a mild but definitely bitter taste in your mouth.

Itâ??s not the way Iâ??d like my breath to smell.

Performance

It seems to do a good enough job â?? I havenâ??t noticed a plunge in the state of my mouth (apart from the cringing that my taste buds do when I go to use it.)

Ingredients

• Aqua (pure water, micro-filtered)
• Glycerin (derived from plant material)
• Ricinus communis (castor oil extract)
• *Mentha piperita (peppermint oil)
• *Citrus limonum (lemon oil)
• *Thymus vulgaris (thyme oil)
• Citrus nobilis
• Citrus aurantium bergamia
• Citrus aurantium dulcis, (a blend of citrus seed extract from mandarin, bergamot and , Citric acid (acidity regulator)
• d-Limonene (from essential oils)
• Citral (from essential oils)
• Linalool (from essential oils).

*Organically grown

Eco Product Conclusion â?? Taste: 2/5   Performance: 4/5

This is tough to evaluate because although I really dislike the taste (did I say that already?), what I like about this mouthwash is that it is organic, natural and doesnâ??t have any artificial sweeteners, petrochemicals and colorants, so it does do the job itâ??s designed to do, it just does it in a less than tasty fashion.

My mother cleans her teeth with tea tree oil, which tastes beyond foul but, according to her dentist, has produced very healthy teeth and gums (do not do this yourselves - I can’t vouch for how safe it is, the fact that it works does not mean that it’s good advice.)

Perhaps the trade-off in naturally antibactierial mouthwash is a bitter taste left in your mouth. Perhaps this is better than an artificially sweetened chemical mixutre with (potentially) more dubious effects.

I think I will remain on the look-out for a tastier natural mouthwash but I will finish the bottle before I try the next one.

If you know of any good natural mouthwashes that you think we should feature on this site, please tell us about them on the comments section or get in touch via feedback@minkbaby.co.uk

If you would like to try and review this mouthwash, (for FREE!) why not email me? ali@minkbaby.co.uk

Photos and observations from the coolest vegan festival in the UK

I heard about the Vegan Fayre from Ali and thought that it would be something that Minkbaby should pop along to, so i popped. Well i popped, after going to the Brighton Dome finding out the Vegan fest wasnt there and then arriving at the Brighton Centre to find a half naked guy attempting to swallow a pretty big sword. Sorry i didnt take a photo of it, but heres an empty entrance hall and a shiney floor.

The main hall was up stairs and bustling with stalls catering to all kinds of colourful veggies and vegans. They were walking around talking and bustling, â??I mentioned the bustling right?â?� Buy mostly they were looking for Vegan cheese, an obsession I too have felt drawn too. So off I set across to the far end of the grand hall where a number of people were mingling.

So, I found it an entire corner of the room devoted to cheese or rather sheese, the alternative to Dairy and the only thing in the room disappearing at 100 mph, one tiny toothpick at a time. Ok, so.. you ask â??Whatâ??s its like this cheese alternative?â?�â?¦ and I am going to be honest with you, the few little morsels I had at the stab and grab stall I enjoyed. But and thatâ??s a big but, my further purchase of smoked Sheese from my local Deli left me a little cold and I am still missing my old cheese buddy. But i have faith and i am sure i will find it soon.

The Viva stand had me grabbing for as much animal welfare leafletage as i could possibly contain in two hands. Viva’s adverts have impact because of their honesty, a calf sitting on a plate, a man in a business suit suckling from a Dairy cow and the sweet face of a piglet looking out from the glossy leaflet - all making a pretty poignant point individually and all begging the question â??why?â?� not a soft cuddly â??aw we shouldnâ??t eat them, they are cute.. whereâ??s my beef burgerâ?� but a â??Whow, is it really right that they should suffer so much for addictionâ?� kind of question. Viva website

I had a lovely chat to Caroline from ‘Good Oil’ and will be covering the company in more detail in a future post

The Good oil website

Alan knight from international animal rescue is a great guy and they do some fantastic work, the fact that they a few bears off putting an end to the dancing bear trade in India was inspiring. You can read about it and help them on their website IAR

Infinity foods really didnt want to have their picture taken, but i took it anyway. Infinity are the ‘vegan nuts’ they have all you would ever need as a vegan and never leave you wanting more. You can check them out on infinity foods

Being a big fan of Keith Mann a former ALF organiser, this stand was very interesting. I bought the book “Dusk til dawn’ with a picture of Britches the tiny monkey part of the famous ALF rescue and will be reviewing it in a later post. The kid and his mum were lovely and very informed about Keith and his work. You can read more about him here the think bookshop .asp

Caroline was a little hung over but still very professional, she makes all her own vegan chocolate eggs and i couldnt resist buying one for my flat mate for Easter. I’ll be reviewing the egg, once consumed in a later post the chocolate alchemist

This charity is wonderful, they rescue and care for monkeys that are kept as pets in the UK, something that i couldnt belive was still happening here. I am going to pop down to visit them in the next couple of months monkey sanctuary

If you have read any of the other posts you will know that i wasnt too happy about the sentance dealt out to the SHAC members recently. I did ask how they are and the girl on the stand said that they are all doing well, but are all still in prison. I know alot of people find the methods that SHAC use distasteful but i have to say that the methods Huntingdon use are far more disgusting and disturbing. Go to the SHAC website to read about it.

Big shout out to conscious chocolate they are by far the most amasing vegan chocolate company. I took a few bars of the essentia organge oil and mint oil into work and my omnivorous workmates fell over themselves to munch down.

I also met the fantastic Karin Ridgers who runs ‘Mad Promotions’ and ‘Veggie Vision’, i had a great chat with Karin who was busy protecting a plate full of vegan cake and will be writing an article on ‘Veggie Vision‘.

I was very impressed with the Eco Garage, they sell electric cars and i for one think that the funky little orange numbers looked fab. Charging your phone and your car overnight seams like a good idea to me. I’ll go into more depth in a future post but for now click on the image to go through to the website.

I left the festival feeling inspired, the people there were active interesting individuals that spent their time doing and not procrastinating. It was a good feeling being one of them

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When i first read Ali’s post ‘Surfs up’ about Google’s CO2 emissions i have to admit i was kind of edgy, i mean i work in digtal marketing and Google takes up 8 hours of my day, every day and most weekends (sad i know). According to the report i was making the CO2 version of 1,000’s of cups of tea a day, and even though i love tea, i couldnt drink that much even if it had been sold to me by the delicious Mr Stephen Fry. No, i read the post and i huffed and puffed and avoided my laptop for a while and then i sat down and thought about it.

Googles carbon footprint calculator

I mean, when i comes to the grand scheme of things, Google do pretty well as a provider of their magnitude so much so that they have a full time person that maintains the data centers to keep them running as effectively and as eco friendly (i suppose you would say) as possible. Apparantly the Times were given an interveiw with one of these people, but it never saw the light of day. Now of course, you’ll say i am going to defend Google, i work in the industry and run a blog. Your right, but, i also took some time to look at the bigger picture of all global industry.

Greenhouse gas emissions per sector for 1 year

As you can see from the above chart we have alot of areas to target, Google is merely a tip of the dwindling ice berg and one that unlike some of the other industry’s would not be allowed to get away with cutting corners “i’m guessing anyway”.

I do however totally agree with Ali, that we should all be more mindful of our usage and extend that into our off line lives to make up for our usage on line. Minkbaby are looking to set up a monitor very soon to check our impact and i imagine with the new light shed on Google that they will be considering alternatives to power its huge data centers if it hasnt already.

I have to admit that my eye is firmly on alternative energy at the moment and i am considering, given the examples of author ‘James Lovelock’ that nuclear is quite likely our only real chance of making a difference at such a late stage of the game.

Nite folks, sleep well.. and to others good morning. I’ll get my nuclear post out later in the week, i’m still chewing over the whole idea.

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Emma Thompson and Alistair Macgowan are some of the first to buy up plots of land on the ear marked site of Heathrows 3rd runway.

The government would use its powers to issue compulsory purchase orders for the plots but lawyers said yesterday that the existence of thousands of owners would make this process time-consuming and expensive. Similar tactics have been used successfully to protect tropical forests.

Emma Thompson said: “I don’t understand how any government remotely serious about committing to reversing climate change can even consider these ridiculous plans. It’s laughably hypocritical. That’s why we’ve bought a plot on the runway. We’ll stop this from happening even if we have to move in and plant vegetables.”

McGowan said: “The government is sticking two fingers up to the environment and the people of this world. By giving this runway the go-ahead Gordon Brown is effectively holding a giant blow torch to the polar ice-caps and saying ‘Melt, Melt !’”

At full capacity, an expanded Heathrow would become the biggest single source of C02 emissions in the country. It would emit nearly 27m tonnes of CO2 every year â?? equivalent to the emissions of 57 of the least polluting countries in the world combined.

Yesterday, Greenpeace said that it took them nearly a year to identify the land and buy it from under the nose of BAA. “We had to have a cover. We pretended we wanted land to set up a donkey sanctuary.”