An Open Conversation

Many times I have been asked to talk about Fair Trade and Organic and I guess now's the time to have an open conversation about what I believe and how I look at things.

Let me start by saying--"What is fair?". Three years ago I started selling art work from Haiti in my shop. It is a company that boasts fairly traded goods. This is how it looks to me. Artists in Haiti needed an outlet to sell their art work. it's definitely one of a kind and definitely beautiful. Someone thought--hey I can create a market for that in the US. Let's import it. So they offered these artists $10 per piece of art work that they produced. And then, the importers probably said something like, let's find a distribution channel to get it to the wholesalers. They found one and so they said, hey we'll sell you this art work for $30 per piece. They agreed and then it went from the distributor to the wholesaler and they said we'll buy each piece for $50 per piece. And then finally, it gets put up for sale at my shop for $85 per piece. Let's really take a look at this process and think about it a while. How fair is it really? So many people touch it that it really isn't very fair to the people who have put the most into it. The artists in Haiti.

However, there is another way to look at it. Maybe the people in Haiti couldn't sell their work at all if it wasn't for the people who decided to export it? The deal is certainly more fair than getting nothing at all. This my friend is called justification.

And now, let's talk about organic. I don't believe in organic the way that it is portrayed in the marketplace. First of all, organic is anything that is carbon based so a lot of things fall under the heading of organic. And yes, I know that there are standards set up for selling organic. And those standards are good standards. And if the whole world went by those standards, the world would be a better place. However, the whole world doesn't go by those standards. And everything that touts the name organic is grown in the same soil that receives the rains from heavens. And then the rain in the ground is cycled back into the clouds and it rains again. Therefore, anything that is even remotely near the place where the organic crops are grown is getting all that other stuff in the soil that their neighbors are using.

It's definitely better when buying organic but let's face it, it is not really organic--not yet anyway--and not for a long time. Also, no one really monitors organic. It's a process that you go through to become certified to sell organic and then you're pretty much left to yourself except for the maybe once a year visit from the powers that be to check you out. There are times we are just being duped into thinking it's organic. And what's wrong with this? We pay more for it and we shouldn't have to!

If everyone did the loving thing to the earth and to her people, we wouldn't even have to be looking for organic and fair trade. And for the record, the chocolate that I use is fairly traded, and even some of it touts the certified organic label. But what you can be sure of when you purchase Island Angel Chocolates, is that I put love into each peice and do my best to do the "right thing".

I love the people that I'm blessed to interact with each day. Each one has something to offer and helps me to continue thinking about the shop's next step and my next step. This is a journey. And at the end of the journey when all is done I so hope that when I'm remembered that it's because I've been loving and generous and have done the "right thing" more often than not.