To Fair Trade or not to Fair Trade? That is the question...

If I was to tell you that just by the choice of product you buy you could ensure:

• no child labour 
• provision of a fair price for all farmers for their produce
• better health care for people in developing countries
• increased infrastructure in developing countries
• farming practices are improved to better look after the environment
• conservation of certain endangered animals
• improved educational outcomes for children and young people

You'd choose that product, wouldn't you? I would. Fair Trade products do promise all of these things and yet, I don't always buy them.

I've known about Fair Trade for a while now but really just a surface knowledge. I didn't really understand, until I started looking into it, just how much of a difference I can make to the lives of people on the other side of the planet by my choice of chocolate, coffee and tea. I guess I wasn't always doing my shopping in places where you can get Fair trade products, which until recently has been in health food and other specialty shops.

But, Fair trade is becoming more and more popular. Big companies like Cadburys are starting to realise the importance of fair trade practices because more and more customers are asking for it. So really, it's up to us. If we think that it is important that farmers are treated fairly, we need to let big companies know by asking for and buying fair trade products.
This morning, I needed to buy coffee because my Dad was coming over for a Father's Day morning tea. Instead of heading to my favourite coffee house to buy my usual, I actually went in search of Fair Trade coffee. So I guess this process of investigation about sustainable food practices is changing my behaviour!

Oh, and the coffee was delicious! 

The Journey of Chocolate - just how far does our food travel?

When I was in Grade 4 I had one of the most disappointing moments of my young life. Every year Grade 4s at Laburnum Primary School went on a tour of the Cadbury's chocolate factory. My brother had been the year before and had brought home a bag full of free Cadbury's products and stories of free chocolate samples as the tour progressed. I had been watching Willy Wonka for a few years by this and couldn't wait to see the magic of a chocolate factory in action. But alas, for some reason, the Cadbury tours stopped that year. It may have been because the school realised how hard it is to manage 60 children full of sugar. it may have been because Cadbury decided to stop school groups going through their Melbourne factory that year. For whatever reason it was, I was bitterly disappointed and from that day forward have not really thought about how one of my favourite foods is made, or where it comes from.

I had no idea that the cocoa bean is grown on the cocoa tree and that it only grows in tropical parts of the world. I also had no idea that because of this, the majority of the world's cocoa is grown by small family producers in some of the world's poorest nations.

I had no idea that for chocolate to make it to the shop where I buy it, it has to travel 11,464.3 kilometres from where the cocoa bean is grown, to the factory where it is processed. Then another 6,549.11 kilometres from that factory to another one where the chocolate is made. Then another 1,787.89 kilometres to the city where I buy it. That is a total of 19,801.3 kilometres for a block of chocolate that costs $4.

So, by buying a block of chocolate am I contributing to global warming? Should I be looking to buy and eat only food that is grown in my local area? One couple did this and documented their journey on their website the 100 mile diet. It's an interesting experiment and perhaps one that would help more of us realise exactly how our food is grown and how far it travels to get to us.

Sharing a meal - how food can help community connection

I went out for dinner with a couple of friends last night. This used to be something I did regularly, but being a student and not earning money this year, has made it a rare occurrence.  Apart from eating some fantastic Greek food, my friends and I shared personal stories, talked about politics and mostly had a really good laugh. I came home feeling relaxed and connected to a world broader than this little computer and my uni work. It's made me think about how important food is in bringing people together.  A lot of cultural and special events are organised around food. If you look at major religions in the world, the majority of them have some rules or rituals that include food.

So food provides more than just sustenance. But do we still connect as much as we used to around food?
I don't know about others. but my partner and I are in the bad habit of often eating in front of the TV. I know,  it's not a great thing to do,  but it seems to be a time to catch up on current affairs and to zone out for a while. I wonder how many other families in the Western world eat in front of the TV. I guess TV dinners weren't invented for nothing!

Every now and then we make a conscious choice to leave the TV turned off. It's amazing how much more connected and calm we feel as we catch up on the current affairs of our own lives.
So how does this fit into food sustainability? It's something we're looking at in relation to culture and identity (that's related to SOSE in case you didn't notice!). That's why we have an In Our Kitchen page, to explore our connections to food and to share some of the yummy recipes we love to share with our friends and family.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

What does the average family eat each week?

Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio set out to answer this question and present their photographic study of families all around the world in a book called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

To look through the gallery in three parts follow these links:

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part I
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part II
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats Part III

As you look through the galleries ask yourself, what does this tell us about food sustainability and the connection of these people to the land they live on? Imagine the kinds of lives they lead and compare it to your own.

rocket is not rocketing

While Jess and Storm are having exciting and interesting experiences with their fair tests, my rocket is steadily growing away ... at an extremely slow and disappointing pace!

My yard isn't the ideal place to grow things though. We originally had a grassy open back yard but my parents didn't have much luck in growing things, after many attempts they admitted defeat and decided to pave and patio it all! We now have a select few plants that grow in the retaining walls that line our backyard and some pot plants.

Because of the lack of light in our backyard throughout the day I struggled to find a place that the plants would have enough sunlight and shade.They now reside on the side of the house (also fully paved) in their pots and look very displaced in our concrete backyard. 

I wonder if brown thumb is genetic.

It's important though, that in undertaking this fair test and in the experience of attempting to grow our own food we learn to work with the environment we have. Not everyone has the luxury of a backyard or a patch of ground to grow veges and herbs in. For our future students this will be a powerful lesson, we might not be able to do much with what we have, but we should do what we can.

Every little effort makes a difference.

It's up to us to see the value of that small contribution and pass it on to others. See this article on David Suzuki's website that outlines some ways you can make a difference too.