What's in your shopping cart? Probably something GMO!

We all know that GMO = BAD. But who knows how to avoid them? It's one thing to not want to buy GMO food but it's another to know how!

With fruit and vegetables it's relativey easy. A five digit code beginning with a 9 signifies that it is organic(which means many good things, including not GMO!). Any four digit code is neither organic nor GMO(the midde ground). Any five digit code beginning with a 8 is GMO.

Now to the more complicated part. Aside from only buying organic and/or goods specifically labeled non-GMO, what can you do at the store? You might be asking, how many products could be affected/infected with GMO ingredients?

A whole lot! There are GMO ingredients in most sodas, cookies, breads, crackers, baking mixes, cereals, chocolate(candybars, chocolate chips, etc), ketchup, mayonnaise, salsa, soup mixes, even Gatorade, rice cakes and veggie burgers!

This list is extensive and it's right here.

I would imagine that most storebrands are GMO unless specifically labeled non-GMO or organic so the safest places to shop in the Boston area seem to be Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Wild Oats. There's also Boston Organics which delivers organic fruit, vegetables, fair trade coffee, bread, peanut butter and eggs.

So many factors to consider when we're shopping. GMO, Organic, Fair Trade, Local and of course - price. And let's not even get started on dining out - Oy Vay!

Clean Clothes and Kids

For those of you who want to incorporate your values in with your work with kids, this Clean Clothes Campaign might be of interest. This campaign run by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee aims to teach kids about sweatshops and has a few activities and resources for kids to do something about it.

Thanks to Susan T. for pointing me this way!

Got my Blackspot Sneakers from the Blackspot Anticorporation

Most of you probably know of Adbusters from their playful and often inspirational magazine and website. They've sold a few items for quite some time but they recently took things to a whole new level. They have created the Antipreneur. Although most things are still in the idea stage, they have successfully launched two types of shoes, both called Blackspot Shoes.

Blackspots are not your ordinary shoe. They are union-made in Portugal(meaning that they are fairly-traded), organic hemp upper(sustainable and environmentally friendly), soles from recycled tires(environment thing again) and biodegradable fake leather(environment one more time!). Of course, they're vegan too!

Each person purchasing their first pair receives a Blackspot Sneaker Shareholder Certificate. This entitles the shareholder to vote on what materials to use, where to manufacture the shoes, marketing, how to use profits, etc.

Until you get your own pair, here are the instructions for How to Uncool a Megacorporation:

1 Apply a helpful dot of red to the ass kicking sweet spot, right at the tip of the toe cap.
2 Slap a Blackspot on every last logo, brand name and trademark
3 Walk into a local indy store and tell the manager about the Blackspot-How we're trying to create a bottom-up, socially responsible cool in the sneaker industry. Then email Blackspot Sneakers with the retailer's specs and they'll follow-up
4 Blackspots start popping up all over the urban landscape - a sign of defiance, just like the anarchy symbol of yesteryear
5 15 second mindbombs start being aired on TV

That's the plan according to Adbusters. Go forth and uncool your sweatshop shoes and make them into something much, much cooler. A sign that you don't think union-busting, child labor using, below poverty paying sweatshops are cool and you're going to stop buying or displaying products from companies that use them!

The Working World * Re-connecting producers and consumers

A coworker had brought The Working World to my attention a few months ago. The Working World is a non-profit that helps fund and market products from cooperatives and democratic workplaces.

They've created an online market for factories run by Argentina's autonomous workers movement. These factories had been shutdown by the owners and have been reclaimed by the workers who are now running them! You can select from glassware, shoes, shirts and balloons. When you select a particular item(my favorite is the balloons -they're awesome!), you can see and read about the factory and the workers. Each item also gives you a breakdown of where your money is going. For instance here is the breakdown on a nice button-down shirt for men:

Price: US$14.40

Cooperative receives	US$9.00
Real middle man cost	2.25
Fund contribution	1.80
Import Duties	1.35

It's quite a bargain for the average US consumer and quite a good flow-through to the workers - that's what I call a win-win! The only losers in this equation are the transnational corporations and the sweatshops that supply them!

So if you can't find locally produced or thriftstore balloons, glassware, shirts or shoes, I encourage you to shop through The Working World. Help some people who are helping themselves. Give a boost to globalization from below and strike a blow against sweatshop corporations with your most important vote - your hard-earned dollar!

Review of Gone Tomorrow Screening/Heather Rogers Talk

I went to the Lucy Parsons Center last night to see Gone Tomorrow and hear Heather Rogers talk about both her book and movie. Here's a link to the original post about the event. I wanted to post about a few of the things she discussed. She lives in Brooklyn so I don't know if she'll make it back up here anytime soon but she was a very engaging and knowledgable speaker, definitely reccomend checking her out if you have the opportunity.

The movie Gone Tomorrow - The Hidden Life of Garbage is short(19 minutes) but delivers alot in that brief time. It is also interesting to note that the movie was Heather's first project and inspired her to write a book of the same name which, using over 225 pages, explores the same topic in much more detail.

Here were some points that really stood-out:

• Industry generates 70 tons of waste for every ton generated by consumers(consumer waste accounts for less than 1.5% of waste!)
• Only 22% of plastic bottles get recycled(there is a limited market for them)
• Industry has framed disposable goods as a litter issue not a waste issue.
• 50 - 80% of computers recycled in the U.S. end-up in China
• Most recycled goods are down-cycled, meaning they are changed into something of lesser grade or use during the recycling process.
• Capitalism needs garbage.
• Most businesses externalize costs onto the environment
• Green businesses either cater to high-end consumers or go out-of-business.

Solutions? You want something positive to take away from this and possibly act on??? OK...

• A fundamental cultural change to one of reduced consumption(like the Compact but with everyone participating!).
• Framing the waste issue as both a social justice and an environmental issue, then acting on it accordingly
• Increased product durability, recyclability and servicability
  

Changing the world, one shopping cart at a time

Article about a movie about the movement towards consumer education and creating resources for consumers looking to buy in a conscious manner.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Changing the world, one shopping cart at a time

Thursday, March 30, 2006

By CECELIA GOODNOW
P-I REPORTER

There's a telling scene in the documentary "Buyer Be Fair" in which various Home Depot customers try to define "certified wood."

Coming up

BUYER BE FAIR WHAT: Locally produced documentary on fair-trade shopping WHEN / WHERE: 9 tonight on KCTS/9. Repeats at 1 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday

Customer No. 1: "Well, I know it is treated with chemicals so that it stands up for a long time ..."

Customer No. 2: "I worked with wood for my whole life and I've never heard the term 'certified' ..."

Customer No. 3: "It's probably a good grade of wood ..."

Sorry, that is incorrect.

As any do-it-yourselfer in Amsterdam knows, certification means the lumber was grown and harvested responsibly, with oversight by the independent Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC, and labeled as such.

"I think it's well-known here in Holland," says one shopper in the film.

Another says, "I will pay extra for it. I do; I do pay extra for it."

It's not surprising that Dutch consumers are hip to the FSC label. Fair Trade certification, most commonly associated with coffee, began in the Netherlands two decades ago. Now, more than nine in 10 Dutch shoppers know what the Fair Trade label means and they look for it when they shop.

So do many other Europeans. As "Buyer Be Fair" points out, Bonn, Germany, is the world headquarters of the Fair Trade parent organization and FSC. Both are big players in the fast-growing product-labeling movement, designed to help shoppers identify independently certified global goods they can buy without cramping their conscience.

In their hourlong documentary premiering tonight on KCTS/9, Seattle-based producers John de Graaf and Hana Jindrova try to bring U.S. shoppers up to speed by showing how individual purchases affect the larger world.

"What you choose to put in your shopping basket has global implications," they note in the Take Action section of their accompanying Web site, buyerbefair.org, which was due to be up and running today. "It can determine whether a child is able to attend school or an endangered rain forest is logged. Certified products ensure that you know what your purchases are supporting."

Today you can find items from bananas to chocolates to soccer balls bearing the Fair Trade label -- if you're willing to do some legwork.

The standards are enforced by independent groups in 20 countries -- most of them in Europe -- and every country certifies a somewhat different array of goods.

TransFair USA, the only independent certifier in the United States, certifies only coffee, cocoa, tea, rice, sugar and some fresh fruits. So if you want a Fair Trade Certified soccer ball, you'll have to search online for a product that has been certified in another country, such as Canada.

On the other hand, if you're looking for Fair Trade Certified chocolate for your kids' Easter basket, the TransFair USA link is helpful. There's even a source in Seattle: Theo Chocolate, no address listed, only a phone number. We called and found it's at 3400 Phinney Ave. N. and is open for retail business on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (You also can find Theo bars at Ballard Market.)

Although more certified products are available, the "Buyer Be Fair" documentary focuses mainly on coffee and wood because those products pack such a wallop in the marketplace.

"Coffee and timber are two of the three top-selling trade goods," de Graaf said in an interview .

Oil is No. 1, but, as Jindrova added ruefully, there is no certification program for socially and environmentally responsible oil production.

Product certification is a frustratingly complex field, and the documentary won't automatically put guilt-free products at your fingertips. But, as viewers will see with the Home Depot shoppers, raising awareness is a good place to start.

"Our point," Jindrova said, "is just to get people thinking about where their products come from and if they can shape the market in a positive way."

If that sounds like feel-good hoo-ha, watch as "Buyer Be Fair" pans across deserted coffee plantations in Oaxaca, Mexico -- casualties of a free-fall in world coffee prices caused by cheap Vietnamese and Brazilian beans flooding the market.

At the Alemania plantation, once a busy community with a city hall and painted church, all that remains are decaying buildings and sinkfuls of unwashed dishes.

"So what do coffee farmers do?" asks ecologist Beatriz Avalos. "Either they abandon their land and go somewhere else looking for a job -- Mexico City or even the United States -- or they start clear-cutting ... to grow maize, beans for subsistence cattle, you name it."

Apart from the environmental harm, she said, the ripple effects will leave people with "nothing to lose," creating social and political instability.

Yikes! We don't want that bitter aftertaste in our morning jolt of java. What can we do?

There are some good leads in the links at buyerbefair.org, including help locating Fair Trade coffee. Still, there's no such thing as one-stop shopping for consumers who want to buy right.

"To be a conscious consumer," said de Graaf, "you do have to do a little thinking. These labels make it a little easier."

The documentary does spotlight a few laudable retail efforts:

In Seattle, Caffe Ladro sells only "triple-certified" coffee beans -- certified organic, shade-grown and Fair Trade.

Home Depot, the world's largest seller of lumber, now gives preference to vendors that offer FSC-certified wood. Shoppers can identify it by its green-tree logo. (Note, however, that a competing certification system, the industry-backed Sustainable Forestry Initiative, has a similar green-tree logo. De Graaf and Jindrova consider FSC's standards superior.)

Ikea, based in Sweden, where nearly half the forests are certified, produces as much furniture as possible from FSC wood. Case in point is the popular "Ivar" bookshelf, made at a factory that uses only FSC wood.

One of the most interesting links at buyerbefair.org is Green-e, which certifies that participating power companies produce a certain percentage of electricity from sustainable sources such as geothermal or wind power.

Consumers who want to participate pay a premium -- the national average is $6 per month -- to specify what percentage of "their" power they want from sustainable sources. In reality, electricity from all sources gets mixed together, so what the consumer is really doing is supporting the utility's overall reliance on sustainable power and not necessarily receiving "green" electricity in his home.

Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy offer similar programs, though they aren't certified by Green-e. Again, it's up to the consumer to search the utilities' Web pages -- or the Green-e site -- for the formidable details.

"It's confusing," Green-e's Keri Bolding told the P-I, "and most people just don't want to know where their electricity comes from. ... It's hard for a consumer to just get it in a sound bite and then want to spend money on it."

In time, shoppers should feel more comfortable with the various certification labels, said Nicole Chettero at TransFair USA.

"It's an emerging field," she said in an interview. "There's a lot of consumer education (to do)."

Ultimately, Jindrova and de Graaf hope certifiers work themselves out of jobs by making fair-trade and sustainable products business-as-usual.

Until then, it's up to each shopper to carry the day.

"Any difference matters," Jindrova said. "Every single purchase. It just brings us closer to a better world."

---

P-I reporter Cecelia Goodnow can be reached at 206-448-8353 or ceceliagoodnow@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Dear Conscious Consuming Readers

I have a sweatshop dilemma. So, I would prefer to buy and wear fairly-made clothes all the time, but I have two obstacles:

1. Reality is, I can't afford to buy it all the time.
2. As much as I would like to, I can't wear the nice but casual clothes that great companies like No Sweat and American Apparel make to work. (Nor would I want to: if you look at No Sweat's "work" category, the only clothing for women is a red, sleeveless knit dress, and if you go to American Apparel's site, well, you'll see.)

So what do I do? I do try to buy used clothes, but in the line of work that I'm going into, I will inevitably have to buy new collared shirts and such. Do I use my small, hard-earned money buying high-cost brand names, or do I go to Target where reality is, both of these stores probably use sweatshop labor? Are there other alternatives I'm not seeing?

Thanks, discuss in the comments.

A bunch of garbage - Gone Tomorrow - this Saturday night!

Heather Rogers will be discussing a highly-relevant book that she wrote about garbage. Who's to blame? What can be done? Read a bit below and then come meet Heather at the Lucy Parsons Center.

Heather Rogers: Gone Tomorrow
Saturday April 1st, 2006
time: 7 p.m.

description: The United States is the world capital of garbage; with just 5% of the planet's population, America generates 30% of its trash. The average American creates a staggering 4.5 pounds of rubbish daily, but garbage is a global problem. Consider that the Pacific Ocean is now six times more abundant with plastic waste than zooplankton.

Everyone makes garbage. It's there all the time, in the corner of our kitchens, in the bins next to our desks. But trash is also always in the process of disappearing—getting quickly, almost imperceptibly whisked out of sight. But where does it all go? And what is the impact of garbage on the planet?

In Gone Tomorrow, journalist Heather Rogers addresses these questions by guiding us through the grisly, oddly fascinating underworld of trash. Excavating the history of rubbish handling from the 1800s—an era of garbage-grazing urban hogs and dump-dwelling rag pickers—to the present, with its brutally violent mob-controlled cartels and high-tech "mega-fills" operated by multi-billion-dollar garbage corporations, Rogers investigates the roots of today's waste-addicted culture.

Over the past 30 years, garbage output in the US has doubled. Gone Tomorrow explains that, despite popular wisdom, this explosion of rubbish is not the sole responsibility of the consumer. In fact, shoppers often have little choice in the wastes they generate. Consider packaging: tossed cans, bottles, boxes, and wrappers now take up more than a third of all landfill space. More prolific today than ever before, packaging is garbage waiting to happen.

Once buried or burned, trash is hardly benign. Landfills, even the most state-of-the-art, are environmental time bombs. They spew greenhouse gases, and leach hazardous chemicals and heavy metals into groundwater and soil. Waste incinerators are no less disastrous. They emit 70% of the world's dioxin, and pollute the air with toxic particulate matter and a host of gases that cause acid rain.

Gone Tomorrow also explores the politics of recycling, which is widely embraced—more Americans recycle than vote—but has serious limitations, and, as Rogers points out, should only be seen as a first step toward more fundamental solutions.

Part exposé, part social commentary, Gone Tomorrow traces the connection between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our disposable lifestyle. Read it and you'll never think of garbage the same way again.

Heather Rogers is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker. Her documentary film Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life Of Garbage (2002) screened in festivals around the globe. Her articles have appeared in Utne Reader, Z Magazine, the Brooklyn Rail, Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Third Text, and Art And Design. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Lucy Parsons Center has a well-stocked bookstore with new and used books and more than 200 magazines, newspapers, and journals, covering every wing of the progressive movement. We also carry posters, bumper stickers, t-shirt, cards, and pins. There are low-priced used and bargain books in addition to new titles, Spanish-language books, and children's books.

Is Fair Trade Fair?

This article examines some of the truths behind Fair Trade. Does it do what we think it is doing? How effective is it?

One interesting line from the article:

Of all the purposes of fair trade, perhaps the most important is educating consumers who have stopped asking questions.

Is Fair Trade Fair?
By Ellen L. Lutz
September 19, 2005 | Cultural Survival Quarterly | Issue 29.3 http://209.200.101.189/publications/csq/ to view entire issue

This issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly looks at fair trade-the global movement in which North American and European marketers form partnerships with producers in the global South to ensure that low-income farmers and artisans earn a living wage for their work-and examines whether it is "fair" for indigenous peoples.

For some, in this era when free trade has triumphed over all other global economic models, the question is heretical. For others it merely is absurd. Most corporate, governmental, and other free trade proponents are not attuned to the interests of peoples whose cultures and values are radically different from their own. They divide the world into simpler
categories:
individuals and societies that already are benefiting from free market economics, and peoples who need wage labor or access to markets to "develop" and to lead "better lives"-lives more like theirs.

Fair trade was devised to ameliorate free trade's harsh impact on the world's poorest people. While anchored in free market economics, the movement imposes on fair traders the duty to pay producers at least a living wage, to promote democratically run producer cooperatives that are invested in their communities, to help producers obtain affordable financing and technical support, and to engage in environmentally friendly production practices. Fair traders are supposed to encourage the development of products based on producers' cultural traditions, adapted for Western markets, as a means of preserving their cultural identity. And they are supposed to educate consumers about fair trade's benefits for producers.

As measured by the interview data gathered for this issue, indigenous peoples agree that responsible fair trade is better than the alternative. But is that good enough?

Today's free trade capitalism, with antecedents that extend back centuries to the voyages of discovery, conquest, and colonialism, is an anathema for many indigenous peoples. It is premised on the belief that land, equipment, materials, and even ideas are "property" that can be owned. It assumes that labor generates wages so that workers can buy the consumer goods and services they desire, not because the workers are invested in the products they produce. It disaggregates other human values such as extended family, ethnic identity, religion, politics, and culture, except through the assumption that if each individual pursues his or her own economic interest, society as a whole will somehow be better off. Today, most indigenous peoples, like most people in the world, are caught in global capitalism's grip. But that does not mean that they have absorbed its underlying values. Instead, they live with the dissonance of competing
worldviews: one rooted in their indigenous cultures and traditions; the other imposed by external global economic forces. Often the discord between the two ways of understanding the world is so great that it cannot be rationalized. If the land, like the sea or sky or wild animals, cannot be "owned," how can a legal system that has been erected to safeguard one person's right to land to the exclusion of another's be understood, let alone be availed of as a source of protection? If creative expression is the means by which we honor our ancestors and our gods, and pass our traditions on to our children, what consequences will befall us when we "adapt" traditional designs to appeal to Western aesthetics or sell our heritage to tourists? If the structure of a society is based on reciprocal, interdependent, face-to-face relationships, what will happen to that social fabric when depersonalized wage labor becomes the only means of survival?

Fair trade does not begin to address such fundamental questions. Even at its most inclusive, most transparent, and most capacity-expanding, it merely improves indigenous peoples' access to an imposed economic system that cannot accommodate fundamentally different ideas about ownership, community, or social relations.

The articles in this issue spotlight the many positive aspects of fair trade. Unlike the mechanical, depersonalized free trade system, fair trade is founded on personal relationships between marketers who want to make a positive difference in the world and disadvantaged human beings who want to realize their capabilities. The articles also reveal the hurdles that must be overcome if fair trade is to be truly fair to indigenous peoples. These include ensuring that indigenous producers have relationships with multiple marketers, opportunities to diversify their businesses, and a complete understanding of all levels of their fair trade enterprise.

Of all the purposes of fair trade, perhaps the most important is educating consumers who have stopped asking questions. Free market capitalism may be the dominant economic model in today's world, but that does not guarantee that it is the only model, or even the best model. Indigenous cultures offer alternative worldviews that can broaden all of humanity's horizons when it comes to understanding what it means to "be developed" or "live a better life."

Moreover, fairness matters! And to be fair, fair trade must both be fair, and seem fair, to everyone involved: indigenous producers, fair traders, consumers, and everyone in between. Even those of us whose connection with fair trade occurs only at the coffee shop or craft market can make a difference by asking questions such as: What matters most to indigenous producers? What do they regard as fair? How much input have they had into the design, manufacturing, and marketing processes? Do they possess the knowledge they need to participate in those processes, or even to decide to what extent they want to participate? Does fair trade strengthen the fabric of their lives, or merely ameliorate the fair trader's and consumer public's guilt about past and present exploitation?

By participating in a fair debate about such questions, by being open to answers that do not jive with our assumptions, by adapting our actions to the knowledge we gain, and by insisting that everyone along the chain of production do the same, we consumers not only can make fair trade fairer for indigenous peoples, but can engage in that radical process of enriching the quality of life for all of humanity.

215 Prospect Street Cambridge, MA, 02139 * 617.441.5400 * culturalsurvival@cs.org

Shrink You Ecological Footprint

This excellent article just appeared in The Washington Post. One note - the article refers to Freecycle Washington. There is also a Freecycle Boston and it would be great if you joined it!

Shrink Your Ecological Footprint
By Bridget Bentz Sizer
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, March 12, 2006; M05

Everybody knows how big his actual footprint is, but until a friend sent me the link to http://www.ecofoot.org/ , I was blissfully ignorant of the size of my ecological footprint. The Web site, created by the Earth Day Network, surveys users' eating, transportation and housing choices and spits out an estimate of how many planets would be needed to sustain the world if everyone on Earth lived the same lifestyle. The bad news? If everyone in the world lived like me, we would need three planets to sustain us. Even worse, the average American lifestyle would require 5.3 planets.

But it's not all doom and gloom. While downsizing an actual footprint requires amputation, an ecological footprint is much easier to modify. "We all have the power to make changes happen . . . when each of us do it, collectively we have a significant impact on the environment," says Monique Tilford, acting executive director of the Center for the New American Dream, a Takoma Park-based environmental advocacy group. Here are eight ways to start acting locally for a global impact.

JOIN FREECYCLEDC

Heidi Ridgley, a senior editor for the environmental nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, wasn't sure what to do with her eco-friendly bug killer after she moved from a roach-infested apartment in Adams Morgan to a pest-free rowhouse in Columbia Heights. So she offered it up on the Freecycle Network. "People crawled out of the woodwork to [claim] it," she jokes.

Started in Tucson in 2003, the Freecycle Network is an international collection of free listservs aimed at reducing landfill waste by making one person's trash another person's treasure.

"I discovered Freecycle while redoing my front porch last summer," Ridgley says. "I had perfectly reusable deck wood that I didn't need anymore, and a neighbor told me Freecycle would ensure it wouldn't get sent to a landfill." With more than 9,300 local members, FreecycleDC is a bustle of activity, with members posting regularly to offer unwanted goods. The only hard and fast rule is that all items must be offered for free. In addition to the deck wood and the bug killer, Ridgley has found homes for an unwanted child's scooter, a salad spinner, aquarium dechlorination drops and a thermostat.

GET RID OF JUNK MAIL

The average American receives 41 pounds of junk mail a year, according to the Center for the Development of Recycling. And 44 percent of that winds up in a landfill unopened (for me, the rest clutters up the kitchen table). Though the tide of junk mail may seem overwhelming, Tilford says that it's possible to shut it off. "Companies are required by law to take you off a mailing list if you request that," she says. A good place to start is by contacting the Direct Marketing Association to request your name be placed on a "do-not-mail" file. (This request can be made for free via postcard, or for $5 on DMA's Web site, http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist .) To curb the flow of pre-approved credit card applications, call TransUnion at 888-567-8688.

BE GREEN WHEN YOU CLEAN

Labels on typical household cleaners can be a bit troubling -- with warnings of "irreversible eye damage" and "skin burns." Being clean can sound, well, a little dirty. But fear not. Mindy Pennybacker, the editor of the Green Guide, an environmental and health newsletter, says most of her readers report finding "alternative cleaning products that work just as well as conventional cleaners." In other words, being green and being clean can go hand in hand. To find eco-friendly cleaners, the Green Guide ( http://www.thegreenguide.com/ ) recommends reading labels carefully with an eye for specific claims. "Biodegradable in three to five days" is preferable to simply "biodegradable," since most substances will eventually break down, given the right conditions. Also, cleaners that promise "no solvents," "no phosphates" or are "plant-based" offer a better green guarantee than those with a vague "ecologically friendly" stamp on the label.

CHANGE YOUR LIGHT BULBS

Question: How many years does it take an environmentalist to change a light bulb? Answer: Seven, but only if he's using energy-efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Though slightly more expensive, low-mercury CFL bulbs use less energy and last longer than standard light bulbs. Replace four standard bulbs with the CFL ones, and you'll prevent the emission of 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over the life of the bulbs, according to the Center for the New American Dream. The center, which has a "Turn the Tide" campaign ( http://www.newdream.org/tttoffline/actions.php ), also estimates that you'll save $100 on your energy bill over the same time period. Though consumers complained of the harsh quality of early CFL bulbs, more recent models have softened the light. A 25-watt CFL bulb emits the same amount of light as a standard 100-watt bulb. And these days, CFL bulbs are sold almost everywhere standard light bulbs are sold.

PARK YOUR CAR

When Mimi Ikle-Khalsa's car was stolen last year, the insurance settlement would have paid for a replacement. Instead, Ikle-Khalsa, a massage therapist from Takoma Park, reflected on her use of fossil fuels and decided to go without. She relies on a combination of foot-power and public transportation to get to work in Silver Spring and Bethesda. Aside from the occasional "horrific rain" that crops up during her 1 1/2 -mile trek to the Metro, Ikle-Khalsa has no complaints.

While ditching the car entirely might not be practical for everyone -- according to a 2002 survey by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average American drives 203 miles each week -- cutting back on needless car trips will shrink your global footprint; each person who eliminates 20 miles of extra driving a week also eliminates nearly 1,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions each year, according to the Center for the New American Dream. "Try consolidating shopping trips, so you're not just darting out and buying things," says Pennybacker. "All of these combined efforts can make a difference."

BYO BAG

Comedienne Lily Tomlin tells a story about buying a wastebasket: "The cashier put it in a bag. I brought it home. I took it out of the bag. I crumpled up the bag and tossed it in the wastebasket." The joke works because of its absurdity -- Tomlin generates trash even as she buys a receptacle for the trash -- but also because it taps into a larger truth; each year Americans use an estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags. Reusablebags.com, a Web site dedicated to reducing the use of disposable shopping bags, estimates that most plastic shopping bags wind up in landfills, where they take 1,000 years to decompose. So next time you're at the grocery store, consider bagging your goods in reusable canvas bags instead of paper or plastic. If you currently bring home 10 grocery bags each week that's a saving of 520 plastic bags each year.

RECYCLE YOUR CELL PHONE

Arsenic, mercury and lead are the kinds of toxins that lead to emergency phone calls to the poison control hotline, but did you know that they might also be in your old cell phone? The EPA estimates that 700 million cell phones containing 250,000 tons of toxic waste already have been discarded in American landfills. Next time you get a new cell phone, try donating your old one instead of tossing it. The National Zoo has partnered with Eco-Cell, a nonprofit based in Louisville, Ken., to collect visitors' unwanted cell phones, batteries and accessories. Eco-Cell will donate up to $15 to the Friends of the National Zoo for every working cell phone collected -- working phones will be refurbished and passed on to low-income people, while "dead" phones will be recycled according to EPA guidelines. Not planning a trip to the zoo? Call Eco-Cell at 888-326-3357 or visit their Web site ( http://www.eco-cell.org/ ) to learn how to donate a phone.

SKIP THE SCREENSAVER

Contrary to what the name might have you believe, the flying-window screensaver that pops up on your computer monitor when it's not in use is more of an energy waster than a saver. A computer monitor in screensaver mode uses almost as much energy as an active monitor. So ditch the screensaver and instead set your computer to "sleep mode" so that the screen goes blank when not in use. Better yet, turn off your monitor. Smith University estimates that 30 monitors set to sleep mode represent a reduction in emissions and energy consumption equal to taking one car off the road.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

What is the impact of the choices you make when you shop?

This is a 30 minute radio interview with people from two of our most synergistic large organizations, Co-Op America and the Center for a New American Dream. Talking about “what is the impact of the choices you make when you shop?” There is some really good Conscious Consuming discussion from both the featured guests and the callers. Definitely worth listening to if you have a chunk of time!

Socially-Conscious Consumers
Guest host Patt Morrison looks at socially conscious consuming with Amanda Johnson of Co-Op America and Betsy Taylor of New American Dream.

Listen to it here

How to help non-profits more and get less junkmail!

The non-profit industry in the U.S. is big business, and not just for the non-profits but for the US Postal Service, printers, list brokers, mailhouses, graphic designers and other related businesses. Fundraising represents at least 10% of the total pie for a healthy organization and can easily break 20% for many. That's means before a single person is helped, at least a dime of every dollar is being spent on getting the money. That's actually before any non-fundraising expenses are met. It's not uncommon for about 50 cents of every dollar to actually go to the programs. That's why it's good to look at charities on Guidestar or using Charity Navigator. You might want a utopian charity that flows 90% of all funds directly to the cause. You won't find that but you can use these tools to see how similar groups stack-up.

So, you like so many groups that you want to help them all. What should you do? Deeper, not broader. Find a few key charities that are really important to you and give as much as you can to those groups. Many costs are fixed so the total costs of receiving a $20 dollar donation is very similar to receiving a $100 donation. Give 5 $100 donations instead of 25 $20 donations(more is better but you get the picture!). This isn't the stock market so don't diversify.

How can $20 or less be donated most effectively? In cash, annonymously to a low-overhead organization. Cash is the least expensive to process. If they don't know who you are, they won't spend money thanking you or asking you for more. If it's low-overhead, no money is lost processing your donation. Look for a local organization in your community. Although Conscious Consuming would certainly appreciate donations, there are dozens of worthwhile charities that would be equally suitable. If you aren't sure about finding one, feel free to ask!

What about reducing mail? Well you took a step in that direction with a larger donation. Most organizations do not sell, trade or rent the names of donors who gave $100 or more because they don't want to share the more valuable donors. Regardless of what amount you give, make two clear requests 1) only one soliciation per year and 2) do not rent or exchange my name. That request should be honored by any organization that you donate to.

Some people say that if you receive unsolicited mail from an organization, you can use the postage paid envelope and return a note asking them to remove your name and to not exchange or sell it. I would discourage you from doing that since you are adding expense to the charity and asking them to do something they can't The explanation is a bit long and involves listbrokers, mail fees, etc. If you want the explanation ask me but I won't tie-up this post any longer.

Happy Donating!

Consumerism is sooo over

Here is an article on how consumers no longer look to buying stuff for their happiness.

The Good Life: Consumerism is so-o-o ‘90s
by Holly Dressel

Advertisers spend billions to convince us that buying more stuff leads to the good life. But millions of us have quit buying it.

LIVING THE GOOD LIFE is a subject that has been featured often in YES! stories since the magazine’s first issue, for the simple reason that this issue is so central to human culture.

In the first book I wrote with David Suzuki, back in 1999, we had a chapter called “Complex Pleasures” that tried to analyze what it is that we humans really want. Today there are even more studies, polls and surveys that attempt to answer this most compelling of questions. And what they’ve uncovered has been a little surprising, in that it has been repeatedly demonstrated that once basic human needs for shelter and food are met, people are not made very much happier by even vastly larger quantities of material goods. In fact, decently nourished villagers in India or U.S. blue-collar workers are often just as happy with their lives as society matrons and rich businessmen.

Click here for the entire article.

Houston, We have Incorporation!

We are now Conscious Consuming Inc.! We are a registered and incorporated non-profit in the State of Massachusetts. What does that mean and why did we do it?

It means that we're an entity, a corporation, with a status and rights quite like those accorded to an individual. Conscious Consuming can now enter into contracts, open a bank account, rent space, etc. We did it for those reasons and to become tax-exempt so that donations will be tax deductible. We want to do the most good for the least money - after all, we're Conscious Consumers!

So we are kicking off our 2006 events with one of our signature potluck discussions on March 19th. Featuring a guest speaker from the organization the inspired us to come together - The Center for a New American Dream. Sean Sheehan, National Outreach Manager, will be speaking to us about Simplifying Our Lives and Aligning Our Lives With Our Values. We are especially excited to be having Sean here for our first event as an incorporated non-profit!

If you are interested in attending, please email us at Conscious.Consuming@gmail.com and we will forward you an evite.

Busy lives don't need balance!

I thought this article tied-into "Take Back Your Time" and many of the balance of life/time issues that we are striving for. Or is it balance that we should really be striving for??? Read on!

The Inside Out Solution
Balancing Home and Work Won't Bring Peace of Mind, Says a Therapist. Getting Your Inner and Outer Lives in Sync Just Could

By Douglas LaBier
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; HE01

A Washington couple recently consulted me in my psychotherapy practice. He's an executive with a large trade association; she's a lawyer with a big firm. They told me how hectic it is trying to meet all their responsibilities at work and at home. They have two children of their own plus a child from her former marriage. Dealing with the logistics of daily life, to say nothing of the emotional challenges, makes it hard just to come up for air, they said.

Similarly, a 43-year-old man from Bethesda came for help with his career. But he quickly acknowledged that he's worried about the "other side" of life. He's raising two teenage daughters and a younger son by himself. He's constantly worried about things like whether a late meeting might keep him at work. He tries to have some time for himself, but "it's hard enough just staying in good physical health, let alone being able to have more of a 'life,' " he said. He recently learned he has hypertension.

It's no surprise that these people, like many I see both in my psychotherapy practice and my workplace consulting, feel pummeled by stresses in their work and home lives. Most are aware, at least dimly, that this is unhealthy -- that stress damages the body, mind and spirit. Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, states things starkly: 70 percent of all illness, physical and mental, is linked to stress of some kind.

A lot of the stress I hear about derives from struggling with the pressures of work and home. The problem seems nearly universal, whether in two-worker, single-parent or childless households.

The reason it's so common? My experience suggests that it's because people are framing the problem incorrectly. There is no way to balance work and home, because they exist on the same side of the scale -- what I consider the "outer" part. On the other side of the scale is their personal, private life -- the "inner" person. I encourage clients not to think about balancing work life and home life, but to balance outer life and inner life.

Let me explain. On the outer side of the scale you have the complex logistics and daily stresses of life at both work and home -- the errands, family obligations, phone calls, to-do lists, e-mails and responsibilities that fill your days. Outer life is what's on the daily planner, Palm or BlackBerry.

On the other side of the scale is the inner you: private thoughts and values, emotions, fantasies, spiritual or religious practices, the capacity to love, a sense of purpose. Our culture does little to acknowledge or nurture this aspect of our lives. You probably keep much of your inner life hidden from others, even those you are closest to. You may even keep it hidden from yourself.

The good news, as I see it, based on my observations: Reframing your challenge from trying to balance work and home to balancing your inner and outer lives will help you deal with all aspects of life -- and build overall health and well-being.

The Other Balancing Act

As I have often observed, when your inner and outer lives become unbalanced, daily functioning is affected in ways subtle and profound. When operating in the outer world -- at work, for example, or in dealings with your spouse or partner -- you may struggle with unjustified feelings of insecurity and fear. You may find yourself at the mercy of anger or greed whose source you don't understand. You may be plagued with indecisiveness or revert to emotional "default" positions, such as submissiveness or rebellion, forged during childhood.

Even if you are successful in parts of your outer life, neglecting the inner can be hazardous. With no sense of your inner life, you lose the capacity to regulate, channel and focus your energies. Typically, stress mounts, personal relationships suffer, your health deteriorates and you become vulnerable to looking for stimulation from the outer-world sources you know best -- maybe a new "win," a new lover, drugs or alcohol. I've seen this again and again in my work.

And that pulls you even more off-balance, possibly to the point of no return. The extreme examples are people who destroy their outward success with behavior that reflects a complete disengagement from their inner lives -- corporate executives led away in handcuffs for indulging in ill-gotten gains, self-destructive sports stars overcome by the trappings of their outer-life successes, political leaders whose flawed personal lives destroy their credibility, clerics who are staunch moralists at the pulpit but sexual predators or adulterers behind closed doors.

When your inner life is out of balance with your outer, you become more vulnerable to stress, and that's related to a wide range of physical and emotional damage. Heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, a weakened immune system, skin disorders, asthma, migraine, depression, anxiety and musculoskeletal problems -- all are linked to stress. Together these things can shorten your life.

Servicing your inner life, on the other hand, can restore balance. It builds a state of self-awareness and wholeness. With a robust inner life you feel grounded and anchored, knowing who you are and what you're truly living for.

Finding the Gaps

I recently spoke with a man, relatively underdeveloped in his inner life, who was dealing with a classic inner-vs.-outer dilemma. He was debating whether to leave an out-of-town meeting early, which would be difficult, to be home for his daughter's 18th birthday. I asked him the simplest question: Which choice would he be more likely to feel good about at the end of his life? He immediately saw that it was being at his daughter's birthday. But he was troubled that he'd been trying to rationalize away what he knew he valued more deeply.

He was suddenly able to see the gap between his values (his inner self) and the choice he was about to make (in his outer world). A good initial step toward awakening your inner life is to identify the gaps between what you believe in and what you do. We all have those gaps.

"Building Your Inner Life," below, has suggestions for developing your personal side. Here is an exercise to help you learn about the relationship between your inner and outer lives.

· First, make a list of what you believe to be your core, internal values or ideals. Perhaps it's raising a strong, creative child. Maybe it's having close friends, or developing a talent that's important to you. It could be increasing your spiritual connections. You may want a healthy marriage or partnership, or to give back some of the fruits of your good fortune to others.

· Next, make a parallel list for each item on your list, describing your daily actions relative to those values : How much time and energy do you spend on them? What are your specific behaviors regarding each? Be detailed in your answers -- note the last time you took an action aimed at nurturing that creative child, building your marriage or giving some meaningful help to the less fortunate. Do not be surprised (or ashamed) if you find that very few of your daily activities support those key values.

· Assign a number from 1 to 5 measuring the gap between each value and your behavior -- 1 representing a minimal gap; 5, the maximum.

· Identify the largest gaps. Now think about how your inner values could redirect your outer-life choices in those areas. What would you have to do to bring the inner you in synch with the outer you? What can you commit yourself to doing?

· Write it all down and set a reasonable time frame for reducing your gaps.

Work vs. Life Revisited

Strengthening your inner life can change how you behave in both parts of that old work-life equation.

In the work realm, you might reexamine what you're doing -- whom you work for and with, and what your work contributes to the things you value. At the most radical end, you could change employers or careers, or go out on your own to pursue a dream. Or you can seek new assignments with your current employer that align with your personal values and goals.

In your home and personal life, a stronger inner life might lead you to give some time to help others, say through volunteer work. Or get involved with a social or political cause you believe in. You might decide to take that music appreciation course you've considered for years, or finally build that backyard garden you've seen in your imagination.

As you develop your inner life and balance it with your outer, you'll be likely to find that the old conflicts of work vs. life don't cause you stress or even dominate your thoughts anymore.

In fact, you may find they disappear. ·

Douglas LaBier, a psychotherapist and business psychologist, heads the Center for Adult Development in Washington (http://www.adultdev.org) Comments on this article: health@washpost.com. Join author Douglas LaBier for a Live Online discussion today on inner life/outer life balance at 2 p.m. at www.washingtonpost.com.

The Che Cachet

This sounds like an interesting exhibit and I love the part about capitalism appropriating revolution. It really brings home the excellent job that companies do with marketing and branding everything into a profitable business.

The Che Cachet An Exhibition Traces How the Marxist Revolutionary's Photo
Inspired an Army of Capitalists
By David SegalWashington Post Staff
WriterTuesday, February 7, 2006; C01

NEW YORK Just look at what they have done to Che.
The glowering visage of the Cuban comandante and ur-Marxist pops
up everywhere -- in art, on the cover of magazines and, more blasphemously, on
lighters, wallets, coasters, T-shirts, hoodies, key chains, tissue packs,
nesting dolls and something called Red Cream Soda.

It's always the same shot, the one where the man born Ernesto Guevara stares into the middle distance with fiery resolve, a military beret perched on his head, a leather jacket zipped up to his neck, hair rakishly blown by the wind. Rifle-wielding freedom fighters
around the world have revered this image the way Christians revere saints. But
entrepreneurs love it, too. One company slapped the likeness on a frozen treat called Cherry Guevara, vanilla ice cream on a stick, wrapped in chocolate and cherry-flavored sauce. "The revolutionary struggle of the cherries was squashed as they were trapped between two layers of chocolate," reads the copy on the wrapper. "May their memory live on in your mouth."

Cherry Guevara and other examples of what could be called Che abuse are now on display at the International Center of Photography in midtown Manhattan for an exhibition titled "¡Che! Revolution and Commerce." (The show runs until Feb. 26.) It's the story of a single photograph and its flukey journey from contact sheet to
international ubiquity and then into the farcical maw of commercial kitsch. Shot
by a onetime fashion photographer named Alberto Korda, it might be, according to
the show's curators, the most reproduced image in the history of photography.
The exhibit works, too, as an object lesson in the power -- and on some level, the formidable beauty -- of market economies, which can absorb and commodify anything, even their bitterest enemies.

Today, there are dozens of Web sites selling stuff with Korda's Che shot emblazoned on it. Places like Thechestore.com and Fidelche.com mostly target young people who, one assumes, aren't actually gearing up for armed insurrection. "Our other big seller is
beer pong shirts," says Shayn Diamond, a college student in London, Ontario, who
a few months ago started selling Che-wear with some friends at Cheguevarashirts.com. "He's a rebel, and along with rebel comes the cool factor and trendiness." Translation: Viva los fashionistas!

The beginning of all this was more dignified. Korda took the shot the day of a rally in Cuba, organized to protest an explosion in Havana harbor of a ship loaded with
ammunition. More than 100 people died in early March 1960, and many Cubans
believed it was a CIA-orchestrated crime, not an accident. The following day,
maximum leader Fidel Castro turned a mass funeral into a mass protest and Korda,
on assignment from a newspaper called Revolucion, was there to capture the
event. Che didn't speak that day, but he showed up briefly on the podium to
gaze at the crowd. Korda squeezed off two quick shots with his Leica. The image
first turned up publicly in April 1961, in the pages of Revolucion, to promote a
conference where Che was the star speaker.

Yes, fittingly enough, "Guerrillero Heroico," as Korda called his photo, started off as an advertisement. Then it just spread. Korda never kept a grip on the copyright, and the shot eventually turned up on the cover of magazines and newspapers in Europe and across the United States. National Lampoon published a satirical version in 1972 with Che taking a pie to the face. Madonna did a variation for her "American Life" album
in 2003. When Taco Bell used a Chihuahua in a Guevara-like beret to promote its
"revolutionary taco," the company took incoming from Cuban exiles in Miami. The
vice president of the company said the ads were intended to represent revolution
"generically."

Artists have long played with the iconic power of the image. Among them is Pedro Meyer, who created "Five Dollar Bill," which is in the ICP exhibit and features a blowup of the U.S. fiver, with Che's face where Lincoln's ought to be. "The U.S. has always had the ability to appropriate rebels," says Meyer, on the phone from his studio in Mexico. "It's a cheap way to deal with your urge to be rebellious. You buy a T-shirt and you don't have to do anything more."

Korda, who died in Paris in 2001, apparently never earned any
royalties from his most famous portrait. He did, however, win an out-of-court
settlement in England against Smirnoff after the company ran an ad with
"Guerrillero Heroico," along with the words "A complete flavoured vodka," a riff
perhaps on John Paul Sartre's claim that Che was "the most complete man of his
age." "I am categorically against the exploitation of Che's image for the
promotion of products such as alcohol," Korda is quoted as saying, "or for any
purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che."

Why Che? How did this Argentine doctor with a bad case of asthma acquire such astounding worldwide cachet, not to mention enduring commercial appeal?
The hunky looks don't hurt. Actually, they help, quite a bit. And few doubt the man's sincerity, even if his sincerest wish was a dreary, centrally planned bummer. "Even his
ideological foes admire him because he represents the great virtues it takes to
be a revolutionary," says Jon Lee Anderson, a New Yorker writer who penned the
biography "Che: A Revolutionary Life." "Bravery, fearlessness, honesty,
austerity and absolute conviction. Those are the prerequisites to carry others
into what is actually quite a miserable existence. He lived it. He really lived
it."

After he helped to overthrow the Batista government in Cuba, he headed
to other countries, including the Congo and Bolivia, to try to foment revolution
there. Adding to the mythology, he died a martyr's death in 1967, captured and
executed at the age of 39 as he battled U.S.-trained troops in Bolivia.
Reportedly, his last words to the soldier who shot him were "Shoot, coward,
you're just killing a man."

And, it seems, creating a brand. He's lionized by insurgents around the world, according to Anderson, in places as varied as Burma and Afghanistan. Last month, the new president of Bolivia asked for a moment of silence at his swearing-in to remember, among others, Che Guevara. The Cuban government, meantime, has tapped heavily into Che-mania, presenting Guevara to tourists as the public face of the island ever since the Russians withdrew financial support. Che T-shirts are among the first things you'll see after landing at the Havana airport.

But at least the Cubans know whom they're glorifying. In the United States, Che's life story and ambitions seem beside the point, or maybe they've just been reduced to caricature. The guy's face is shorthand for "I'm against the status quo." He's politics' answer to James Dean, a rebel with a very specific cause. And since very few people know anything about the cause, or the rebel -- besides the basics -- the Che shirt has about it the whiff of inside info. It makes you part of the thrift-store intelligentsia, even if your real focus is beer pong.

This, in brief, is why capitalism won. It's the only system that understands that we'd all like to change the world, but we are way too lazy for that sort of thing. Especially if
there's ice cream around. When you get done with a Cherry Guevara, you're left
with a wooden stick with the words "We will bite to the end!" stamped on it. If
there are nails in Che's coffin, this, no doubt, is what they look like.

Hunger and Human Rights: a virtual Conscious Consuming Event!

I have been thinking about the impact of my food-purchasing decisions quite a bit lately. Now I'll be experiencing and thinking about these things in a whole new way - at least I anticipate that being a result of my participation in the exercise outlined below. Read on and join me!

Azalia, one of my co-workers at Grassroots International has just developed a Resource Rights Curriculum - "Land and Hunger: Making the Rights Connection." She has piloted everything except the "call to action" at the end. The movement from education to action is a crucial element of Grassroots' effort to build social movements so that's where I, and perhaps you, come in.

Below are three possible “Challenges” that will bring home the connections between land, hunger, poverty and the globalization of the food industry. Choose one or more of the following three challenges and try them for 5-7 days anytime in February.

I will be doing options 1 and 3. I'm going to start next week and I'll incorporate daily updates into the comments section of this blog post. If you want to participate, please update us using the comments section of the blog or send me a summary email.

1. Boston on $2/day
Challenge yourself to eat on $2/day for a week. The idea for this challenge is to look at how poverty and hunger are related. This amount does not include transportation, labor, rent, gas, electricity or any other inputs needed. You must use $2/ day (not $14 in one lump sum). Keep track of what types of foods you eat. Track whether or not the quality of food you eat changes drastically. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than $2/day including expenses for heat, housing, etc. That is almost half the world’s population. This widely used figure has been adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).

2. Eat Locally
A big concern is the globalization of the food industry and a lack of information on where food is from, produced and what’s in it. Challenge yourself to eat only locally produced food for a week. Keep a log and answer some of the following questions:

• What foods you are able to eat?
• Is the quality of the food that is available comparable to food that is not locally produced?
• How much does it cost in comparison to what you would normally spend?
• Where do you have to go to purchase local food?
• Are you forced to travel a longer distance?
• Is there a farm near that sells local products?
• How far do you have to travel to get to a local farm that produces and sells food?
• Does buying locally produced food affect planning of meals and time?

3. The Global “Foodshed”

Challenge: Like water flows through a watershed, our food flows from producer to consumer. How far does your food have to travel to get to your table? Keep a daily food log tracking the country of origin of every item you eat for a week.

• What is the food item?
• What is the city and country of origin of the food item?
• What company makes the food item?
• List the ingredients of the food item and write down any ingredients that are unfamiliar to you.

Will this be easy? Probably not. Will it be fun? Possibly. Will it be an interesting experience? No doubt!

I'm starting on Monday February 13th. Care to join me???

Better World Club

Speaking of cool alternatives, the Better World Club is a great alternative to AAA. They do the same roadside assistance, maps, and other services, but in an environmentally-friendly mindset. You can even get roadside bike assistance!

Leave a comment with your experiences with Better World Club.

In praise of green choices

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a great tool to help you make environmentally-conscious decisions about home improvement, saving energy, and other daily reminders that Americans have choices on how to live sustainably. Read past e-newsletters and sign-up for monthly electronic Greentips.

Slaves to Fashion: The Sweatshop-Sportswear Connection

THE COMMUNITY CHURCH OF BOSTON
SUNDAY SPEAKERS FORUM presents

Sunday, February 5, 2006 at 11:00am

Superbowl Sunday
ROBERT J.S. ROSS:
"Slaves to Fashion: The Sweatshop-Sportswear Connection"

at Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St. (Copley Square)
www.commchurch.org


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Robert Ross is professor of Sociology at Clark University, where he is director of the International Studies Stream and among the founders of the program in Urban Development & Social Change. Since the 1980s he has worked on the political economy of urban development and analysis of global capitalism. He still writes occasionally on the social movements of the 1960s, in which he played a role.

In 1995, Prof. Ross began to study the resurgence of sweatshops in the U.S. and global apparel industry, and he has lectured extensively on the issue. His work on this has been published in The Nation, Foreign Affairs, Dollars & Sense and a number of edited collections of research on globalization. He wrote Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004).

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SHARE THE MORNING WITH US

10:00am Social Action Committee
11:00am Sunday Speakers Forum
12:30pm Luncheon

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COMMUNITY LUNCHEON

After the Sunday Speakers Forum we share lunch with one another, prepared by Luis Alonso Guzman. We ask for and appreciate your contribution, which helps cover luncheon expenses.

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DIRECTIONS/PARKING

The Community Church is located at 565 Boylston Street in Copley Square, between Dartmouth and Clarendon Streets. Parking is available on Sunday mornings at the Back Bay Garage (entrances on Clarendon Street or St. James Ave.). We can provide a sticker to affix to your parking receipt and
you will be charged only $3 until 1:30pm.

By public transportation, take the Green line to Copley or take the Orange line to Back Bay station. Community Church is a 2-4 minute walk from either station.

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A PEACE AND JUSTICE CONGREGATION SINCE 1920

The Community Church of Boston is a free community of human beings united for the study and practice of universal religion, seeking to apply ethical ideals to individual life and the democratic and cooperative principle to all forms of social and economic life.