Coming in two days...

Since last year, I have become more and more interested in Fair Trade products...what they are, what that means, and where our food really comes from.  I'll confess, I didn't know that much about what it meant other than from what I had read on the backs of food labels in the grocery.

After reading some great articles like this one by Tsh at The Art of Simple, I started hearing more about the fact that some of the products on our shelves are not sourced ethically, some even using child or slave labor.

One of my favorite bloggers, Rachel Held-Evans wrote this book, and while reading it, I heard how Rachel and her husband did a fair trade month at their house, specifically focusing on chocolate and coffee.  That really inspired me to try something similar in order to become more educated.

Then, my midwife, in counseling me about nutrition, challenged Landon and I to buy higher quality chocolate and mentioned ethically sourced/fair trade as great options, and advised us to do a little research on our own.

So, for the month of February, Landon and I have decided to only buy ethically sourced fair trade cocoa powder, chocolate candy, and coffee.  It's more like a challenge for us to become educated, as we don't know a whole lot about this world.  We'll probably start somewhere like Whole Foods or Earth Fare and hit the internet if we can't find anything we like or fits these categories.

We are starting very small...only a couple products, but I think given the fact we love chocolate and coffee, these will be great items to start with and see where it takes us.

Also, as a disclaimer, the fair trade part will apply only to products we buy for our pantry, like cocoa powder or cookie dough with chocolate chips for instance, or candy for Valentine's Day.  I realize it would be difficult for us to apply this if we chose to go out to eat or support our favorite local cupcakery as we aren't sure of their cocoa or coffee sources.  But, I think this project will be a good starting point for us to get us thinking and help us become more intentional about the things we purchase.

Finally, if any of you have done something like this and have a lot of resources for me to check out, please send them my way!  And, if you want to join along with us in some way or another, please feel free and let me know what you are going to be doing as I would love to hear.