Kmart, Target, Cotton On and Big W - protect the workers making your clothes
More than 30 companies have agreed to help improve conditions for workers in Bangladesh, but Cotton On, Kmart, Target and Big W are yet to sign on to the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord. Sign Oxfam's petition and tell these retailers that you care about the people who make your clothes!
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H'mong bracelets and Fair trade
After a trip to Vietnam, guest blogger Louise Kate Anderson wondered about the do's and don'ts of ethical tourism. Should you buy that extremely cheap bracelet from the local woman with a baby on her back, or are you doing her community more harm than good?
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How foreign is our aid?
Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, but the new federal budget has revealed the government plans to continue diverting funds from overseas aid programs to pay for domestic asylum seeker processing. Where does our money go? And why are we using "foreign aid" to lock people up?
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Beer and TP (toilet paper): Ideas that change the lives of millions
Shebeen is a non-profit bar that sells beers from around the world and gives 100% of profits back to your drink's country of origin. Who Gives A Crap is a brand of toilet paper that helps provide people in developing countries with toilets and better sanitation. Simon Griffiths is the brains behind both these amazing ventures!
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The Live Below The Line Challenge: Why I am grateful for living on $2 a day
$2 does not buy much. At all. But that’s what I, along with thousands of other Australians, have been living off this last week as part of the Live Below The Line challenge.
The challenge is to eat on $2 per day for 5 days, the equivalent of the extreme poverty line. An initiative of the Oaktree Foundation, the money raised goes to various education and skills programs in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea to help break the cycle of poverty.
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Beauty without bunnies
A large number of big cosmetic brands are failing to inform customers that their products are being tested on animals in China. A recent investigation revealed that manufacturer’s websites, packaging or sales staff were often failing to inform Australian consumers that their products were being tested on animals in China, where mandatory skin and eye irritations tests are conducted on animals before products can be sold. These tests are paid for by the manufactures.
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Full of beans for Fair Trade
The coffee ritual in the West is ubiquitous which makes it terribly easy to forget where those beans came from. Unfortunately we live in such an upside-down world where many of the world’s hungry are the ones keeping our coffee addiction alive and starving for it. We know we live in a nutty world where everyday life poses enough challenges to keep us busy for a lifetime but that shouldn’t stop us from being mindful of the world’s poor and creating a better food system for everyone by supporting small-scale farmers. It’s not just your coffee cup; it’s 2.25 billion cups each year and the earth doesn’t seem pleased either.
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Three questions with Farmer Marg
Marg Alexandra is the manager of Hazeldean Forest Farm, where they’ve been farming ecologically and producing quality organic food for over 25 years. Marg and Jason Alexandra transformed the 92 acre property on the base of the Stezleckie Ranges “to create integrated biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems”, which was achieved by planting windbreaks, orchards, forests, and building a dam. Some of their produce includes walnuts, chestnuts, peaches, and 40 apple varieties. They even make their own apple cider (I am a huge fan already). Marg sells her produce direct to CERES, one or two other markets and her own farmers’ market circuit.
I asked Marg a few questions about being a small-scale farmer.
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CERES about fair food and the power of community
CERES (pronounced ‘series’) – the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies – is a not-for-profit environmental park located on 10 acres in East Brunswick, Melbourne. It has been built on land that was originally landfill (the soil is safe in case you’re wondering). CERES was established in 1981 by local residents who wanted to create social and environmental awareness and it was opened in 1982. Melissa says, “over the course of 30 years, CERES has become a vibrant community park and socially-driven organisation.” They have all different enterprises including a nursery, market, shop, café, permaculture nursery, farm (including chickens), workshops, tours, and education programs open to the public.
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Clean clothes and garment guilt
You may have read news articles about the recent factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which hundreds of garment workers died. It is important to ask: if consumers didn’t demand so much cheap clothing, would factory workers be working in such poor conditions?
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