Green Cotton

While October was officially Fair Trade month, Jute and Jackfruit is continuing to celebrate the cause by hosting an upcoming event that brings together several fair trade companies to delight and inform guests in the Cambridge area. On November 9th, they will host an eco-fashion and Fair Trade event in Cambridge, MA.

Jute and Jackfruit raises awareness on the importance of organic, fair trade and sustainable issues by delivering positive, simple messages about greening and making more ethical our every day lives.

At this upcoming event in Kendall Square, Jute and Jackfruit will present their latest ethical and sustainable clothing collections (including Indigenous Designs, Kelly Lane, Feral Childe and Rebe) as well as provide participants an opportunity to learn more about what it means to be fair trade and organic. Two other fair trade companies will be present to offer their perspectives as well, including free samples of their delicious products.

The participating Fair Trade companies include Dean’s Beans and Theo Chocolate. Each will demonstrate the quality of the products, discuss the ways in which they are fair trade, how they select their farms and more. Free samples of each product will of course also be available.

Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company is a 100% Fair Trade and Organic coffee and cocoa processor and wholesale distributor in Orange, Massachusetts, USA. Since 1993, Dean’s Beans has modeled how business can be a vehicle for positive social change while being profitable at the same time. Besides paying above fair prices for all of its coffee and cocoa, Dean’s Beans works directly with the grower communities to address needed social, economic and environmental concerns prioritized by the farmers (largely made up of indigenous peoples working hard to maintain their culture and lifestyles).

Dean’s Beans provides people-centered development design and funding for the communities in such areas as education, clean water and alternative income generation. The company’s business practices have been recognized by the United Nations and the Specialty Coffee Association of America.

How does Dean’s Beans make the difference?

Dean’s Beans promotes local empowerment and self-reliance through their Fair Trade purchases and their work with local grassroots development and human rights groups. The company also sponsors projects here at home with disenfranchised communities such as Native Americans, the homeless and disabled, and many other groups trying to improve their lives and that of their communities. Every cup you drink and every pound you buy contributes directly to the welfare of coffee growers and consumers.

Each player in the cycle of production and distribution, from the farmer to the consumer, participates in socially just and environmentally responsible trade. Each coffee batch they roast also comes from a unique place and society. For example, Dean’s Beans offers the first certified Organic Fair Trade coffee from Brazil. The grower’s cooperative, Association of Small Producers of Poco Fundo, is an amazing, dynamic group of farmers that has been working since 1985 to gain international accreditation for their work in organics and to be accepted on the fair trade registry. The group’s mission is to improve the social, economic and ecological conditions of the families of Poco Fundo, a small municipality of 15,000 people, located in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais. This has required an amazing commitment of time, energy and money on the farmer’s part.

Moreover, Dean’s Beans is thankful for being a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, the first roaster’s cooperative created to buy direct, Fair Trade coffee from farmer coops, and make it available to any small roaster who wants to participate in the Fair Trade movement. They are also active members of the Fair Trade Federation, an international organization of dedicated Fair Traders.

Located in Seattle, Washington, Theo Chocolate Company is the first and currently the only organic, Fair Trade Certified roaster of cacao in the United States, sourcing cacao from small farmers in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Ghana, Madagascar, Venezuela, and the Ivory Coast. Theo’s small team is guided by a passion for chocolate, care for the environment, and dedication to enriching the lives of everyone involved, including cacao farmers and chocolate lovers.

The founder, Joseph Whinney, pioneered the supply of organic cocoa beans into the United States in 1994.
As true chocolate makers, Theo Chocolate takes carefully selected cacao from bean to bar in their own factory, roasting, blending and conching to coax out the distinctive flavor imparted by each growing region. The result is superb artisinally made chocolate with real integrity. Whether you enjoy the 3400 Phinney line of chocolate bars, each “kicked up” with something extra, or prefer the pure cacao interpretations of single-origin and blended Theo chocolate bars, you’ll surely find a very enjoyable tasting experience.

In addition to being ethically-driven, all-natural, and public-friendly, Theo’s offers deliciously inventive chocolate. Classic flavors include orange, mint, cherry-almond, and chili; whereas Theo’s fantasy flavors include Coconut Curry , Coffee and Vanilla, Nib Brittle and Fig Fennel Almond. There’s also the 3400 Phinney Bar (named after the factory address in Fremont), which is milk chocolate liquor mixed with toasted and salted bread bits sourced from a local bakery.

Jute and Jackfruit will be showcasing their fair trade and organic Indigenous Designs collection as well as elements of their Kelly Lane and feral childe collections at the event. All clothing is made from organic and sustainable fabrics, handcrafted, and ethically made. They will also present several of their recycled handbag collections such as Escama Studios, recycled soda pull tab bags and recycled candy wrapper bags.

If you would like to join in on this event in Cambridge, MA email customerservice[at]juteandjackfruit.com to get on the guest list. The event is free. For more information you may also call 781-859-5232

“Proud Mary” was born in 2006 in the heads of two young women who met in Brooklyn as a vision of fair trade, chic fashin. Molly was trying to find a way to utilize her liberal arts education and Harper wanted to see her fair trade and fashion ideas come to fruition.

The women soon found a way to reach both these goals by working alongside different artisan cooperatives on a trip to  Guatemala. The goods produced are designed as a collaboration between the two Brooklynites and artisans in Guatemala. This has resulted in products that are both modern, eco-chic, and high quality with just enough touches of traditional weaving patterns to make them feel truly Guatemalan, an aesthetic Proud Mary refers to as “Ethnic Modern.”

Proud Mary sells three product lines called “Diamante,” “Raya,” and “El Sol.” Through all their partnerships, Proud Mary ensures workers receive double the average compensation for consistent work, and have been able to connect a number of artisans to the micro-finance loan group, Nest.

Diamente is an artisan group based in Guatemala City who are known as the most accomplished foot loom weavers, and who have pioneered many types of brocade weaving.

This wonderful tote with gold straps in the “Diamante” style uses traditional Latin American designs.  Woven on a foot-loom. Available at Proud Mary.

Raya are a group of Cakchiquel-speaking Mayans living in the San Antonio Palopo region of Guatemala. They use traditional weaving techniques over a thousand years old to create belts, hair bands, and friendship bracelets on narrow looms called “telar de palitos,” as well as backstrap looms.

El Sol uses ikat fabric crafted by a master weaver from Totonicapan. This process involves a special dying technique, and then placing the fabric in the warp of a loom to produce unique patterns and images.

This pillow illustrates the design used for all products in the “El Sol” collection, a pattern created as a mistake originally but which has become highly demanded.  Find this and more from the El Sol collection on Proud Mary’s website.

Green Cotton applauds the goals and accomplishments of Proud Mary and we hope to see even more in the future. Check out their collections on their website.

Now that the weather is warming up, now matter where you are you are likely spending a bit more time outdoors. Hopefully that means more time on your bike as well. For those of you in the Cambridge/ Boston area, the Alewife Bicycle parking lot is filling up and cyclists are beginning to crow the bike path (good cause for celebration indeed).

When it comes to fashion and cycling however, the trends mostly congregate around the advanced cyclists with high tech gear, but for the daily commuter or grocery shopper, little seems to hit the market.

That is until Detours came out with its recycled juice box pannier. Recycled candy wrapper and juice box handbags are hot this year, and the majority of which not only have a great environmental story but also are handmade and also have a positive social impact as well.

Check out Detours Toocan juice box pannier and you will be sure to draw a crowd on your commute or errand, not only admiring your cutting edge pannier but also hopefully to inspiring other would-be-cyclists to get on their bikes and grocery shop the cool way. I could not find this bag on the Detours website but I did find it on gearapalooza. I’ve been using a Detours Toocan for many months now for grocery shopping and just love it. The design is incredibly simple, sturdy, functional and stylish. Let me know if you have other panniers you like out there.