THE FAITHFUL CONSUMER February 07
…connecting faith and the environment
By Sarah Streed
This month’s column has a very obvious “hook,” as we say in the newspaper business—Valentine’s Day on February 14. What does a faithful consumer do for Valentine’s Day? I did some research and discovered a bitter truth about the mainstay of this holiday: Chances are good that a child slave took part in producing that chocolate you and I will buy to give to the people we love. An estimated 200,000 children in the Ivory Coast are kidnapped or forced to work against their will on cocoa farms. Since the Ivory Coast grows 40 to 50 percent of the world’s cocoa, you and I can do the math and get the unpalatable sum.
So what’s a faithful consumer to do? Buy fair trade chocolate. Lutheran World Relief has a very nice program where you can easily buy fair trade chocolate. (The info is below.) Since it’s getting pretty close to the 14th, you might miss it this year, but don’t add more guilt to the guilt you will surely experience after consuming all those treats on the holiday—simply get your order in on time next year.
But in order to eliminate guilt after reading next month’s column—which will cover ordering palms for Palm Sunday which you could be reading too late for the March 12 deadline—order your eco-palms now. (Also from Lutheran World Relief—see below.) You may recall from last year’s March column that more than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year for U.S. congregations alone. When fronds are cut off young wax palms, the trees die or their growth is stunted. In Columbia, where the wax palm grows to towering heights of 225 feet on the Andes Mountains and where Palm Sunday is ardently celebrated, there has been such a dramatic thinning of the trees that the yellow-eared parrot—whose sole habitat is the palm—is endangered.
Speaking of guilt: The older I get, the more I’m becoming to see that guilt isn’t godly. Guilt cripples me and prevents me from acting. Jesus’ words, “By their deeds ye shall know them” are true and we need to act out our faith. Plenty of people talk the talk but the Christians that I respect are the ones that walk the walk. With each passing year, the more I realize that all that I have—healthy family, enough money to live on, good friends, a vocation that I love—is a gift from God and has nothing to do with guilt. Grace, if you will. So this Valentine’s Day, I’m going to avoid guilt and remember grace.
February’s tip: Order fair trade chocolate and sustainable palms from Lutheran World Relief.
To order fair trade chocolate by phone: Call SERRV International at 1-888-294-9660 to place a phone order using a credit card. Mention LWRCP when you place your order. By Fax: Fax your completed LWR Chocolate Project to SERRV International at 1-888-294-6376 to pay by credit card. Be sure to include the name and address of your congregation when completing the form, and to include a complete shipping address if your order is not going to be delivered to your church! By Mail: Complete the LWR Chocolate Project mail order form to pay by check, money order or credit card. Be sure to include the name and address of your congregation when completing the form, and to include a complete shipping address if your order is not going to be delivered to your church! Or go to: http://www.lwr.org/chocolate/orderchoco.asp
To order Eco-palms by the March 12, 2007 deadline:
Small Case (200 stems) $47.50
Medium Case (300 stems) $69.00
Large Case (600 stems) $133.50Shipping:
Small case $10.00
Medium $15.00
Large $18.00If necessary they can be ordered in bunches of 20 at $6/bunch and shipping will be $8 for smaller orders. Contact RaeLynn Jones Loss at the University of Minnesota.
612-624-0734 or raelynn@umn.edu
Sarah Streed is a board member of the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate & Energy Campaign (WICEC) and runs Write Stuff Works (www.writestuffworks.com ) a writing business. She lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin with her husband and children. Email smstreed@sbcglobal.net
All rights reserved by Sarah Streed.
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