You might have noticed the rise in green in people’s wardrobe today. Why all the green? It’s St. Patrick’s Day of course. Well, over at Global Exchange we know that not only are people wearing some green, but they are also trying to save some green. What better way to help you save some green, while also buying some green, sustainable and Fair Trade products than by offering you a $10 saving on your next purchase at our Online Store.

If you shop during St. Patrick’s Day (and today only) we have a special promotion going on offering you $10 OFF for any purchase over $50. You’re in luck because it’s so simple. All you have to do it enter the coupon code stpatday09 during checkout to receive the discount.

Save some Green today for St. Patrick’s Day.


Just received a message from our San Francisco Global Exchange Store.

If you’re in San Francisco on St. Patrick’s Day, visit the Global Exchange Store in Noe Valley to pick up copies of “Building the Green Economy” and “The Greenfestival Reader” for only $5 (originally $15.95-$16.95).

“Building the Green Economy” by Kevin Danaher (GX co-founder), Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark is a great read about success stories from small grassroots orgnaizations and movements that are working on building great and greener communitites. Learn how individuals, families and communitiy groups have organized around protecting their food and water, cleaning up their neighborhoods, and strengthening their local economies.

“The Greenfestival Reader” edited by Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz is an accessible guide to the ideas presented at Global Exchange’s and Green America’s Green Festivals. Green Festivals happen throughout the year in select cities and have become known to many as “a party with a purpose.” In this book get a look at what the movers and shakers in the green community are doing and saying.

New Hours for SF Store:
Sunday-Monday 11am-6pm
Tuesday-Friday 11am-7pm
Saturday 10am-7pm

I’m sure you’ve heard that Ralph the Fair Trade doll was recently fired. His story has been showing up around the internets and people are starting to see Recession Ralph around town. How is Ralph dealing with the current economy? Let’s check it out…

Ralph is still getting dizzy browsing those Craigslists ads.

Ack. In need of some dinero. Time to break into the piggie bank.

Looking for a break from the recession blues, Ralph visited his friends at a dinner party and cheered up immediately. He couldn’t bring a dish so he offered to help with the dishes. Aw, Ralph. What a…doll. 🙂

Have you seen Ralph around town? Be sure to snap a pic of him and send him over to us and we will post it on the blog and the best photo will be entered in the Recession Ralph photo contest to win a lovely Fair Trade prize. Send photos to storemaster@globalexchange.org with “Recession Ralph Photo” in the subject line.

Stay tuned for more Ralph adventures…


TransFair recently announced an expanded list of Fair Trade Certified products. As you may know, TransFair USA is the only third party Certifier of Fair Trade products in the US. Fair Trade is a label that guarantees to consumers that certain criteria have been met, including a minimum price paid to farmers and environmentally sustainable farming methods were used.

“Since we launched Fair Trade Certified here in the States 10 years ago, we’ve taken a cautious approach, focusing on building distribution and consumer interest in each certified product before launching a new one,” said Paul Rice, chief executive of TransFair USA. “Now, with public awareness of Fair Trade Certified high, the time is right for us to allow U.S. consumers access to more Fair Trade Certified products and extend the benefits of Certification to more farmers.”

Once known for its coffee and chocolate Certification, the list of Certified Fair Trade products in the US has expanded to include some fresh vegetables (including peppers and new potatoes), fruit juices (including apple…yeaah!) and nuts (can you say yum?). To see the complete list of products now being Certified by TransFair USA, check out their website.

In honor of International Women’s Day coming up on the 8th, we are featuring a few of the women artisan groups that we work with at Global Exchange. Women make up a large part of the artisans involved in the Fair Trade world and largely benefit from the positive impacts that Fair Trade brings. When trying to figure out which groups to feature, we had a lot to choose from so it was hard to decide.

So, to narrow it down, we picked an item that has been catching our eye lately. A GX store staffer has been waiting for a birthday to come up so she can give someone this Saori wallet. These wallets are a product of the Saori Group, a project started by Mitsuo Kawestco, the founder of the Buddhist Maya Kotamee Foundation. The project came about in the aftermath of the tsunami that rocked Thailand in December 2004 in hopes to help survivors who saw their lives devastated by the tragic event. The Saori Group has sought to be a healing environment for the victims helping the cope through providing an atmosphere where they can pick up where the tsunami left off and reconnect with their communities.

The Saori Group has helped over 150 women since its inception. The women come together to craft wonderfully colorful crafts out of leftover material ranging from thread from fabric manufacturers to scraps of plastic. With this leftover material, they are able to weave and bring life to new crafts. It is somewhat symbolic of their lives where they are picking up pieces from the past and giving it a new path. The women of the Saori Project have been empowered because they are able to provide an new life for themselves and start anew.

[photo: www.tshirtaxid.blogspot.com]


International Women’s Day is coming up on March 8th. Being a business run by a small group of women (in quantity and in height) promoting Fair Trade, which benefits women artisans worldwide, International Women’s Day is a big one for us.

So, in honor of this special day, we will be highlighting the different stories of the Fair Trade women’s cooperatives that we work with that have seen Fair Trade give them more equality, empowerment and a better life for them and their families.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out our selection of products made by these women artisans in our International Women’s Day section.

Ralph the Fair Trade doll has been hanging around the office alot lately and quite enjoying his internet fame ever since he lost his job. We’re trying to keep him grounded and not let it all get to his head, but we just wanted to point out one place in particular that Ralph was happy to be featured on. A new site in town called, Fair Trade Kids spotted Ralph’s video and are currently featuring him on their website. Thanks Fair Trade Kids!

Fair Trade Kids has a really cool goal to,

review and recommend stores, websites and toys that [they] believe are good
for our children, good for our environment and good with the people that
makes them.

Besides the reviews and recommendations, Fair Trade Kids have a fair trade project supporting Peruvian artisans. Check them out and read up on their selected items. Seems like a really great resource out there for parents out there. As Fair Trade Kids puts it, through play and toys, kids learn about the world surrounding them not just by the wonderful stories they create, but also from knowing more about the actual products that are helping them expand their imagination.

We believe that those toys should embody what is important to us. If
every toy is not only educational but also supports fairness in trade and ethics
in their making; if it tells us about different lands a people, if it shares
values of love, honesty, hard work and courage, then is not only a toy, it is a
piece that represents what we stand for.

[photo from Fair Trade Kids]

After putting up the last post about this year’s
National Valentine’s Day of Action, our Fair Trade campaign department sent over a photo from a participant.

Here’s a photo of the bulletin board outside my social studies classroom at Kellogg School in Falls Village, CT

– Amy Lake

Thanks Amy and everyone at Kellogg School for sending this along and participating. It’s great to see the Fair Trade message being spread along.


Just checked in with our Global Exchange Fair Trade Cocoa campaign and they tell us that the 2nd National Valentine’s Day of Action was a complete success. Last year, educators nationwide educated nearly 2,000 kids about Fair Trade through our National Valentine’s Day of Action. Through this action, educators used Global Exchange’s Fair Trade curriculum to teach kids about the injustices in the cocoa industry and informed them how to be socially conscious consumers by supporting Fair Trade.

Since last year we reached 2,000 kids in the classroom, we had a goal of reaching 3,000 kids and lo and behold that number was surpassed and educators used Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Curriculum to teach over 3,000 kids across 32 states. Hurray for Fair Trade!

Are you an educator and missed the National Valentine’s Day of Action this year? Teaching kids about Fair Trade isn’t limited to Valentine’s Day. Check out the curriculum today and incorporate Fair Trade into your lesson plans all year round.


How excited were we when we found out that Oprah showed us some love this Valentine season? SooOOoo excited.

Our Online Store was listed as the place to find Organic and Fair Trade goodies in O Magazine and on Oprah.com. Given the sluggish economy, getting this ‘knod’ from Oprah was certainly a welcomed boost for us. We are especially happy to see Fair Trade making it into the mainstream, especially this time of year when consumers purchase massive amounts of chocolate. Yay Oprah! Now we just gotta wait for that O Effect!

You can find these Dark Chocolate Mini Boxes at the Online Store along with the rest of our Valentine’s Day items, including the Milk Chocolate version of the Heart box called our Heart of Gold. Clever, eh?

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Don’t let your sweetie catch you without any sweets.