I would be hard pressed to end my talk about disposable coffee cups without spending a few minutes on fair trade certification. While fair trade is a relatively new idea (certification that is, not the concept of trading fairly … I hope) it is a concept that is gaining momentum and, I hope, will become a strong player in 21st century commerce.

As past pieces that I have written have pointed out, knowing the implications of your purchasing habits is extremely important and also, extremely tough to research completely. You may have thought nothing of drinking out of plastic water bottles before reading what I had learned, not because you were OK with the practices you were a part of, but because you didn’t know.

And the reason you didn’t know is not because you don’t

Last fall, the long-awaited rule requiring mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for food went into effect.

Food & Water Watch and other consumer and farming groups have been fighting for years to get this information into consumers’ hands. So can we relax now? Unfortunately, no. When the USDA wrote the rules for this labeling program, they included some massive loopholes that leave too much food exempt from the labeling requirement.

So we’ve got work to do to improve these rules. In the meantime, here’s more info about what COOL can do for you when you’re at the grocery store.

First of all, what is covered by the COOL regulations?
Seafood has been covered since 2005. Now beef, poultry, lamb, goat, some nuts (peanuts, pecans, and macadamias), fresh and

Do you love sushi but are wondering which roll you can eat in good conscience? You’re not alone. We all know our oceans have been overfished to the point of extinction for many species. Some scientists even say that in 40 years, eating fish will be a luxury reserved for the super-rich.

For those of you who are fish lovers, the best thing you can do for the moment is to order the most sustainable fish that you can. You can find a sustainable seafood guide at www.eartheasy.com. For quick reference, check out this list. These choices have taken into account the status of wild population, the fishing method, the by-catch, and the general impact on the environment.

BEST CHOICES
Anchovies
Bluefish
Calamari
Catfish (farmed)
Clams
Crab: Blue, Dungeness and King
Crawfish
Pacific halibut

I wish there was a store where everything stocked was organic, local, non-GMO, truly healthy (as opposed to so much of the not-really-that-healthy “health food” available), and fairly priced. In my fantasy store it would be so easy to shop economically–instead of scrutinizing labels and trying to determine the greenest and healthiest choice, you could really just focus on the cost of things.

Alas, I haven’t found that store yet, and shopping sometimes feels like a final exam where I’m called on to balance out the benefits of an item’s ingredients, green integrity, and production method–and then compare those factors with the other similar items, and then compute the best choice for the cost. (And of course, I’m doing this as my 7-year-old

As far as shopping bags go, the plastic versus paper dilemma is as puzzling as the one about the chicken or the egg. The truth is, the statistics on both types of bags are deeply disturbing. At first glance the alternatives seem less than convenient—-but after learning the facts and finding some easy solutions, we’re saying “neither thanks” to “paper or plastic?”

In South Africa plastic bags have been dubbed the “national flower” because so many are seen fluttering from fences and dangling in bushes—-some report that at times it looks like a snow storm. According to the National Geographic News, between 500 billion and one trillion plastic grocery bags are consumed worldwide each year. That 100,000 birds die annually from encounters