Welcome!
The Ethical Purchasing Forum is a space for ongoing dialogue and collaboration, designed to bring together active citizens to explore trade issues and expand ethical trade in the Victoria region.
Below you'll find postings on ethical purchasing initiatives, events and discussions as well as news articles about Fair Trade and Ethical Purchasing. Articles are found through a daily scan of all Canadian news media online. Please note that the news postings on this site do not necessarily represent the views of the Ethical Purchasing Forum, rather they are meant as a survey of the mainstream and other online media's reporting on Fair Trade, ethical trade, ethical consumption and related issues.
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You are welcome to post your own ideas and announcements towards these goals right here on the Forum website. To register as an Ethical Purchasing Forum website-author, email your preferred nickname, first and last name, and email to solbcics@uvic.ca and you will be sent a password and instructions on making posts. Or simply click "add comment" at the bottom of each post. |
By: Nick Martin
Published by the Winnipeg Free Press
Jobs for dozens of inner-city residents, environmentally friendly local food and a renowned chef — all coming soon to the University of Winnipeg campus.The university’s Community Renewal Corporation will announce details today of a deal with SEED Winnipeg to create Diversity Food Services. It will provide all food services on campus, including all three cafeterias, the food plan for the new student residence and catering.
SEED Winnipeg is a non-profit agency working to overcome poverty in the inner city.
It expects the new campus food plan will employ 25 people, including immigrants and aboriginals, to provide all food services on campus. (more…)
June 15th, 2009
| Category: Ethical Trading Initiatives, National, View all posts
Published online for KBS Radio
Sun, 2009-05-10 09:25
An idea that came to life at a Nakusp Secondary School Sustainability Club Meeting, is now a reality. Nakusp has now been designated as the first Fair Trade Town in BC. The quest to become a Fair Trade Community began 6 month ago and was accomplished by NSS Student Alyshia Gustofson.
Gustofson says once everyone was informed and on board, she had to send an application to register for fair trade status. She added that now that they have received the status one of the requirements to form a steering group focused on making sure the town stays committed the the project and to create new initiatives in the community.
Erin Miller KBS News
May 13th, 2009
| Category: Ethical Purchasing in the News, Ethical Trading Initiatives, Local
Nov 22, 2008 10:00am - 4:00pm
Location: First Metropolitan United Church Hall (932 Balmoral Road)
Be a conscious consumer this holiday at VIDEA’s Fair Trade Fair!
Admission by donation with several door prizes.
Arts & Crafts, Coffee & Chocolate,
Toys & Gifts.
Hot food & beverages, music and more!
NEW ADDITION!
Get inspired by Stacey Toews of Level Ground Trading talking about ethical purchasing and the importance of supporting fair trade.
This exciting and informative workshop will run from 2-3pm!
Space for the workshop is limited, so confirm your seat by contacting Michelle at mspencer@videa.ca
November 12th, 2008
| Category: Conferences and Events, Ethical Trading Initiatives, Local
Looking for Ethical clothing, food, cosmetics, home reno products, etc, etc, etc. Then check out this link to the Organic Islands Green Directory. I just noticed their directory in my search for organic face paints. I still haven’t found face paints, but I found a lot of other local organic, fair trade and other products. And ps. If you know where I can find organic face paints, please let me know!
From the Organic Islands Website:
“Divided into categorical listings for easy searching, the Organic Islands Green Directory online helps you find out about the local green community. Please contact us about picking up your copy of the 2007 print edition.
Over 150 local businesses, farms and community groups involved in helping to create a sustainable, organic future on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are listed in the directory. Discover green businesses, co-op start ups, and social change advocates. (more…)
October 27th, 2008
| Category: Conferences and Events, Ethical Trading Initiatives, Local, Locally active organizations
The Victoria Good Food Box Program is looking for a new co-ordinator.
The appropriate person will be an energetic and dynamic individual with concerns around food security, community
and poverty issues. The person should be able to work well independently and have a driver’s license and their own vehicle (although perhaps some creativity and excellent volunteer coordination skills can allow for some exception).
The position would be starting this September and be ongoing with room for growth if more funding is secured. (more…)
August 26th, 2008
| Category: Locally active organizations
If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the new blog from Equal Exchange called Small Farmers Big Change. Equal Exchange specifically works with small farmer co-operatives in their efforts to build a better food system through Fair Trade.
July 24th, 2008
| Category: View all posts
Here’s an ethical consumption initiative that might work really well on the west coast.
“Sustainable Ottawa was initiated by local citizens interested and concerned about the environment. The formation of Sustainable Ottawa is a response to collective environmental concerns, and questions about access to sustainable technologies that reduce an individual’s environmental footprint. Sustainable Ottawa exists as a buyer’s Co-Operative that provides its membership with lower prices for goods and services by organizing bulk purchases and installations of small to medium scale sustainable technologies. Sustainable Ottawa also strives to build capacity in the National Capital Region by generating interest and knowledge for both the public and local businesses.” Check out their website.
July 9th, 2008
| Category: Ethical Trading Initiatives, National
I just came across the website for this organization that helps start up green worker co-ops in the South Bronx and had to post it here. I love their slogan: “Creating “green collar” jobs and worker owernship in the South Bronx…because your work shouldn’t kill you, your community, or the earth.”
Check them out:
GREEN WORKER COOPERATIVES is a South Bronx-based organization dedicated to incubating worker-owned and environmentally friendly cooperatives in the South Bronx. Our approach is a response to high unemployment and decades of environmental racism. We don’t have the luxury to wait for new alternatives. That’s why we’re creating them. We believe that in order to address our environmental and economic problems we need new ways to earn a living that don’t require polluting the earth or exploiting human labor.
July 9th, 2008
| Category: Ethical Trading Initiatives, International
Eve Savory CBC News
Published: Monday, July 7, 2008
A serious ethical eater in Canada can choose fair trade chocolate, songbird-nurturing coffee, SPCA-approved eggs. But those juicy prawns and tender shrimp - were mangroves destroyed to grow them in fetid pools that poisoned the local waters? That “Chilean sea bass” — did it arrive from the world’s only, and very small, certified sustainable fishery, or did pirates scoop up the last juveniles, ensuring the species extinction? Is that Atlantic halibut (fished to the brink) or Pacific (sustainable)?
Taras Grescoe wants you to ask.
“For me, choosing fish ignorantly is no longer an option,” writes the author of Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood (HarperCollins 2008).
Fourteen years ago, Grescoe, an award-winning food and travel writer, cut factory farms and growth hormones out of his diet by eliminating meat and poultry. But stories of mercury and dioxins in fish began to appear. Dolphins were drowning in tuna nets. Swordfish and other big fish were disappearing.
Realizing that we could be the last generation to enjoy fresh, wild-caught fish (the only wild animal most of us will ever eat, he points out), and determined to find a way to keep it in his diet — ethically — he decided to educate himself. (more…)
July 8th, 2008
| Category: Ethical Purchasing in the News, View all posts
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