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« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
December 30, 2005
December 29, 2005
Starbucks Bucks Fair Trade Pledges
Starbucks is ubiquitous. It is, for example, the only national chain allowed in downtown Ashland. Quite an accomplishment. I stop at Starbucks, have relatives who are regular customers, who work at Starbucks and others who are close to Starbucks executives. Starbucks has a good reputation, treats employees relatively well and alleges Fair Trade practices on their web site. They say in part: Starbucks sells Fair Trade Certified coffee around the world.Starbucks is the only company certified to sell Fair Trade coffee in 21 countries...
Fair Trade Certified coffee is one part of a larger effort by Starbucks to be socially responsible in our relationships with coffee farmers and communities
Fair Trade certification is limited to small-scale farmers organized in cooperatives, and currently represents less than 3% of the world’s coffee farmers. Because of our size and quality requirements, Starbucks buys coffee from small, medium, and large scale farms. We pay premium prices for all coffee. We use coffee purchasing guidelines, called C.A.F.E. Practices, which give preference to farmers who score high in measurements of economic fairness, socially responsible working conditions, and progressive environmental practices. Updated 5/27/04
The Organic Consumers Association, however, makes this claim: ... “Unfortunately the supply of fair trade far outstrips the demand. Of the 170 million pounds of fair trade coffee produced globally only 35 million pounds are sold on the fair trade market. Coffee companies need to aggressively promote fair trade coffee.”
OCA, a very active organization (worth adding to your donation list) is running an ongoing campaign to encourage Starbucks to do more. OCA alleges that, "Despite repeated pledges, Starbucks is still loading up its coffee drinks with rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone)-tainted milk, and buying coffee and chocolate produced under exploitative labor conditions, and in the case of cocoa plantations in Africa, workers who are actually slaves."
The issue seems unclear. But something is going on. Google “Starbuck Fair Trade” for news and you will find a rash of articles locally and nationally about Fair Trade coffee and Starbucks in Nov/Dec of ‘05 . OCA and others seem to believe that Starbucks, the industry leader, can move faster. The OCA comment about rBGH is disturbing. Unfortunately, when I try to check out the Starbucks Fact Sheet an update on the issues, I get “file not found.” But, better order the soy latte until we get the Fair Trade thing and the ingredients sorted out.
December 28, 2005
December 24, 2005
December 22, 2005
Yo-Yo
The Best Toy Ever Made
Wikipedia begins it’s nice little write up as follows: “The yo-yo is a toy...” And in this holiday season, as Toys-R-Us empties itself of crapola it is worth reflecting on one of the great toy fads in history. There was a time (in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s) when the yo-yo was ubiquitous. Every boy, and some girls, aged ten through twelve carried one in their pocket. When I was quite a small boy my dad was an F.W. Woolworth manager. Woolworth sold Duncan Yo-Yos. Duncan was a company that was purchased from a Filipino guy named Pedro Flores who started making yo-yos in 1929. I guess that’s why there were so many Filipino yo-yo experts. Woolworth would often have these small Filipino men demonstrating yo-yos and one of them gave my dad a tiny, 14ct gold yo-yo that I lusted after. It even had a string. Later, in the forties and fifties, yo-yo companies sent reps around to school. I recall a man appearing during recess wearing a sports jacket. Today, he’d be run off the playground as a suspected child molester. But, in those days we all gathered round as he took a yo-yo from his jacket and began to do marvelous tricks, sleeping the yo-yo, walking the dog, rocking the cradle and looping the loop. We were awestruck and he invited us to come to a local store after school where he would teach us those tricks and many more. We showed up, a small, intense group determined to master this simple toy. This guy was not from Duncan. He was from the Cheerio Company, a Canadian outfit that, in the forties, tried its luck against the Duncan juggernaut in the U.S. My first yo-yo was a Cheerio. I had a knack for the yo-yo and spent hours practicing, earned my nine trick award, got a patch for my sweater and a bigger one for winning the district contest. 
Then I entered our school’s competition which was run by Duncan. They wouldn’t let me play my Cheerio so I borrowed a Duncan and won that one too. But then we moved and yo-yos weren’t so popular in the next place and my yo-yoing skills went into hiatus. It’s been fifty plus years since that first contest but I still own yo-yos (now they are expensive Tom Kuhn models) and I can still do enough tricks to impress a school kid. My weakness was that I was one-handed. A good yo-yo man is ambidextrous and can work two yo-yos at once. The internet, as usual, is an amazing resource for information on yo-yos. Dave's Incredible Yo-Yo Gallery is a good place to start. One of my best internet yo-yo finds is a reminiscence by detective fiction superstar James Lee Burke called "Why Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine."
Burke, I’m happy to report, was a Cheerio guy, too. (Cheerio was a superior yo-yo). I just learned that the National Yo-Yo Museum is in Chico. I’ll be checking it out sometime soon. But, in the meantime, if you want a good toy to play with...
December 21, 2005
December 20, 2005
Kick Ass Adze
They say it’s all in the tools. If you have a notion to carve in wood I recommend a couple of suppliers who make high quality carving tools.
Both are located on islands in the San Juans. One on Lopez, the other on secretive Waldron Island. On Waldron is the Northbay Forge Check it out and enter the word of bent knifes, drawknives and scorps, wonderfully sharp tools that allow you to carve the hardest wood. The Northbay Forge site has some video to show you how to use them. They are very sharp. Opening the package wearing heavy leather gloves I sliced through the glove and my thumb. But, used properly, there is little danger of injuring yourself. The photo is of a tiki kind of thing made from maple. Maple is very hard wood and this was done with a large and small curve blade and a straight knife. Kestrel Tools makes great adzes These babies are quite expensive. But, if you buy them unassembled there is a huge discount. The problem is you have to then carve the haft to the proper shape and tie the adze blade to the haft with seine twine. I don’t know what seine twine is. I guess they use it to repair nets. Seine twine is very strong and tough and winding it around the blade properly took a couple of tries. 
You can really waste some wood with a sharp adze as one can see from the pile of chips. Amazingly, the tool is quite accurate once you get the hang of it and can be used to almost carve something like this boat. 