Go LoGOFF!

So, I spent my spring break with the New York City Urban Project, where fifty college students from New York and New Jersey got together to educate ourselves about social justice issues, and to serve with a children’s camp in the South Bronx, all through our shared belief that we serve a God big enough to make wrongs right. 

That week I was introduced to LoGOFF, an initiative to buy Local, Green, Organic, Fair and slave Free products.  It’s not a company or an organization; it’s just a movement to respect the people that make the products we buy. 

Too many products that we take for granted are made through slave labor, underpaid labor, or other oppressive labor practices.  The problem is that nobody really talks about this because it feels like such a distant issue.

The fact is that due to globalization, our neighbors are really around the corner AND around the world.  We have the power to stop supporting systems that don’t respect their workers and empower the systems that recognize their workers as fellow human beings of worth.

As consumers, we have so much power.  70% of the US economy is based on consumption, so how cool would it be if we chose to support products that are made without exploitation?  This doesn’t mean everyone should start a strict regimen of only buying LoGOFF products, but it does mean that we should educate ourselves so we can empower others who we may have never considered before. 

Buying food and other products that are local and green enables that direct communication with the people that are making what we purchase.  We can ask farmers how they grow their food and how they treat the people that help them.  Buying organic products is a good way to ensure that everything that happened to make the products, even though it may not have happened locally, was ethical.  Fair and slave free ensures that no human trafficking, unpaid labor, or other injustices took place just to make the product.  

How can we begin buying Local, Green, Organic Fair and Free?

• Begin making some purchases at local farmers markets, and places such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s where there is a wide selection of LoGOFF goods.
• Give gifts that empower respectful systems of labor!  
  Great places to start:  Divine Chocolate and Equal Exchange Coffee
• Consider respecting the people that make products that go beyond groceries:  Shoes: MOO SHOES, Jewelry:  Nightlight,  Brilliant Earth, Watches: Sprout

Resources for further research include:

• http://www.fairtradeusa.org/what-is-fair-trade
• http://www.fairtrade.net/about_fairtrade.html
• http://www.fairtrade.net/standards.html
• http://www.organicconsumers.org/organlink.cfm

Ultimately, we can all educate ourselves and begin to show some love and respect for the people that make what we consume!