Me to We will take you through a day in the life of a socially conscious Canadian.
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Morning | Living Me To We
Morning
WAKE
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MORNING
Wake Me Up
7:05 a.m.
Java Jolt
Make Your Cuppa Count
DOES A CUP OF FAIR-TRADE COFFEE taste better than the conventional stuff? In a taste-test showdown, we bet only the finest coffee connoisseurs can tell. But it's where your espresso comes from that could leave a bad taste in your mouth.At the beginning of the coffee-picking season in Ecuador — one of the biggest coffee exporters in the world — we drove along a dirt road edged by plantations. We pulled over to take a look at the coffee cherries hanging from the trees and caught sight of a group of pickers. There were whole families of transient workers, dragging with them the day’s harvest in brown burlap sacks. Some were kids, not even taller than the sacks that hung from their necks. As we chatted, a truck pulled up and a farmhand called out for the workers to take their bags to the weighing station where the day's wages were paid out based on bulk. A picker muttered that the scale was crooked. The farmhand yelled back that the pickers were the thieves, tipping the scales with metal hidden in the bags. As a blistering sun beat down and the argument heated up, we looked on, understanding only the worried looks on every face.Later, we visited a fair-trade cooperative of family-owned farms. There were no kids running around. One farmer proudly told us they were in school. That evening, we sat with other co-op members, sipping the fruits of their labour. A feeling of excitement filled the air as they discussed buying new books for the school and a water cistern with their fair wages. Here, the future wasn't something to be feared. It was embraced.In the Canadian cafés where we grab our skim lattes or double grandes, those scenes feel far away from us, especially with the music and conversation and coffee percolating in the background. The hot drink in our hands comes to us with a dark track record; coffee beans are the second most traded product in the world after oil. It's impossible to ask for fair trade at the gas station, so instead we can take advantage of what's on offer behind many local coffee counters. It always keeps us connected to the farmers down south.
A GOOD BREWIf you're often forgetting your flower-decaled thermos on your desk, buy a few and keep them at key coffee-fetching points throughout your day: in your car, at your desk and in your backpack.Keep a bag of fair-trade beans at your desk so you can make your own fair-trade brew cheaply whenever you can.Share the wealth: buy a bag of fair-trade beans for a co-worker, friend or family member.Ask for fair-trade wherever you can: choose fair-trade chocolate, sugar, flowers, honey, gold, rice, spices, herbs, tea and bananas.Buy fair-trade chocolate for Easter, Christmas, Hannukah or Halloween.Buy a fair-trade soccer ball for a child's birthday.
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Living Me To We | Morning
MORNING
Wake Me Up
7:05 a.m.
WHAT YOUR CAFFEINE FIX COSTS
GO TO PAGE 152 FOR MORE TIPS AND INFORMATION
Source: 2005 Study, Coffee Association of Canada, adjusted for higher coffee prices.
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Morning | Living Me To We
MORNING
Wake Me Up
7:10 a.m.
FlushedAway
Conserve Water
WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD do people flood their backyards every winter day to make a hockey rink? We’re a nation of water wasters, but our hockey-loving habits can be eco-friendly, too. When we visited a reserve in Manitoba, we saw the difference in living. In many such communities, people live precariously boiling water or drinking bottled H20. Some said the tap water was too dirty even to bathe in. We think of Canada as a world-class country, but half a million Aboriginal Canadians go without access to safe water.Now compare that to the rest of the country, which uses an astonishing amount of water (an estimated 343 litres per day on average) all available with the easy turn of a tap. Only Americans use more water. We use and abuse most of this water in our bathrooms. There is nothing like a hot, relaxing bath on a cold winter morning, and afternoon and evening and … you get the point. We love baths and showers. In fact, over 65 percent of the water used at home is sucked down the bathroom drain.We’ve tried to cut our watery ways by speeding up the sudsy soak. But there are better ways to reduce than jumping out with soap still behind our ears. Older toilet models can use as much as 20 litres per flush – approximately the size of a water cooler jug! Ditch that H20 guzzler for a new and improved edition (some flush close to half a litre of water), which most provinces and municipalities will cover up to $150. That beloved shower streams 15 to 20 litres a minute straight down the drain. A low-flow showerhead halves that amount with no noticeable difference in water pressure. Some models come with an easy shut-off button for sudsing. Knowing that you’re not wasting water in the washroom? Now that’s relaxing…
WATER WISEGARDEN:Plant indigenous plants that need no watering.Make sure to water your lawn at dawn or dusk; the yard will evaporate less water and stay moist longer.Avoid overwatering: a typical lawn requires only one water every four to five days.KITCHEN:As if you needed another reason to load up the ol’ washer and call it a day, now studies say we conserve more water with a dishwasher than handwashing.Promise to never throw away water; pour leftover water on plants instead.Keep your drinking water cold in the fridge, rather than running the faucet until it’s cold.Thaw frozen food overnight, rather than running under hot water.BATHROOM:Turn off the tap while brushing teeth.Troubleshoot your tank. Put a few drops of food colouring in the tank, wait a minute and see if the colour seeps into the bowl. If so, you’ve sprung a leak, matey!Place a 2-litre bottle in your tank to displace the water, making sure it doesn’t interfere with the pulleys and traps of the tank.
MORNING
Wake Me Up
7:10 a.m.
WHERE THE H20 GOES
Indoor Water Use
GO TO PAGE 152 FOR MORE TIPS AND INFORMATION
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