Camping over the long weekend? Make s'mores -- with fair trade chocolate -- then let your s'more be counted by registering it!

Finally, I've got an enviro and people-friendly yoga mat! It's ruddy, it's pretty, and it matched a beautiful yoga bag -- made by a local company in Venice, Calif., called Kismet that rescues vintage saris and recycles them into gorgeous products, made under fair trade conditions by women in rural India.

Hello World Fair Trade Day! Yes, today, May 10, is World Fair Trade Day. And I hope you're reading this before noon (or 3 pm on the east coast) because that's when the World's Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break happens.

Put it in your calendars: May 10, 2008 is World Fair Trade Day! Actually, put May 3 - 18 in your calendar, because this year, fair trade gets a 2-week celebration, aka the U.S. Fair Trade Fortnight.

Was your Valentine's Day sweeter this year with fair trade chocolates?!

I'd like to think fair trade chocolates are getting more kids engaged with the fair trade movement while they're still quite young. But by and large, many fair trade activists seem to enter the movement later on, when they get to their college campuses. Now, fair trade organizations and companies are working hard to get kids into fair trade at a younger age.

Chai drinking chocoholics: The Valentine's Day treat you've been waiting for's officially arrived. Yes, I already told you where the fair trade chocolate and flower deals are this Valentine's Day -- but here's one more sweet deal to enjoy: Organic, fair trade SLO Chai Chocolate!

Does Ugly Betty heart candy wrapper purses? From my laptop, it looked like the bag Betty was toting in the last episode looked a lot like an eco-friendly bag made from candy wrappers.

Opting for fair trade chocolate's easier than ever, with Whole Foods and many other stores offering these eco-ethical sweets. Convincing others to choose fair trade can be tougher -- but don't despair! Fair trade organizations and companies have made becoming a fair trade activist simple this year.

Valentines Day -- aka chocolate day -- is coming up. And while I'm all about yummy chocolates, I'm peeved that a lot of the choco in the US could still be tainted by illegal child labor. Yes, US children's favorite candy's also the bane of children growing up in the Ivory Coast, who get sold into slave-like labor and toil in the fields to produce the sweet stuff.

Conferences happening near the beginning of the year are always bad news for me, a SoCal person. Wherever they're held, chances are, I'm leaving the mild SoCal weather for somewhere cold! After a FREEZING time in Chicago for the 2005 United Students for Fair Trade convergence, I suffered through a less freezing but still extremely cold 2006 convergence in Denver. Last year, I just couldn't bear another cold winter weekend, and didn't make it to the Boston event....

If you love adventure travel, becoming a fair trade coffee buyer seems like THE way to combine business and pleasure. After all, coffee's grown in the far reaches of many different continents -- and getting to some of these places can require jumping through some serious hoops -- rafting a truck down a river, bumping down an unpaved road, and even going on a long hike chewing coca leaves.