Thursday, October 11, 2007,3:52 PM
Green Halloween
So I find myself wondering what to do about Halloween this year. No, not the typical Christian "should I celebrate it or not?" dilemma (more on this on a couple of weeks), but more of a quandary as to what sort of candy to hand out. Unless you are an evil grinch (or a fundamentalist Christian) you give out candy at Halloween. It's the one night of the year when you are guaranteed to actually meet your neighbors as people get pulled out of the safety of their suburban fortresses by the munchkins dressed as pirates, superheros, and the cast of High School Musical. So I can't not give out candy.

But I'm facing an ethical dilemma. What do I give? I refuse to support human trafficking and child slavery by buying chocolate from one of the big name distributors. And as the buzz around the new documentary The Price of Sugar raises awareness of slave conditions inflicted on Haitians in the production of our sugar, I don't want to just go with pure sugar stuff either (and of course trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup as well). I mean, just a few days before Halloween I will be attending a fundraising banquet for relief work in Haiti, how can I then turn around and support systems that cause poverty and oppression in Haiti? It would be easier to be a hypocrite, but that's not sitting well with me. So that means I need to find fairly traded organic Halloween candy to give out this year.

So once again I set out on a quest to discover if I can engage ethically in my consumption. I go to Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Fruitful Yield. I even look at my local grocery story that just recently made a big deal about the new half aisle of organic stuff they put in. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Oh, Whole Foods had nice autumn boxes of 6 truffles for $7 and Trader Joe's carries the new chocolate larabar for $1.50 each (super yummy btw), but no bags of individually wrapped easily distributable Halloween candy. I had a bit better luck at Fruitful Yield, they at least carried candy, but not in bulk. I would have to buy each piece individually (at their insane mark-up) if I wanted candy from them. Sorry, but the budget can't handle that.

Halloween is a $2 Billion dollar a year industry for candy and the average household spends around $17 each year on the candy supply to give out. To break it down - each piece of mini brand name candy costs you between 8-13 cents and the "fun size" pieces are between 20-30 cents each. Depending on the size of your neighborhood, that adds up. Given that the cheapest stuff I found in my search was $.50, I realized that attempting to have an ethical and green Halloween could really cost me. So having no luck visiting actual stores (although on an unrelated note I discovered that Whole Foods carries Shiner beer, in Illinois - much happiness there) I turned to the ever faithful internet.

Thanks to the groundwork done by the wonderful Candy Blog and green LA girl I found what I was looking for. While there doesn't appear to be loads of options out there, there are some pretty good choices available. Apparently Global Exchange carries an entire Fair Trade Halloween Kit full of candy, decor, and info postcards. Pretty spiffy. I'm also a fan of their fair trade gold coins which will go well with the pirate theme Emma is insisting upon this year. Also available are Endangered Species Bug Bites. These mini-chocolate bars come in milk and dark chocolate varieties and are high on the yummy scale. I let Emma try one and asked if if she thought other kids would like them. She said, "no, just Emma, I eat them all." We're working on the sharing thing. Plus each piece comes with a bug trading card which I think are rather fun. If you are looking to avoid chocolate altogether, Yummy Earth carries organic lollipops and hard candy in a variety of interesting flavors (watermelon, pomegranate...). But you have to get orders in now to guarantee delivery by Halloween.

So all of this stuff sounds good to me and are things I can buy without feeling like a hypocrite. I guess the real test will be if the kids like them. But then again, if they don't, I'll at least be contributing to the ever necessary "parent's stash." So here's to a green (and ethical) Halloween. Now we shall just see how my attempts to create organic whole wheat pumpkin muffins go over...

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posted by Julie at 3:52 PM ¤ Permalink ¤


6 Comments:


  • At 10/12/2007 05:42:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

    Julie ... you're my hero! Thanks for posting this with enough time to do something about it. I usually forget to purchase candy until it's too late to do anything but buy from the local stores which don't have anything but unethical-rot-your-teeth, etc., etc., etc.

     
  • At 10/12/2007 02:35:00 PM, Blogger Sarah Notton

    You have Shiner in Illinois? That's the happiest news I've heard all day. ;-)

    Thank you for finding all this info. The bug bites kit is fantastic.

    How times have changed...I remember the Halloween my mom handed out Chick tracts instead of candy, 'cause that's what good Christians did. Yikes.

     
  • At 10/12/2007 07:36:00 PM, Blogger Cindy

    julie- thanks for this post. i wish it had occurred to me to look for fair trade candy, but it honestly didn't. I bookmarked some sights, started hoping against hope for a whole foods less that 100 miles away and mentioned to my husband about next ordering fair trade chocolate. he grunted; it it was a first step. ;-)

     
  • At 10/13/2007 09:24:00 PM, Blogger Rachel

    Hi, Julie! I ordered Halloween chocolates from Sweet Earth Organic Chocolate: http://www.sweetearthchocolates.com/level.itml/icOid/132

     
  • At 10/14/2007 02:16:00 PM, Blogger Julie

    Rachel - thanks for providing the link for those. I hadn't come across that type!

     
  • At 10/26/2007 11:09:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

    Hi Julie,

    Came across your post and it's probably too late for a lot of people, but just in case, please visit our website, www.GreenHalloween.org We list lots of alternatives to candy since the organics are still in short supply. There ARE things you can get for as little as 10 cents each. We're talking treasures here, not candy. It's amazing that the kids we talk to and show the treasures to, hundreds up til now ranging in age from 3-15, all like the idea of treasures as much as candy, or at least as a choice. It's the PARENTS who are stuck on the idea of candy because it's what they grew up with. Anyway, take a look and great job on spreading the word that Halloween can be fun AND heathy, Earth-friendly and free trade.

     
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