Early morning watering in my garden before a full on day – a centered way to start the day. I was enjoying each new arrival in the garden, the blooms, the burst of flavour from a ripened cherry picked from the tree and all the surprise volunteers that have survived the composter. The morning’s quiet soundscape was joined by a soloist, a soft unobtrusive mechanical clattering of a passerby dragging something along. I glanced up to smile and call, “hello,” something I love about living in town. People, neighbours and strangers, are often friendly and open to a chat over the hedge. And there she was, with a broad and beautiful smile, and all her worldly possessions in a tiny cart. She was enjoying my garden on her way from the shelter.

She continued along her way and I reflected. What would it be like to be in her shoes? She was around my age with the same shape and haircut. What was her story? I pray that she always has a warm bed to sleep in and is safe at night.

I wonder what would happen if we, as a community, actually found ways to engage with the people who are homeless in our communities. This morning, I saw homeless people described as “zombies,” in the newspaper’s letters to the editor. Labeling in these terribly insulting ways, distances us from our own humanity, creating “others that should go elsewhere”. It spares us from seeing that our self importance is creating untold problems.

Some of the local business community is in an uproar about a shelter being built in the downtown core. Some of the local politicians are playing undemocratic games to ensure that the homeless are sheltered elsewhere. I wonder where “elsewhere” really is? Are we still so lacking in common sense and compassion as a society that we think we can erase poverty, addiction and mental health challenges by sending homeless people  “elsewhere?

If I see her again, I would like to ask her if she would mind chatting abit.  I know my cats will be delighted if she visits.

Here on Vancouver Island the global/local pendulum has swung and I am wondering where the balance is and how fair trade fits in? Often now, especially in Vancouver, I am told by store owners and managers that the store is carrying only locally produced lines. They want to offer their customers “made in BC” goods and support local producers. Fair enough. Or is it?

On the one hand, this is long overdue! We need to support our local artisans, crafters, wineries, food producers and growers. This is good for our economy, good for the environment and for innovation. It is great to see the variety; the prize winning cheese from my own town, honey from home, new wines, beautiful jewelry, exquisite pottery, chic hair doo dads, fabulous fashion and so much more. We have an abundance of creative types on this beautiful island and in BC in general. This is exciting!

“Buy local” is critical when it comes to supporting local growers.  We seriously need to develop food systems that build food security for our population. That makes very good sense and tastes great! At the same time we need to be careful, not to throw the baby out with the bath water, and skip over fair trade.

It really is hard to listen to shop staff tell me all about local goods while I am staring at the imported silk that the “local” piece is made from. Silk, and most other fabrics, not to mention zippers, thread and all the rest are usually not made locally. So how does the line get drawn? If I design products and have them made fair trade in Cambodia, I don’t qualify. But if I design the product and sew the product here using Cambodian produced silk, it is ok. Hmmm… what am I missing, beside partial product labour inputs?

I do understand that it is an imperfect process, unfolding to offset a long lack of support for local goods in favour of cheaper imports.  Few local fledging businesses can compete against offshore labour costs and overheads. I know that my business really struggles to compete with the pretty scarves and wraps from India and China, most of which are made in sweatshops.

I just hope that it becomes equally obvious that whatever suffering is experienced by one, is in the long term experienced by all. So if we turn our backs on Fair Trade goods, in favour our local products only, are we not simply trading one problem for another. It seems to me that most consumers who care, get this. It also seems that thoughtful inclusion of fair trade just makes for a better range of product offerings for all.

I propose that we think about how we can support the best of the best. If we can support fair trade businesses, we may also be able to source the materials that are needed to produce the local goods in just and fair ways. That way it is all good. And we have helped our global community by building sustainable enterprise in two parts of the world.

The time is long overdue for us to be thinking systematically for the good of all rather than single system benefit. Floating Stone Silks designs, imports and sells really lovely high quality silk accessories.  In addition we look for ways to be useful to those who are producing the products for us. We are currently researching how to grow the world’s first sustainable, Fair Trade silk and help with the revitalization of the silk producing sector in Cambodia.

We are also raising funds to help support a food security project that one of our Cambodian silk producers has organized. So far they have created two magnificent demonstration farm gardens with vegetables galore, chickens, worms to feed chicks, fish and more for food and income generation. Each participant has been able to take all the permaculture techniques they have learned home to their own gardens, rice fields and farms.

Each of our silk products has a tiny heart beating inside. This heart is tuned to the world heart beat and it is a happy tune! Buy local and buy fair trade global for the good of all.

How Many people can you feed for $200?  Give a Garden and Feed Families Forever

This project is the result of two women who met in Cambodia in 2005. You could say they are dreamers. Phase 1 and 2 of this project are a Cambodian (Khmer) woman’s dream for a better life for her people. San Vannary understands the needs of the Khmer poor, after working for many years at the grassroots level with Action Aid, a UK based NGO. Vannary knows that people want food, and human rights and she knows how to galvanize community leadership and enthusiasm to get that happening.

Vannary is also a passionate silk designer that I purchase from for Floating Stone Silk Accessories, a fair trade silk business that I own and operate in the Comox Valley in Canada. Vannary designed this project and asked her customers for help fund raising. $200 was sent, donated by Floating Stone and friends, in October 2010. Work was started on a demonstration garden early in November with permaculture (sustainable organic agriculture) training, which 18 people attended. The vegetable garden was worked and seeded, a chicken coop was built and a worm house started.

This is what greeted us, in January 2011, after just two months of hard work. Note the chicken coop in the background with the plastic used to shade the birds. Inside, the nests were full of, eggs, chickens, roosters and chicks. Eggs will be eaten and sold when enough chickens have been reared for other demonstration farms. Behind the chicken coup is a low grass roof covering the worm house, which provides protein for the chicks and worm casings for the compost.

The green plastic in the background is a shaded area and home for the farmers. They sleep and eat here now to protect their beloved garden. I was astonished by the level of commitment to the garden. (Note that this photo only shows a third of the actual garden.) The fish rearing pond will be dug to the right of the chicken coop.

With just $200 a great deal has been accomplished in two short months. I took another $550 with me this January, thanks to more donations. That money will provide two more demonstration gardens in two other villages and another 30 – 40 people will receive the training. The original garden will offer chicks, fish and worms for the new gardens…and so on it goes. The original 18 people are using the permaculture techniques in their own home gardens and farms as they see fit. Mr. Tul, the local school teacher and community leader created 3000 Kilos of compost to use on his rice fields! He is demonstrating the applicability of the techniques and showing people that they can create their own fertilizer instead of paying money to buy chemicals. As the initial farmers gain confidence and experience they will become the trainers for other farmers. The fish rearing will take place in July of this year once water is in greater supply during the rainy season.

This is a Cambodian conceived and driven project. It is totally theirs and quite brilliant. More important than, raising nutrition levels and the income generation prospects of the garden, is the capacity building and the sense that Khmer farmers can do these things for themselves. The Khmer Rouge regime killed their sense of what is possible, instilled deep mistrustfulness and 30 years of NGO handouts has corrupted the desire of too many people to do things for themselves. This project offers simple, low tech ways to make change possible, with easily repeatable techniques that are sustainable. Funding is only being offered to jump start the process.

Phase 2 of Vannary’s brainchild is to build the capacity of the community leaders.

Community mapping and human rights advocacy are the project’s primary targets to prevent land grabbing and other abuses. Community leaders, in this case, are the elected Commune Council Members who are the most grassroots level of the recently “decentralized” government. They receive very little income ($20 per month) to do this work and no training. Phase 2 will provide advocacy training which will then be offered by the trained Members to Commune Council members in other communes. The demonstration garden surplus will be sold to assist with income generation, freeing Commune Council members to work for the 8 – 10 villages in their communes. I was especially impressed with the community collaboration towards creating a strong voice for their people. I am hoping to raise $1000 to complete the first two phases of this project.

Phase 3 is my dream!

growing silk cocoons stored in sticks with skeins of naturally coloured golden silk

My dream is to revitalize Cambodian silk production by growing Mulberry trees, which is the food that indigenous golden silk worms feed on. For Phase 3 we will use the same permaculture techniques to grow the Mulberry. We will also provide training in sericulture (silk worm rearing) and in producing the silk from the cocoons. Again these are low tech processes that were formerly commonplace in Cambodia. Mulberry is a low and fast growing tree that could easily be inter-planted with vegetables in the farm garden. The leaves are harvested and provided to the silk worms to feast on.

We will invite any of the farmers that have been part of the first phase to participate in these trainings if they are interested. This will provide further diversity in their income generation and protection in the event of rice crop failure.  In another part of Cambodia, in Kompong Cham we already have one family eager to get started.

I work with a producer group who are involved with the silk dying, weaving and tailoring processes. Kong and her husband Sam, both born at the time of the Khmer Rouge, work really long hours to produce and sell beautiful products to a local and export market. They are struggling to make enough to buy a home with a workshop attached. City rents for their home, workshop (that also houses some of their workers) and retail shop are becoming unmanageable. The rising cost of silk is forcing Kong to raise prices in a temperamental economy. Sometimes they think about finding a different way to earn a living given how stressful life has become and how that is affecting their health. But silk is what they know and love.

Kong is not your typical business woman. She has been presented to Princess Diana, attended conferences with Nelson Mandela in Washington, Switzerland and elsewhere due to her determination to train and to provide good jobs and homes for people with disabilities. Kong lost her leg to a landmine at the age of 12.  She is also active with the Artisans Association of Cambodia which is the Cambodian fair trade organization. Kong and Sam have two children who are raised at their sides while conducting business.

Cambodians used to produce their own golden silk. Now inferior white silk is imported from Thailand, Vietnam and China at high prices and very little golden silk is grown. With recent price increases what is remaining of the silk industry, after the Khmer Rouge destroyed most of the looms and weavers, is now being lost. Recently golden silk prices have sky rocketed from $20 per kilo to $50 per kilo making it a very viable commodity to produce again. Kong and Sam have land in the countryside and family members willing to undertake the Mulberry farming and sericulture training. What they don’t have is time to do the research or the money to get started. I am hoping to raise $2000 to assist with the research and development of their Golden Silk farm and to extend the training to others who are interested.

Please join us in our work towards a brighter future. In this last photo Kong and her sister are showing us the land for the Golden Silk Farm. We want you to be a part of this adventure. Can you help us? We need volunteers, businesses, musicians, dancers, artists and so on, to help us raise funds. We need donations. We promise not to bother you over and over again…we just need your help to get our garden growing. Thank you for reading this…you have been forever written in the heart of Cambodia.

I asked for an angel and Vivian came to visit. She told me to write without thinking. So I am giving that a go.

Thing is, I should be on the road selling silk so that my business prospers. Nothing in my business is more difficult then getting my sorry ass out of the door. I have to dredge up the confidence, make appointments, put on special clothes, do my hair, organize the product, load up my car and hit the road. My cats hate it. They watch as the office turns into a disaster area while I sort into various sizes of display organizers, totes and baskets. When the car door opens and the totes start going inside, they get nervous. “Will this be a short day run or a trip down Island or is she going to abandon us for weeks?”

The nice part is thinking of the customers that I enjoy visiting. Many of them look forward to seeing the brilliant colours and styles that will be going on their racks. Some of them pick out a few things for their own wardrobes. I have gotten to know some of the buyers over the years and enjoy hearing about what is up for them in their lives. We talk about the ups and downs of business, our families, our loves and often our learnings. Usually I learn a lot from them. There is a connectedness most of the time. But it is still selling and I approach it with such resistance.

So what is the resistance about? Over the last year it has definitely been about the lousy economy and the cautiousness that buyers have had to apply to their buying. Sometimes it is about, will they like the stuff enough to buy it. Will they buy enough to keep this business going? Will their customers like it enough to buy it? I get anxious when I see old product hanging around their shelves. Finding beautiful things that work for customers is both an art and a science. Trends and tastes change in a heartbeat.

I don’t want to discover that I have made stupid purchasing decisions. Sometimes the anxiety start to worm it’s way around my stomach, into my chest and throat when insensitive comments are made. “Oh, that is a horrible colour” or “I don’t like this or that” and other variations on the same theme. Then I take the same product to another store and they want that colour and love it this way or that. Ah, people are so fickle and so fine at the same time. I wish I could just relax into their quirks and worries and trust that all is well. Some days I can and those days are shiny! I love them.

Sometimes it is about selling myself and my values. I don’t want to ingratiate myself for the sake of a sale. I don’t want to be anyone but myself. I don’t want to invest a fortune in a wardrobe. This is tricky terrain as I need the sales but I need to stick with my integrity more. There are stores full of books on dressing for success, business books on how to sell and a ton of “how to” guides. Some of them get me all pumped to go but there is always something missing. I don’t want customers to buy things from me that they don’t want. That is not why I am in business.

Some days I am feeling small and less interested in putting up with others.  Especially difficult are the days when I desperately wish that more people understood fair trade values. It is hard to watch buyers who only see the beauty or the sales values embedded in the product. This is where my “Pollyanna” has to go underground and remember that every sale is good for my producers in Cambodia. It really doesn’t matter if the buyer understands fair trade or not. Or does it?

My heart says it matters. It has to matter that some of us have way more than we can ever use, while others don’t have food to eat. It matters when some four year old children are sold into sexual slavery while others are being put into too many activities to “prepare” them for life. I guess when it comes down to it I worry that conscious consumption isn’t going to be enough. My ego tells me that I should be doing something else more important. For now I think I will hit the appointment list and thank the Goddess for Vivian.< >< ><–>

Sitting in a dark movie theatre in Canada, laughing at some silly family drama about rich people. It is always about rich people. Cell phone vibrates. Text from Cambodia turns the silliness into a vapid waste of time. Achrep has died after a ten month ordeal with Breast Cancer. She was only 27 years old and she was desperately poor. She must be one of thousands every year.

I was introduced to Achrep with the hope that I could help to find a way to pay for her medical care. Achrep worked as a cleaner in a workshop and did some sewing tasks. My friends were going to train Achrep to work in their silk studio, giving her marketable skills and a sustainable way of life.

I was sure I could raise  funds in Canada to help to some extent.  Achrep had a breast removed. Five hundred dollars covered that as well as some medications, further tests and food while she stayed in hospital. That was the beginning of a nightmarish awakening.

Things happened that were beyond my comprehension and I seriously doubted whether the funds where helping Achrep or contributing to her demise.  It is not enough to have money to pay for medical services, you have to have reliable information in order to have informed consent. Here in Canada, where the health care standard is high, we hear of unnecessary testing and interventions causing harm. The medical system in Cambodia is sketchy to say the least. One option was to get her into a French hospital but my friends would never have been able to pay the much higher costs charged there. If we could have raised the funds, there would be no going back to the hospital that Achrep had gone to in the first place. So what would happen the next time a family member was ill or needed medical help.

Another funder stepped forward to provide enough to get Achrep radiation treatments which may have actually killed her. Eventually Achrep’s mother took her back to the country to try some traditional healing methods, where she died last week.

This a horrible reality where there are no easy answers. No one will ever know if Achrep received the care she should have or if our well intended funds helped or hindered her. We won’t know the real story of what happened to Achrep or if things could have turned out differently.

What to do next time…and there will be a next time. Poverty ensnares people and ensures that suffering, disease, corruption and crime will present in their lives. If any of you have feedback, ideas, experience with this I would love to hear from you.