Green Halloween: Sugar Rush
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 10.18.07
High-fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives, and other dubious man-made additives make our skin crawl. Here are of our picks for organic and all-natural treats that won't make your stomach or your pocketbook howl in terror.
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1) Equal Exchange's fair-trade certified, organic dark chocolate minis are also vegan, gluten-, and more important, child-labor-free ($12 for 68 minis, Equal Exchange). To launch your own campaign against inequity and poverty, consider picking up Global Exchange's Fair Trade Trick Or Treat Action Kit, which includes 42 morsels of the above-mentioned chox, a stack of Why Fair Trade is Boo-tiful postcards for handing out to trick-or-treaters, Mexican party streamers, and a recycled Kraft paper tote. ($15, Global Exchange) |
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2) Created by two dads who are just as spooked by the ingredients that go into conventional candy as we are, YummyEarth colors its organic lollipops—made with real fruit, imagine that—with dyes derived from such veggies as purple carrots and red cabbage, instead of dunking them in those ubiquitous chemical nasties. ($7.99 for a 1lb bag of 70 pops, YummyEarth) |
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3) No preservatives, no pesticides, and no unpronounceable chemical compounds are the promises behind College Farm's organic hard candies and Nature Pops. Wrapped individually in cornstarch-derived plastic you can compost, these candies make for a waste-free fright night. Grab a bag of 50 lollies in chocolate and citrus-blast flavors. ($5.99, SimonCandyShop.com) |
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4) Fairly trade and all-natural (though not explicitly organic), Endangered Species' kosher, vegan, and gluten-free dark chocolate pieces harbor no processed sugars, hydrogenated fats, pesticides, or growth hormones. A special Halloween Treat Fun Pack includes 24 individually wrapped squares.
Like the rest of the company's treats, 10 percent of each purchase's net profits go to conservation and humanitarian causes. For certified-organic, fairly traded and shade-grown milk, mint, and dark chocolates in bite-size packs, check out Endangered Species' aptly named Bug Bites. ($6.72 for a pack of 24 pieces, Endangered Species) |
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5) Stretch Island Fruit Co. has smooshed real, organic fruit into flat snackables that boast flavors such as Abundant Apricot, Harvest Grape, Ripened Raspberry, and Truly Tropical. Certified kosher, the fruit leathers also pack half a serving's worth of fruit in each baggie. ($11.50 for a box of 30, Stretch Island Fruit Co.) |
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6) Canada's Pure Fun—yup, the same folks who brought us organic, fair-trade cotton candy—hoards all manner of organic candied pinwheels, root-beer barrels, and fruit rocks. Harkening back to a less-creepy era before FD&C food dyes and genetic modification possessed the food industry, Pure Fun's stash—which is sweetened with organic evaporated cane sugar and organic brown-rice syrup, instead of oogy corn syrup—also happens to be fair trade. ($3.89 for a pack of 18 candies, Vegan Essential) |
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Treat or Treat? Try These Halloween Candy Alternatives
- TreeHugger Deals: A Green Halloween with YummyEarth
- 5 Ways to Green Your Halloween Candy Fix
- TreeHugger Deals: Guayakí Organic Yerba Mate
Jasmin,
Thanks for the props.
Treehuggers may like to know that right now we, and Global Exchange, and others are in the midst of a "Reverse Trick-or-Treat" campaign to raise awareness about how the chocolate & cocoa corp's are dragging their feet re: the child labor issue on some cocoa farms.
see: www.equalexchange.coop/reverse or www.reversetrickortreating.org
Unknown by the public is that right now there's a U.S. Dept. of Labor commissioned study that documents how little the choc. corp's have done re: child labor since the journalists broke the story back in 2001. However they're sitting on the study and won't release it until AFTER Halloween. Also, the chocolate manufacturers of America have hired a powerful lobbyists recently - coincidence?
Lastly, re: sugar - the other key ingredient to Halloween treats - I highly recommend the new powerful documentary that is now making the rounds of film festivals - "The Price of Sugar". It's about exploited Haitian sugar workers who are trapped are plantations in neighboring Dominican Republic.