Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

While Halloween may not have its own food drive, gift giveaway, and other charitable events like its upstaging counterparts Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are ways to give back even while your kids (or you!) are raking in treats door to door like they’re, well, candy. Here’s how you can use this year’s holiday as an opportunity to support fair trade cocoa farmers and owners of local family farms, denounce oil drilling and water pollution, and make a few small changes that will minimize your family’s impact on the environment this Halloween.

Step One: Decorations

• Save energy. Replace some of those gaudy black and orange bulbs out front with the original energy efficient light source—candles. If you’re not into potential fire hazards, go for LED lights, which are cheaper and last longer than regular incandescents. Check out these orange LED lights we found for less than $20.

• Go local by visiting a nearby farm and picking your own pumpkins. If possible, look for a farm that grows organic or pesticide-free pumpkins. They leave less of a carbon footprint, and purchasing one (or two, or three) allows you to support farmers in your area who are using sustainable practices.

• Nature is the best decorator. Use leaves, nuts, cornhusks, gourds, and anything else you can find in your backyard to make your house look festive this year in place of store-bought items made of synthetic materials that take energy to produce and aren’t recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable.

Step Two: Costumes

• Get creative. Try fashioning a costume out of clothes you and your kids already have. Try to use recycled or recyclable materials to construct the rest. Check out these eco-friendly costumes designed to raise awareness of environmental issues from our friends at Care2.

• If you do decide to purchase a costume, try to avoid those made with petroleum-based products, which require oil drilling, and conventional dyes, which cause water pollution. Look for 100% cotton—bonus points if the cotton is organic.

Step Three: Trick or Treating

• Participate in Reverse Trick-or-Treating. Rather than toting your kids around your neighborhood to receive candy from adults, use the opportunity to take them door-to-door and distribute Fair Trade certified chocolate to their neighbors instead. They’ll also distribute cards to each recipient explaining the poverty and child labor in the cocoa industry that goes into producing much of the mainstream candy purchased during Halloween and throughout the year, and how purchasing Fair Trade chocolate ensures that cocoa farmers are fairly compensated for their work. Order Fair Trade chocolate online, or purchase a Reverse Trick-or-Treating kit for your brood.

• Check the labels. Avoid candy made with palm oil instead of cocoa butter. Palm oil is a cheap, inferior substitute for the real thing—but more importantly, cultivation of the ingredient has contributed to deforestation and environmental destruction in Africa and Southeast Asia. In a recent eco-scandal, officials found that chocolate giant Cadbury was replacing the cocoa butter in their products with palm oil. Advocacy groups put the pressure on, and Cadbury relented. Go democracy!

• Make avoiding GMO your MO. Several major candy companies, including Hershey’s and Mars, use sugar made from genetically-modified (GMO) beets covered in pesticides. Despite a federal ruling last month stating that GMO sugar crops should have never been allowed to make their way into our food supply, U.S. candy makers continue to use them. While we have your attention on the matter, sign Care2’s petition to end Hershey’s and Mars’ use of GMO sugar.

• Because of health and safety worries, it may be hard to avoid giving out (and raking in) individually wrapped, fun size sweets. But you can opt for non-food treats such as plastic toys (recycled, of course), temporary tattoos, cheap jewelry, key chains, puzzles, and anything else that’s pocket-sized, non-toxic, and fun. Check out this list of eco-friendly Halloween treat alternatives from Green Halloween.

• Take a shakable flashlight along on your trick-or-treating trek instead of a conventional battery operated one. They’re energy-saving and fun to use.

• Use reusable containers to collect candy as you go door to door. There’s no need to go out and buy one—an old pillowcase works just as well.

Photo by Matt loves kicks, flickr.