When I was given my hat as CEO of EDUN I knew I was not going to hang it up on the hook behind my office door and look at it while peering over my computer screen, but I had no idea how much I was going to be "in the field." Sometimes I feel more like the Indiana Jones of fashion or a character in The Constant Gardner.

EDUN is no ordinary fashion company: yes, there are the fancy parties in New York adorned by beautiful and influential people. But what I have realized after my second year with the company is that the real beauty lies where much of the Edun product is made: in Africa.

Zambia - November 21, 2007

Fresh from a stop in Maseru, Lesotho, where we presented the $310,000 check to ALAFA – EDUN's donation from the sales of the ONE tee – we are off on the 15-seater to Johannesburg and then on to Lusaka in Zambia. I had never been to Zambia before and was very much looking forward to this visit.

Only a few months earlier, EDUN had signed an MOU with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to embark on the Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI): a program to help African farmers grow organic cotton in a way that would ensure improved economic situations for the farmers, community support and good conservation practices. Conservation is hard to manage in this part of the world and it is vitally important for the continent’s survival. Because of few commercial opportunities and economic hardships, Africans can often resort to cutting down trees for carbon production and poaching animals for bush meat. The CCI aims to provide commercial alternatives (growing cotton and the rotational food crops) that will deter bad conservation practices.

That afternoon, we then set off to Kassisi to visit Brother Paul, a 60+ year old Canadian from the Niagara valley who had decided to make his life in Zambia for the last 30 or so years. He came from a farming community in Canada and had decided he was going to combine his missionary work with the practicalities of the farming trade. What he and his associates had built was very impressive: schools for children and very good training sessions designed to guide local farmers and others who came from afar. The mission had a local radio station, a blacksmith area to make small farm equipment, solar ovens and nutcrackers. Brother Paul was very knowledgeable about organic cotton.

The next stop was to the Luanga Valley – home of the crocodile, water buffalo, hippo, elephant and countless other African wildlife – and COMACO. COMACO was started by a visionary WCS employee named Dale Lewis, who has been in Zambia for 30 years now and is passionate about what he does. He is a conservationist who has realized that combining business and conservation is a smart idea. COMACO helps farmers use their land to the best of their abilities using organic agriculture and then COMACO buys the product from the farmers (mainly foods such as groundnuts and honey), repackages the product and sells it locally under the brand It’s Wild.

Dale greeted us with a warm toothy smile. We immediately left the small airport at Mfuwe to a somewhat rustic square concrete shelter that had no electricity and no running water. Our lodgings were perfectly outfitted with 4 beds covered by bed nets, a couple of chairs and a coffee table. We plunked down our bags, went into the bush (used as a toilet) and set off to meet our first set of farmers.

The ride in the back of the pick-up truck was bumpy and the scenery was fantastic – beautiful birds, smiling people waving and carrying large baskets on their heads and villagers working on their thatch-roofed huts or collecting sticks for their evening fire.

As we peeled into a village of the Kunda Tribe we were surprised by the extraordinary number of people that greeted us under the mango tree. There were 5 chairs for us to sit on looking towards a semi-circle of women gracefully adorned with their tribal skirts and tops – all of them dancing and singing, drummers sweating away as they thumped out a beat in perfect harmony with the dancers. Kids were running around everywhere. I could not get over how many children there were.

I also could not get over how industrious and proud these people were. Following our ceremonial welcome, we visited their fields, tested their compost, looked at their beehives, and chatted with the farmers, being careful not to sit right on the ground for fear of being stung by scorpions. We met one woman who had brilliantly looked after her land and she was clearly benefiting from it. She was not married but personally financed 7 children and made sure they got to school. She had a mobile phone attached to her hip and had very clear ambitions as to what she wanted to accomplish.

It was terribly exciting and interesting to realize that these people were involved in making the future of EDUN’s product. Clearly, the stories and lives of the people who make our product should really be an important reflection of what we, as consumers, buy.

After our field visit, we went back under the mango tree for more singing and were presented with a warm goodbye and a parting gift – a live chicken (we could not do much with this so ended up giving it to the driver of our car).

The day ended with a traditional meal and visit of COMACO headquarters, where we saw the production and packaging of elephant dung paper, rice, peanut butter, honey and other organic goodies...

Check back next month for Day 2 and Madagascar!!