Firms Will Buy ‘Green’ Buttons: In environmentalists’...

Firms Will Buy ‘Green’ Buttons: In environmentalists’ search for economic alternatives to logging Third-World rain forests, two California clothing manufacturers--Patagonia and Smith & Hawken--have agreed to buy 1 million buttons made from an ivory-like nut grown in an endangered Ecuadorian forest. The deal was arranged by Conservation International, a Washington-based environmental group. The buttons will be formed from the tagua nut, which grows on a rain forest palm. Environmentalists, who hope to see an international market develop for the nut, say it can also be used to make jewelry and decorative carvings.