Fair Feels Good

Do you know a supermarket who is doing a great job in stocking and promoting fair trade products? Or is your grocery store slacking and just not interested in fair trade? Either way, have your say.

Download this grocery store report card, and when you next visit your grocery store make a quick note of the fair trade varieties. Submit your report online here, and help Oxfam congratulate those who deserve it, or put pressure on those groups who need to stock more fair trade.

Help us know whats going on in your area and help fair trade!

An astonishing 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are made every year - the far majority of which destroy the life of a child as quickly as it puts a smile on another child’s face.

Most cocoa is produced in West Africa. Cocoa companies in the US pay so little for their raw ingredient that the farmers in Africa cannot meet their families’ basic needs, let along pay their workers. To create the bunnies and other chocolate treats, an estimated 284,000 children - many of whom are slaves - are forced to work long hours with dangerous tools in grueling working conditions.

This cycle can be broken. Fair Trade certified chocolate prohibits forced and abusive child labor, pays a fair price to farming families that is adequate to meet basic human needs, and requires environmentally sustainable production methods.

This Easter, stay guilt-free and choose from our sweet list:

• Divine Chocolate available through A Greater Gift. $7 for a pretty bag of dark or light chocolate Easter eggs individually wrapped in gold foil. Tempt yourself further with heavenly recipes for Divine Chocolate.
• Equal Exchange Chocolate. $3.95 for a bar, $17.50 for a pretty pack, and $39.00 for a cute basket filled with treats!
• Global Exchange Look out for the Easter Action Trio ($18.95) containing three bars of Divine chocolate, a cute knitted bunny woven by members of a women’s cooperative in Peru, a bundle of Fair Trade Easter Action Coloring Postcards (to send directly to World’s Finest Chocolate asking them to source Fair Trade chocolate) and a Quick Chocolate Fact Postcard.
• Ithaca Fine Chocolates. Five “art bars” for $12.95.
• Alter Eco. From $3.79 a bar.
• Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates - lovely Easter bunnies and Easter gifts available, from $1.50 for a small bunny, $16.50 for a box of Easter truffles.

Brands to avoid include: Hersheys, Mars, M&M, Dove, Nestle, Hargen-Darz, Godiva, Lindt, Ghiradelli and Dagoba. These brands may have some “ethically sourced” marketing ploys, but all have failed to commit to Fair Trade and Child Labor laws.

Fair Trade Fortnight fever has taken over the UK. The event launched on Sunday on the Southbank in London, with a fair trade themed fair, where organizers commended British consumers for leading the movement to tip the balance in favor of the millions of farmers and producers in developing countries.

A friend of mine who attended the launch party referred me to read an article on Reuters about fair trade and ethical gold jewelery. I was inspired to read words such as:

… ethical jewelery good as gold … a woman would not want to receive a gift that was tarnished by exploitation … “I wanted my fiancee to know that the gift was very special and did not put people through hardship” …

A quick google search lead me to a debate on a US-based website, The Consumerist.

I was stunned by some of the comments - laden with angry cynicism towards the Fair Trade movement and the world in general. Are American’s generally scammed to death, that they have a hard time accepting a good movement? Or do they just not give a damn?

The general mood captured is that although it is not possible to do everything to improve the imbalance between farmers and consumers, we can try to do something. However, this mood was punctuated by comments such as:

I don’t feel like I get any extra “value” for the money. Seems like a scam to me.

I really don’t care what happens in Africa or South America. If people want to act like savages there over these materials that’s their problem. Not mine.

How many clothes have you worn that were made in sweatshops? Should we all go naked?

I find this talk extremely narrow-minded and depressing. So I put the question out there: Do you think we, as American consumers, care enough to make a change?

Make a cup of coffee and relax to read this blog.

Now, lets think about your coffee for a moment. Where did it come from? No, I don’t mean which supermarket, but where did it originate?

Imagine the coffee plants growing on a hillside in Amazingland (a fictional country of beautiful mountains and gentle people). As the dew drops melt with the early sun, young women and men, dressed brightly in traditional colors, strap their babies to their backs and walk miles into the hills to for their days work in the “sweatshop of the fields”. For hours into the day their hands move rhythmically, collecting the ripening beans. Small snags in the skin do not deter them. For hours under the hot sun the villages toil. Weighty baskets are heaved and carried back to the shed where beans are sorted and counted. Villagers are paid a mere 45 cents for each pound of beans collected. Hard work and a poverty cycle that cannot be broken.

Are you still enjoying your coffee, or is it slightly more bitter?

Would it taste better if you knew villagers in Amazingland were paid fairly for their beans? It does not mean rising prices for you. All it means is that a fair price is guaranteed for the villagers of Amazingland, so they can meeting their living needs and improve their communities, so they can receive health care, so their children can go to school.

Whats important is that the villagers of Amazingland participate in determining their price. A fair trade price for the coffee industry is usually about $1.30 per pound (it varies from country to country). Compare this to the 45c being paid in the sweatshop example.

But fair traded is more than just money. It leverages the power of people together throughout the world. It respects the individual, the community and the environment. By subscribing to principles of justice, dignity, empowerment, transparent and respect for both people and the planet, the fair trade movement works with producers and consumers to make the world a better place - and to remove the bitterness from your cup of coffee!

Fair Trade Coffee Grower
Photo by Simon Rawles, The Fair Trade Foundation, UK