Green Sexy

Fair Trade Chocolate---A Guilt-Free Treat?

For years, chocolate lovers felt guilty about their sweet habit, but recent research has proven that moderate levels of dark chocolate can lower your blood pressure.  That's great news, but unless you're eating fairly traded chocolate, you should still feel a degree of guilt.  Now, first of all, what do I mean by "fair trade"?  Fair trade can be defined as companies negotiating directly with the growers or producers of products to establish a fair price for the product (afsc.org).  In addition, fair trade seeks to improve the working conditions and quality of life of the growers and producers of fairly traded goods.  According to globalexchange.org:  "284,000 children toil in abusive labor conditions in West Africa’s cocoa fields" and "Cocoa companies pay prices so low that many cocoa farmers cannot meet their families’ basic needs."  That's why it's vitally important to buy only fairly traded chocolate! 

There are many delicious fairly traded brands out there.  I have personally indulged in Divine Chocolate's delicious 70% dark chocolate bars and have given out these decadent delights as Christmas gifts to my family and my coworkers for the past four years. This farmer-owned company gets its chocolate from Ghana and directly improves the livelihoods of small cocoa farmers in West Africa.  I have also had the distinct pleasure to experience the joy of Equal Exchange's fair trade chocolate bars.  Equal Exchange's cocoa comes from farmer cooperatives in the Domincan Republic and Peru.  I especially enjoyed the Organic Dark Chocolate with Pure Cocoa Nibs---it was sooooo good!  The Art Bar, sold out of Ithaca, NY, is a certified fair trade chocolate bar that includes a postcard with a work of art on it (there are 24 collectible postcards in all).  A creation of Ithaca Fine Chocolates, this bar was the first fair trade certified chocolate offered for sale by a U.S. chocolate company!  10% of the proceeds from the sales of these bars go to fund art programs in Ithaca and Washington, D.C.

I could go on and on about all of the wonderful fair trade chocolate bars out there, but I'm afraid that I'll short-circuit my computer if I drool on it anymore!   

Vote Fair Trade

Forget the electoral college. We live in a market economy that's how our politicians want it so the votes that we make that have the most clout are the votes we make with our dollars. Our country would fall apart if we didn't spend in fact the world might fall apart if we don't shop. I don't really like that, but today more than at any other time we can choose who benefits from our hard earned-dollar. The American dream is about the underdog. Here anyone can be what ever they want, right? Why not give that power to our neighbors around the world too?
I don't want big oil to get my money. I don't want to pay the salaries of corporate CEOs. This is why I pay for wind power, drive a gas-efficient vehicle, and buy fair trade. I don't shop at big box stores if I can help it. Instead I want to know that my dollars are supporting the people who make the products I use. I don't like the idea of middle men getting more money for a product they never touched than the skilled artisan who made it or the farmer who harvested it. I have chosen to vote for more equality in the world economy. Factory mass production just doesn't have much appeal to me -- neither does mass accumulation of stuff. I would prefer to have things of quality over quantity and I will pay more for it. I am a small business person who wants my customers to see the value in dealing with me on a personal level and that is how I want to consume as well. To me, fair trade is personal. I am an underdog, regular people in developing countries are underdogs. I want to work from home and care for my family. I want to work at something I love to do. I want a healthy environment. I want these things for anyone else who wants those things too. I vote for people -- everyday people who produce with pride who have a face and a name. There is no reason all business cannot function more ethically and treating all people as human beings regardless of whether they are protected by a constitution or not. If more of us vote for people -- for quality -- humanity -- the more business will shift -- our dollar is the most powerful chad we have! If corporate colonialism is doing its thing because it is chasing the almighty dollar they are going to have to chase my dollar to the door of a woman in the mountains of Vietnam who weaves Hmong textiles, for instance, and maybe they will trip on a left over land mine on the way!

Fair Trade Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and it shares it's golden, or shall I say, orange month with Fair Trade. While getting out your orange and black, don't forget brown--smooooth chocolate brown. Rather than waiting until the last minute to get your treats think about getting goodies that are good for you, your kids, and the people who made them.

It is always fun to get treats and play some tricks on friends and family but don't let your celebrating play a mean trick on your global neighbors. Give them something sweet--the treat of a dignified  livelihood. Some international farmers are able to continue working their land and ride the wave of bottoming-out coffee and chocolate prices and are able to send their children to school rather than large plantations controlled by giant trolls like Nestle, by getting fair wages for their crops like coffee, tea, chocolate, and bananas thanks to Fair Trade Certification.  Fair Trade chocolate is guilt free in every way and it tastes better! This Halloween celebrate the Fair Trade Way-- Global Exchange is promoting a Reverse Trick-or-Treating Campaign --your group of trick-or-treaters can pass out goodies while out on the haunt for sweets. A little informational card with a yum-yum-yummy organic mini-dark chocolate attached. These chocolates made by Equal Exchange are one of my favorites. Low quality low-cocoa content chocolate just doesn't cut it for my tongue anymore. For those of you who are picky about their coffee it's time to do the same with your chocolate!

Time is wasting check out other ways to celebrate your Halloween the fair trade way here, courtesy of the great writers over at Labor is Not a Commodity.

Fair Trade Month

I have always been green... inside. It started with Fair Trade. A thirst for cultures beyond my own led me to a SELF HELP store (now called Ten Thousand Villages--the largest fair trade importers of international handicrafts in the U.S.) in Ephrata, Pennsylvania--I think I was about 10 years old. Within 4 walls were the exquisite hand-crafts of people from all over the world. Tapestries, jewelry, pottery, carvings escorted me to a portal view of countries far away. For a dime I was able to buy a tiny daisy ring made of jute created by a woman in Bangladesh.  I wanted to know who she was, how she made the ring, where she lived. Every time I visited my grandparents I wanted to go to that store.

Fast-forward to 1994, there was an article in my local paper about a fair trade shop the featured products from around the world. I dragged my mom there and signed up to be a volunteer that day. I became the youngest volunteer they had and was soon sitting on the board because of my unique perspective. College and travel took me away from time to time but I always returned to One World Goods--my fair trade home. I started employment there as an assistant manager in 2001. While I have cut myself back to part-time fair trade is as much a part of my fiber as my DNA.

October is fair trade month--what is fair trade? It is a social movement aimed at creating international trade opportunities for artisans and farmers from developing nations through which they are compensated more equitably for their skill, talent and produce. Put, most simply, it is trade that operates using the golden rule. (see more discussion here)

Fair Trade Month is a great time for One World Goods, it's our 10th anniversary in our current location which is a testament to the growing strength of fair trade as a movement and to the quality and variety of products that connect the shopper with the people around the world who create beauty and ingenuity  with their hands. Check back throughout the month for fair trade tips and links to information, shopping, contests, and more.