By: Julie Fahnestock Part 2 of a multi-series post The majority of consumers who consider themselves “ethical shoppers” are most likely to be familiar with the term, “fair trade.” An ethical consumer is also likely to know about the history of exploitation of small farmers behind the coffee, bananas, sugar and tea industries. The average, ethical consumer, however, is unlikely [...]
By: Juliana Rincón Parra Coffee is a high consumption export product in many Latin American countries. Consumers may be aware of the disparity between how much they pay for a cup of coffee and how much the coffee farmers in far away countries may make, but perhaps they don’t realise that what they pay may be more even than their [...]
Continued from Part One Photo Credit, Arvind Balaraman Looking at two highly traded commodities, coffee and cocoa, we can see how the profit-only mindset can cause a crisis in the lives of the raw material producers and the countries they live in. Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities, and has been since the 1800’s. Entire communities in [...]
By: Ben Gleason Doi Chaang Coffee is a unique partnership between Canadian businessmen and the chief of the Doi Chaang village of North Thailand. They believe strongly in sustainable agriculture, organic growing methods, and fairly traded coffee. I encourage you to look at their website, you will be shocked at how much information they provide about the owners, the workers, [...]
by: Ellen Friedland, Producer Photo and video courtesy of “Delicious Peace Grows In A Ugandan Coffee Bean”, www.deliciouspeacethemovie.com 1. You can buy “Delicious Peace” coffee (www.deliciouspeace.com) after watching the documentary and seeing some of the ways that you can really affect positive changes in these farmers’ lives. 2. You can buy other Fair Trade products as often as possible. [...]
by Stephanie Love I once watched a DVD about two men taken out of slavery in cocoa farms in West Africa. These men, who had welts all over their bodies, told the journalists interviewing them that they hate anyone who has ever eaten chocolate, because when they are eating chocolate “they are eating my flesh.” Knowing that slaves were – [...]
By: Matt Hensley Often times when I go to the grocery store to buy food or the clothing store to buy clothes I have one thing in mind - Which item is the cheapest? What I never thought to ask myself was - Why is this chocolate bar, or coffee, or t-shirt cheaper than the one next to it? When a product [...]
