Another thing that hasn’t changed: 70-80% of the world’s coffee is grown by small-scale farmers, a statistic that hasn’t really changed over time. My old back-of-a-napkin calculations used to estimate that one farm family might grow enough coffee in a harvest season to yield 40-pounds of roasted, export grade coffee. That’s probably less coffee than you drink in a year.^**

Consolidation in the Coffee Industry

While coffee cultivation is still mostly a small -scale production, the coffee industry is not. Instead, consolidation in the coffee industry continues to grow. In our recent report, Fairness for Farmers, we note that “Just three companies roast 40% of the world’s coffee and five companies control over half of the trade in coffee,” citing data from 2014.

And in the past four years that trend has only continued. The massive JAB Holding Company now owns not just Keurig Green Mountain, Caribou and Peet’s Coffees but specialty coffee companies like Intelligentsia and Stumptown Coffee Roasters, as well as Krispy Kreme, Snapple, Dr. Pepper, and several coffee-intensive bagel chains like Einstein Bros.’ and Bruggers’ Bagels.  Nestlé continues to be one of the biggest in the coffee market with classic names like Nescafe and Taster’s Choice. Reach for a fancy Blue Bottle coffee or stop in at any natural food store and pick up some Chameleon Cold Brew—those too are now Nestlé products. And a deal to distribute Starbucks’ coffee outside their stores further cements Nestlé’s grip on the coffee market. What appears on the shelf as diversity is, in reality, ever more consolidation.

Unfair Trade

This consolidation hasn’t directly translated into lower prices for farmers directly—yet. Instead, industry watchers are pointing to a consequence that is perhaps even more troubling: the extension of payment terms that these coffee giants are demanding from their supply chain partners. Instead of the standard “net 30” that you might see on a bill, indicating that you have 30 days to pay in full, these behemoths are asking for 180 days or more—time that someone else has to foot the bill for their profits.

Access to cash is a key issue when talking about coffee. One of the key fair trade principles (and a standard in fair trade certifications) is for roasters to provide pre-harvest financing to coffee farmers on request. Committed fair trade companies like Equal Exchange have made this a cornerstone of their sourcing, meaning that they are paying for part of their coffee months in advance of receiving it. This sort of arrangement is key in supporting producers and sharing a bit of the risk—and the cost of financing.

You can see where this is going: bags of coffee from these two companies end up side by side on the shelf. One of them has paid for that coffee months ago (and possibly borrowed money from the bank to do it), one of them may not have even paid for the coffee yet. One of them has access to massive distribution networks and economies of scale. The other does not. Yet, on the shelf, the expectation is that the price is the same. It’s an unequal playing field that only stands to increase the power of a few mega-corporations.

Exploitation and Low Coffee Prices

Inequality isn’t a new thing in the long, dark history of coffee. Colonial plantations, labor extracted from small-scale farmers via harsh quotas—every coffee-growing community I’ve visited to has their own story of what this crop has meant to them in the long history of European conquest.  Fair trade grew up in response to these great historic inequities.

Small-scale farmers built cooperatives, organized to gain economies of scale and a little bit of leverage. We talk often about the importance of the commercial relationships and the solidarity formed with mission-driven businesses, and how they’ve grown a fair trade movement. Yet as this so-called market niche has grown, so too have the many who would cash in on consumer’s goodwill.

The Starbucks plantation where workers endured deplorable conditions carried more than one ethical certification (their own C.A.F.E Practices label and UTZ Certified).*** Yet too often these top-down, corporate-led attempts to cleanup supply chains fail. They fail to protect workers, fail to make lasting change, and fail to live up to the trust that consumers put in their ethical claims. Unfortunately, it’s not that surprising. Low prices and huge inequities lead to exploitation. Fail to address the root causes, and once again the symptoms recur.

Tackling the Root Causes

What does it take to tackle the root causes of these inequities in coffee? What do we need to do so these headlines are not still cropping up 15 years from now? Plenty of people who are far wiser than I am continue to be confounded by the questions. There are no easy answers.

Yet, despite the bleak landscape outlined above, there are some inspiring projects aimed at tackling the root causes of the issues.  In Nicaragua, coffee farmers are exchanging knowledge with partners in Mexico to diversify their farms and their sources of income, making them less dependent on just one crop.  Coffee farmers from Peru and throughout Latin America are engaging in farmer-to-farmer trainings to develop new climate resiliency strategies—and new options for economic development. Coffee importer Cooperative Coffees has ditched the notoriously volatile commodity market as the basis for any of their buying contracts.

There are a few things that you can do, even as you drink your morning coffee:

• Support small-scale farmer led projects. Grow Ahead is a crowdfunding platform that specifically targets projects that may be difficult to fund through conventional lenders. A big bank is much more willing to lend money to one of those tried-and-true mega-corporations above. Meanwhile, projects that may make real change in communities struggle to get funding. Grow Ahead’s current campaign supports a reforestation project at Norandino Cooperative, a fair trade coffee and cacao co-op in Peru.
• Support independent, fair trade roasters. These are the ones struggling against the massive market consolidation. They’re also the ones partnering with coffee farmers in many of the inspiring projects above. There are plenty to choose from, look for one near you here.
• Organize against corporate control of the food system. A broad coalition of organizations has come together as the Campaign for Real Meals. Their goal: to get some of the biggest food service companies in the country to commit to measurable, actionable standards for real food. Sign onto the petition and join the movement!

^*In the U.S. it’s celebrated September 29^th, in the rest of the world, October 1^st. Pick a day, or just celebrate the whole weekend!

^**The math here: In the U.S., average coffee consumption is three 8oz. cups of coffee per day, or about 136 gallons per year. While brewing methods vary, a really rough rule of thumb calculation would be that you could get 1 gallon of coffee per pound. Calculate how many family farms it takes to fuel your life!

^***Note that the Starbucks plantation in question was certified by their own C.A.F.E. Practices certification as well as UTZ (recently merged with Rainforest Alliance), not fair trade. Traditionally, coffee plantations have not been eligible for fair trade certification although some other crops (notably, tea and bananas) allow them. Four years ago, Fair Trade USA split from the global consensus and started certifying plantations, a controversial move.

The post Low Prices and Exploitation: Recurring Themes in Coffee appeared first on Fair World Project.

Valentine’s Day is almost here and if you’re one of the 70% of people in the U.S. who expresses your feelings with chocolate and flowers, we need to talk. That heart-shaped box of chocolates and dozen roses are the end products of supply chains that are anything but loving to farmers, their workers, and the planet.

Cheap chocolate has cruel consequences:

Low cocoa prices are pushing cocoa farmers in West Africa to desperate measures. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa farmers earn just $0.50 per day. That’s in a region where poverty is defined as $2 per day and “dire poverty” is $1.25 per day. Desperate to earn any income possible, even children are pressed into hard work and forced labor is also common. In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire alone, an estimated 2.1 million children work dangerous jobs and hours that interferes with their schooling—and that number is going up not down, according to recent studies.

Cheap chocolate drives deforestation:

Low prices force farmers to do anything, including expanding into surrounding forests, to make ends meet. Meanwhile, big chocolate companies have turned a blind eye to the deforestation that ensues, for example, Côte d’Ivoire has lost 85% of its forest in the past two decades.  That has huge consequences for our climate as well as the people and animals that live there.

Cut flowers have a thorny supply chain:

Nearly 80% of the cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported, mostly from giant operations in Colombia and Ecuador. Nearly two-thirds of those workers are women, suffering long hours, repetitive injuries, exposure to hazardous chemicals, and often sexual harassment and discrimination too—hardly the ingredients for a gift of love!

Small blooms, big impact:

Those long-stemmed roses have a colossal global impact. Grown in indoor greenhouses, irrigated, refrigerated and flown around the globe, that bouquet has a massive carbon footprint. On top of that, these intense monocrops require lots of chemicals to keep them growing, about 20% of which are so toxic that they are banned in the U.S. and Europe.

But your Valentine’s Day gifts don’t have to exploit people and the planet! Look for fairly traded organic and local treats to express your feelings and spread the goodness a little further afield.

Here are a few suggestions:

Choose fair trade, organic chocolate.

Our guide to the companies leading the way in supporting small-scale farmers is here. Bars, truffles, and other treats—there’s no need to sacrifice taste.

Look for brands committed to doing the right thing in all their supply chains.

While the big companies struggle to slow deforestation and end the worse forms of abuse, companies like Alter Eco and Equal Exchange are partnering with producers on reforestation and agroforestry projects, going beyond the minimums to build a better world.

Pick something greener than a bouquet of roses.

Choose locally grown flowers if they are available near you in February. Living plants will be a long-lasting reminder, whether they stay in the house or get the garden started. Fair trade flowers are also available, yet while they are better for people, their environmental footprint is still enormous.

Think beyond the basics:

Cancel fresh flowers and bring home the sweet smells of fair trade, organic body products from companies like Alaffia and Dr. Bronner whose natural products are supporting communities around the globe.

Choose hand-made:

Fair trade artisans around the globe are blending traditional designs with new looks to create selections that should suit anyone on your list. Companies like Matr Boomie and Aid Through Trade have a long history of partnering with craftspeople to create beautiful pieces—no blood diamonds involved.

Get personal:

Nothing says you care like finding a fair trade version of your special someone’s favorite treat. From tea to olives to greeting cards—there are plenty of options to choose from. Get inspired here.

How are you showing you care this Valentine’s Day?

The post Valentine’s Day is almost here and we need to talk! appeared first on Fair World Project.

Naked Juice is fully owned by Pepsico, one of the world’s largest junk food corporations.  Pepsico and Naked have been in the news of late, and not for corporate social responsibility accolades.  Pepsico was a major contributor to the No on Proposition 37 campaign, contributing 2.5 million dollars in 2012 to defeat the California citizen proposition to label genetically modified foods. Naked Juice recently settled a $9 million dollar class action lawsuit for misleading consumers, claiming their products were: “100% Juice,” “100% Fruit,” “From Concentrate,” “All Natural,” “All Natural Fruit,” “All Natural Fruit + Boosts” and “Non-GMO.” The lawsuit claimed that Naked Juice continued to use marketing slogans, like “All Natural” even though its products contain GMOs.

So, is Naked sincere in their first foray into fair trade? Naked’s fair washing is not unlike the fair washing dilemmas in the banana market. Do companies with terrible human rights records, like Dole and Chiquita, have a place in the fair trade movement, certifying a very small percentage of their total products, while continuing their deplorable practices? Should Naked Juice be allowed to market a fair trade product, representing a small fraction of their product line, without fundamentally altering their business practices? With transparency as a core fair trade value, can you trust a company that deliberately used false advertising?

Prop 37: Your Right to Know

The post A ‘Naked’ Fair Wash? appeared first on Fair World Project.

Hershey’s and Godiva both poor social track records . Hershey’s has been a perennial target for refusing  to take action to end child slave labor on cocoa farms in the Côte D’Ivoire. You can find more information about Hershey’s and their track record at Raise the Bar or their report card by Free2Work.Godiva received a “D-” ranking from Free2Work and is not certified by any 3rd party agency.

Now, both Hershey’s and Godiva are doubling down and opposing consumers’ right to know regarding genetically engineered foods. Hershey’s has contributed $498,006.72 and Godiva has contributed $11,121.53 to the No on 37 Campaign. You can see a full list of corporations supporting and opposing Proposition 37 here.

Visit the California Right to Know campaign page to learn more and support Proposition 37.

The post Hershey’s and Godiva: Two Time Losers appeared first on Fair World Project.

2011 marked a flashpoint for many small farmers and fair trade producers. Fair trade producers from Mexico and Colombia to Ghana and Indonesia experienced a record number of climate change influenced disasters, including landslides, severe floods and crop failure. According to Fairtrade International (FLO), fair trade farmers are experiencing up to 28% reductions in yield due to erratic weather patterns and droughts. Small farmers, already vulnerable from a lack of financing options, limited market access and/or volatile markets, among other factors, are now faced with lower yields, ?natural? disasters and higher costs to adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts.

Climate change is impacting specific crops in very specific ways. A recent report by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) detailed how a significant percentage of Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two biggest cocoa producing countries, will be too hot for cocoa by 2030. Compounded by erratic and unpredictable weather patterns, flooding and new pests, cocoa and cocoa producers have a very bleak future. Sadly, this pattern is replicated in other crops like coffee. Coffee producing regions are experiencing a dangerous combination of lower rainfall and higher temperatures, which some speculate will render production unsustainable in lowland countries and regions by 2050. While coffee plants may be able to adapt to higher altitudes in search of cooler temperatures, small farmers are tied to their land, both historically and financially. The United States Agency for International Development?s (USAID) work with the Global Climate Change Initiative recently published a study that analyzed a number of intersections of climate change, poverty and agriculture. Key to the study is an index of ?country vulnerability? with many of the countries with significant fair trade presences ranked as ?extremely? vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change.

Size matters: small farmers are key to combating climate change

Global trends in farming point towards an increasingly large-scale and industrialized approach to farming. The last century has seen a significant transformation of the global food system away from locally-based, family-scaled farms towards large industrial farms. Gone are the days of family-scaled farmers providing food and fiber to their local communities. The global food system is now largely dominated by multinational corporations, exploitative conditions for farmers and farmworkers and chemical dependent agriculture.

Large-scale, industrial agriculture is a primary contributor to climate change. According to author and farmer Will Allen, the ?combination manufacture and use of pesticides and fertilizers, fuel and oil for tractors, equipment, trucking and shipping, electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating, and emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide account for approximately 30% of the United States? carbon footprint.? The US-styled energy intensive approach to agriculture, not only adopted by many industrialized countries but also exported to underdeveloped countries, ironically contributes to food insecurity or the ability of a given country or community to feed itself.

Impoverished countries and communities have long experienced varying degrees of food insecurity. As renowned NGO, Food First, has detailed, the underlying causes of hunger are largely attributable to poverty, inequality and failed institutions, not scarcity, overpopulation or a lack of technological fixes. The last five years– collapsing financial markets, the global push agriculture fuels (biofuels, like ethanol) and the expansion of speculation of the food market?have been the near ?perfect storm? for small farmers. With close to 1 billion victims of malnourishment in 2011, it is clear that the industrial agriculture model is a failure.

However, there is hope. Despite the strong global tide towards industrial agriculture, small farmers, who not only form the backbone of the global food supply, are central players in safeguarding biodiversity, fostering environmental stewardship and innovating sustainable agricultural practices. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, small farmers hold the key to doubling food production while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty. Similarly, Via Campesina, the global movement of millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, has demonstrated that small farmers can address the global food crisis in a far more equitable and sustainable way than agribusiness and large-scale farming.

Fair Trade: An Antidote?

Fair trade is a social movement and market model that aims to empower small-scale farmers and consumers in underdeveloped countries to create an alternative trading system that supports equitable exchange, sustainable development and long-term trading relationships. Fair trade supports fair prices and wages for producers, safe working conditions, investment in community development projects and the elimination of child labor, workplace discrimination and exploitation.

What is unique about the fair trade system is its ability to channel financial resources and technical support for small producers. A key benefit of the system includes a social premium that farmers use for use in their local communities and farms. Though the fair trade social premiums can be used for virtually any project that benefits the local community, fair trade producers are increasingly using the fair trade premium for environmentally focused projects. For example, Coocafe, a coffee co-operative in Costa Rica, used its fair trade premium to greatly reduce the amount of water wasted on washing the beans allowing for other farmers to plant trees around their crop as shade, which is good for the quality of their crop and for the environment. In India, tea workers have invested some of their fair trade premium to replace traditional wood-burning heating with a solar-panels.

Fair trade standards can also positively contribute to improving energy efficiency on the farm and throughout the supply chain. Fair trade standards encourages fair trade producers and traders to implement measures to improve water conservation, energy efficiency, eco-system management and waste management.

With a strong majority of fair trade producers also either certified organic or practicing organic and agroecological methods, fair trade producers can both significantly improve yields and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. A landmark study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that organic and agroecological farming practices increased productivity on 12.6 millions farms, with an average crop increase of 79%, while at the same time improving the supply of critical environmental services. According to Food First Executive Eric Holt-Gim?nez, following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, a large-scale study on 180 communities of smallholder farms in Nicaragua demonstrated ?that farming plots cropped with simple agroecological methods (including rock bunds or dikes, green manure, crop rotation and the incorporation of stubble, ditches, terraces, barriers, mulch, legumes, trees, plowing parallel to the slope, noburn, live fences, and zero-tillage) had, on average, 40 per cent more topsoil, higher field moisture, less erosion and lower economic losses than control plots on conventional farms. On average, agroecological plots lost 18% less arable land to landslides than conventional farms and had 69% less erosion compared to conventional farms.?

When it comes to reversing climate change, organic agriculture can, in fact, play an important role. According to the Rodale Institute, organic farming practices can not only sequester 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per acre per year, , but organic agriculture can also can boost yields significantly. According to the 2008 edition of Waste Management & Research, simple composting not only increases crop yield and replaces dangerous and greenhouse gas emitting synthetic fertilizers, but also sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. Many fair trade organizations have also invested in regional and local composting operations as an effective method to increase soil fertility, boost yield and sequester carbon.

Fair trade alone cannot address climate change, nor the daunting challenges confronting farmers on a daily basis. The planet will need a concerted effort to address the root causes of climate change with a comprehensive approach to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Small farmers in the fair trade system can, however, improve farmers? likelihood of mitigating climate change?s negative impacts, showcase local innovations for reversing climate change, and provide one opportunity for Northern consumers to support farmers in a concrete way.

The post Fair Trade in a World of Climate Change appeared first on Fair World Project.

The Organic Consumers Association have made the critical connection between genetic engineering, food safety and corporate control of the food supply. Reporting on grassroots focus on Monsanto and the Occupy movement, “Robert Strype, 29, a protester from the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., area who was wearing a T-shirt that expressed his displeasure with Monsanto, said that anger about practices like factory farming and the genetic modification of vegetables was one of the factors that had roused him and some of his fellow occupiers. ‘Food plays a huge part in this movement,’ he said. ‘Because people are tired of being fed poison.'” – “Want to Get Fat on Wall Street? Try Protesting” – Jeff Gordinier, New York Times

Fair traders as well have shown their solidarity and support of the Occupy movement. Equal Exchange has released a statement in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, expressing “Reckless investment bankers have gambled livelihoods away. Outsourcing, offshore tax havens and free trade agreements have contributed to the intolerable number of unemployed. Corporate lobbyists and their revolving door regulators have weakened health and safety protections and throttled the labor unions counted on by so many to defend living standards. Agribusiness consolidation and control of the food system has devastated family farms while contributing to the obesity epidemic across the country. And the steady disinvestment in public services and education has placed the American dream beyond reach for millions.”

Interrupcion* fair trade has shown their support, with their statement below.

The post The “99%” Weighs In On Food and Fair Trade appeared first on Fair World Project.

Enter CADO. Deep in the foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes, small-scale family farmers are growing sugar cane on steep hills.? CADO, or the Sweet Organic Agro-craft Consortium (Consorcio Agro-artesanal Dulce Org?nico in Spanish) is a consortium of five small regional sugar cane producer groups, representing 18 communities in two provinces. Founded in 2003 with the support Rural Forestation and Progress Network Corporation or CRACYP, an Ecuadorean Non Governmental Organization, CADO?s mission is to facilitate fair prices and local self-development for member families.

CADO formed to provide value added product for sugar cane producers in the provinces of Bolivar and Cotopaxi, two of Ecuador?s the poorest provinces. With 198 member families, CADO has the capacity to produce 24,000 tons of organic certified alcohol annually. Located in a prolific sugar producing country, CADO undertook the challenge of finding a niche for producing socially and environmentally sustainable alcohol. At present, CADO produces organic ethanol for use in extraction of compounds, potable organic alcohol for use in the liquor industry and organic alcohol for use in perfumery or industrial processes.

Despite early setbacks, CADO has successfully secured contracts with the UK?s Body Shop and Dr. Bronner?s Magic Soaps. CADO attained The Body Shop sources CADO alcohol for a number of products, including its Love Etc?? perfume. Dr. Bronner?s will use CADO?s alcohol in its organic and fair trade Hand Sanitizing Spray as well as other products. Dr. Bronner?s will be the first to market products with certified organic and fair trade alcohol in the United States.? CADO was recently certified fair trade under IMO?s Fair For Life program.

More than just a mechanism for commercializing organic alcohol, CADO has embraced and advanced the fair trade ethic of true sustainability. Not only must CADO members commit to organic practices, and agree to have their land certified organic and fair trade, they pledge not only to leave existing forest intact, but also reforest degraded or logged land. CADO?s own internal social premium model requires a percentage of all sales be earmarked for a small reforestation fund. Maintaining and reestablishing the native forest is essential to both alcohol distillation and the integrity of the local ecosystem. To distill sugar cane juice into alcohol, families need access to an ample water supply. Without proper forest cover, the land dries up and families are left without water for personal consumption and the ability to distill alcohol.

Key to CADO?s approach to fair trade is fair and stable prices for its members. CADO members receive upwards of double the local market price for alcohol. According CADO member and Internal Control System team member, Luis Fredy Avalos, CADO?s program has provided a ?for my family, a fair price [for our organic alcohol] is very important. It allows us to provide for our family and send our children to school. Before fair trade, we were at the mercy of intermediary buyers.?

More than fair prices for their products, CADO members regularly point out two important outcomes of their organization: technology transfer and improved access to education. CADO facilitates microloans to families to purchase new distilling equipment, organic farming inputs and other resources to improve efficiency and quality of their alcohol. Rural technical advisors provide on the ground training for families on everything from organic farming techniques to quality control measures for the distillation equipment.

Prior to CADO, local community members rarely advanced beyond a 5th grade education. Children often worked side by side with their parents in the fields out of economic necessity. Today, the younger generation of CADO families universally graduating from high school. CADO policies and fair trade standards require that children not actively labor, but attend school. CADO?s efforts at improving efficiency on the farm and raising the standard of living for members has greatly facilitated educational endeavors for the communities? young people.? For Carlos Cabrera, CRACYP Director, CADO?s efforts go beyond simply ?creating a stable market for producers. Implementing traceability and internal control measures, key requirements in organic and fair trade certification, have greatly improved communities? environmental health and have assured that more children are now attending school.?

Looking to the future, CADO and CRACYP are setting their sites on diversification and cooperation. Next in the product pipeline is a ?Cocoa Cr?me? liqueur, blending organic and fair trade dairy, sugar, and cocoa from producer groups in the area. CADO is also working on developing a Farmstay EcoTourism Project and providing a sustainable alternative to the agrofuel craze. If the demand for agrofuels continues to rise, fertile land will continue to be converted from growing food to producing agrofuels. CADO?s vision provides a model for utilizing marginalized land, while safeguarding local ecosystems and provide just? and dignified work to vulnerable communities.

For CADO President Cecilia Arcos, ?fair trade is more than a fair price. It is about building consciousness in our communities. It is about acquiring the tools to be self-reliant?.It is about lifting up the poorest of our members and making sure no one is left behind.?

The post Ecuador Fair Trade Visit Part I: Adventures in Organic Fair Trade Alcohol appeared first on Fair World Project.

What is the mission and history of?interrupcion* fair trade?

• interrupcion* is a stakeholder community that is working to build a positive future through responsible consumption, sustainable community development, organic farming and fair trade.

• We seek to build a model of trade and global interaction between consumers, businesses and producers that positively impacts the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the world.

• interrupcion* integrates the interests of the public and the private through our non-profit and for-profit collaborative model.? We do this by developing an ever-growing assortment of delicious Fair Trade and Organic products, continually investing in the sustainability of each of our supply chains and building a network of consumers, businesses and producers joined by the common desire to build a better world through responsible action.? We offer market accessibility and micro-credit for producers, fair wages for laborers and farmers, fair trade premiums for producing communities, and continual positive processes for our earth.

• We began as a non-profit organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina dedicated to promoting socially responsible business and citizen participation in response to the dramatic Argentine economic collapse in 2001. Through our many community projects and awareness campaigns we witnessed the amazing change that is possible when individuals come together for the common good of society.

• In 2003, our first socially responsible products arrived in New York: colorful, scented candles from a small candle making cooperative in Buenos Aires. Today, our product catalogue has grown extensively as we continue to partner with small and medium producers throughout Latin America to create premium, all-natural organic and fair trade products while investing to build sustainability into each aspect of our production.
• We believe that the journey toward a sustainable future begins when we interrupt* habitual ways of understanding our personal impact on the world to develop a new, global sense of influence that creates responsible action. This concept of interrupting* to create a more responsible, healthy and sustainable form of participation in society gave us our name: interrupcion*.? The asterisk* symbolizes the process behind the product.? It reminds us to look at the positive impact we can have on the workers harvesting our fruits, their children, the producing communities, and the earth.? As we like to say, ?your purchase* is power?

2) What are the challenges to running a 100% fair trade business?

• Sharing risks with farmers by guaranteeing a fixed minimum price that covers costs and an additional fair trade premium that goes towards the vitality of the producing communities? health and education
• Nature and climate change create unpredictability for seasons and harvests, increasing risks for all involved

3) What are some of the current trends in fair trade and organic?

• GROWTH, new items, new markets
• Huge amounts of information is available to consumers regarding where the food came from and how it was made, and their learning
• Connecting with our food supply
• Nutrition and Vitality in our food

4) Fair trade seems to be at a crossroads. What do you see as the future of fair trade?

• A world where fair pay for fair work, and positive environmental processes, exist as a standard in our food system.
• Where we can buy fairly traded food at the supermarket, or the local farmers market, in our produce, and in our shelf stable groceries.
• Greater accessibility to all global citizens despite class or geography

5) Please share a success story from one of your producer partners.

During 2009-2010, Interrupcion* Fair Trade sold over 58,000 boxes of fair trade organic blueberries from our Chilean partners Green Tribe.? Accumulating over $26,000 in Fair Trade Premiums, the group was able to provide immediate relief to Chile after the country was struck with a massive earthquake in February 2010. By investing nearly half of the premiums towards relief, families were provided with emergency houses, materials were provided for any necessary reconstruction, and aid was provided for the proper treatment of waste. In just moments, The Fair Trade premiums were translated into a sense of hope, strength, and refuge for a community at large?true success in their eyes. ?They developed centers of recreation for families as a way to meet the immediate social needs of their communities. Further, students in the community were given financial aid for payment to enroll in school, and recently, the Ancoa River was cleaned to improve community aesthetics as well as to return times of leisure, and relaxation to families and friends. Our producers in Argentina have focused their Fair Trade Premium investments on economic sustainability, providing the unemployed with jobs, and workers with necessary materials and technologies, such as computers and television sets. ?Interrupcion* Fair Trade Blueberries have been a key player in the development of health, education, and social and economic sustainability of our blueberry communities.? It is every time we learn of the story of Mr. Paez?s son who had a tumor that affected his mobility, but had a beautiful room constructed for him that was funded by an Interrupcion* Fair Trade premium, that you understand what purchasing these products truly means, and it means success.

6) What is next for Interrupcion* ?

• Fair Trade Bananas from the Dominican Republic, Asparagus from Peru and Argentina, Cherries and Blueberries from Chile, Strawberries and Raspberries and Blackberries and avocados from Mexico, snow peas and string beans from Guatemala, Pineapple Fresh Cuts from Costa Rica
• We imagine growing our community and going from working with 15,000 rural laborers in 2010 to 15 million in the decades ahead, creating a virtual positive cycle of commerce that benefits all of its stakeholders*

Michela* Calabrese

Director of Stakeholder Communications, interrupcion* fair trade

michela.calabrese@interrupcion.net

For more information about? interrupcion* fair trade please check out their website. www.interrupcionfairtrade.com

The post Interview with Interrupcion* Fair Trade’s Michela* Calabrese appeared first on Fair World Project.

In the lead up to Hershey’s shareholder meeting, a number of NGOs, children’s rights supporters and labor activists have mobilized to encourage Hershey’s to source fair trade cocoa. The Organic Consumers Association launched an online letter writing campaign that has generated over 5,000 letters to Hershey to date.

The Raise the Bar campaign has successfully mobilized thousands of consumers and activists to pressure Hershey’s to go fair trade and eliminate forced labor, human trafficking, and abusive child labor in their supply chain.

Raise the Bar also sponsored a “Brand Jam” for creative activists to jam the Hershey brand and expose its policies on human trafficking and child labor. See the winning submission below.

Go further! Read the Fair World Project’s article: Chocolate, the Bitter and the Sweet.

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