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www.greenlagirl.com Green LA Girl
Buying coffee with a conscience can be complicated these days. Sure, you can look for the fair trade certified sticker, awarded by TransFair USA, but a new company seems to come out with their own allegedly “better than fair trade” program every day.
Should you buy one of those coffees instead? Some of these “better than fair trade” programs are actually really hardcore, while others are simple greenwashing tactics — and most are somewhere in between. Deciphering between them, however, is a tough, time consuming job, even when it is actually achievable….
This is the reason that Dean Cycon of Dean’s Beans, one of the first activist companies that pioneered fair trade coffee in the US, is going back to fair trade certification. Yes, I said going back, not simply joining. Dean’s Beans, along with Just Coffee and Larry’s Beans, left the fair trade roster back in 2004, alleging that the fair trade certification standards had gotten too watered down. (more…)
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YES! Magazine Frances Moore Lappé
Critics of “go local” movements warn that buying local deprives people in developing countries of jobs that could lift them out of poverty. But the global economy isn’t that simple. (more…)
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San Francisco Chronicle William Moseley
Increasing awareness of climate change has transformed the way Americans think about organic food. While organic consumers used to focus on how food was produced, such as whether pesticides were used, they now are also concerned about how far food has traveled to arrive at their plate. The issue is that greater distances often equate to more energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)
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United Students for Fair Trade Christina Lizzi
Food First recently release the report: Fair to the Last Drop: The Corporate Challenges to Fair Trade Coffee by Eric Holt-Giménez, Ian Bailey, and Devon Sampson. You can find it at: http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1794
Fair to the Last Drop gives a great introduction to the history of Fair Trade and then seeks to present the challenge of corporate participation in Fair Trade.
The report looks at the evolution of the Fair Trade movement and the push in the last few years led by Transfair for the mainstreaming of the FT movement. (more…)
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The International Herald Tribune Daniel Altman - The New York Times Media Group
SECTION: FINANCE; Pg. 15
The International Herald Tribune’s global economics columnist, Daniel Altman, recently moderated an online discussion about foreign aid between readers and Jagdish Bhagwati, a leading trade theorist at Columbia University and senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Here are some of the questions and excerpts from his responses. (more…)
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The Toronto Star
SECTION: OPINION; Pg. AA08
The Dalai Lama speaks today at the Rogers Center. He is coming to deliver a talk on human happiness, but it is his presence and his example that is shifting the priorities of local business in Toronto. (more…)
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South China Morning Post Evelyn Fok
[FTRN: On October 31, a series of students' letters to the editor appeared in the South China Morning Post. This one pertains to Fair Trade.]
The gap between the rich and the poor has risen dramatically over the past decades.
There is a lot that has to be done. We can help solve this problem through equal global wealth distribution. (more…)
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TheStreet.com Ellen Gunn
My ethics make me an ideal candidate to be a big fan of fair-trade products. But, truth be told, I could use a little more fair and a little more trade brewed into my coffee, sweetened with a real sense that I’m getting my money’s worth of beans.
I’m as much a capitalist as anyone, but I believe the first rule of responsible capitalism is do no harm. When it won’t completely bust the budget, I shop with an eye on the big picture. (more…)
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TreeHugger.com Jasmin Malik Chua
Dunkin’ Donuts has never broadcast the fact that all its espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes are 100 percent-certified fair trade. Till now, that is, if you can call placing a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fair-trade sticker on its store doors tooting its own horn.
In this age of corporate-social-responsibility initiatives and greenwashing, this relatively demure PR stance borders on mindboggling. One coffee giant would be screeching this fact from the mountaintops, or, at the very least, the Columbia (more…)
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Sunday Age (Melbourne, Australia) Christopher Bantick
Q: Can we ever be ethical consumers?
I BLAME Al Gore. In our house we have adopted a policy of one light on per room. We have tried to reduce greenhouse gases by going through cupboards, tossing out aerosols in an attempt to reduce household emissions.
But can we as consumers ever be completely ethical? (more…)
