MIAMI — Farmworkers, union members and activists marched through city streets to Burger King headquarters Friday to protest low wages for tomato pickers and alleged exploitation of field workers. (more…)
Fair Trade Headlines
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Groundbreaking New Research on “Conscious Consumers” November 26, 2007 -
BBMG
NEW YORK – Monday, Nov. 5, 2007 – America’s consumers offer a warning to business leaders and marketers looking to ride the green wave: either back your eco-friendly words with socially responsible actions or risk a backlash. In the first major study to combine field observations with a national survey on purchasing behavior and social values, increasingly conscious consumers are demanding that companies be transparent about their practices and accountable for their impact on people and the planet. (more…) TransFair USA Unites Wal-Mart, Cafe Bom Dia, USAID to Support Fair Trade Farmers with Expertise and Investment November 19, 2007 -
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ — TransFair USA, the nation’s third-party, independent certifier of Fair Trade Certified(TM) products, has united the U.S. government, the world’s largest retailer and a leading coffee company in a three-year, $1.9 million public-private agreement to support Brazilian farmers producing Fair Trade Certified coffee and cooperatives with technical training and infrastructure investment. (more…) Farmers in developing world hurt by ‘eat local’ philosophy in U.S. November 18, 2007 -
San Francisco Chronicle
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…) Stemming the blood behind the diamonds November 10, 2007 -
Financial Times (London, England)
Pg. 18 –With a US embargo on Burmese diamonds, horror stories of “dirty gold” and the forthcoming film Blood Diamond, in which stones are the currency of war, shopping for a trinket this Christmas could be tricky for the well-intentioned. Unlike chocolates or coffee, there is to date no “fair trade” certified jewellery. (more…) ‘Fair trade’ denotes decent wages and working conditions November 8, 2007 -
Newhouse News Service
Coffee beans at Starbucks, bananas at the grocery store, beaded jewelry at a local gift shop. The “fair trade” logo seems to be popping up all over. And while you might like the sound of it who doesn’t want to play fair? do you know what the term really represents? (more…) Democracy Now! Airs Fair Trade Story - Listen Now October 29, 2007 -
Democracy Now!
Yocser Carranza Godoy, president of the worker-controlled cooperative called Coopetrabasur and the cooperative’s attorney Carlos Eugenio Vargas join Democracy Now! in New York to discuss the banana cooperative. (more…) Fair Trade in Bloom October 2, 2007 -
The New York Times
VARGINHA, Brazil — Rafael de Paiva was skeptical at first. If he wanted a “fair trade” certification for his coffee crop, the Brazilian farmer would have to adhere to a long list of rules on pesticides, farming techniques, recycling and other matters. He even had to show that his children were enrolled in school. (more…) Honest Tea Anchors the Green Zone September 17, 2007 -
The Washington Post
The floors are bamboo. The island in the kitchen is IceStone, made of recycled glass and concrete. The brick encasing the structural columns was salvaged from a Baltimore construction site.Welcome to Honest Tea’s new headquarters, in downtown Bethesda, where company co-founder Seth Goldman is expanding his company’s fair-trade, organic, healthy beverage business by moving into a 4,800-square-foot office with as little impact on the environment as possible. (more…) To Burundi and Beyond for Coffee’s Holy Grail September 12, 2007 -
The New York Times
DUANE SORENSON had planned to fly to Yemen, rattle up dirt roads in dusty four-by-fours and dart through the Arabian sky in prop planes as he toured the country searching for open-minded coffee growers. Mr. Sorenson, who is the owner of Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland, Ore., intended to offer the farmers more money than anyone ever had before in return for a promise to improve their crops.But a mix-up with his passport left him stuck in Washington. Disappointed but undeterred, he boarded a plane for Guatemala City instead. When he arrived, he ate tortillas, beans and tilapia with the owner of Finca El Injerto in the western Huehuetenango department, one of the most celebrated coffee farms in Central America. (more…) |