Bitter Sweet Chocolate

February, and especially Valentine's Day bring up the bitter-sweet issues surrounding chocolate. The holiday itself is a candy binge date, with over US$1 billion being sold in the US alone, and a large portion of it being that dark, decadent, divine elixir - chocolate. From its origin as a part of sacred ritual, chocolate has grown into a US$60 billion industry worldwide. And the industrial power behind that growth is not filled with the love we try to express in the gift of chocolate. In fact, over 200,000 children are working in Africa's cacao farms (most of them in Ivory Coast), and slavery is reported on many farms, according to the US State Department (read more at TreeHugger, Natural Awakenings Magazine, and Global Exchange ).

Shocking as it is, the news is not all bad. In fact, the dire situation has fueled the growth in the fair trade alternative as more people find out that they don't have to support corporate-condoned slavery. Based on longterm contracts, sustainable livelihoods, human rights, and environmental protections, fair trade has lead to new opportunities for farmers and cooperatives internationally. The Kallari family cooperative in Ecuador is one such inspiring story made possible by the movement (and an outstanding chocolate!). Now the movement is spreading to more romantic reaches! You can now get wine's US debut, Guayaki has a "kundalini" bottled drink blended with its fair trade yerba mate, to jewelry. For more on fair trade and to find fair trade goods, check out the Fair Trade Federation and TransfairUSA.

The Expanding Discussion

As the movement has grown, people have begun to extend the concept of fair trade. The United Students for Fair Trade will gather young, passionate, and talented students for their 2007 Convergence (Feb 16-19, 2007) in Boston. Their agenda explores far and wide in what fair trade is and looks into the issues at its perifery as well, including new advances in domestic fair trade (see here or here).

In 2004, ifPeople began applying the concept of fair trade to trade is services, which led to FairSource for software development. In its November 2006 edition, the fair trade journal Just Things, examined connections between open source software as a form of fair trade. Check out the issue (PDF).

These new flavors of fair trade complement the richness of the movement established by the work of FLO, FTF, IFAT and others. That richness was recently unveiled in a new book: Business Unusual: Successes and Challenges of Fair Trade.

It's an exciting time to be part of this movement! People are questioning globalization's problems and coming up with alternatives, new approaches, local economy models, and more. And we are all part of the solution!

On the Horizon

Look out for upcoming Fair Trade events:

• Spring FTF conference
• World Fair Trade Day, May 12, 2007 theme of "Kid's Need Fair Trade"
• "Fair Trade at Heart," May 12-17, 2007, IFAT conference,
  
• Fair Trade Month, October