Tag Archive for trade

Sweet–and Fair–Fundraising

February 4, 2020 Comments Off on Sweet–and Fair–Fundraising

There’s a knock at the door.  It’s a youngster with chocolate bars.  You buy because you want to support the soccer team.  Warning: in your eagerness to help one group, you may be harming another.  Do you know where the cocoa beans came from?  Were the growers paid fairly for their work?  Enough to feed their families and meet basic needs?  Most likely, the workers, including very young children, are living in poverty in another country, and their hard work doesn’t earn them enough to climb out of hardship. 

Meanwhile, fundraisers enjoy big profits, passing on a tiny amount to your soccer kids.  Next time your group wants to raise money, suggest a compassionate alternative, Fair Trade Chocolate.  For example, there is Divine Fair Trade Chocolate, the first brand in the world to be farmer-owned (www.divinechocolate.com).  Or try one of these which are fair to the growers and kind to the earth: www.equalexchange.com, www.sweetearthchocolates.com,www.ChocolateBar.com, or www.VosgesChocolate.com.  Some offer discounts for fundraisers. 

What a deal — the kids raise money, social consciousness, and quality of life for families all at the same time!

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Guilt-Free Chocolate

March 28, 2018 Comments Off on Guilt-Free Chocolate

What is the first secular thing that comes to mind with the word “Easter”?  Chocolate, of  course.  Chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies…gobs of chocolate that make our minds twitch with guilty pleasure.

How about guilt-free chocolate?  The pounds may stay, but not regrets about how that yummy stuff got to us.  The same with coffee, tea, rice, sugar, juice, honey, wine, flowers, crafts–all sorts of things that often reach our homes through the mistreatment of people in other countries.  Many, often young children, work under harsh conditions to support their families.  But it’s the only work available.  The FAIR-TRADE MOVEMENT aims to change this, to provide employment, fair wages, decent conditions, and money that goes back into their communities for health and education.  This is not “free trade,” which is political, among nations, but “fair trade,” valuing the well-being of people.

Participate by buying products on-line (Google “Fair Trade”) or at Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Cost Plus, Peet’s, Starbucks, and elsewhere.  Watch for the “Fair Trade” symbol on packages.  Ask the manager.  Make your interest known.  Then, maybe just one more nibble wouldn’t hurt….

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Sweet and Fair

February 11, 2017 Comments Off on Sweet and Fair

You still have a few days to find the perfect chocolate for your Valentine—fair trade chocolate that promotes social, economic, and environmental projects, protecting both the workers and the Earth.  Look for the Fair Trade label on products where you shop.

Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

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Sad News: No More Chocolate

November 18, 2014 Comments Off on Sad News: No More Chocolate

Get out your Kleenex, fellow chocolate-lovers.  Soon the cocoa plant–chocolate is made from its seeds–may be be no more.  Disease and pests are killing off cocoa crops, thanks in large part to monoculture, a cultivation method that makes the plants especially susceptible.

The main cause, though, according to many experts, falls in the lap of business. Although large corporations rake in the money, farmers have little incentive to grow cocoa because they make less than $1 a day doing so–not enough to support a farmer and his family.

Researchers are studying ways to save cocoa, which will take years. Right now, farmers can help by using sustainable farming methods in place of monoculture. They’re willing to do that, but it will take teamwork, with governments and us, so that farming this crop is practical.  Governments need to enact Fair Trade Agreements. Note that this isn’t “free Trade” but “FAIR Trade.” That’s a system in which more of the money goes to the actual workers and small farm owners rather than big agribusiness (people who’ve never even stepped foot on a farm).  As for us, we should buy Fair Trade chocolate for ourselves and as gifts, thus supporting the farmers who will then cultivate more cocoa for us to enjoy.

This is something to think about during this upcoming season of indulging ourselves.  Save chocolate and improve peoples’ lives: urge our legislators to make Fair Trade agreements, and buy Fair Trade chocolate.

 

 

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To Lighten Up, I’ll “Break the Ice”

April 9, 2014 Comments Off on To Lighten Up, I’ll “Break the Ice”

After two very serious days of blogs, I need to lighten up a bit.  To do so, I offer another origin of an often-used phrase, “break the ice,” meaning, of course, to do something when meeting a person to help get over that first discomfort, shyness, or embarrassment, to break through a feeling of formality.

The phrase came from the 18th century, when ice-breaking ships were invented to clear a path through the ice in a river so that harsh weather didn’t prevent trade.  Because of these ships, which broke through to the Polar regions, people were able to communicate with and get to know people the ice had prevented contact with previously.

[For you pedants, this is known as a “dead metaphor”–a comparison that has been used so often that nobody remembers the comparison, or metaphor.]

 

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