Zarah Patriana - Global Exchange

Elizabeth & Shelley at Hershey's

Today, the Hershey Company’s board of directors and shareholders came together for their annual meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

So, what better day than today to call on Hershey’s to chart a new course into a future free of child labor and poverty in communities that grow the company’s cocoa.

Green America’s Fair Trade coordinator, Elizabeth O’Connell and former Global Exchange Fair Trade intern, Shelley Alingas attended the shareholder meeting and were able to get up to the microphone and ask questions about child labor and speak out on behalf of the thousands of West African children forced into labor on the cocoa fields during the Q&A period.

The Raise the Bar, Hershey Campaign, sponsored by Global Exchange, Green America, and the International Labor Rights Forum, also used today to announce the winners of the Hershey Brand Jamming contest. The Brand Jamming contest brought attention to Hershey’s failure to crack down on child labor and other abuses in its cocoa supply chain by asking activists all over to use their creativity to create mock advertisements telling Hershey’s to raise the bar on their corporate social responsibility.

The Grand Prize overall winner of $1,000 was Jason Pearson of San Clemente, CA whose one-minute mock video advertisement “Brand Jam” tells the real story of where cocoa comes from.

Thousands of people all over voted for their favorite entries for the best slogan, best video, and best ad. Congratulations to all our winners and entrants! A big thank you also goes out to all those who voted.

The winner for Best Slogan: “Hershey: Sweet Chocolate. Bitter Story” submitted by Tyson Weems of Portland, ME.

The winner for Best Video: Behind the Hershey Smiles, submitted by Aaron Thurman: Indianapolis, IN.

The winner for Best Poster: Children Behind Bars, submitted by Jason Pearson of San Clemente, CA

All first place winners will receive a Fair Trade chocolate gift basket. The winning entries will be used by the Raise the Bar Hershey campaign to call attention to Hershey’s failure to address child and forced labor in its cocoa supply chain. Winning entries will be featured at Green Festivals nationwide, on t-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers. For more on the winners and a list of the runner-ups, visit the Brand Jam winners page.

To reinforce the message that has been sent at the Hershey’s shareholder meeting concerned consumers across the country are sending emails to Hershey and posting on the company’s Facebook wall. They join the 30,000 people who have already contacted the company to make it clear that cocoa made with forced child labor is unacceptable.

As GX’s Fair Trade Cocoa Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel states:

“Hershey shareholders deserve to know the facts: Hershey has failed to eliminate child and forced labor from its cocoa supply chain, nearly a decade after committing to do so. This creates a dangerous level of risk for investors, and an intolerable situation for the children effected.”

Let your voice be heard. Send a message to Hershey’s board and shareholders by signing our online petition. We are trying to collect 10,000 new signatures today to send a clear message to shareholders.

Stay connected with Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa campaign by signing up to their e-mail list and get the latest updates on the Raise the Bar campaign and other actions you can take to get Hershey’s to go Fair Trade.

For Tuesday’s Fair Trade round-up, the lovely Tex highlighted Ben & Jerry’s appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon where they introduced a new ice cream flavored packed with Fair Trade ingredients.

When I first saw the clip last week, I was among friends that work within the Fair Trade movement and we were just floored. Like, jaw-dropped, pointing at the screen and exclaiming, “Is this for real?” type of floored. If you haven’t seen the clip yet, I highly advise taking the time to watch it now and see what I am talking about. It was like seeing a really good friend on television.

Because for those in the movement who have been working hard throughout the years to promote and educate people about Fair Trade, this four minute segment on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon just increased the visibility and knowledge of Fair Trade to a whole new (and bigger) audience.

Every flash of the shirt with the Fair Trade Certified logo, and every time ‘Fair Trade’ was mentioned, was a huge opportunity, in a way, to open up the concept of Fair Trade into people’s homes and into their minds.

Not only was it great that Jimmy Fallon worked with Ben & Jerry to create the new (and delicious sounding) ice cream flavor, Late Night Snack, but Fallon is further putting his support behind advocating for Fair Trade by donating the profits of the ice cream to Fair Trade Universities, an initiative helping students increase awareness and availability of FT products on campuses around the country.

Jimmy Fallon. How are we not friends? We have so much in common: We both love Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to the point where a song can be sung about it. We both love The Roots (Jimmy Fallon’s house band). We love Top Chef. And now, we’re both Fair Trade advocates. Let’s be friends.

On that note, I encourage everyone to visit a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop to find Late Night Snack, with Fair Trade vanilla ice cream, caramel and Fair Trade fudge covered potato chips. Already given an A grade by SlashFood. So delicious, that Stephen Colbert is already declaring an ice cream war.

However, it is only once Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream is converted to Fair Trade Certified ingredients will it be able to compete. He’s in luck though, because Ben & Jerry’s has already made the commitment to make the full FT switch by 2013. Good news for Chubby Hubbies, Chunky Monkeys and Fair Trade producers around the world.

And because we (I) can’t get enough…

It is said that more than 58 million pounds of chocolate is purchased for Valentine’s Day each year. Unfortunately, behind those chocolate treats lies the sinister truth of child and forced labor in the cocoa fields.

Child, forced and trafficked labor remain widespread in the West African cocoa fields, which is the source of 70% of the world’s cocoa. Fortunately, there is a way you can take action today to help bring an end to child slavery, poverty and environmental degradation in the cocoa fields, and that is through Fair Trade.

For four years, Global Exchange has organized its National Valentine’s Day of Action by encouraging educators nationwide to bring social justice into the classrooms by teaching Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa curriculum. Bringing Fair Trade into the classrooms teaches the youth to support small farmers across the world, who are standing up against exploitation by transforming trade one cocoa bean at a time.

Help us reach our goal of reaching 4,500 youth and you’ll be eligible to win a Fair Trade prize!

I’m an educator and I’m interested in teaching the Fair Trade curriculum. Please send my FREE Fair Trade organic cocoa beans to use with the unit!

I’m excited to win a Fair Trade prize! I know an educator and would love to refer them to the free Fair Trade Curriculum available online.

Once you’ve done that, here are more actions to take to make this Valentine’s Day a Fair Trade one.

I’d LOVE to make or color in valentines asking Hershey to have a heart and start sourcing Fair Trade. (Scan/email your valentine and get 10% off Global Exchange stores.)

I would like to host a Dark Side of Chocolate film screening during the National Week of Action, February 4-14.

I plan to shower my sweetie with Fair Trade chocolate this Valentine’s Day, by shopping at Global Exchange Fair Trade store’s Valentine’s Day page.

Stay updated on the Global Exchange Fair Trade campaign all year long to find out how to take action the rest of the year.

A group of businesses, organizations and consumers are accusing TransFair USA of attempting to own the term ‘Fair Trade’.

In October of last year, TransFair USA officially changed their name to Fair Trade USA, thus sparking the debate within the Fair Trade movement about the ramifications of one organization claiming ownership of the term ‘Fair Trade.’ On Monday, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) sent out a petition urging everyone to tell TransFair USA that “Fair Trade is a movement, not a brand.”

One organization, TransFair USA, is currently in the process of changing its name to “Fair Trade USA” and applied for the name to be trademarked. Such an umbrella phrase attempts to legally claim, as an exclusive brand, a term that encompasses this broad movement far beyond its specific work.
[We] believe that the term [Fair Trade] should be celebrated as a movement, not a brand claimed by any one organization.

In a press release from Fair Trade USA regarding their name change they stated that, “[their] updated, simplified name and brand identity will support the organization’s efforts to increase awareness of Fair Trade among a broader consumer audience, increase sales of Fair Trade Certified™ products, and generate more benefits for farmers and workers around the world.”

Currently, Fair Trade USA works with 800 companies and has certified more than 6,000 products since its founding in 1998. Already a big force in the Fair Trade movement, is their name change a way of claiming ‘Fair Trade’ as an exclusive brand for themselves as OCA contends or will this organizational identity shift benefit the movement as a whole by increasing the name and concept recognition of ‘Fair Trade’ as Fair Trade USA states?

Since the petition was released in early January 2011, the coalition against the rebranding of Fair Trade USA has expanded to include leading Fair Trade organizations and companies such as Fair Trade Federation and Equal Exchange as well as over 8,000 consumers.

Such an overwhelming response has not gone unnoticed by Fair Trade USA as they e-mailed the United Students for Fair Trade listserv in response to the petition:

Regarding our new name, we have, in fact, submitted a service mark application for our new corporate name and logo “Fair Trade USA.” We believe that this is appropriate as the U.S. member of the umbrella organization, Fairtrade International.

We do agree that Fair Trade is a movement, not a brand. Therefore, we will
not attempt to trademark [the] term ‘Fair Trade.’ In fact, no one can trademark a fair use term such as ‘Fair Trade.’ That’s why groups like the Fair Trade Resource Network, Fair Trade Federation, and the Domestic Fair Trade Alliance all have the words “Fair Trade” in their names.

A debate like this is just part of the growing pains that have come with a movement that has greatly expanded in the last few years, and one in which only time and open dialogue will help bring all sides to a working consensus.

However, in the end we should all be able to agree that Fair Trade is a unifying force with the ultimate goal of bringing fairness and justice to the trade table.

Have something to share regarding this debate? Who owns Fair Trade? Is it somebody, nobody, or everybody? Be part of the open dialogue and weigh in on the issue in the comments section below.

Cross-posted from the Global Exchange People-to-People blog for the 8-part “Giving Thanks” series. Global Exchange is highlighting individuals who are contributing to our social justice work in some way. Join me in thanking fellow travelers, activists and past Reality Tours participants, Anne Kelly and Mark Van Wormer.

I met Anne and Mark on a Reality Tour delegation to Nicaragua in 2008. The delegation focused on Fair Trade and Alternatives to Neo-Liberalism and everyone on the trip was interested in the issue of Fair Trade just like myself, so I knew I would find common ground with my fellow travelers. Little did I know that I would also make some long lasting friendships with fellow social justice activists.

On the delegation we shared an incredible experience of meeting with different human rights activists, indigenous groups, labor unionists and even got to slide down a volcano. However, I think the most eye opening part of the delegation was our stay at La Corona, a Fair Trade coffee cooperative where we met with Fair Trade farmers and were able to see first hand the positive benefits of the Fair Trade system. For Fair Trade advocates, this experience really contextualized our work as activists, and gave us fuel to energize the movement back home.

Anne and Mark have since strengthened their work as Fair Trade activists at home in New York, even going on another Reality Tour delegation to Guatemala, connecting with more Fair Trade activists and women’s cooperatives. Anne is currently working at the the Labor-Religion Coalition of NY State where she is the Fair Trade Coordinator and working with teachers who are engaging a new generation of activists. She has even made strong connections with Global Exchange’s Fair Trade cocoa campaign being participating organizations in both the Give Fair Trade and Reverse Trick-or-Treating campaigns.

I just love that kids are learning what solidarity means – that we are all connected and that injustice in one part of the world impacts us all. That, of course, is central to my work with labor unions too. Social justice and human rights issues – the dignity of the worker, living wage, working against oppression, the right to organize – are union issues too and Fair Trade embodies all these concerns.

Our delegation at La Corona Cooperative in Nicaragua.

Mark is a photographer and teaches photo, video and digital imaging at Emma Willard, a private independent school for girls. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Mark has produced volumes of novels. Mark has been able to use his photography to share his Fair Trade stories, even having some of his (and Anne’s) photos featured in the 2011 Fair Trade calendar by the Fair Trade Resource Network. See those photos and more at Mark’s photography website.

Together, both Anne and Mark have been able to make an impact by engaging the students at Emma Willard to make it the first Fair Trade high school in all of US. A tremendous feat for the Fair Trade Universities movement!

And it is these stories from Anne and Mark that I am extending a very warm thank you from me and Global Exchange for being exceptional Reality Tours participants and being a great example of global citizens amongst the Global Exchange community and beyond. They have been able to take their experience on two delegations of meeting the people, learning the facts and then making a real difference. As Anne shares:

I am grateful, so much, for the doors that have been opened to me through my connection with Global Exchange. I continue to be inspired, every day, by the people and places we connected with on our trips. You know about how wonderful our Nicaragua experience was. To be welcomed, deeply, into peoples’ lives and their struggles is humbling beyond words and enriches my life. Our trip to Guatemala has also connected us. We’re now on the board of Mayan Hands, an absolutely wonderful FT organization that works with Mayan weavers in the highlands of Guatemala. We’ve been back (me to learn Spanish!) and folks from Mayan Hands have even come to visit us. It was exciting to bring them to classrooms and to see FT stores here in the US.

I feel very lucky to have met Anne and Mark and am absolutely thrilled to be able to share their stories with you. Thank you!

Make your own long lasting connections and go on a Reality Tour delegation.

Read all the posts from the Giving Thanks series and don’t miss the “Giving Thanks’ video to debut on Wednesday, November 24th.

Believe it or not, but the holiday season is finally upon us. A few years ago, Global Exchange developed the Fair Trade Holiday Gift Pledge in order to increase awareness of Fair Trade and garner commitments from consumers to buy Fair Trade during the holidays and the coming year.

Well, this year we’ve taken it a few steps further and have partnered with some incredible Fair Trade advocates nationwide to make it easier to shop Fair Trade while helping you save money along the way by offering exclusive Fair Trade discounts.

Announcing the Give Fair Trade Campaign!

Step one. Take the Fair Trade Holiday Gift Pledge and make your commitment to increase awareness about Fair Trade to your community and shop Fair Trade this holiday season.

Step two. Register your pledge, so we can keep track of how many people are taking the challenge.

Step three. Head over to the Give Fair Trade campaign blog and find out about the daily featured Fair Trade gift and special offers, as well as moving stories behind the item’s producers. These features will run from November 15th to December 20th and are available exclusively to Fair Traders like yourself.

And why should you take the Give Fair Trade pledge? Well…

Each gift empowers farmers and artisans with dignified work, and adequate incomes to access nutrition, health care, education, etc for their families
If all of us Give Fair Trade this year, our collective purchasing power will have an enormous impact on lifting families out of poverty
Great Fair Trade gifts are available for everyone on your list, both kids and adults (even coworker/corporate gifts, like bags of Fair Trade coffee)
Giving Fair Trade gifts is an easy way to shift some of your purchasing to Fair Trade.
You will educate the person receiving the gift about Fair Trade.
Make holiday shopping a breeze…walk into a Fair Trade shop (or online store) with your holiday shopping list and walk out with your holiday shopping complete (and maybe wrapped)!

Take the pledge and get involved with the Give Fair Trade campaign this year! For an easy way to get those daily deal doses, follow @GiveFairTrade on twitter. Also, spread the word of the campaign to your friends, colleagues and community by passing out flyers.

A special thanks to the Give Fair Trade campaign organizers, Equal Exchange, Fair Trade Federation, Fair Trade LA, Fair Trade Resource Network, Fair Trade Towns, Fair Trade USA, Global Exchange, Green America, NY State Labor-Religion Coalition, Oasis, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church-General Board on Church and Society, United Methodist Committee on Relief and additional partners, DC Fair Trade Network & Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition.

Global Exchange’s Sweet Smarts campaign teaches advocacy skills to kids and youth whose outreach educates communities about Fair Trade. With the official campaign officially kicking off just a few months ago, San Francisco’s chapter leader, 10 year old Marie Hogan is already drawing a crowd.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

At this fall’s Green Festival in San Francisco, Marie addressed an attentive crowd as she exposed the dark side of chocolate and explained what Fair Trade is doing to fix it, “one bite of chocolate at a time.” She relayed her experience of participating in the Sweet Smarts program and advocated for ways that everyone could get involved in the Fair Trade movement. From tabling, getting Fair trade in supermarkets, to Reverse Trick-or-Treating, Marie has educated her community about the appalling child trafficking and slavery on cocoa farms and how Fair Trade prohibits these practices.

Watch a clip of her presentation at the Green Festival and hear her urge the crowd about the necessity of Fair Trade to end child labor in the cocoa industry and for everyone – especially the youth – to get involved, because it’s not about kids helping kids, it’s about kids fighting for kids.

Sweet Smarts Captain Marie Hogan Presents at Green Festival 2010 from Global Exchange on Vimeo.

Find out how you can start your own Sweet Smarts chapter in your community. Get started with your first event by hosting a screening of the latest documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate.

In September, Hershey’s issued their first-ever Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, yet failed to mention any real solutions to issues of forced and child labor that persist in its supply chain. As a response, Global Exchange and ally organizations, Green America, International Labor Rights Forum, and Oasis USA issued an alternative report CSR report encouraging Hershey to increase its transparency in its cocoa supply.

At the Green Festival in San Francisco this past weekend, Global Exchange and Green America issued the Hershey’s Challenge in order to gather as many petition signatures on the Hershey’s: Raise the Bar campaign. We hoped to target the over 40,000 people in attendance and we’re looking to you to help surpass that goal as we begin to tally up the signatures.

Take action with us as we target Hershey’s CEO, David West and encourage him to Raise the Bar on his chocolate company. Mr. West received a compensation package of over $8million in 2009, while cocoa farmers in West Africa harvesting for Hershey’s were struggling to make ends meet and often employing abusive child labor on their farms. So, join us by signing the Raise the Bar petition and let Hershey’s know that consumers are demanding that they begin sourcing Fair Trade Certified cocoa.

Want to get inspired? These 6th grade students in Joi Chimera’s class in New York are already taking action as you can see in their Raise the Bar drawings asking Hershey’s to take child labor out of the chocolate equation.

So join these students who are speaking up for children in West Africa and demand Hershey’s and the rest of the cocoa industry commit to Fair Trade Certified cocoa.

A special thanks to Anne Kelly at the New York Labor-Religion Coalition for sending over these photos and the amazing work she and the NY Labor-Religion Coalition has done for the Raise the Bar campaign and the Fair Trade movement. Also thanks to Ms. Chimera’s class for getting involved and producing these amazing drawings.

Halloween is over, but keep the celebration going and start thinking about the holidays. Fair Trade Federation Executive Director, Carmen Iezzi offered to write a guest blog post for Global Exchange to highlight the newly released FTF Holiday Gift Guide for all your Fair Trade gifting needs.

We all know that the holidays are a time for reconnecting with family and friends. They are also a time to connect with our global community. When you support Fair Trade, you become part of a network of people dedicated to facilitating change for disadvantaged artisans and farmers.

To make this process simple, the Fair Trade Federation has created a NEW holiday gift guide full of products that empower women, provide education for children, heal the earth, and so much more!

It’s easy! You can just click on the link in each profile and visit FairTrade.us, an independent online news magazine celebrating Fair Trade, to read a full review of these and other great products and link directly to the seller of each one!

Whether you’re looking for a gift for Mom, Dad, the kids, or to dress your home in style, your purchases change lives! All of the gifts in this guide are sold by fully committed Fair Trade Organizations – members of the Fair Trade Federation – so you know these great choices really do make a difference.

Celebrate Fair Trade
In addition to the great items in the guide, they have even more ideas to Fair Trade your holiday and your life:

Prepare a great Fair Trade Dish,
Educate your Community with Films and Speakers,
Invest in or Donate to a Fair Trade Organization,
Host a Fair Trade Home Party when the weather’s too bad to go out,
Suggest your office choose Fair Trade for its Corporate Gifts,
So much more!!

At www.FairTradeFederation.org and www.FairTrade.us, you can find these and other great ways to be an advocate for change throughout the year.

For more than sixty years, Fair Trade Organizations have connected you with artisans and farmers across the globe by delivering high quality products that create a tremendous impact on their communities. This holiday season, let’s continue that momentum for change.

Be sure to check out this gift guide for a list of great places to get Fair Trade gifts this holiday season, including our own Global Exchange stores.

Also, you can find out more about Carmen Iezzi in this Change.org Faces of Fair Trade feature on her.

Fair Trade Activists Take on Hershey’s