Is any else as excited for Halloween as I am? Great excuse to dress up and pass out Fair Trade chocolate.

This year, we are happy to share that this year, tens of thousands of kids and adults will hand out Reverse Trick-or-Treating kits to 100,000 households in 49 states and the District of Columbia in the US and all over Canada this year! Yes! If you didn’t order an RTT kit this year, you can still get involved by passing out Reverse Trick-or-Treating and Raise the Hershey bar fliers.

You can also help spread awareness about child labor in the cocoa industry by hosting a screening of newly released documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate.

Other ways to get involved with Halloween this weekend:

  • Make an ad on Reese’s website raising awareness about forced and child labor in Hershey’s cocoa, and send it to all your friends.  If you make the ad by Monday, November 1 and CC it to fairtrade@greenamerica.org, Green America will send the best ads to Hershey.
  • According to his Facebook page, Stephen Colbert’s “March to Keep Fear Alive” is sponsored by Reese’s (owned by Hershey)!  For children in West Africa, Hershey’s/Reese’s are indeed keeping fear alive…the childrens’ fear of being trafficked into forced labor in the cocoa fields that grow cocoa for chocolate bars sold in the US.  There is a lot of buzz nationwide about this march, on Halloween eve…join the Raise the Bar Campaign in helping use that buzz to hold Hershey accountable.  If you have a Facebook account, leave a message on the wall of Stephen Colbert, the Colbert Report, and the March to Keep Fear Alive, as well as the Daily Show, raising awareness of the connection between Reese’s and child labor.  If you use Twitter, here are some suggested tweets:
  • @StephenAtHome the only thing scarier the #march4fear is the use of #ChildLabor in the production of #Reeses
  • @StephenAtHome #Reeses does have something to hide and it is scarier than peanuts: #ChildLabor
  • @ColbertReport #Reeses may contain dairy, peanuts and #ChildLabor.

Most importantly, have a safe and happy Halloween this weekend everyone!

The central Asian country of Uzbekistan is currently one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton, selling over 800,000 tons of this ‘white gold’ a year. However, behind this ‘white gold’ lies a dark story of widespread government-sponsored forced child labor and harrowing working conditions.

A report released by the International Labor Rights Forum, reveals that for decades the Uzbek government has used the forced labor of its schoolchildren starting in the early primary grades, college and university students, and civil servants, to harvest that cotton by hand. After the beginning of the school year, the government orders the closure of schools in order for children to report to the fields for the cotton harvest.

Working conditions are dangerous often leading to injuries and sometimes death. Children who refuse to participate in the cotton harvest are either beaten or face mental intimidation. Parents are unable to speak out against their children’s forced labor for fear of losing jobs or getting social services taken away.

This is where your voice is needed. The cotton harvest season has recently begun and just like every other year, children are being taken out of school, put in the fields and are missing out on much needed education. The cotton picked ends up on the clothes that you and I buy. Our allies at the International Labor Rights Forum have worked hard and have been able to get most major companies to speak out publicly about Uzbek cotton and/or develop company policies related to Uzbek cotton. Recently, Abercrombie & Fitch has announced that it has a policy of not sourcing Uzbek cotton, however Gymboree, the children’s clothing store, has consistently been unresponsive to inquiries from shareholders and advocates.

Global Exchange’s SweatFree campaign encourages you to take action to eradicate the use of child labor in Uzbek cotton fields. Demand that Gymboree end their silence.

For more information about child labor in Uzbekistan, visit the International Labor Rights Forum’s Cotton Campaign. Also be sure to watch Environmental Justice Foundation’s film: White Gold – The True Cost of Cotton.

White Gold – the true cost of cotton from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.

In addition, if you are in Washington, DC Sunday, October 24th, check out the Fair Trade Pavilion at the Green Festival. Naik Banavanthu from Global Exchange, along with Amanda White of Green America and Tim Newman of the International Labor Rights Forum will host a panel discussion titled, Fair Trade Cotton: Can it Make a Difference?

This panel will discuss issues in the process of producing cotton in India and its effects on small farmers, children and the environment. Speakers will also discuss the impact of Fair Trade cotton and apparel.

The panel will be Sunday, October 24th at 1:30PM.

photo credit: Noam Armonn

We’re now two weeks into Fair Trade Month, so let’s continue this National Month of Action by organizing a Youth Power Party to start a Sweet Smarts chapter of your own.

Global Exchange’s Sweet Smarts campaign is a national network of individuals, from young children to senior citizens, whose simple, creative actions to educate and advocate for Fair Trade certified products transform communities and corporations to support small farmers’ efforts to build a better future for their families.

With Sweet Smarts, we’re binding together to build the next generation of social justice and environmental leaders.  We have developed new activity guides, which offer a step by step process to become a Fair Trade advocate and help end poverty, child labor, and environmental degradation by raising awareness about Fair Trade.

Here’s a message from our Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel that is included in your Youth Power Party activity guide talking about the importance of educating your community about Fair Trade.

Sweet Smart Greeting from Global Exchange on Vimeo.

Every day this October FairTradeUSA will be highlighting several of the great companies that bring Fair Trade products to your grocer’s shelves, as well some of the international organizations that work closely with Fair Trade on the ground. Today is Global Exchange’s day! Stay tuned to the FairTradeUSA blog, Facebook page and Twitter page to see how you can enter to win a bag of Global Exchange label Thanksgiving Fair Trade coffee!

Cross-posted from the FairTradeUSA blog:

October is Fair Trade Month and Global Exchange wants you to get involved. It’s a month when we can celebrate the power that the Fair Trade movement has had around the world, linking you the consumer to the producer and their community. Throughout the years, Global Exchange has highlighted the importance of building the Fair Trade movement by making people-to-people ties in communities locally and globally.

This Halloween, get out your Fair Trade banana costume and participate in Reverse-Trick-or-Treating. The goal is for trick-or-treaters to switch it up and go door to door passing out informational cards attached with Fair Trade chocolate to raise awareness in their communities about poverty alleviation and economic justice for cocoa farmers around the world. Hear (and see) what last year’s participants had to say about this fun and creative action.

Can’t wait until the end of the month to help build the Fair Trade movement? Throughout October, you can participate in Global Exchange’s scavenger hunt which will bring you from the supermarket to the classroom and even to your Congressperson to promote an economic system that is better for workers and the planet. One clue will bring you to Global Exchange’s Fair Trade stores, where you will learn more about the producer groups we work with. One group of artisans we recently connected with in Rajasthan, India has been using an ancient technique of mud-block-printing to preserve a practice that is slowly disappearing while employing both men and women and strengthening the community.

Besides the incentive of spreading the Fair Trade word, participating in our scavenger hunt will make you eligible to win up to $200 in Fair Trade prizes. Build the movement and win.

With October well underway, it is time to reflect on the reasons behind making our purchases matter. With over 2.6 billion people in the world living in poverty, Fair Trade makes a difference in the lives of farmers, women and the environment. But only if people know about it.  Only 30% of Americans know what Fair Trade is—and we need your help to grow the movement this month. Join Global Exchange, Fair Trade USA and hundreds of other organizations and advocates out there to create a system of fairness, equality and sustainability.

Get more information of Global Exchange’s Fair Trade campaign: www.globalexchange.org/cocoa.
Pick coffee in Nicaragua, chocolate in the Dominican Republic, tea in Nepal or olives in Palestine on a Reality Tours Fair Trade delegation.
Visit our Fair Trade stores.
And of course, read our Fair Trade blog for the latest news and views of the movement.

This morning as I sat down at my desk, I flipped the page of my Fair Trade calendar and was greeted with a Happy Fair Trade Month! Every year, October is designated as Fair Trade Month where we come together to spread the world about how Fair Trade is benefiting small-scale producers and artisans and why Fair Trade matters to us all.

FairTradeUSA (formerly TransFairUSA) has set up the Fair Trade Month website where you can find out about Fair Trade events taking place all month, hear from farmers and workers around the world, and find fun and creative ways to get involved and build the Fair Trade movement in your own town and all over.

FairTradeUSA CEO, Paul Rice talking to the crowd.

A few nights ago, yours truly spent the evening with the FairTradeUSA crew in San Francisco at their Fair Trade Month kick-off party. The event was filled with fellow Fair Traders, delicious treats ranging from delicious truffles from CocoZen, hummus made with La Yapa Quinoa, AlterEco chocolate and then some. Yours truly also was the lucky winner of the raffle going home with a bottle of vodka made from Fair Trade quinoa. Win! It was a truly Fair Trade event even with a Fair Trade DJ with Corinne from Global Exchange’s San Francisco Store on the ones and twos. Great event.

Fair Trade win!

Happy Fair Trade Month everyone from Global Exchange! Get involved and take action all month long. Start with signing up for Reverse Trick-or-Treating! Then register your Fair Trade Month event. I will use this weekend to enjoy my Fair Trade prizes from the other night. Happy weekend all.

Mix a little bit of jet lag, a lotta bit of Fair Trade coffee and some in-depth discussions around Fair Trade and you can start to imagine my state of being right now.

I am currently in Boston, along with a gang of Global Exchangers and about 780 Fair Traders from all over the world for the Fair Trade Futures Conference where we have all come together meet and connect and talk about the movement.

We’re smack dab in the middle of the second day of the conference and it’s been a whirlwind of compelling speakers and interesting debates. In between sessions, people gather together to discuss panels they’ve just left and try to decide on the next panel discussion to attend. The halls of the convention are echoing with interesting discussions, stories and thoughts of the days events. For everyone it’s great to see old friends, finally meet colleagues we only know via conference call and e-mail and hear from producer groups who have traveled across the world for this conference.

Global Exchange is fully representing at the conference with Kevin Danaher opening up the day with a keynote speech on looking for answers of what Fair Trade is seeking to achieve and people throughout the day referring back to his speech in their panel discussions. GX is also displaying product from the wholesale line at the Fair Trade Marketplace each evening. Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel has a panel discussion about working with youth the create a Fair Trade Future and Social Media Director, Tex Dworkin is going to lead a discussion on how to spread the Fair Trade word through social media.

To follow the conference discussion in real-time, you can tune into the Fair Trade Futures Conference Social Media Cafe. See latest conference tweets or follow the Fair Trade Futures hashtag #FTFC10.

Lots of interesting discussions and debates are finally able to take place under one roof with all the major Fair Trade actors in one place. We’ll be sure to keep you all updated as the weekend goes on. A quick Fair Trade hello from Boston!

For women, the road to equality has been a long (and continuous) struggle. Today marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. And while women in the U.S. celebrate Women’s Equality Day, the Fair Trade cocoa cooperative in Ghana, Kuapa Kokoo marked a major milestone in the cooperative’s history by electing their first woman president, Christiana Ohene Agyare.

Ms. Ohene Agyare was elected the cooperative’s president after gaining 1,270 votes out of 1,720 votes, thus making her the first woman president of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union (KKFU) since the union formed over 16 years ago. As you may or may not know, Kuapa Kokoo is the supplier of cocoa for Divine Chocolate and in addition is also a major shareholder in Divine Chocolate, Inc.

Ms. Agyare herself has an 11 acre cocoa farm and has been the cooperative’s Treasurer for the past four years and serves as the Recorder of her village society.

Kuapa Kokoo has strongly promoted the participation of women at every level of the organization, so the election of a female president of a true testament to the cooperative’s long term commitment to gender equality.

TransFair USA spoke with Erin Gorman, CEO of Divine Chocolate USA,

“Divine Chocolate is thrilled to share the news of this historic election with consumers and businesses in America. Cocoa plays an important role in the lives of women cocoa farmers in West Africa and through Kuapa Kokoo and Divine these same women are afforded the opportunity to have a say and an impact in the global industry. Together with women (and men) who love chocolate in America, we will continue to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farming families.”

The principle that I truly admire about the Fair Trade system is that it promotes the empowerment of women and the strong role that women play in the movement in general. This news is a strong indicator of the strides that the movement makes to ensure that women get that voice to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those around them.

So, as we reflect on Women’s Equality Day, we think about the women around the world making their own strides for equality. A big thanks to our foremothers and suffragette sisters for keeping up the good fight and giving me and my fellow ladies a chance to speak up. We still have a long ways to go, but this story shows us that we’re slowly getting there.

While I think I can live with it being S’mores Day everyday during the summer, Hershey’s has designated August 10th as National S’mores Day. That’s tomorrow! We’re encouraging everyone to participate in National S’mores Day with Fair Trade chocolate with our Summertime S’mores campaign.

Enjoy this delicious holiday while also calling on Hershey’s to value social justice, the environmental and put an end to child labor in the cocoa industry by going Fair Trade.

For sweet activity ideas, organizational charts, checklists, and flyers to plan your own Fair Trade S’mores party, visit www.globalexchange.org/smoresaction.

No doubt you’re like me. Daydreaming about the weekend once, uh, Monday morning rolls around. Well, now that it is Friday, the weekend is just within our grasps so it’s perfectly alright to start plotting out your weekend activities.

Plowsharing Crafts picnic

Whether you’re at summer camp, having a backyard BBQ or having a beach bonfire, you can bring some social justice into your summertime activity by participating in Global Exchange’s Summer Fair Trade S’mores Campaign.

We are calling on Hershey’s and the rest of the cocoa industry to go Fair Trade by making a statement with our Fair Trade S’mores. It will be the most delicious political action you will ever take.

Can I get s'more?

All you have to do is grab your S’more ingredients (marshmallows, graham crackers and of course Fair Trade chocolate) gather your friends, Fair Trade s’more it up, have everyone sign the petition making a note of how many s’mores were consumed and send it in to us. Then we deliver it to Hershey’s and let your voices be heard in the name of Fair Trade.

Your fellow Fair Traders have already been joining in all the social justice fun. A few weeks ago, our friends at Plowsharing Crafts had their 25th Anniversary picnic Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, MO and had tons of yummy s’mores.

Ziming Yao having her first s'more ever

Earlier this month on our People to People blog, we spoke about our first ever U.S.-China Exchange where our Green Alternatives department promoted collaboration between the United States and China, particularly around the green economy and sustainability. So, four program participants flew in from China and learned about the local green economy in the Bay Area. Along with visiting green businesses and meeting SF government officials, the crew took a break one evening and tried their first ever s’mores! Not the biggest fans of sweets, they enjoyed the activity and learned all about the concept of Fair Trade.

Before embarking on your own Summertime S’more activity for the weekend. See our video of Global Exchange’s S’more event at Golden Gate Park last year. A typical San Francisco. Foggy and cold. But we loved every moment of it.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

From Seattle, WA to San Diego, CA — the West Coast has been making big strides in the Fair Trade and Sweatfree movements in the last few weeks, so a few congratulations are in order.

Congratulations to the Seattle SweatFree Community for their tireless work to get Seattle to join nine states, 40 cities, and 118 school districts with sweatfree policies. According to SweatFree Seattle, the new policy

“requires sweat-free labor standards and a Code of Conduct for all bidders on City uniform contracts and makes a commitment to protections against slave labor, forced labor, forced overtime, excessive hours, child labor, below-poverty wages, discrimination, harassment, and other types of unfair labor practices.”

Wondering if there is a sweatfree campaign in your community? Find out now.

As someone born in San Diego as well as a graduate of the UC system, I would like to congratulate the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) who just recently adopted what is said to the be the “strongest Fair Trade policy in the United States.” For the past five years, student advocates have been campaigning to get the University to make a commitment to promote Fair Trade products throughout the campus. According to the new policy, all future food vendor contracts at UCSD are “mandated to require 100% Fair Trade Coffee, Fair Trade Tea and Fair Trade Sugar at all locations on campus.”

According to Student Sustainability Collective (SSC) Director of Food Policy, Jared Muscat,

“Fair Trade is an important part in the category of food sustainability and to have this policy makes the numbers our university strive for not only look realistic, but possible to push further.”

It looks like the SSC also has their sights set on pushing their Fair Trade University campaign to not only be UC-wide, but also to be a national one.

Interested in turning your school into a Fair Trade one? Let the United Students for Fair Trade be your guide.

Gooo Fair Traaaade!

A final congratulations goes out to my fellow Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition buddies in Berkeley as they successfully became the 19th Fair Trade Town just yesterday.

The Fair Trade Berkeley steering committee had been working with the City Manager’s office to craft a “Best-in-Class” Fair Trade Town Resolution and City Ordinance. According to the resolution, the city would

“commit to purchasing fair trade products when they’re readily available, city-standard compliant, and competitively priced.”

The city would also be part of ongoing Fair Trade education efforts and take an active role in weighing in on Fair Trade issues.

In the first Berkeley City Council meeting where the Fair Trade Berkeley steering committee presented the resolution, Global Exchange’s own Carolyn Gravely at the GX Fair Trade Berkeley Store prepared testimony to the City Council on Berkeley’s strong interest in being a Fair Trade Town. In typical Bay Area fashion, a celebration will be taking place in August to mark this tremendous victory.

Feeling inspired? Turn your town into the next Fair Trade Town.

Congratulations to the all the Fair Traders and SweatFree Communities out there for pushing the movements even further!