Here’s your roundup of Fair Trade news and updates:

Fair Trade Models from Human Rights Awards Gala 2010

FAIR TRADE MODELS TO APPEAR AT UPCOMING HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS GALA

Global Exchange’s ninth annual Human Rights Awards Gala is happening next week (June 1st) at the historic Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco. Since 2001, the Human Rights Awards Gala has brought together activists, supporters, and friends to recognize the efforts of exceptional individuals and organizations working for human rights around the world. Find out who we are honoring this year by visiting www.humanrightsaward.org.

There will be many Fair Trade aspects to the evening, including:

  • Fair Trade models: A bunch of us gals will be sporting Fair Trade outfits courtesy of Global Exchange Fair Trade Stores; dresses, scarves, jewelry and other accessories, and we (yes, we, I’m going for it!) will top our outfits off with a sash that reads “Ask Me About My Outfit”, an ice-breaking statement to encourage conversation amongst guests about Fair Trade.
  • Fair Trade ice-cream! Ben & Jerry’s Co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield will emcee the event, and word has it they’ll be sporting tuxedos. Sweet! Yours truly will be helping to dish out Fair Trade Certified Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to all who attend, following an organic dinner of deliciousness.
  • Silent Auction featuring Fair Trade gifts: Gourmet treats, handcrafted baskets & glassware and a whole lot more will be offered up for auction, all to benefit our human rights work.

If you’re in the Bay Area: We sure hope you come out next week to enjoy this exciting event!
To purchase tickets: Order online here
General event info: Visit www.humanrightsaward.org

If you’re not in the Bay Area: It would be great if you would help spread the word about the Human Rights Awards gala to your friends and family.
If you’re to ready spread the word, here are 3 easy ways to help:
1.    Share and Retweet this post using the buttons to the right;
2.    Send this Tweet out: Human Rights Awards Gala honors #pablosolon #javiersicilia Hosted by Ben & Jerry! Grab tix soon: http://ow.ly/512jQ #sf #sanfrancisco;
3.    Post this link to your Facebook Wall: www.humanrightsaward.org.

Thanks!

HERSHEY RALLY IN NEW YORK CITY 6/8

Have you heard about Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign’s upcoming rally in NYC’s Times Square, Wednesday June 8th at 10:30 AM?  Come join us in front of the Hershey Store and ask Hershey to make the switch to Fair Trade.

Who will be there: We are reaching out to local NYC social justice groups, students, schools and faith groups that care about this issue. Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign groups (Green America, Global Exchange, International Labor Rights Forum) and our other allies will be there as well.

For more information about the rally visit: www.raisethebarhershey.org/rally.

Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign Director Adrienne Fitch Frankel making a Fair Trade s'more

WE WANT MORE FROM OUR S’MORES IS BACK!

Are you ready for some summer fun?  We Want More from our S’mores is back, to help you kick off your summer in a fun, Fair Trade fashion.  After all, what says summer more than s’mores?  It’s a classic, essential summer treat.
Please help the Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign reach the goal of making at least 1,500 Fair Trade s’mores.

Your delicious s’mores will help raise awareness and hold Hershey accountable for failing to eliminate child and forced labor from its supply chain and encourage the company to achieve Fair Trade certification.

How to participate
Plan your s’more event: Savor the chocolatey, gooey pleasure of Fair Trade s’mores anytime from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day weekend.  Include Fair Trade s’mores in your barbeques and campfires this summer.  Or plan a We Want More from Our S’mores event with friends, family, coworkers, or the neighborhood. Check out these videos to see how much fun you’ll have.
Let the s’mores be counted! Count the s’mores you eat and register them online.
During your s’mores gathering, collect signatures on petitions asking Hershey to step up and become Fair Trade Certified.
Screen the Dark Side of Chocolate. Before or after you make your tasty Fair Trade s’mores, show this film to educate others about child labor in the cocoa fields and explain why it is so important to choose Fair Trade Certified chocolate.

More info about We Want More From our S’Mores Campaign: Visit our website

Fair Trade Federation's new Executive Director Renee Bowers Photo Credit: FTF

SHOUT OUT AND CONGRATS TO FAIR TRADE FEDERATION
Thanks Mary from the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) for spreading the word about our Fair Trade blog in the Spring Edition of Networks, FTF’s quarterly newsletter.

Published quarterly, Networks is the official newsletter of the Fair Trade Federation, the trade association that strengthens and promotes North America organizations fully committed to Fair Trade. You can sign up for this newsletter here.

Also, congratulations goes out to Renee Bowers, the Fair Trade Federation’s new Executive Director!

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
Article: World Fair Trade Day-My History with the Movement
Petition: Change.org Asks Celebrity Chefs to Make Fair Trade S’mores
Video Link: Fair Trade or watch it here:

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.

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

Visit our cocoa homepage to find out how you can help end child slavery in the cocoa fields.

The BBC’s 2010 Panorama documentary, Chocolate — The Bitter Truth, contains stunning and disturbing evidence that the worst forms of child labor are still widespread in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Most chilling is the pervasiveness of children who are missing from their homes in Burkina Faso, because they have been trafficked into the cocoa fields.

The film also documents the success of the Fair Trade system in identifying and resolving cases of abusive child labor in the cocoa industry.

In the sourcing of cocoa, there are several basic characteristics that all must be fulfilled in order to eliminate abusive child labor from the cocoa supply chain. Some of the foremost examples are:

  1. Paying farmers a high enough price for their cocoa that (a) the price covers that full costs of production (including adult hired labor) and (b) farmers can afford their families’ basic human needs, including food, shelter, health care, and education for their children
  2. An inspection and enforcement system that identifies and remedies cases of illegal child labor, including (1) assistance to affected children, such as the provision of educational opportunities for children who have been working and family reunification for trafficked children, and (2) consequences for farmers using child labor
  3. Traceability of cocoa to the farm level, so that farmers who use child labor, and the chocolate companies that source their cocoa from child labor farms, can be identified and held accountable

Systems to address abusive child labor will fail without all three of these characteristics.

Global Exchange sees the Fair Trade system as the best answer to abusive child labor because its certification infrastructure includes all three of these characteristics, unlike other institutions in the cocoa trade.

The video can be viewed here.