Everyone loves chocolates. We consume more than 3 million tons a year. Many holidays throughout the year provide a spike in sales of the delicious treat, including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween and Christmas. Most, however, don’t consider the fact that 200,000 children in West Africa work under forced labor conditions on cocoa farms to help produce those chocolates we enjoy, according to the United Nation’s Children’s Fund.

Last year the Fair Trade Federation’s (FTF) annual conference was merged for the first time with the Fair Trade Futures conference. 2011 now sees the yearly FTF meeting back in traditional garb. Months before discussion of budgets, unions, or protests surfaced to cause overheated controversy on the nightly news, the FTF conference committee settled on Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This year’s conference theme is Building UP Fair Trade and is scheduled for May 6-8th!

Through Matt Johnson’s office window a storm brews each day beginning around 11 am. Until a few days again, workers on both sides of Matt’s window pane expected to have the same rights. The irony is that now those outside the SERRV offices are in danger of losing the rights that SERRV (and other Fair Traders) demand as a tool in the fight against world poverty.

While President Obama was not specifically referring to Fair Trade last night in his State of the Union Address, his measurement of progress is at the heart of what Fair Trade businesses seek to achieve both at home and abroad. The economy is growing again but that recovery can not only be measured by the profits corporations make. Progress must also be measured by the quality of life new jobs bring to people.
If you share these values, and are currently looking for a job, here are few sites you might want to check out.

”A company – co-operative or corporation it does not matter – cannot start a movement. It is called marketing.” – Fred

Can a company (co-operative or otherwise) legitimately have a social mission?

Show you care for your clients as much as you care for others ? Equal Exchange’s Fair Trade Mixer Basket allows you to give while giving to others.

Immersed in El Salvador working with small farmers Monika had a conversation with Jonathan Rosenthal, co-founder of Equal Exchange, which would impact her life for years to come, it was her first exposure to this concept of “fair trade”. At the time it sounded kind of crazy to her…. Little did she imagine that several years later she’d be working in Chiapas, Mexico facilitating this crazy new concept “fair trade”!

Once upon a time there was a very sad banana.

“Why was he so sad,“ you might ask.

Well maybe, it’s because although many people appreciated him for his golden yellow color and his sweet, yummy flavor, they never took the time to get to know him. Really get to know him, that is.