Accessed at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/pr24097/htm

UK consumers are being asked to continue to buy Fairtrade bananas by farmers in the Windward Islands who supply the UK Fairtrade market and have been severely affected by Hurricane Dean. Recovery from the devastation caused by the powerful hurricane hinges on the farmers being able to use the social premium from the sales of Fairtrade bananas for plans to reconstruct and replant, they are telling Meredith Cochrane, Campaigns Manager for the Fairtrade Foundation. Meredith has been on the Windward Island of St Lucia from before the hurricane buffeted the islands on Friday, 17 August and is due back in the UK on Sunday 26 August. Continue Reading »

The Patriot-News

April 02, 2006
Tom Dochat

The Hershey Trust Co., a nonprofit dedicated to housing and educating disadvantaged children, will be asked this month to act on a proposal that proponents think can help protect vulnerable children working on cocoa farms.

The trust company is being put in that position because it has a controlling interest in The Hershey Co. A human-rights group wants The Hershey Co. to issue a public report on its African cocoa suppliers. Continue Reading »

By Jane Black
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; F01

Admit it. You feel pretty good when you drink your fair-trade coffee. Smug, even. As you inhale the rich aroma from that bag of beans, you know that your $12 helped to pay the farmers a fair price for their labor — and helped build a school in El Salvador, create a women’s leadership program in Guatemala or provide tsunami relief to Sumatrans.

Which is why Massachusetts-based Equal Exchange, a pioneer of the fair-trade concept, is betting you’ll feel good — maybe even better — as you dip into a snack bag of organic California almonds, Georgia pecans or Cape Cod and Wisconsin cranberries. The products, the first to be developed by a coalition called the Domestic Free Trade Working Group, hit Washington area shelves this month (see box below for locations). The products come from family farms or small co-ops, which are paid a price that both buyer and seller deem fair and that is typically higher than the cheapest available. Every pack has a unique “best by” date that customers can plug into a Web site to track where their snack came from. Continue Reading »

(Taken from www.transfairusa.org)

Where on Earth does my Fair Trade Certified coffee come from? Now you can find out on Google Earth! TransFair USA is proud to announce a collaboration with Google to bring you this exciting new way to learn about Fair Trade. Navigate the globe using the new Fair Trade layer to discover Fair Trade Certified farms in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Viewing Fair Trade farm profiles is easy!

1. Download and install the Google Earth application >
2. Activate the Fair Trade Certified layer in the ‘layers palette’
3. Look for the Fair Trade Certified label and click to learn more about the producer group.

(From www.transfairusa.org)

WASHINGTON, DC - May 30, 2007 - Divine Chocolate, the first farmer owned, Fair Trade chocolate company, celebrated the announcement of its sister company’s first dividend distribution. This milestone achievement by Divine Chocolate in the UK advances the company’s promise to the cocoa farmers of Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana and comes on the heels of the successful launch of Divine Chocolate in the U.S. Continue Reading »

Starbucks has agreed a wide-ranging accord with Ethiopia to support and promote its coffee, ending a long-running dispute over the issue.

The US retailer will market, distribute and, in some cases, license Ethiopia’s range of high-quality coffee brands. Continue Reading »

By Jay Walljasper, Ode
Posted on March 8, 2007, Printed on May 15, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/48269/

Our small boat bobs along the unimaginably wide Amazon River, then heads up a fast-flowing tributary the colour of tea with cream, and finally turns onto a stream leading into the heart of the rainforest. Monkeys scamper in the trees above us as the motorboat chugs more and more slowly until the stream becomes too narrow to travel. This is where José Luiz de Oliveira and his 17-year-old son Alex live on a small farmstead alive with bird calls. Piglets frolic in the cool mud below their dock while ducks march in formation.

In many ways this boat ride feels like a trip into the past. The forest is largely untouched here except for the sunny clearing around the house (although we did spot an illegal lumber operation downriver). The de Oliveiras live as people have for centuries — drawing their daily meals and livelihood from the land, the river and the livestock. It’s an enchanting place if you can get used to the mosquitoes. Yet beauty and peace do not translate into prosperity. The tiny house has no electricity, no telephone, no fans, no screens in the windows.

The great debates about sustainable development being waged in government assemblies and at environmental institutes, corporate headquarters and street protests around the world are really about this place. Is it possible to bring the de Oliveiras some of the advantages of modern life — like high school and shoes for Alex — without destroying other valuable things in the process? Valuable things like the Amazon rainforest itself, which is crucial to everyone on the planet as a source of ecological balance and potential new medicines. Continue Reading »

[Accessed at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37574]

DEVELOPMENT-GUATEMALA:
Inés Benítez* - IPS/IFEJ
GUATEMALA CITY, May 2 (IPS) - The living and working conditions of thousands of small farmers in Guatemala have seen much improvement since they joined the “fair trade” system, which sets new rules for the game in an otherwise difficult global market. Continue Reading »