Our 31 Days of Fair Trade has begun!

Have you heard? Global Exchange along with our friends at Equal Exchange and Green Halloween have set up 31 days of fun ideas and activities (and a contest!) that will have you eating Fair Trade bananas, hosting movie screenings, baking delicious Fair Trade goodies, recycling Halloween costumes, and giving out Fair Trade chocolates to trick-or-treaters.

So far so good!

So far this month, we’ve had folks getting in the Fair Trade habit and watching a movie about Potong Cooperative Tea Garden in India. (With every viewing, Equal Exchange is donating a tea bush to farmers in India.)

And we’re just getting started…the month has barely begun, so there’s lots of actions still ahead to look forward to. Let’s take action together.

Here’s how to TAKE ACTION:

• Check out the calendar of 31 Days of Fair Trade Action activities so you can take action daily to support Fair Trade
• Visit FairTradeHalloween.org for the whole list of actions
• Follow us on twitter @GXFairTrade or on Facebook where we will deliver your daily action each morning at #fairtrade31.

Looking forward to taking action with you.

And while Cadbury has demonstrated its commitment to ending forced child labor on the West African cocoa industry by selling Fair Trade certified chocolates in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, the same cannot be said of Cadbury chocolate products in the United States.

Why?

In 1988, the Hershey Company purchased Cadbury’s US chocolate business, including the exclusive rights to make and sell well-known brands like York Peppermint Patties, Cadbury Crème Eggs, and Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Bunnies.

Unfortunately, the Hershey Company refuses to meet the standard set by Cadbury’s overseas operations, even though hundreds of thousands of US consumers have called on Hershey to raise the bar and remove forced child labor as an ingredient in its products. These same consumers are eager to purchase treats for their families that align with their values.

The Raise the Bar Hershey Coalition has started a petition urging Hershey’s and Cadbury to offer Fair Trade Chocolate Easter eggs. Join over 5,000 people who have already signed the petition and get slave labor our of our Easter baskets and sign the petition today. 

If you’ve already signed the petition, be sure to share it with your friends. We need more voices!

For more ways to make your Spring a Fair Trade one, see some tips from our Fair Trade campaign.
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Press Release: Raise the Bar Coalition to Hershey and Cadbury: Get Child Slave Labor out of our Easter Baskets
Petition: Tell Cadbury and Hershey to offer Fair Trade Chocolates for Easter in the US!

There has been much debate and talk around this shake-up in the Fair Trade world with both Fair TradeUSA and FLO elaborating on the reasoning behind the transition.

Since the announcement, there has been a lot of change brewing with both labeling organizations. First, Fair Trade USA revealed its new labels that will appear on Fair Trade USA certified products and revealed their new initiative called “Fair Trade for All” which aims to double its impact by 2015. So, for vendors that choose to remain with Fair Trade USA but under its new certification standards, products that previously carried the ‘Bucket Boy’ label will now carry this new label.

And now, after extensive discussions with various stakeholders in the U.S., Fairtrade International has announced it will be launching new operations in the U.S. and maintaining the certification standards that FLO uses.

Fairtrade International outlined the components behind this launch, which include introducing the international FAIRTRADE Mark in the U.S. market, continued work with stakeholders to design and build an organizational structure that will reflect the needs of members and work to further expand Fair Trade in the U.S. consumer market. During the transition to an operating U.S. office, Fairtrade Canada will administer and monitor the certification and membership of the FAIRTRADE mark in the U.S. (Full disclosure: Global Exchange was at a meeting with Fair Trade advocates convened by FLO two weeks before the announcement was made public and participated in two consultations in the lead up).

According the FLO,

We recognize that there are many different approaches to Fair Trade. The global Fairtrade system will compete respectfully with FTUSA, to ensure that our cumulative efforts will continue to strengthen producers’ position in international trade and improve livelihoods. 

Only time will tell what consumers notice in the immediate and long term with another Fair Trade label in the market and different certification standards. Global Exchange will continue to advocate for Fair Trade through our retail stores and campaigns to make sure that more people are educated about the positive benefits of Fair Trade for the producers, people, and the planet.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is back for it’s fifth year to give you the opportunity to treat-n-teach your neighbors!

This Halloween, you can help end the exploitation of children in the cocoa industry and raise awareness of Fair Trade! Trick-or-Treaters will be handing Fair Trade chocolate back to adults, with informational cards attached, to explain the problems of the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade presents a solution. By providing children with a way to be active, hundreds of thousands of households in the US are getting the message that child labor and forced labor will not be tolerated by our kids.

You can take part by visiting www.reversetrickortreating.org and ordering your kit today. This year, Global Exchange is offering a limited quantity of kits to individuals so be sure to get your order in quickly! 

Each kit contains 15 mini chocolates, informational cards and an instruction leaflet. The kits are free, you pay just $7.50 for shipping, but we are asking participants to round up if they are able, to help cover costs.

If you don’t manage to get one of the kits, you can still take part! Download free flyers here and pass them out on Halloween. You can purchase Fair Trade chocolate at any of our Global Exchange Stores, or check out one of the Fair Trade companies listed below.

If you are part of a group, school or organization and want to purchase a group kit, please visit Equal Exchanges order page.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating is an initiative launched by the human rights organization Global Exchange in cooperation with Fair Trade companies Equal Exchange, Sweet Earth Chocolates and Coco-Zen, and is a collaborative effort of countless children, youth, and adults supported by institutions including nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, Fair Trade companies, and schools.

Get your kit today!

In supermarkets across the nation, activists are informing shoppers about the labor violations associated with Hershey’s chocolate products with smartphone-enables “Consumer Alert” cards on the shelves where the chocolate bars can be found.

The ‘Consumer Alerts’ include QR codes, which allow shoppers to take action on their smartphones right in the store as part of a larger campaign, including an online petition on Change.org with over 13,000 supporters.

Summertime is S’mores season, and Hershey’s is using this time to promote their chocolate as an essential ingredient in the S’mores recipe. With National S’mores Day coming up on August 10th, the Raise the Bar, Hershey campaign (comprised of Global Exchange, Green America, and the International Labor Rights Forum) is using this opportunity to let consumers know that they should use Fair Trade chocolate when making s’mores at their summertime event until Hershey’s makes a commitment to ending child labor in its cocoa supply chain by shifting to Fair Trade certified cocoa.

The Raise the Bar, Hershey campaign is encouraging everyone to take to their local supermarket and make a s’mores video. Watch this video and get inspired!

How it’s done:

1. Print copies of the Hershey consumer alert in color or in black and white and fold them in half, and grab your favorite video filming device.
2. At local stores, videotape yourself placing consumer alerts on the Hershey display, s’mores display, and/or Hershey section of the candy aisle. Have fun with it! It can be completely simple – no editing required.
3. In the video, be sure to say who you are, the town where you’re taking action, and why you care about ending child labor in the cocoa industry and replacing it with Fair Trade. At the end of the video, ask viewers to visit raisethebarhershey.org to take the action within a week themselves; zoom in on the www.raisethebarhershey.org URL on the consumer alert, if you can.
4. Send the video to all your friends, make it your Facebook status update, tweet it, upload it to YouTube, etc
5. Definitely email us a link right away at fairtrade@globalexchange.org, so we can share, post and celebrate your actions from coast to coast.

Simple as that! Now, what are you waiting for? Time to tell Hershey’s that We Want More from our S’mores!

Read the Press Release: Consumers Use Smart Phone Codes in Supermarkets to Campaign Against Child Labor in Hershey Bars.

This year, the Fair Trade Resource Network has set a goal to gather 100,000 participants for World Fair Trade Day to take a Fair Trade Coffee Break. Interested in participating? It’s as simple as gathering with friends, co-workers, or community members to pause, enjoy each other’s company with some Fair Trade coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit, or various other Fair Trade products and  showcase, and/or discuss the benefits of Fair Trade. Have something planned? Register your event with Global Exchange and we will add it to the Fair Trade Resource Network tally.

Don’t have anything planned yet? Those of you in or near the Chicago area this weekend can spend World Fair Trade Day with Global Exchange at the Green Festival taking place this weekend, May 14-15 at McCormick Place. The Fair Trade Pavilion is filled with great speakers, including a talk by Global Exchange Fair Trade Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel who will be hosting a screening of the film, Dark Side of Chocolate on Saturday at 4:30pm.

It’s a particularly great time for the Chicago Fair Trade community, as the city was just named an official Fair Trade Town, making it the largest Fair Trade city in the U.S. and the second largest globally, just behind London. Nancy Jones and Ervin Lopez from the Chicago Fair Trade Steering Committee will be speaking at the Green Festival on Saturday at 2:30pm. Join us in congratulating Chicago on their amazing achievement on becoming a Fair Trade Town. As Nancy Jones of Chicago Fair Trade stated on why promoting Fair Trade is important,

Though the task of global peace and sustainability seems overwhelming, we know that Fair Trade provides us with a doable step that we can take each day. Asking for it, gifting it, mentioning it.

While at the Chicago Green Festival, be sure to visit the Global Exchange booth to learn about all of our programs, and to see all the wonderful Fair Trade products we have for sale. We’ll raise a cup of Fair Trade coffee together!

After the World Fair Trade Day weekend comes to a close, remember that celebrating Fair Trade can take place everyday. Starting with your morning breakfast with a Fair Trade banana, in the middle of the day at a game of soccer with your Fair Trade soccer ball, to winding down your day with a glass of Fair Trade wine. Making socially conscious choices in your daily life through Fair Trade not only helps the Fair Trade producer growing those crops, but also the whole global community by showing that there is a better and more sustainable way to do trade in the world.

With that, I wish you all a Happy World Fair Trade Day tomorrow, and everyday.

P.S. For those of you in the Bay Area, there is still time to join Fair Trade USA and the Stag Dining Group at the Wake Up the World Fair Trade Brunch. The brunch takes place at the HubSoMa, Saturday, May 14th at 10am. You’ll be searched what sounds like a delicious Fair Trade brunch by some stellar chefs. Don’t believe me? Check out the menu, and the promptly grab your last minute ticket.

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.

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…

The best entry in the Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign brand jamming contest will now win a $1,000 cash prize!

New extended deadline: April 10, 2011

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Have a little creative fun with the Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign!

Announcing our Hershey Brand Jamming contest.

We’re teaming up with our Fair Trade allies, Green America, the International Labor Rights Forum and you to create ads asking Hershey to end pervasive child and forced labor and trafficking in the cocoa fields and replace it with Fair Trade.

It’s time to use your creativity to tell Hershey’s to raise the bar on their corporate social responsibility.

Hershey’s has long avoided addressing the issue of child and forced labor that persist in its cocoa supply chain. Let’s keep the pressure on them.

You’ve seen brand-jamming like this before when Global Exchange Sweatfree campaign spoofed The Gap’s ads or when several organizations, including Global Exchange, came together to call out Chevron’s greenwashing campaign in these clever and powerful spoof ads.

The Hershey brand-jamming contest will be judging on three categories:

• Best mock slogan/tagline
• Best print advertisement
• Best mock commercial in video format (up to 2 minutes long)

E-mail entries to fairtrade@globalexchange.org. Deadline for submissions will be March 24, 2011.

The winner of each category will get a “Chocolate Lovers” Gift Basket from Global Exchange’s Fair Trade store. All those who submit entries will receive a 10% off coupon from Global Exchange’s Fair Trade stores.

Once submissions are in, we will invite you to vote on the winners.

Visit our Hershey Brand Jamming page for more information about the contest and for resources to get your started.

Happy Jamming!

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.

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