World Fair Trade Day is coming up...

It is time to start organizing or searching for a fair trade event in May in celebration of World Fair Trade Day. You can coordinate a fair trade coffee and chocolate break at work, purchase some handicrafts for Mother’s Day among many other things.. To find an event near you, visit the events calendar at the Fair Trade Resource Network page,

http://www.fairtraderesource.org/link-up/events-calendar/

photo courtesy of Fair Trade Resource Network

Change.org Wants US to tell Target to Stop Using Child Labour

Now that fair trade gold is certified and ready for market consumption, what a great place to start, Target. It is widely known that child labor is common practice in the gold mining industry, let’s make this fact history. Sign Change.org’s petition to tell target to choose fair trade! Change.org was successful in another recent similar campaign to ask 1-800-flowers to offer a fair trade bouquet, and they succeeded!

http://news.change.org/stories/use-social-media-to-tell-target-to-stop-forced-child-labor-in-gold

Why Choose Fair Trade Cocoa?

When you are at your local store and purchase a chocolate candy bar, do you every think about where and how the candy was produced? Your answer is probably no, why would you? The candy looks clean and it tastes great!
The truth is the cocoa industry is full of corruption. Many cocoa business owners choose to use child labor as a primary production base. To learn more about how the cocoa industry affects people in the third world, have look at the film, The Dark Side of Chocolate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y882AajKo1s

Make a Change, Sign the Shop Fair Trade Pledge

Take minute and make a commitment to signing the Fair Trade Pledge. Just in time for the holiday season you can shop and make a difference! Please consider signing the pledge. As stated by change.org,

"Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. The movement focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and so on.You can find ways to shop for fair trade items through a number of online resources."

Make a difference and commit to shopping Fair Trade this holiday season:
http://humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/shop_fair_trade

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Workers rights are not an issue of the past, but of the present as well...this is a great article discussing the treatment of workers in the US and beyond.

http://www.csrwire.com/csrlive/commentary_detail/2534-Modern-day-slavery-Here-there-and-everywhere