2008

Chocolate leaves a bitter taste

It is enjoyed by millions of connoisseurs around the world, but in recent years chocolate has started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste...
19 September 2008 - Stuff.co.nz - read more here

Ethiopian coffee growers to get helping hand

A builder with compassion as wide as his building skills is going to put the two to good use in Ethiopia. Marty van der Burg is leading a group of 24 volunteers on a Habitat for Humanity project that will provide homes for people living in poverty. The four-week trip leaving on September 24 will also be used to highlight social issues facing Ethiopia.
10 September 2008 - stuff.co.nz - read more here

Trade Aid Exhibitions

Textile exhibition - Intertwined: a woven history

Exquisite textiles from some of the world’s most isolated communities are to be shown in New Zealand in a rare exhibition of handmade and decorated fabric items from India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Peru...
8 September 2008 - Scoop.co.nz - read more here

Lake House Carpet Exhibition – Tales From Tibet

Tales from Tibet tells the tale of the snow capped mountains that led Tibetan refugees on their long journey...
20 June 2008 - Scoop.co.nz - read more here

Climate Change

Urgent G8 action demanded as climate change ravages crops
Coffee yield in Africa hit by up to 40% - livelihoods under threat - African coffee farmers’ livelihoods could be destroyed without urgent action from all G8 countries to help them adapt to climate change, the UK’s leading Fairtrade company warns today.
5 July 2008, read more here

For Nicaragua, mean temperatures for the Pacific watershed are expected to rise by 0.9°C by 2010 and by 3.7°C by 2100. Precipitation will decrease by 8.4 per cent for the year 2010 and 36.6 per cent for the year 2100. Nicaragua has the highest deforestation rate in Central America, which makes the country even more vulnerable to climatic variations and climatic changes.
AdapCC, read more here

NZ - Fastest growing fair trade market in the world

MORE Gisborne people are choosing to buy ethically, reflecting a nationwide trend that has seen New Zealand report the fastest growth globally in the Fairtrade market.
The Gisborne Herald, 30 June 2008, read more here

Slavery still exists: Uncovering Slavery in Steel

How far up a supply chain should a company be held accountable?
Bloomberg found unpaid laborers at a work camp making charcoal for Cosipar, a major pig iron exporter. Cosipar exports to Nucor, the second largest U.S. steel company, and to National Material Trading (‘NMTC’) and Intermet, two U.S. brokers who contract with Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, and Whirlpool. “Brazilian pig iron is part of almost any product in the U.S. that uses steel,”
Susan Baker Martin, Trillium, read more here

Fairtrade 100% or Fairtrade Lite?

"In short, if the behemoths of the retail world adopted the same gold standard instead of Fairtrade Lite, it could transform the developing world". Andrew Purvis on the difference between 100% Fairtrade and 'Fairtrade Lite'
June 23, 2008, The Guardian Weekly, read more here

Fair trade - feeding the world?

For many years, well-meaning liberals have supported the fair trade movement because of the benefits it delivers directly to the people it buys from. But the structure of the global food market is changing so rapidly that fair trade is now becoming one of the few means by which small farmers in poor nations might survive. Fair trade might now be necessary not only as a means of redistributing income, but also to feed the world.
George Monbiot, The Guardian, June 10, 2008, read more here

World Bank and IMF emergency loans: a cure or a curse for the food crisis?

If action is not taken urgently, the world could see hunger doubling instead of halving by 2015 as is supposed to happen according to MDG 1. More money is needed, for sure. But conditions and policy advice that comes hand in hand with development finance should take into account past mistakes that have contributed to create and aggravate the current crisis
European Network on debt and development, 05 June 2008, read more here

Junk art helps to spread the message
Mr Galbraith is one of 32 artists from around New Zealand to be chosen by their local Trade Aid shop to highlight the theme of environmental justice in 2008.
The brief for the artists was to provide a piece of art constructed from recycled junk, representing the handmade and sustainable element of the products made by Trade Aid artisans around the world.
The Gisborne Herald, Thursday, 8 May 2008, read more here

Tournament focus fair trade
The Cambodian Allstars not only got to taste tournament success but also support a humanitarian cause after winning the Nelson Fair Trade Trophy football festival at Saxton Field on Sunday.
Nelson, Wednesday, 14 May 2008, read more here.

Buying into a fair deal
More and more consumers are making the switch to Fair Trade food. Naomi Mitchell marked Fair Trade Fortnight by talking to Nelson supporters of the global movement.
The Nelson Mail - Tuesday, 13 May 2008, read more here

Fair trade fortnight aids poorer nations
Remuera Trade Aid manager Marilen Hernandez encourages people to think about issues surrounding their current lifestyles. "It’s promoting environmental justice, protecting the environment from environmental degradation, reducing carbon footprints and buying goods by disadvantaged labourers."
By JUSTINE GLUCINA - East And Bays Courier | Wednesday, 07 May 2008 - read it here

A sculpture, made out of more than 2600 plastic supermarket bags, is on display at Feilding's Trade Aid store. The work of local artist Rachel Dore, the plastic bags were collected from friends, Feilding Trade Aid volunteers and staff at the Feilding Herald. "So I am not the only one guilty of forgetting to take my re-useable shopping bag out of the car at the supermarket," said Dore.
April 29, 2008, Feilding Herald, read more here

What do discarded juice packets, fashionable bags and survivors of sexual exploitation have in common? They are all concerned, one way or another, with environmental justice. And as environmental justice is the theme of this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight (3-18 May)...
April 30, 2008, Scoop on-line news, read more here

This year the international theme for the fortnight is focused on how fair trade provides environmental justice to many of the world’s disadvantaged producers. These are the people with the lightest carbon footprint, yet they are being most affected by recent changes in climate. Trade Aid is running one of their biggest campaigns yet for Fair Trade Fortnight with a strong focus on this theme.
April 30, 2008, Scoop on-line news, read more here

Ethical Jewellery

In the back alleys of Delhi, India, there are small rooms. They are dark, the temperature rises above 40 degrees and there are children making jewellery.

“One thing we shouldn't do as a consumer is think about ourselves as one person looking at a range of items that have been put in front of us that we have to chose from. The reasons why those cheap products are there is because there is demand from consumers,” says Michelia from Trade-aid.

12 May 2008, Campbell Live, watch the clip here
or read the article here

Modern Day Slavery

Activists have outed a corporate dirty tricks operation tied to Burger King aimed at discrediting efforts to improve the often horrific conditions of migrant workers in Florida's tomato fields.
The developments come in the wake of US Senate held hearings into what some describe as modern-day slavery conditions of tomato pickers who work long hours in backbreaking conditions. The rate of pay of many pickers, 45 cents a bucket, has not changed since 1978.
The Independent, Washington, Friday, 9 May 2008, read more here

Climate change could displace 125 million in South Asia: Greenpeace

The 125 million people affected would be those living along the coasts of India and Bangladesh, the environmental group said... Around 75 million people from low-lying Bangladesh would migrate to India, warned the report entitled "Blue Alert -- Climate Migrants in South Asia."
March 26 06:23 pm, Yahoo UK news, read more here

2007

200 families affected by Israeli trade embargo

Will There Be Christmas In The Holy Land?
Christmas is a time for food and lots of it. However one food line that that won’t be available this Christmas is couscous from the Gaza Strip in Palestine. Through no fault of the wheat growers or the women’s cooperatives that process it, the 200 families associated with its production are now out of work and out of luck.
Trade Aid Christmas press release - December 21, 2007 - read more here

Ethiopia trademarking update

Its good news at Christmas time in Ethiopia
With coffee growers around the world receiving an ever-shrinking share of the value of their coffee at retail, wouldn’t it be good to hear of ways where this trend might be able to be reversed? In Ethiopia, where farmers in despair are actually abandoning some of the world’s finest coffees, a recent development is offering hope that we may be able to turn this trend around and move towards a fairer model of coffee trading.
Justin Purser, Trade Aid coffee buyer, November 23, 2007 - read more here

Slavery Still Exists

Trade Aid led the SLAVERY STILL EXISTS campaign in August 2007 aiming to implement a law that would ban imported products that use slave labour in their supply chains. 17,000 New Zealanders signed the petition and it is currently going through the select committee process. What can you do to help? Sign up to receive Trade Aid news about the campaign and start asking questions of the products you buy.

Read media releases from around the world and NZ about the increasing problem of modern day slavery

• Gap Inc. ditches clothing after Indian child labour report
  The goods had been destined for the Christmas market in branches of Gap Kids in Europe and the United States, the weekly paper claimed.
  nz.news.yahoo.com Monday October 29, 2007 - read more here
• Gap pulls 'child labour' clothing
  A 10-year-old boy was filmed making clothes for Gap shops in the US and Europe as part of an investigation by the UK's Observer newspaper. The boy told the Observer he had been sold to a factory owner by his family.
  BBC.co.uk - Sunday, 28 October 2007 - read more here
• MPs show support for new law banning slavery in products
  As Geoff White told those attending the event “you have all voted for change, it is now up to our politicians to ensure that as a country we are at the forefront to put an end to the abhorrence of slavery”.
  August 24 2007- read more here
• August 23 - UN Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
  The Palmerston North Girls' High School Polynesian singing group perform outside the Trade Aid shop on Broadway Avenue in remembrance of the fight to end the slave trade.
  Friday, 24 August 2007 - read more here
• New Zealanders want slavery in products banned
  It's unanimous – New Zealanders don’t believe in slavery… although how are our cheap products made? and how would we know if we are supporting slavery? These are questions that have been raised over the last seven weeks since Trade Aid released its SLAVERY STILL EXISTS campaign and petition.
  Thursday, 16 August 2007 - read more here
• Free trade is a prison
  Title: From the Slave Trade to ‘Free’ Trade: How Trade Undermines Democracy and Justice in Africa. As the world prepares to celebrate the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23, a new book on the lessons learnt from that trade and how its “successor,” free trade is undermining democracy and justice in Africa has just been published.
  read more here
• Wage slavery, Wal-Mart style
  Aug 18, 2007 11:08 PM...exposed the use of more than 4,000 14- to 16-year-olds to bag groceries in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores in Mexico. While the full-time employment of 14-year-olds is specifically prohibited by the International Labor Organization, that’s only the tip of the iceberg: Wal-Mart’s not paying a dime to any of these workers.
  Aug 18, 2007, read more here
• Another 359 People Freed From Slavery In China's Brick Kilns
  Taiyuan, China (AHN) - Two months after the scandal first broke that brick factories in China had enslaved people to work, another 359 people have been rescued from slavery in Shanxi province, officials said Monday.
  August 13, 2007, read more here
• California Company Convicted of Slavery and Human Trafficking
  At least 17 of the workers were told that if they attempted to leave, the police and immigration officials would arrest them. The EEOC contends that all the workers were forced to pay enormous fees to the recruiting company, which effectively kept them in involuntary servitude. Eventually some of the workers escaped the slave-like conditions and were able to alert authorities.
  December 2006 - read more here
• Olympics ban for China firm
  A Chinese stationery firm accused of using child labour has been stripped of its licence to produce merchandise for the 2008 Olympics.
  31 July 2007 - BBC news - read more here
• Domino's workers in 'slavery' row
  Union officials are meeting executives from pizza chain Dominos Pizza to try to resolve a dispute over the sacking of eight migrant Hungarian workers. T&G Unite says the workers at a Derby franchise of the chain are the victims of what it calls "modern-day slavery".
  30 July 2007 - BBC news - read more here
• Legislation Proposed to Abolish Modern Slavery in The US
  Free the Slaves and others have helped write legislation that would form a year-long Commission on the Abolition of Modern Slavery. The Commission would take a close look at how the US government can enhance its anti-slavery efforts, be a global leader in the fight against slavery and make clear recommendations for improvement.
  July 30 2007 - read more here
• What has really changed?
  The Abolitionist William Wilberforce appears in cinemas across the country this week in the epic drama Amazing Grace which celebrates the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through the British Parliament. Now 200 years on, after watching Amazing Grace, we find ourselves asking what has really changed.
  July 19 - Scoop - read more here
• Global economy sustains modern day slave trade
  In our global economy one of the standard explanations that multinational corporations give for closing factories in the "first world" and opening them in the "third world" is the lower labor cost. Slavery can constitute a significant part of these savings. No paid workers, no matter how efficient, can compete economically with unpaid workers - slaves
  read more here
• Call to ban slave labour goods
  New Zealand needs laws preventing products made with slave labour entering the country, a fair- trade advocacy group says. A petition is being circulated asking for public support of the cause and will be presented to Parliament at the end of August.
  By MATT CALMAN - The Dominion Post, Monday, 16 July 2007 - read more here
• Chocolate's child labourers
  It's more than five years since the international chocolate industry promised to wipe out child labour in the farming of cocoa, work that is always hard and often dangerous. But the BBC has uncovered evidence of continued widespread abuse, with children being kept out of schools and forced to work on farms without pay. The impetus to force an end to this practice has now moved to the US Congress, where Democratic representatives have given the industry until July 2008 to prove they are serious about ending child labour? or face legislation that will force their hand. But the reason children are used to work the farms is because the low price of raw cocoa means farmers cannot afford to employ anyone else. So is the real issue the price of cocoa, which has barely risen in 30 years, feeding an industry worth billions of dollars?
  Humphrey Hawksley reports from the Ivory Coast, the country which produces half the world's cocoa. First broadcast June 2007 - listen to BBC Broadcast here
• Bridgestone/Firestone
  Clear violations of the law prompted a legal complaint filed in November 2005 against Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Firestone by the International labour Rights Fund (ILRF), a member of the Stop Firestone Campaign which is an advocacy coalition launched in 2005 to highlight Firestone’s exploitative undermining of Liberian labour laws. The 35 plaintiffs either have been or are currently child labourers on the company’s rubber plantation in Liberia. They describe their lives as “trapped in poverty and coercion.” The plaintiffs have brought their case to a U.S. court since Liberia’s legal system eroded during 15 + years of civil war and strife.
  April 25, 2007 - read more here
• Bridgestone/Firestone
  Negotiations are also currently taking place between Firestone and the government over the terms of the concession area which Firestone controls. The previous concession agreement was signed under a transitional government and heavily favored Firestone. Now that Liberia has a democratic government – and the first woman leader in Africa – there is hope that the new concession agreement will produce greater benefits for the population that produces such immense wealth for Firestone. Unfortunately, reports from the negotiations raise serious concerns about whether or not Firestone is negotiating with the government in good faith.
  June 12 2007 - read more here
• 30 Rescued in India
  Read about the rescue of 30 Nepalis triggered by community vigilance committee supported by FTS.
  Free the Slaves - June 12 2007 read more here
• 'Slave' labourers freed in Brazil
  Human rights and labour organisations believe that between 25,000 to 40,000 people could be working in conditions akin to slavery in Brazil.
  BBC - Tuesday, 3 July 2007 read more here
• Still Bound By The Shackles of Slavery
  A FEW hundred dollars doesn't seem to go far these days. Yet the $300 you just forked out for that coveted pair of shoes or handbag could also be the "cost" of the slave that helped make them. For that is the average price of a human life in the booming global slave trade...
  Mediacorp Press, Singapore - June 23, 2007- read more here
• Enslaved, burned and beaten: police free 450 from Chinese brick factories
  Children among captives forced to work for no pay - Local officials accused of colluding with traffickers
  Saturday June 16, 2007- The Guardian - read more here
• Cocoa companies in court over child labour abuse claims
  A leading human rights organization and reputable civil rights firm filed suit against the Nestle, Archer Daniels Midland, and Cargill companies today in Federal District Court in Los Angeles. The complaint alleges their involvement in the trafficking, torture, and forced labor of children who cultivate and harvest cocoa beans which the companies import from Africa. The suit was brought under two federal statutes, the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act
  July 14 2005 - read more here
• A Taste of Slavery
  "Aly Diabate was almost 12 when a slave trader promised him a bicycle and $150 a year to help support his poor parents in Mali. He worked for a year and a half for a cocoa farmer who is known as "Le Gros" ("the Big Man"), but he said his only rewards were the rare days when Le Gros' overseers or older slaves didn't flog him with a bicycle chain or branches from a cacao tree." Sudarsan Raghavan and Sumana Chatterjee.
  June 24, 2001 - read more
• Pre-release screenings of Amazing Grace - Anti-slavery movie screenings
  Thursday, 14 June 2007 - read more here
• History informs our horror at the fact that men, women and children were bought and sold as commodities with full political and social permission. The widespread apathy of English society regarding this was in part due to the lack of understanding about the slave trade but also due to the spiritual and moral condition of English society.
  June 20 2007 - read more here
• Children are helping to produce the food and beverage we consume...
  ...worldwide, agriculture is where by far the largest number of working children can be found – an estimated 70 per cent, of whom 132 million are girls and boys aged 5-14, “who often work from dawn to dusk on farms and plantations, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock. “These children are helping to produce the food and beverages we consume,” said ILO.
  United Nations Press Release 13 June - read more
• Child labour in China
  Ethical Corporation Editor Toby Webb and Asia Editor Paul French discuss the rising instances of child labour in China in recent months in the latest in a series of podcasts on the country.
  Ethical Corporation 4 June - listen here
• Antislavery efforts imperiled in Brazil
  Brazil has a hidden but serious problem of slave labor. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 40,000 slaves working in Brazil today.
  February 16, 2007 - read more here
• Anti Sweatshop legislation - US
  On April 18, 2007, legislation was introduced into the US House of Representatives that would ban the sale in the US of goods made in “sweatshops”. The “Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act”, would not only ban the importation of some goods but would also allow US retailers and their investors to sue competitors who import or sell such goods.
  Ethical Corporation 5 June - read more
• Comment on the Harkin Engel Protocol
  They are profiting from slavery. They have lied about stopping. In this latest statement, they pledged a mere $5 million annually to end the slavery they exploit, while in the US alone, they sell $13 *billion* dollars of chocolate a year. Clearly, they would rather protect profits than children.
  July 8, 2005 - read more
• Keep up to date with BBC News - special reports - Slavery

Fair Trade Coffee Criticism discounted in court of law

• Not free, but fair: Oxfam cleared of coffee chicanery
  The Age - Australia - June 28 2007 - read more here

Trade and the WTO

• Uganda President calls for Africa Trade, not Aid
  Fair trade campaigners say rich nations such as the United States and European Union countries give aid with one hand whilst refusing to cut subsidies and tariffs with the other, making it impossible for poor countries to compete.
  Reuters Africa - Fri 29 Jun 2007, read more here
• TRADE: Promises Go One Way, Subsidies Another
  GENEVA, Mar 14 - Africa's leading cotton producing countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad - are upset over Washington's continued failure to implement the commitments it undertook at the World Trade Organisation's Hong Kong ministerial Meeting in 2005 to address the distortions caused by the U.S. subsidies in the global cotton trade.
  By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda (IPS) read more here
• TRADE: Rich Sideline Poor Countries' Concerns in WTO Talks
  GENEVA, May 23 - As fresh attempts are made to clinch an agreement in the stalled Doha trade negotiations, industrialised countries have launched a concerted drive to set aside core concerns of the developing countries, say trade ministers and diplomats.
  By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda (IPS) read more here
• AFRICA: G8 Has Yet to Deliver on Aid Promises - World Bank
  MOSCOW, Jun 8 - The industrialised nations of the Group of Eight are failing on the promises made in their previous summits to help Africa's economic development and to push for poverty alleviation for those struggling to survive on less than a dollar per day, say World Bank experts and development activists.
  By Kester Kenn Klomegah (IPS) read more here

Starbucks

• US coffee-shop chain Starbucks agreed to credit Ethiopia's unique bean varieties on its labels, in a deal signed Wednesday to ending a long-brewing trademark dispute.
  Friday June 22- read more here

Climate Change

• “I don’t know what you call it, but, yes, the Mother is getting warmer. The rain falls differently than before. It is later, but it falls harder. It is destructive sometimes when it should be nurturing. Many of the rivers are dry before they reach the sea. And the snows on the peaks that replenish the rivers are less each year. It is all happening very quickly. First, you took our gold. Then you took our land. Now you are taking the water and the air itself."
  read more here from Deans Beans

Labelling issues reach UK House of Commons

• 'Below standards' The committee said that while the fair trade movement has taken off in many high street stores, the performance of some large retailers "falls well below standards we consider acceptable". (13 June 2007)
  read more here

Chocoholics may be funding war in Africa

• British chocoholics may have unwittingly helped fund an African conflict, with an estimated $120m (£60m) from the cocoa trade being siphoned off into war chests in Ivory Coast, according to a report released today (15 June 2007)
  read more here

Fair Trade Fortnight 2007: April 28 - May 13

• International 'kids need fair trade' postcard competition
  A New Zealand high school student has taken away the international prize in a ‘design a postcard’ competition representing what children think about the continued prevalence of child labour around the world.
  read more here
• ...New Zealand supports fair trade
  Buying fair trade products helps farmers and producers in the developing world receive a fair income for their work, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said at the start of Fair Trade Fortnight. read more here
• ...Fair Trade Fortnight a chance to make a difference
  “Fair trade offers an opportunity for communities in developing countries to sell their products at a fair and stable price providing decent wages and working conditions while protecting the environment,” says Russel Norman, Green Co-Leader and Trade Spokesperson. read more here
• ...Announcing new children’s book on fair trade
  Coinciding with international fair trade day (12 May, 2007) New Zealander Diane Abad Vergara has written a children’s book exploring the issue of fair trade. Medellin, COLOMBIA 27 April, 2007 – A truly global book produced over five continents Zapizapu Crosses the Sea goes on sale this week. read more here
• ...Fair Trade Fortnight (28th April – 13th May 2007)
  By changing to fair trade today, you can change the lives of farmers and producers across the developing world. This is the idea behind Fair Trade Fortnight 2007 – a two week celebration kicking off this coming weekend, running from 28th April to 13th May highlighting to consumers and businesses how their everyday buying decisions can help to make a difference. read more here
• ...10 ways to get some fairtrade into your day
  It’s Fairtrade Fortnight from 28 April until May 13. Fairtrade aims to share the benefits of trade more equitably between consumers, producers and the environment. To put it in its simplest terms, you get to buy yummy chocolate (and other products) and the cocoa bean growers get paid a living wage. So how can you participate in fairtrade? Here are ten things to consider incorporating into your daily life... read more here

...as Fair Trade Fortnight promotions educate New Zealanders about the benefits of fair trade, it also serves as a time to answers the criticisms that arise when any idea becomes widely discussed. Read the articles in 'The Australian' and New Zealand's 'Dominion Post' and then read our response:

• "For a comparison of the difference farmers can receive for fair trade, it makes sense to look at the prices paid for the fair trade coffee we drink here in New Zealand. The average world coffee price taken over the year of 2006 was US96 cents. This compares with an average price of close to US$1.70 which was the price Trade Aid paid to coffee producers for the same year. Trade Aid imports a large majority of all fair trade coffee in New Zealand"
  read more here
  

Levelling the playing field

• how does a marginalised producer traditionally exploited by middlemen and receiving sometimes less than the cost of production for their crops, access this global market, much less get themselves to a point where they have the capacity to trade at a level expected by developed countries?
  Justin Purser, Trade Aid's coffee buyer travels to Sumatra to find out - April 2007

Fair trade coffee and the claims some are making

• "they want us to point out the inequalities in the global trading system to New Zealanders, and they want us to tell their stories.." Justin Purser on why fair trade is more than just making claims to really make a difference.
  February 2007 - Justin Purser, Trade Aid Commodity Buyer

Spread Of Free Trade Threatens Poor Countries

• Rich countries are using regional and bilateral trade deals to attain concessions they cannot get at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with serious implications for poor countries' development, says a new report published by Oxfam today. read more here
  

Freedom and Fairness

• Neoliberals assume there is a level playing field for all, dismissing all evidence to the contrary. Fair trade, in contrast, actively works to level the playing field so that freedom for one does not come at the expense of freedom for another. In this way, it beats neoliberalism at its own game. The only real free trade is fair trade.
  article by Steve Herrick 29 January 2007

Child Labour

• Child labour – A crucial goal remains to be scored
  EC Newsdesk, 1 Feb 07
• Child labour: An end in sight
  report from the ILO 2006, Juan Somavia

2006

Coffee Game Provides Food For Thought

Ethically-inclined Christmas gifts are becoming increasingly popular and the latest offering, a board game with a fair trade theme, is also fun to use.
December 15, newswire.co.nz

Starbucks...

...one Dollar a Day Vs. Four Dollar Lattes

Starbucks CEO Jim Donald traveled to Addis Ababa to meet with Ethiopia's prime minister Meles Zenawi this week in an effort to head off what's becoming an increasingly public dispute over the Ethiopian government's efforts to trademark the country's best-known coffee blends.
Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US, Sun, Dec. 3, 2006

...Coffee with Milk and Morals

...The low-budget movie has exploded as a sleeper in film festivals and movie houses, picking up steam as it goes from Seattle to San Diego, Toronto to Tel Aviv, Belfast to Brooklyn, Rio to Rome. Now it is affecting the epicenter itself: Starbucks Coffee Co. During filming, the company refused to talk to the directors. After Black Gold began to attract audience attention, they were invited to company headquarters. Now public pressure aroused by the film may have helped trigger the recent conciliatory visit to Ethiopia by none other than the CEO of Starbucks.
Sunday, December 17, 2006

...the coffee chain is embroiled in a fight over Ethiopian coffee-bean trademarks

Coffee has become a testing ground for what it means to be an ethical consumer. No wonder Starbucks, a global coffee chain that prides itself on being socially responsible, has reacted like a scalded barista to criticism from Oxfam, a development charity.
Nov 30th 2006 | NEW YORK

...alledged to be blocking Ethiopian government's plan to increase income to coffee farmers

Now the Ethiopian government plans a scheme which could bring in even more cash to the parents of these children, almost all subsistence coffee farmers, by applying to trademark their premium beans in the United States. But the National Coffee Association of America, allegedly prompted by Starbucks, has moved swiftly to block their path...
By Mike Pflanz in Bedeno, 11 Nov 2006

Now that you've read the information, go into your local Trade Aid shop and send an action card to Starbucks or check out the Oxfam website for how you can help.

Drop in aid to Africa

Development aid to most of sub-Saharan Africa actually declined in 2005, according to new data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Although total worldwide official development assistance (ODA) from donor countries increased over that period, the bulk of the rise was accounted for by Afghanistan and Iraq.
BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest 13 December 2006

Industrial action by tea pickers in Sri Lanka

Striking tea trade unions in Sri Lanka are expecting crucial talks later today to settle their wage demand...
Zeenews.com, Colombo, Dec 11

Ethical Consumerism

Ethical spending has out-stripped retail sales of booze and cigarettes for the first time. What's driving this green spending spree?

Green backs, By Sean Coughlan, 27 Nov 2006 BBC News Magazine

Is Corporate Do-Goodery for Real?

Often the difficulty is built right into a company’s business model. It makes scant difference whether Wal-Mart starts stocking organic food or not, because the real problem is the imperative to ship products all over the world, sell them in vast, downtown-destroying complexes, and push prices so low that neither workers nor responsible suppliers can prosper... There’s something gross about buying a healthy carrot from a sick company.
Hype vs Hope, By Bill McKibben Nov/Dec issue 2006

Make Poverty History

With a little help from their most well-known campaigner, Make Poverty History Aotearoa collected over 11,000 signatures and a further 20,000 text petitions at this weekend’s U2 concerts. read more here

Kenya - Children make 60 per cent of work force in coffee plantations

Child labourers in Africa are expected to increase to more than 100 million by the year 2015 from the current 80 million because poverty continues to force children out of school... read more

Cocoa Farmers Strike in Ivory Coast

Disruption to cocoa supplies from the Cote d'Ivoire has ceased following suspension of strikes organised by the cacao growers' trade union Anaproci.
Food USA - October 25, 2006

The Ivory Coast's 700,000 increasingly impoverished cocoa farmers have expressed increasing discontent with the pricing system, saying they don't have enough ready cash to send their children to school.
Guardian Unlimited, Monday October 16, 2006

Trade Aid coffee hits 10 million

Trade Aid, New Zealand’s leading fair trade importer, can provide more than ten million reasons why it has just completed a highly successful year of trading
Trade Aid media release 12 September 2006

And here lies the hope – in the farming of the olive...

The Middle East seems to offer little hope of delivering good news, especially now, as bombs rain down once more, claiming the lives of innocent civilians and displacing hundreds of thousands from their homeland...
...Israel’s dictates (restricting movement, shifting more Palestinians into the West Bank, attacks on villages) have seen Palestine’s agricultural productivity drop by 70% since 2000, and yet agriculture remains of critical importance, both economically and socially. read more here

Fair's fair for coffee producers

Figures quoted in the Scientific American show the economic - and ethical - absurdity of the situation: In the early 1990s, the global coffee industry was worth $30 billion, of which the producing countries received $12 billion. But in 2002, despite the industry having doubled in size to $60 billion, the producing countries' share had dropped by half, down to just $6 billion.

This is why goods (specifically coffee, the world's second most traded commodity) that more directly connect consumers in the First World with producers in the Third World are becoming increasingly popular with New Zealanders
Otago Daily Times 30 August 2006

Coffee providing hope in Rwanda

Rwanda, a tiny East African country recently rent by a famously savage civil war, has found hope in that most colonial of crops: coffee. By riding booming demand in the developed world for specialty brews — and, to a certain extent, by turning its own challenges to its advantage — Rwanda has made premium coffee-growing a national priority. That has not only brought in a trickle of money to a country with little else to trade, but provided a stage on which one-time blood enemies can reconcile their terrible history.
NY TIMES-Published: August 6, 2006

Christchurch marks the occasion with New Zealand's first fair trade fashion parade

To celebrate the official introduction to New Zealand of the Fair Trade Organisation (FTO) Mark, New Zealand’s first fair trade fashion parade will see fair trade models strutting their stuff on the catwalk in Christchurch’s City Mall.
Trade Aid media release, August 4 2006

US foreign policy affects Bolivian coffee farmers

Bolivia won’t be having a Cup of Excellence competition this year. Why not? Funding for the event has been provided previously by USAID... Unhappy with the outcome of the presidential elections in late 2005 which installed Evo Morales in office instead of their own preferred candidate, the United States has withdrawn funding as part of their wider campaign to hurt the Bolivian economy...
Trade Aid media release August 2, 2006

The tribe that survives on chocolate

The poor cocoa farmers of Ghana cannot afford to buy their children chocolate bars, but our growing awareness of Fairtrade brands means they might be able to send them to school. Andrew Purvis reports on Trade Aid partner Kuapa Kokoo
Sunday November 9, 2003, The Observer

Our Shared Earth

Free trade

For those who are still at the very bottom, advocating, and, in many situations, forcing free trade on them, will simply serve to knock away the ladder that would allow for upwards progress.
guest article by William Shannon August 1, 2006

FECAFEB, the Bolivian Federation of Small-Scale Coffee Coops

"We began our journey, by slowly crawling out of the maze of over-stacked houses that is La Paz. Once outside of the city, we were suddenly surrounded by a strange and desolate landscape of jagged mountains, slate and scrub grass, llama herds and space. Our first stop was at the summit to chayarnos, a tradition of scattering coca leaves and hard spirits at a well-visited stone alter, to bless our journey..."
read a travelogue about FECAFEB, from cooperative coffees, May 2006

World Environment Day - June 5

Fair Trade; supporting the environmental efforts of producer and artisan cooperatives around the world
“Selecting fairly traded products for our purchases means we are at once buying what we need and supporting responsible production and community well-being” read more here

Environmental protection and trade models
The free trade model essentially says that businesses need to make sustainable profits, and that environmentally friendly behaviour is part and parcel of keeping profits continuing. Within the current process of conducting business in a global economy, however, in reality environmental considerations are frequently neglected.
Trade Aid, Environment, July 2006

Fair Trade Fortnight

Food: Fair and Square
By Lois Dash NZ Listener May 6-12 2006

The case for Fair Trade - TVNZ May 08 2006
Research carried out by Moxie Design Group shows that 25% of New Zealanders are what are called "solution seekers", that is we want to feel environmentally and socially responsible about the products we buy..
We don't want to compromise on quality and are prepared to pay a premium, within reason.
TVNZ May 08 2006

How eating chocolate can change lives
Mrs Abrafi and Erica Kyere are part of Ghana's Kuapa Kokoo cocoa cooperative and are speaking in New Zealand as part of the Fair Trade Fortnight. "If you buy fair trade chocolate then farmers like me can improve their products and we can improve our lives and our children's lives," she said.
May 08 2006 - stuff.co.nz

Why Fair Trade? A Brief Look at Free Trade in the Global Economy

Fair traders believe that their system of trade, based on respect for workers' rights and the environment, if adopted by the big players in the global economy, can play a big part in reversing the growing inequities and environmental degradation that have accompanied the growth in world trade.
article by the Fair Trade Federation

Colombian Farmers Fear Cheap U.S. Imports

For 25 years, Victor Murillo has grown rice on a five-acre plot in Colombia's central farm belt. But a new trade pact with the United States threatens his livelihood, and he's tempted to switch to a new crop: the tall, stalky coca plant that yields cocaine.

That's because, like farmers everywhere, many struggle to eke out an existence while their U.S. counterparts receive generous government subsidies.
Global Exchange April 6, 2006

How sweet really is your chocolate?

Their rules... or ours?
Despite the disturbing reality, chocolate which is often the product of forced child labour is still available in New Zealand. We have laws to protect our own children, but seem unwilling to legislate against the inhumane practise of child labour in other countries. World Trade Organisation rules are very strict in this sense and the grounds under which import restrictions may be imposed are very limited under this regime. However, as a proudly independent democracy, Trade Aid believes it is time for the New Zealand government to take a stand on this issue. In this situation, encouraging adherence with basic human rights worldwide must take priority over our involvement in the WTO.
Media Release Easter 2006

Slavery in the 21st century?
Trade Aid is asking why a civilised country in the 21st century is condoning practices that were outlawed in the 19th century. While we have laws to protect our children in this country, Trade Aid says that buying goods made by forced child labour in another country is still an endorsement of those practices. Trade Aid is looking to Parliament to make such practices illegal. In the meantime it is promoting its fair trade chocolate made from cocoa from Ghana where no children are used and farmers receive a fair wage for their work.
Media Release Valentines Day 2006

Traficking, torture and beatings...
As New Zealanders shouldn’t we have the right to know that our chocolate is as sweet as the image? Don’t we deserve the right to choose a chocolate free from child trafficking and torture? Chocolate by any other name just wouldn’t be as sweet.
Media Release Valentines Day 2006