In April, Fair Trade USA released a new draft labeling policy for multi-ingredient products, proposing to maintain a threshold requirement of just 20% fair trade ingredients while eliminating the requirement that all ingredients available as fair trade be included in fair trade form (“commercial availability”) and without adopting a requirement to disclose the percentage of [...]

Posted on April 24, 2013 Ask most ethically-minded shoppers whether a chocolate bar bearing a fair trade label on the front contains mostly fair trade ingredients and they would probably say yes. Chocolate bars have ingredients like cocoa and sugar and vanilla and one would expect that if a company cared to have one ingredient [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 24, 2013 CONTACT:    Kerstin Lindgren, Ph: 617-680-9862 Email: kerstin@fairworldproject.org Ryan Fletcher, Ph: 202-641-0277 Email: ryan@mintwood.com Fair World Project Believes that Diluted Labeling Policy Hurts Farmers, Misleads Consumers, and Creates Market Disadvantage for Truly Committed Fair Trade Brands PORTLAND, OR – Fair World Project (FWP), a project of the Organic Consumers [...]

Posted on April 2, 2013 Hershey has committed to “sustainable cocoa and improving the lives of cocoa communities,” through an announcement in October 2012 to “certify” all cocoa by 2020 and more recently in March 2013 by announcing that it has developed a roadmap for how to do this that includes working with three certifiers, [...]

Posted on March 16, 2013  If you have ever thought Rainforest Alliance Certified is equivalent to fair trade, you are not alone… In previous blogs about confusing labels we have highlighted the concerning labeling misrepresentations on specific products including chocolate bars, iced tea, and coffee.  In this case, we are concerned about the misrepresentation of [...]

Request Publication for Distribution   Download The Full Publication Reference guide to Fair Trade Certifiers Table of Contents Letter from the Director News in Brief Celebrate with Dedicated Fair Trade Brands and their Fair Trade Small-Scale Producers The Long Way Home to Support Intergenerational Cooperatives Alternative Trade Organizations and the Fair Trade Movement Mexico by [...]

Contributing Writer: David Bronner, Adapted and updated from the 2003 Vote Hemp Report Spring 2013 The subject of why or whether to grow industrial hemp in the United States is often debated yet much misunderstood. The controversy surrounding the plant obscures much of its historical and potential impact — and its adaptability to diverse industries. [...]

Contributing Writer: Jason Freeman Spring 2013 Hemp provides the unique opportunity to create an innovative value chain which is both socially just and ecologically sustainable. The percentage of hemp that is organically grown versus conventionally grown is the highest relative to all other grains grown in North America. The price organic farmers are receiving for [...]

Contributing Writer: La Vía Campesina Spring 2013 Even in today’s high-tech world, almost half of the global population is peasants or, in our U.S. context, small-scale family farmers. The majority of people in the world still depend upon food produced by peasants. Small-scale agriculture is not just an economic activity — for many people, it [...]

Contributing Writer: Kari Hamerschlag Spring 2013 The federal Farm Bill is the single most important piece of legislation affecting the food you eat, the kinds of crops American farmers grow, the environment and the nation’s food security. In response to the groundswell of demand for local and sustainably grown food, the proposed 2012 Farm Bill [...]