Fair Trade USA recently left Fairtrade International, the world’s leading fair trade federation to launch its own initiative. Small producers in Latin America have created their own certification label in response to the opening of the Fairtrade Max Havelaar label to large plantations. Tensions are increasingly flaring within a movement that has different development visions and approaches to fair trade. Will it fall apart?
After a decade of euphoric growth, the sale of fair trade products in several European countries is an important factor in time. The economic crisis has passed and the different types of players are often forced to adapt and adjust their strategies.
The main themes of the Rio+20 international conference, which was held in the Brazilian economic capital June 20th to 22nd, 2012, are the implementation of the “Green Economy” and the global governance of sustainable development. In a time when the world is experiencing an extremely serious financial crisis, the concept of a green economy combining growth with environmental imperatives is raising many questions.
For 2012 the UN focuses on cooperatives “because cooperative enterprises contribute to reducing poverty for many families and communities”.
Members of cooperatives undertake voluntarily to get associated and better pool their individual resources.
Since November 2011 stevia may be produced and sold in Europe. Finally… because this natural sweetener, which has been consumed in South America for centuries, has a high nutritional value and is 100% natural and safe. Because of its assets Stevia attracted the attention of multinationals who started investing massively in the crop. Fair trade and organic farming are tools that can help traditional stevia producers to take advantage of the growing demand for stevia.
The tensions between Israel and Palestine have recently culminated. Again they were drawn into the logic of war. Yet, in daily life there are Israelis and Palestinians who work together in fair trade projects to achieve closer relations between their communities.
Surveys conducted between 2009 and 2011 show that more than 250 000 children are used and exploited in cocoa plantations in West Africa (mainly in Ivory Coast). In 2001, some of the big names of the global chocolate industry signed the Harkin-Engel protocol and committed to addressing the worst forms of child labour. Ten years later, none of the goals set by this protocol were fully achieved.
The Kivu region is one of the most dangerous places in the world. In this region the Ugandan organisation Gourmet Gardens set up a vanilla and cocoa production chain that is fair trade (Fair for Life) and organic certified in 2005.
The rate of destruction of forest cover has significantly increased over the past ten years, particularly in countries in the South. This endangers the overall development of these regions. Southern countries are faced with the erosion of their natural resources. Meanwhile , they suffer the most from climate change, of which deforestation is one of the main causes.
Cocoa is a mythical food with surprising origins that has made its way around the globe. Starting in Central America, it spread in the holds of merchant ships during the era when the world was opening up to explorers. Limited to the zone between the tropics, from which it cannot escape, the cocoa tree is fragile and delicate and its trunk and branches hold a bizarre, inedible fruit. A fruit, though, that is highly prized.
Fair Trade USA recently left Fairtrade International, the world’s leading fair trade federation to launch its own initiative. Small producers in Latin America have created their own certification label in response to the opening of the Fairtrade Max Havelaar label to large plantations. Tensions are increasingly flaring within a movement that has different development visions and approaches to fair trade. Will it fall apart?
After a decade of euphoric growth, the sale of fair trade products in several European countries is an important factor in time. The economic crisis has passed and the different types of players are often forced to adapt and adjust their strategies.
The main themes of the Rio+20 international conference, which was held in the Brazilian economic capital June 20th to 22nd, 2012, are the implementation of the “Green Economy” and the global governance of sustainable development. In a time when the world is experiencing an extremely serious financial crisis, the concept of a green economy combining growth with environmental imperatives is raising many questions.
For 2012 the UN focuses on cooperatives “because cooperative enterprises contribute to reducing poverty for many families and communities”.
Members of cooperatives undertake voluntarily to get associated and better pool their individual resources.
Since November 2011 stevia may be produced and sold in Europe. Finally… because this natural sweetener, which has been consumed in South America for centuries, has a high nutritional value and is 100% natural and safe. Because of its assets Stevia attracted the attention of multinationals who started investing massively in the crop. Fair trade and organic farming are tools that can help traditional stevia producers to take advantage of the growing demand for stevia.
The tensions between Israel and Palestine have recently culminated. Again they were drawn into the logic of war. Yet, in daily life there are Israelis and Palestinians who work together in fair trade projects to achieve closer relations between their communities.
Surveys conducted between 2009 and 2011 show that more than 250 000 children are used and exploited in cocoa plantations in West Africa (mainly in Ivory Coast). In 2001, some of the big names of the global chocolate industry signed the Harkin-Engel protocol and committed to addressing the worst forms of child labour. Ten years later, none of the goals set by this protocol were fully achieved.
The Kivu region is one of the most dangerous places in the world. In this region the Ugandan organisation Gourmet Gardens set up a vanilla and cocoa production chain that is fair trade (Fair for Life) and organic certified in 2005.
The rate of destruction of forest cover has significantly increased over the past ten years, particularly in countries in the South. This endangers the overall development of these regions. Southern countries are faced with the erosion of their natural resources. Meanwhile , they suffer the most from climate change, of which deforestation is one of the main causes.
Cocoa is a mythical food with surprising origins that has made its way around the globe. Starting in Central America, it spread in the holds of merchant ships during the era when the world was opening up to explorers. Limited to the zone between the tropics, from which it cannot escape, the cocoa tree is fragile and delicate and its trunk and branches hold a bizarre, inedible fruit. A fruit, though, that is highly prized.
