Fair Traders tour with The Cure!

During May and June our Fair Trade friends at Pacha World joined Amnesty International and toured the U.S. with the band The Cure. By the start of the 1990's The Cure was one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world and has sold an estimated 27 million albums. Our own Tex Dworkin has fond memories of dressing all in black and rockin out to Cure tunes on Halloween night back in the 80’s!

Pacha World traveled on buses and planes with the band and crew to cities around the country, educating Cure fans about Fair Trade while selling Fair Trade handicrafts. They visited 22 cities and 220,000 people within a month and a half, thanks to the support of the band, especially Cure front man Robert Smith who supported their efforts financially (and emotionally!)...Pacha World's tour with The Cure was sponsored by Robert Smith, and they also received a small grant from Dr. Bronners (www.drbronners.com). From Washington D.C. to the West Coast, then back to the East Coast ending at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Pacha World was welcomed with open arms by fans around the country, and were able to speak to people in areas of the U.S. who were unfamiliar with the concept of Fair Trade. Definitely an exciting time for the Fair Trade movement. Rock on Pacha World!

Global Exchange Stores to open in D.C.

This summer, Global Exchange is delighted to announce the opening of our first east coast Global Exchange Fair Trade Stores in Washington DC! Through the generosity and commitment to social change of owner Andy Shallal of Busboys and Poets, our new "boutique style" Fair Trade stores will share space with 3 new Busboys and Poets restaurants. We are thrilled to have the opportunity of working with Busboys, DC's inspiring combination of progressive political bookstore, restaurant and performance space. Busboys and Poets offers social and political activists and intellectuals a place to network, share and socialize while enjoying great, reasonably priced food in a comfortable, low key atmosphere. [Find out more]

Harkin-Engel Protocol, 7 Years Later...

July 1st, 2008 was supposed to be the deadline for the chocolate industry to fulfill their commitment to end the worst forms of child labor in cocoa production. The day has come and gone with nary an ounce of change. Global Exhchange's Fair Trade Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel, updates us on the current cocoa situation...

An excerpt of the article:

Even though the chocolate industry committed to ending the worst forms of child labor in cocoa production by today — July 1, 2008 — the slave-free label is still missing from lots of chocolate boxes…and chocolate bars and ice cream and syrup and other products made with cocoa. And it’s not just because industry talked Congress into a voluntary agreement in place of the 2001 legislation that would have created a mandatory slave-free label for chocolate, which was passed in the House of Representatives by a landslide. It is also because virtually none of the chocolate you buy as a consumer could be certified as “slave-free” if that label existed today. [Read the rest of the article.]

For more information about Global Exchange's Fair Trade Cocoa campaign, click here. Since the chocolate industry isn't stepping up to the plate, it's up to you, the consumer, to make a difference.