Ralph Gets Involved

The economic downturn is still causing some worries, but Recession Ralph is taking the extra time that he now has since he lost his job to get involved with causes he's passionate about.

Ralph left Chiang Mai, Thailand to live in California so the cause to fight for immigrant rights is really close to home for him.

Ralph joined fellow staff members over the weekend in Seattle at the Green Festival. Ralph has been working overtime volunteering for a stronger green economy!

Have you seen Ralph around town? Be sure to snap a pic of him and send him over to us and we will post it on the blog and the best photo will be entered in the Recession Ralph photo contest to win a lovely Fair Trade prize. Send photos to storemaster@globalexchange.org with "Recession Ralph Photo" in the subject line.

Tell Cadbury Thanks and go Fair Trade in the USA!!

The outpouring of support for Cadbury's commitment to switch to Fair Trade in the UK by the end of this summer has been great. Now that the UK's leading chocolate bar producer has gone Fair Trade, we're looking toward the leading chocolate companies in the US to follow Cadbury's lead and follow through on their commitment to go Fair Trade.

A message from our Global Exchange Fair Trade campaign...

Cadbury has announced plans to begin using Fair Trade certified cocoa in the summer of 2009 for England's leading chocolate bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk. The significance of this fantastic news is that Cadbury is the first major chocolate brand to go Fair Trade certified with one of its main product lines, one of the goals Global Exchange and other organizations have been striving towards. Cadbury's announcement proves what Global Exchange has been saying for years: it is viable for a major chocolate bar to go Fair Trade without passing a significant cost increase to consumers. Congratulations on this important victory to all of you who have taken action by buying a Fair Trade certified chocolate bar or writing a letter to bring us to this moment!

As we all know, it is critical to write companies to pressure them to improve their performance on human rights and the environment. But it is just as important to thank companies when they make a change for the better, so that company executives can bring an outpouring of positive feedback to their boards, shareholders, and employees to sustain their new, responsible practices and promote more change.

That is why we want to urge every one of you to participate in our thank you action to Cadbury at this critical moment in time!
Please join Global Exchange and fellow members of our partner Fair Trade advocacy organizations nationwide and around the world in generating as many letters as possible to:

• congratulate Cadbury on the Fair Trade certification of their Dairy Milk bar in the UK.


• ask Cadbury, Hershey (Cadbury's US manufacturer) and Green and Black's Organic (owned by Cadbury) to expand their commitment to Fair Trade in the United States by introducing more Fair Trade Certified products.
  

So head over to >the Global Exchange action page and Thank Cadbury for their commitment and ask them and other large chocolate companies to commit to Fair Trade throughout their whole supply chain.

Cadbury Goes Fair Trade

A few weeks ago, Cadbury announced their plans to use Fair Trade Certified cocoa in the summer of 2009 for their Cadbury Dairy Milk, which is the leading chocolate bar in the United Kingdom. This announcement is a significant victory for the Fair Trade movement as Cadbury is the first major chocolate company to certify one of their main products as Fair Trade. Various Fair Trade advocates, such as Global Exchange along with consumers like you have been working very hard to encourage major chocolate companies to take positive steps to respect human rights and environmental sustainability throughout their supply chains.

In hearing the announcment, Global Exchange along with the International Labor Rights Forum offered their congratulations to the chocolate company and encouraged major US chocolate companies to follow Cadbury's lead. Global Exchange's Fair Trade Campaign Director, Adrienne Fitch-Frankel said,

Cadbury's Fair Trade announcement is an important victory for cocoa farmers, chocolate lovers, and grassroots Fair Trade advocates in the UK and around the world. We hope that Cadbury will extend its commitment to Fair Trade to all of its cocoa products sold in the UK and worldwide. After the remarkable leadership of 100% Fair Trade certified chocolate companies like Equal Exchange, Divine, and Alter Eco, Cadbury has proven that embracing Fair Trade is also both feasible and profitable for the major international chocolate brands. Cadbury's is the first domino in the domino effect of major chocolate companies going Fair Trade. The tens of thousands of grassroots Fair Trade activists we work with, from young children to grandparents, are eagerly awaiting the day that we will savor our first Fair Trade certified Hershey's bar, package of M&Ms, or World's Finest Chocolate bar.

So, we congratulate Cadbury in their efforts to make positive changes and encourage them to expand their Fair Trade commitment to more of their chocolate lines in other countries including the United States.

Go Green This St. Patrick's Day

Just received a message from our San Francisco Global Exchange Store.

If you're in San Francisco on St. Patrick's Day, visit the Global Exchange Store in Noe Valley to pick up copies of "Building the Green Economy" and "The Greenfestival Reader" for only $5 (originally $15.95-$16.95).

"Building the Green Economy" by Kevin Danaher (GX co-founder), Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark is a great read about success stories from small grassroots orgnaizations and movements that are working on building great and greener communitites. Learn how individuals, families and communitiy groups have organized around protecting their food and water, cleaning up their neighborhoods, and strengthening their local economies.

"The Greenfestival Reader" edited by Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz is an accessible guide to the ideas presented at Global Exchange's and Green America's Green Festivals. Green Festivals happen throughout the year in select cities and have become known to many as "a party with a purpose." In this book get a look at what the movers and shakers in the green community are doing and saying.

New Hours for SF Store:
Sunday-Monday 11am-6pm
Tuesday-Friday 11am-7pm
Saturday 10am-7pm

Save Some Green for St. Patrick's Day

You might have noticed the rise in green in people's wardrobe today. Why all the green? It's St. Patrick's Day of course. Well, over at Global Exchange we know that not only are people wearing some green, but they are also trying to save some green. What better way to help you save some green, while also buying some green, sustainable and Fair Trade products than by offering you a $10 saving on your next purchase at our Online Store.

If you shop during St. Patrick's Day (and today only) we have a special promotion going on offering you $10 OFF for any purchase over $50. You're in luck because it's so simple. All you have to do it enter the coupon code stpatday09 during checkout to receive the discount.

Save some Green today for St. Patrick's Day.

Recession Ralph Sightings

I'm sure you've heard that Ralph the Fair Trade doll was recently fired. His story has been showing up around the internets and people are starting to see Recession Ralph around town. How is Ralph dealing with the current economy? Let's check it out...

Ralph is still getting dizzy browsing those Craigslists ads.

Ack. In need of some dinero. Time to break into the piggie bank.

Looking for a break from the recession blues, Ralph visited his friends at a dinner party and cheered up immediately. He couldn't bring a dish so he offered to help with the dishes. Aw, Ralph. What a...doll. :)

Have you seen Ralph around town? Be sure to snap a pic of him and send him over to us and we will post it on the blog and the best photo will be entered in the Recession Ralph photo contest to win a lovely Fair Trade prize. Send photos to storemaster@globalexchange.org with "Recession Ralph Photo" in the subject line.

Stay tuned for more Ralph adventures...

TransFair USA announces expanded list of Fair Trade Certified products

TransFair recently announced an expanded list of Fair Trade Certified products. As you may know, TransFair USA is the only third party Certifier of Fair Trade products in the US. Fair Trade is a label that guarantees to consumers that certain criteria have been met, including a minimum price paid to farmers and environmentally sustainable farming methods were used.

"Since we launched Fair Trade Certified here in the States 10 years ago, we've taken a cautious approach, focusing on building distribution and consumer interest in each certified product before launching a new one," said Paul Rice, chief executive of TransFair USA. "Now, with public awareness of Fair Trade Certified high, the time is right for us to allow U.S. consumers access to more Fair Trade Certified products and extend the benefits of Certification to more farmers."

Once known for its coffee and chocolate Certification, the list of Certified Fair Trade products in the US has expanded to include some fresh vegetables (including peppers and new potatoes), fruit juices (including apple...yeaah!) and nuts (can you say yum?). To see the complete list of products now being Certified by TransFair USA, check out their website.

Women Pick up the Pieces with Saori Project

In honor of International Women's Day coming up on the 8th, we are featuring a few of the women artisan groups that we work with at Global Exchange. Women make up a large part of the artisans involved in the Fair Trade world and largely benefit from the positive impacts that Fair Trade brings. When trying to figure out which groups to feature, we had a lot to choose from so it was hard to decide.

So, to narrow it down, we picked an item that has been catching our eye lately. A GX store staffer has been waiting for a birthday to come up so she can give someone this Saori wallet. These wallets are a product of the Saori Group, a project started by Mitsuo Kawestco, the founder of the Buddhist Maya Kotamee Foundation. The project came about in the aftermath of the tsunami that rocked Thailand in December 2004 in hopes to help survivors who saw their lives devastated by the tragic event. The Saori Group has sought to be a healing environment for the victims helping the cope through providing an atmosphere where they can pick up where the tsunami left off and reconnect with their communities.

The Saori Group has helped over 150 women since its inception. The women come together to craft wonderfully colorful crafts out of leftover material ranging from thread from fabric manufacturers to scraps of plastic. With this leftover material, they are able to weave and bring life to new crafts. It is somewhat symbolic of their lives where they are picking up pieces from the past and giving it a new path. The women of the Saori Project have been empowered because they are able to provide an new life for themselves and start anew.

[photo: www.tshirtaxid.blogspot.com]

Help GX Win $200,000

Global Exchange is seeking funding for an important campaign to fight climate change.
Your vote could help us win $200,000 thanks to the Changing Climate Change Contest put on by Just Means. The money comes thanks to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which is making four separate grants-each for $200,000, payable over 5 years, to support work on reducing climate change.

GX's Climate Change campaign in a nutshell: Global Exchange wants to add to the political fight to stop climate change by bringing disadvantaged communities of color into the political arena. Too often, environmental movements do not include the voices of those who stand to lose the most.

So if you're down to help us out with your vote (it only takes a second to register and vote) we sure would appreciate it. Plus, Just Means is a cool new website worth checking out. Regardless of whether we win or not, a big thanks to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for investing this kind of money into the important field of climate change.

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about Global Exchange's Climate Justice work, take a moment to check out our new Climate Justice Blog.

International Women's Day and Fair Trade

International Women's Day is coming up on March 8th. Being a business run by a small group of women (in quantity and in height) promoting Fair Trade, which benefits women artisans worldwide, International Women's Day is a big one for us.

So, in honor of this special day, we will be highlighting the different stories of the Fair Trade women's cooperatives that we work with that have seen Fair Trade give them more equality, empowerment and a better life for them and their families.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out our selection of products made by these women artisans in our International Women's Day section.