Fair Trade and The Green Movement

by Dana Geffner

Recently, myself, along with Jocelyn Boreta, the Global Exchange San Francisco Store Manager, were invited by Craftmark with financial help by Aid to Artisans to visit India and see firsthand how new and existing fair trade groups are transforming the workplace culture in rural India. Craftmark is an initiative by the All India Artisans and Workers Association (AIACA) which helps to promote genuine Indian handmade crafts, develop sector-wide minimum standards and norms for labeling a product as a handmade product, and increase consumer awareness of distinct handicraft traditions.

Our 17-day trip to India was filled with inspirational moments. We visited several different types of groups from small family businesses that have been making mud block prints for five generations, to a family that has been making threaded jewelry for over 1000 years, to a slum project making recycled newspaper bags, to an NGO that is working with 360 men & women displaced by the creation of a tiger reserve.

All of the groups we visited were inspirational in their own way but the one that was working with green energy alternatives and supporting them with Fair Trade practices really caught our attention. Avani, which took an overnight train and a 7-hour car ride through the Himalayas to reach, could be considered the role model for how NGOs can become sustainable entities. They also prove that supporting Fair Trade can move mountains. Through their Fair Trade craft program, Avani is working to revive, preserve and promote traditional weaving craft and to incorporate contemporary input for market exposure and income generation. With an all-local team of weavers, working out of their homes and Avani community centers in over 90 communities, they have successfully created a sustainable village-based enterprise managed by the community. In 23 extremely remote villages, Avani has provided solar panels for electricity and have educated the villagers on installation and maintenance.

Avani also works to promote rain water harvesting for drinking water and grey-water systems for irrigation and domestic use. The Avani center collects 2,700,000 litres of roof run off rainwater and recycles 100% of their water through grey-water filtration systems. In a region where water shortage is a huge problem this practice is revolutionary.

Sales of Avani's fair trade products have been life-changing to the remote, rural villages where they operate and have allowed their green projects to be completely sustainable. The women weavers produce hand-spun fabrics from all-natural organic fibers including wool, mulberry, eri, munga, pashmina, angora, linen and a variety of non-violent locally cultivated silks. The result is a huge selection of scarves, stoles, blankets, and clothing. Their range of organic color, texture and design is amazing. One can feel the organic process and grass-root level commitment to excellence in each textile.

The Avani center is a vibrant, thriving work and living space where families raise each others children, share home-grown meals, work for shared income, educate visitors and spend nights drumming, singing and dancing together. As Avani grows, this vibrancy is systematically being spread through the organization of self sustaining village centers throughout this region of the Himalaya.

Avani is just one of many great stories of fair trade groups making a difference in the communities where they exist. But they can't be successful if they can't market their products. We feel without our support and consumer’s support, these communities cannot continue to grow and move towards self-sustainability.

Dana Geffner is the Fair Trade Wholesale and Online Store Program Director for Global Exchange

Bitter Chocolate

by Adrienne Fitch-Frankel

There are so many things to consider on Valentine’s Day: the reason you and your beloved were first attracted to each other, the amazing date you’ve planned, the perfect gift to express your affection. And, if you’re like most Americans, you’re thinking about buying chocolate. U.S. consumers purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of chocolate for their sweeties in the week leading up to February 14. With that in mind, here’s one more thing to consider:

Child slavery.

Yes, child slavery. It’s rampant in the cocoa industry.

Though the industry promised in 2001 to fix the problem, it hasn’t. Abusive child labor and slavery still makes your chocolate a bit bitter. A report funded by the State Department and others estimate that in West Africa, the source of 70 percent of the world’s cocoa, hundreds of thousands of children as young as five years old toil in the cocoa fields, with scores of them enduring the worst forms of child labor. These kids clear fields, spray pesticides, and carry heavy sacks across vast distances.

Not so sweet, huh?

But there’s a way to give the perfect Valentine’s Day chocolates without perpetuating child abuse. The solution lies in fair-trade certification.

Fair-trade certification ensures that cocoa producers meet stringent labor and environmental standards, stipulating that the crop is produced without forced or abusive child labor. Fair trade also guarantees that farmers are paid a fair price for their crops, allowing them to pay the costs of inputs to their crops—including labor—and purchase necessities they often can’t afford when prices are left to the market’s whims.

Chocolate, jewelry, and other gifts worthy of being a token of your love can be found at your local store carrying fair-trade goods or online at Global Exchange’s fair-trade store. You can even pair your gift of fair-trade chocolate with fair-trade certified flowers and wine. And then, there is the ultimate Valentine’s Day chocolate gift: a trip to spend a week with the fair-trade cocoa farmers in the Dominican Republic…an experience every chocolate lover should have. Fair trade gifts are often accompanied by the story of the worker cooperative it supports, which is sure to win the heart of your beloved, all over again. You can learn more about these options at www.globalexchange.org/cocoa, a website my organization created.

Helping to end abusive child labor and slavery, and ensuring fair prices for farmers and other producers, doesn’t have to stop there. Individuals, schools, congregations, and communities around the country are uniting to educate their neighbors about fair trade, using fun and creative actions. For example, educators nationwide will participate in a National Valentine’s Day of Action by teaching schoolchildren about fair-trade cocoa. You can also visit our website to find out how you can help promote fair trade and press Hershey’s, World’s Finest Chocolate, and other cocoa industry leaders to end the intolerable shadow slavery casts on our cocoa supply.

By the way, choosing another popular Valentine’s Day gift doesn’t resolve the problem. Diamonds, without proper certification, are nobody’s best friend. Conflict diamonds, blood diamonds, hot diamonds: The names all point to the glaring problem in the industry. Most diamonds come from regions of the world embroiled in conflict, where the sale of diamonds finances arms purchases, and violent groups resort to forced labor and brutal violence to keep the money flowing.

Even flowers may be tainted. Many flower-production companies, generally operating in Africa or Latin America, pay wages below subsistence levels and threaten the health of workers through toxic exposures. Further, these companies often prevent workers from forming unions to secure their rights.

Valentine’s Day is supposed to be sweet. Let’s sweeten it for everyone by supporting the fair-trade movement and helping stamp out child slavery and other abusive labor conditions.

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Adrienne Fitch-Frankel is Global Exchange's fair-trade cocoa campaigner. www.globalexchange.org

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Fair Trade Jewelry now 10% off until February 12th.

New Year - New Products!

We here at the Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store are very excited at the new products coming online recently. Here are just a few of the cool new items we're selling:


Recycled Innertube Bags


We have three new styles that we've added to our already wildly popular recycled innertube line. The first is our Nature Bag. With cut out green fabric leaf shapes to add color and decorative black on black stitching it on the front pockets giving texture and style. 15"W x 12"H x 3".

The second is our Circle Bag. With punched out circle shapes exposing red fabric to give color style, this bag is designed for functionality with the traveler in mind. 10"W x 8"H x 3"D.

The third is our Toiletry Bag. Truck tires are collected, washed and then sewn into very durable and easy to clean toiletry bags. Fastens with a good quality zipper closure, lined with water proof easy to clean lining. 9"L x 4"H x 6"D.

Flower Belts


Hand woven and embroidered with colorful flowers; this belt will make you feel happy whenever you wear it! Made of woven wool and backed for durability with soft cotton fabric, each flower and leaf has been hand embroidered by Indigenous women living in villages in very rural areas of the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Peru. Each belt is fitted with a sturdy brass buckle.

As each belt is hand made, they can differ slightly from belt to belt. Although colors are the same, patterns, holes and sizes do differ slightly.

Choose from three color choices: Orange, Black or Blue.

Hand Woven Padded Potholder

Is it time to replace your pot holder? Choose from three of these brightly colored very durable hand woven potholders to protect your hands against the hottest of dishes.

Handcrafted by women living in rural villages in the central highlands of Guatemala. 7" x 7".

Playa Pom-Pom Tote

A color inspired hand woven tote bag, great for taking for a day to the beach, or around town to the shops. where ever you take it, it will bring color and catch the eye! Each bag has a colorful hand made pom pom attached as a fun addition. 15" x 12.

choose from two color choices:
Sunset: Deep reds, oranges and yellows replicating all the beautiful colors of the most vibrant Guatemalan sunset. inner lining is burgundy.
Purple Combo -- Huses of purples, yellows, greens and gray's with a pink inner lining.

Handcrafted by women living in rural villages in the central highlands of Guatemala.