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February
5, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 3Oakland,
CA
Show love on
Valentine’s Day with
fair trade chocolates
You can show
love – as well as your social conscience – on St. Valentine’s
Day with a gift of fair trade chocolates.
Buying fair trade chocolates helps low-income cocoa bean farmers earn
a fair price for their product because they work with international trading
companies that offer fair wages and cooperative workplaces
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) participates in the Fair Trade program,
assisting cocoa farmers in Ghana, West Africa, where cocoa is a major
commercial crop.
These farmers, both individually and in cooperatives, pledge to follow
fair trade practices, including offering just wages to their workers and
providing a workplace free from exploitation, especially child labor.
Thomas Awiapo, who works for CRS in Ghana, has been making presentations
before different groups in the Oakland Diocese to promote the purchase
of fair trade products, especially chocolate.
Fair trade relationships have a positive trickle-down effect, Awiapo said.
Cocoa farmers, who sell their products at higher prices through the fair
trade agreements, contribute a percentage of their income to a community
fund. At the end of each year these funds are available for local groups
to use to improve water services, health care, and education.
The consumers of fair trade chocolate are not only helping to bolster
the economic base of cocoa farmers and those who work for them, they also
are helping to sustain, build and empower communities, Awiapo said.
The CRS Fair Trade Program website is featuring a Valentine Gift Basket
for $35. It contains several fair trade products including a three-and-a-half
ounce milk chocolate bar and a dark chocolate bar, both bearing the “Divine”
brand.
