Rodney North’s Recent Comments

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  some more independent/enlightened chocolate brands

  To the list I'd add:

  Cocoa Camino (a Canadian worker co-op): 100% organic & Fair Trade

  Art Bar (by Ithaca Fine Chocolates):organic, Fair Trade

  Sweet Earth Organics (made in California): organic, Fair Trade

  Shaman Chocolates: some?all? Fair Trade

  Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company (made in Ghana)- good people, but I don't know the details.On ADM gets its filthy paws on an immaculate confection posted 2 years, 6 months ago 23 Responses

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  Fair Trade is not expensive for farmers, who's who

  Two items:
  First - Amano was wrong, or at least misleading, when they said "it costs significant amounts of money for the farmers to become fair-trade certified". As a company who imports and sells at least 500,000 pounds of Fair Trade Certified cocoa/chocolate a year we at Equal Exchange can attest that the Fair Trade system delivers real benefits for small-scale farmers. (All told we work with over 30 Fair Trade Certified farmer co-ops in 13 countries, and involving coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, and rooibos.) While certification does take time (and could admittedly be streamlined) and requires a fee (just as with organic certification, but cheaper) to help cover the costs of the certification process the fee is dwarfed by the higher prices Fair Trade farmer co-ops receive. For example, thanks to the Fair Trade system in just the last 5 years our small company alone has paid farmers $8 million ABOVE the market price for their crops. See in that context the fees are irrelevant.

  Second - I thought it amusing to see the posting plugging Dagoba, as they are part of Hershey's. Assuming that the staff at Dagoba want to object to the FDA/Chocolate Manufacturer's effort to dilute the integrity of chocolate I wonder how'll they do it without running afoul of the Hersheys executives. Likewise, I wonder if Scharfenberger (also owned by Hersheys) will speak up on this issue.
  On ADM gets its filthy paws on an immaculate confection posted 2 years, 6 months ago 23 Responses