Fair Trade & Social Justice
OCA's New Fair World Project
The Organic Consumers Association launched the Fair World Project (FWP) in September 2010 to promote fair trade in commerce, especially in organic production systems in developing countries as well as at home, and to protect the term "fair trade" from dilution and misuse for mere PR purposes. FWP fills the critical need for a watchdog of misleading fair trade claims, and a cheerleader for dedicated fair trade mission-driven companies.
The fact that Costco is willing to go to great lengths to keep the price of its chicken at rock bottom means the problems associated with its CAFOs are likely to only get worse. As reported by CNN, Costco is now planning on opening its very own poultry complex in Fremont, Nebraska, which will allow it to “control the production process from farm to store.”
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According to the US Department of Labor, more than 2 million children in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire work in hazardous conditions growing cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. While some companies have begun tracing their supply chains to prevent child labor, the vast majority of the 3 million tons of cocoa produced each year come from small farms in West Africa, where farmers and their children live on less than $1 per day.
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Clayton Brascoupé has farmed in the red-brown foothills of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains for more than 45 years. A Mohawk-Anishnaabe originally from a New York reservation, Brascoupé married into the Pueblo of Tesuque tribe and has since planted at least 60 varieties of corns, beans, squashes, and other heirloom crops grown for millennia by the area’s Native Americans.
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The U.S. is notorious for its weight problem. With just 5% of the world’s population, it’s home to 13% of the world’s overweight and obese people. Roughly two-thirds of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese and, even more alarming, 38% of boys and girls ages 10 to 14 are.
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Companies producing more than 90% of America’s chicken have conspired to depress wages for a largely immigrant work force in some of the nation’s most dangerous jobs, according to a lawsuit. The case filed last week is mostly based on interviews with former employees, and claims the conspiracy among 18 companies, their subsidiaries and affiliates and two consulting firms continues until today.
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In the treaty territories and reservation of the Anishinaabeg, or the Ojibwe people, Winona LaDuke is planning the next economy. “Hemp is a cornerstone of a post petroleum economy and needs to be reintegrated into rural farming, particularly Indigenous farming,” says Winona LaDuke who is poised to elevate her Hemp and Heritage Farm by launching a national crowd-sourcing initiative to further protect the Earth and revitalize the once vibrant hemp-fiber industry in Minnesota.
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The immigration raid last week at seven poultry plants in rural Mississippi was a perfect symbol of the Trump administration’s racism, lies, hypocrisy, and contempt for the poor. It was also a case study in how an industry with a long history of defying the law has managed to shift the blame and punishment onto workers.
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Shantae Johnson emerged from the greenhouse at Mudbone Grown, her small, family-owned farm in east Multnomah County, and walked toward the summer interns sitting around the remnants of a campfire. Her brown Carhartt overalls were dirty at the knees. An easy smile crossed her face.
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The Middle East—home to the Fertile Crescent—introduced domesticated agriculture 12,000 years ago. Today, news from the region features conflict, urbanization, food and nutrition insecurity, natural resource scarcity, and climate change—challenges that have made the region into the world’s largest importer of food.
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At sunrise, the misty fields around the village of Guior are already dotted with men, women and children sowing maize after an overnight rainstorm. After several years of drought, the downpour brought some hope of relief to the subsistence farmers in this part of eastern Guatemala.
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