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.
During the partial federal shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, news reports showed furloughed government workers standing in line for donated meals. These images were reminders that for an estimated 1 out of 8 Americans, food insecurity is a near-term risk.
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There's a price war raging in the grocery aisle—but the people who actually grow and gather our food may be the battle's true losers. Meet the produce pickers of Texas's Rio Grande Valley, whose penny-per-bunch harvest helps stock your pantry for less. Our food is cheap—by some measures, cheaper than it’s ever been. But the inexpensive supermarket fare that consumers now expect doesn’t come without a hidden human cost.
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Valentine’s Day is almost here and if you’re one of the 70% of people in the U.S. who expresses your feelings with chocolate and flowers, we need to talk. That heart-shaped box of chocolates and dozen roses are the end products of supply chains that are anything but loving to farmers, their workers, and the planet.
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Most of us wish we could eat with the confidence that everything on our plate has a story we can feel good about, a story about taking care of both people and the environment. In the food system (as elsewhere) these twin issues, justice and sustainability, have often been talked about as if they were unrelated, independent problems with separate solutions.
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American consumers willingly pay more for foods labeled as “natural,” “organic” or “humane.” Food companies took notice long ago, adding such pledges to all manner of products. But it can be challenging for shoppers to figure out whether those promises are real or empty branding.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 7, 2019 - Food & Water Watch and Organic Consumers Association (OCA) have sued Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. for deceptive marketing and advertising of Pilgrim’s Pride chicken products. The suit was brought in D.C. Superior Court, under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
Nonprofits Food & Water Watch and OCA, represented by Richman Law Group and Animal Equality, allege that Pilgrim’s falsely claims that the birds used in its products are fed “only natural ingredients,” “treated humanely” and produced in an environmentally
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Last month Nestle, the second biggest food and beverage company in the world, announced plans to build a $154 million dollar coffee processing plant in Mexico. Despite earning $7.3 billion in profits last year, they are requesting that the Mexican government subsidize the planting of 80,000 hectares of Robusta coffee to supply their instant coffee production--and presumably help grow those profits.
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Highland Park, Mich., is a small, majority-black community with some of the highest poverty and unemployment rates in the country. It’s suffered a series of indignities and setbacks over the years: a state emergency management takeover of the city and surrounding areas; a state takeover of the public water infrastructure; and a collapse of tax revenue fueled by white flight, fossil-fuel-driven suburban development, and the decline of the housing market and auto industries.
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Via Organica, a regenerative farm in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is more than just a place that grows and sells fresh, organic produce to the local community. Rosana Álvarez, the farm's founder, also runs an educational center, restaurant, and store. By centralizing these operations, Álvarez is seeking to improve the livelihoods for local farmers and vendors.
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On a recent sunny morning, Isidro Fuentes spent several hours thinning out two-week-old rows of romaine lettuce. In years past, that job would have been done by 30 people. But today Fuentes, 56, sits alone atop a tractor with a specialized mechanical attachment that handles the entire operation.“This is the future,” he says.
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