
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.
I remember the first time someone called me out for my white privilege. It was decades ago by a Black food activist in Detroit. Naturally I was offended – the label stung coming from someone who had no sense of me other than the color of my skin. My so-called white privilege was growing up in an ill-heated farm house without running water watching my parents eke out our living on a small farm. Where was the privilege in this?
Read moreMany countries such as the U.K. and Mexico and a handful of U.S. cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco have imposed soda taxes in an effort to fight rising obesity. Lots of research shows a link between drinking sugary substances and a whole host of negative health outcomes, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, tooth decay and gout.
Read moreA worker coalition in Arkansas and a Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit have asked the government to stop Tyson Foods, one of America’s biggest meat companies, from advertising to the public that its workers are “safer than ever.”
Read moreMassive investments spent promoting and subsidizing commercial seeds and agrichemicals across Africa have failed to fulfill their purpose of alleviating hunger and lifting small-scale farmers out of poverty, according to a new white paper published by the Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute. A report based largely on the research, “False Promises,” was published July 10 by African and German nonprofits that are calling for a shift in support to agroecological farming practices.
The research
Read moreFactory farming interests, facing potential legal risks for allegedly failing to protect workers from coronavirus-related risks, are among the many business interests now backing efforts to obtain special immunity from legal liability.
Read moreNestlé, the world's largest food company, is known for scandal. It earned the nickname "babykiller" in the 1970s for causing infant illness and death in low-income communities by promoting bottle feeding of its infant formula and discouraging breast feeding. In recent years, similar charges have been made against the company for contributing to soaring rates of obesity and diabetes in poor communities by targeting them for
Read moreLess than 2% of clothing workers earn a fair wage – while many of us have wardrobes full of unworn outfits. Here’s how to break the cycle
It’s the toxic relationship too many of us can’t quit. An impulse purchase here, a pick-me-up there. A quick scroll, a flirty click, a casual add-to-basket. Who are we hurting?
Read moreThe corporate takeover of our food and farming system has led to poor health, polluted waterways, degraded soils, hollowed out rural economies and communities and a host of other ills.
It’s time to re-diversify, re-democratize and re-localize the U.S. food system—the place to start is by addressing the origins of corporate control, which include slavery, racism and land theft.
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United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) are opening an investigation of Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill and Smithfield Foods after reports that the meatpacking companies, while threatening the American public with impending meat shortages and jacking up prices, exported a record amount of product to China.
Read moreFor more than 150 years, from the rural South to northern cities, Black people have used farming to build self-determined communities and resist oppressive structures that tear them down.
Today, agriculture still serves an important role in the lives of Black people, which is why we see urban agriculture projects and programs in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. and other cities across the United States. In all of these cities, there are Black-led
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