By Ian Froude
The enjoyment of opening a wrapper, breaking off a piece of chocolate, and letting it slowly melt in your mouth just got much greater. The effort to make more positive choices for farmers around the world also just got much easier. A major chocolate bar manufacturer has just switched its Dairy Milk chocolate sourcing completely over to Fair Trade Chocolate. The Fair Trade system, which they have signed into, makes a huge difference to farmers around the world. The Fair Trade premium gives farmers a fair price for their products, allows for direct community investment, typically uses more environmentally sustainable farming practices, and in turn allows the farmers and their families to live a healthier and more stable life.
The company has also just launched its marketing campaign for their Fair Trade Dairy Milk chocolate bars and it is quite good. Their tagline “see the big picture” embodies what the Fair Trade concept is all about. A focus on the big picture allows us to see the strong connection between the farmer and the purchaser of the product. This connection is thousands of miles apart, but comes ever closer when the consumer in Newfoundland enjoys the taste of the chocolate produced by the farmer half way across the world in small communities similar to ours in Ghana.
The most exciting part about this is that it is so widespread. I drove up the Northern Peninsula about a month ago and in the smallest of towns the convenience stores stocked Fair Trade chocolate. The scale at which the company operates is huge and this will change the way the chocolate business works in Ghana and the way Canadians see their consumer choices.
This campaign, in addition to many of the actions taken by activists and other business owners recently across the country will be a turning point for Fair Trade in Canada. Right now, the percentage of Fair Trade products sold in Canada is quite small compared to a country like the United Kingdom where you can get fair trade roses, oranges, chocolate, coffee, sugar and a whole host of other products. This widespread promotion and sale will bring great awareness to a fairer trading system that is good for all parties involved.
More companies should not only follow and switch to Fair Trade, but should also consider all the other ways they are connected with farmers and producers around the world. A shift from our exploitative past to a future where our business practices are fair for producers, farmers, consumers and companies is where we are headed. We just need more companies taking the leap and making the commitment to treating all parties fairly while delivering a superb product.
By choosing the product with the Fair Trade symbol you are providing the farmer with a way to make a decent living. In addition to this, it also gives us the satisfaction of contributing positively to our global community.
Ian recently graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a civil engineering degree. He is originally from Twillingate and is very interested and engaged in local and global issues. Ian currently works in leadership development and citizen engagement. Ian is a passionate Newfoundlander and a passionate global citizen. His bi-weekly column returns to The Pilot Aug. 22.
froudeian@gmail.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
