H 82°, L 63° | Tomorrow: 
H 76°, L 59°It's Valentines Day again, and love is in the air. But it's not in the flowers and chocolate that you'll give to, or get from, your sweetie. Not unless it's Fair Trade.
Allow us to explain:
Say your honey's got a sweet tooth. Then chocolate is the old stand-by. But be careful which brands you choose, because there's no bigger turn-off than demonstrating your support for child slavery. The sad truth is that's exactly from where some of today's leading producers get their chocolate.
The entire international community and even the major chocolatiers accept that forced child labor is common in West African cocoa cultivation (from which comes a vast majority of the global supply). Despite pledges to purge their supply chain of this abominable practice, the chocolate makers have failed to take any decisive action. If you support this cruelty, your honey's sweet tooth might turn sour.
So you might think flowers instead. But imagine you're a flower worker in Columbia or Ecuador. Life on the other side of Feb. 14 is no fragrant bouquet. But it does stink. Having been subjected to DDT and other banned chemicals, their gift is respiratory or skin disease, blurred vision or even miscarriage and birth defects.
It's a heartbreaking situation. Buying flowers as a token of affection might rob a worker of their dream of a healthy child, what we might for ourselves (someday!) see as the ultimate manifestation of a healthy relationship.
The sad truth is that by celebrating healthy romantic relationships, we often inadvertently reinforce abusive commercial relationships.
But before you cancel your dinner plans, you should know there's a better way: Fair Trade, that comes from ethical production settings. What could be more loving than that?
Not convinced? The Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance (MadFTAA) will be on Library Mall with Free Samples of Fair Trade chocolate, talking Fair Trade coffee and chocolate. And, we can show you where to find the good stuff. After all, pesticides and slavery are the last thing you want on your date's your mind when you go to make your move at the end of the night.
Andy Krieger and James Ploeser
Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance
IP hash: 9df94068
Please, please, shut up.
IP hash: e92c627d
If you grew up on a farm you might understand that child labor still exists in the western world. It also exists in homes with intelligent parents who want their children to contribute to a household and learn responsibility we call them chores. I love it when people don’t want to export democracy to africa and help those state learn how to prosper but instead want to export our values on the environment and 1920’s union tactics.
Do we want our children working in a diamond mine in order to support out standard of living? No, but then again I don’t live in a hut with the world as my toilet. For all I know a child picking cocoa in west africa is the reason their family doesn’t starve to death. So if I stop buying chocolate am I not contributing to the demise of that childs family. In addition, the reduction of cocoa use will reduce the export power of a nation which will likely require the current leaders to take action to shore up their hold on power. Political unrest caused by those in power wanting to live like a European or an American is a huge problem in Africa and people refusing to buy chocolate will only add to that unrest.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road to a better life for people in Africa will not be paved by adopting fair (FARE) trade policies. What African states need are founding fathers who give up their power and give the people freedom to succeed.
IP hash: 9304b4b7
You know what my question is? Do these children and their families WANT you to take away these jobs? Would they consider that fair? Or this how they feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads?
Child labor is undesirable, yes. But it is also fairly evident that it is a necessity for many families in undeveloped or developing countries. The US didn’t get rid of child labor until the middle of the 20th century. To make that decision for other countries, their people and their economies is such an Amero-centrist idea that it is, in some ways, offensive. Because honestly, if this is your choice: The kids work or the kids starve, which one do you take?
IP hash: af5bc2ee
There won’t be any problem once the world has submitted to Islam - Valentine's Day will be gone.
Of course Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, Vesak and Diwali will also be gone, so maybe no one will notice.
IP hash: af5bc2ee
I started working in a corner grocery store when I was eight years old. I’ve still got some of the money I made there.
IP hash: 7546a656
If the free trade is somthing you want to support in your chocolate habit here’s somthing to try. The original hawaiian chocolate factory makes great chocolate and the dark is my favorite. It’s the only chocolate that is grown and made in the us http://www.originalhawaiianchocolatefactory.com/