The Journey Towards Fair Trade Kosher for Passover Chocolate
I am having the (metaphorical) experience of spending 40 years crossing the desert, just like our ancestors. The journey of having Fair Trade and Kosher for Passover chocolate produced is taking a lot longer and is much more complicated than I ever imagined. Manna appears regularly in the form of amazing people whom I am lucky to meet, so I am being fed along the way! Here’s the unfolding story…
History
In October 2010, I was first introduced to the issue of child labor in the cocoa fields of West Africa when I watched the documentary “The Dark Side of Chocolate” at the Fair Trade Federation conference. I was so affected by the stark reality that I couldn’t move or speak for 10 minutes after watching the movie. On the spot, I was inspired to suggest that we broaden Fair Trade Judaica’s mission from focusing on Judaica products to building a Fair Trade movement in the Jewish community; one of the key principles of the Fair Trade movement is prohibiting child labor in product development/production. Our Advisory Board strongly supported that idea.
We received a small grant from Equal Exchange and quickly put together educational materials. Fair Trade Judaica hosted six DVD screenings/discussions around the country and distributed the educational materials through other organizations before Passover 2011. And the issue began to be talked about online and at Seders throughout country. While there are many delicious Fair Trade and Kosher chocolate products none of them are Kosher for Passover. During that campaign we realized the irony of not having Fair Trade and Kosher for Passover chocolate. While there are other environmental and social certification programs, Fair Trade is recognized as the strongest in terms of monitoring and accountability about child labor.
Why is Chocolate Such a Kosher for Passover Issue?
Chocolate poses a unique issue for Passover kashrut – most chocolate products contain lecithin as an emulsifier, and lecithin is usually obtained from soybeans, part of the “kitniyot” (legumes) category, whose consumption is prohibited during Passover in the Ashkenazi community. This is not as much an issue in Sephardi/Mizrahi communities. The companies that don’t use lecithin need to add additional cocoa for the right consistency, which raises the price of the final chocolate product. (Who ever figured I’d learn so much about chocolate????).
The Issues We’re Facing
Over the past year or so, we have spent at least 100 hours researching and speaking with about a dozen Fair Trade companies about their interest in producing a Kosher for Passover chocolate product, and with a few Kosher manufacturers/certifiers about sourcing Fair Trade cocoa. Most have said that they’re not interested; their reasons include:
- They don’t think the market is big enough and therefore no profit will be made. This led us to distribute our Fair Trade Kosher for Passover Petition in 2012 () which over 1,000 of you have signed to show that there is such a market!).
- There is concern that the potential extra cost of using Fair Trade cocoa would make their products uncompetitive. Fair Trade chocolate is usually of a much higher quality than other chocolate, which accounts for part of price differential (not just the Fair Trade certification process)
- There is concern about the cost of the Kosher for Passover certification process which can run several thousand dollars, a big expense for a small company
- They are not interested in manufacturing contract products, e.g. a specific product that wouldn’t become part of their yearlong inventory
- It’s just “too complicated”
- It requires 12-18 months to design/produce/market new products and the companies have other priorities
- Several Fair Trade manufacturers expressed concern about having the Kosher certifying staff in their kitchens for the entire production period and causing disruption
The Good News
On the Dayenu side of the journey, we are in conversation with a wonderful Fair Trade company who is conducting serious research to make this happen. However,adding a Kosher for Passover certification will require major changes involving several different steps and players. They are proceeding as quickly as possible, and we hope will be successful.
In the spring of 2012 we began a discussion with a matzah company about sourcing Fair Trade cocoa for its chocolate covered matzah.; Given the complexity of their supply chain they need to order the raw materials by early summer for the following Passover season. There just wasn’t time to get it done for 2013. We have been doing research since that time and have identified one confirmed and another potential source of Fair Trade cocoa. They are seriously looking at the competitive price issues, as matzah companies compete for shelf space, so even a few cents’ difference in price could make a difference!
In our conversations over the past year and a half, many Fair Trade chocolate companies told us that they have decided to explore Kosher certification, which would offer a wider selection of products, and perhaps provide another partner for us to work with.
What YOU Can do to Help us Bring Fair Trade Kosher for Passover Chocolate Closer to Reality!
1. Sign our Petition to show manufacturers the deep desire and market in our community for these products
2. Get involved as a volunteer with us to move this effort forward
3. Read this Haggadah supplement at your Passover Seder
4. Download a photo of cocoa beans on your Seder plate and talk about the issue; it’s free!
5. Make a donation to support our work and receive a “Virtual Fair Trade Kosher for Passover” chocolate bar for your Seder plate
6. Learn more about the issue
7. Host a screening of “The Dark Side of Chocolate” DVD and educate others
8. Contact us with connections you have to a Fair Trade chocolate company or a Kosher chocolate manufacturer
9. Let us know if you’d be willing to work with us on a crowd-sourcing fundraising effort to help cover the initial cost of Kosher for Passover certification
How Zach Fair Traded His Bar Mitzvah
I just got off the phone from a most inspiring conversation with Zach Colton-Max who celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in October in South Orange, New Jersey. I know Zach and his family because they ordered kippot for his Bar Mitzvah – from recycled soda cans made by Fair Trade artisans in South Africa. But the real story began in the summer of 2011….
Zach attends Camp Naaleh in New York, sponsored by Habonim Dror. While the camp offers most of the usual summer camp activities (sports, crafts, hiking, Shabbat, etc.), they also focus on a particular social justice issue each summer. That summer session focused on the issue of unpaid labor – children and adults who work hard, and often in unsafe conditions, to make the products that we depend on. As a group, the campers decided with staff that they wanted the camp to find a new purveyor of t-shirts for them, made in a way that honored the workers.
Zach found himself deeply moved by the issue of child labor in all forms, from factories to prostitution. “I’ve always had the opportunity to live my life and do what I want, but so many kids have different lives. I know that if I was in their place and they knew about me, they would help me. It’s only right that I help them.”
Through his research, Zach heard about Free the Children, a nonprofit started by a 15 year old which is committed to freeing children and their families from the grip of poverty. He was inspired to make this the centerpiece of his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. In his Torah drash he says “I find that child labor is the most heart-breaking issue in the world right now. It upsets me personally, because kids like me and my brother and friends, kids are being forced to work – to help their parents economically, because they have to in order to survive. The working conditions are horrible – they work in sweatshops and dangerous situations. That isn’t even the worst part. These kids are caught in a horrible destructive cycle that traps them in a life with no hope of a better future.” Zach wore a kippa made by Fair Trade artisans and gave one as a present to all of the children who attended his Bar Mitzvah. The kippot were distributed in gift bags that said “Zach Sack – Choose fair. Children belong in schools, not factories and farms.” These cloth bags were also used for the hotel gift bags and were filled with Fair Trade chocolate, dried fruit and other goodies.
Zach’s message was also on display during the Bar Mitzvah luncheon. Different size glass vessels were filled with products that are harvested, picked, produced or manufactured by children under the age of fifteen. They included coffee, blueberries, cocoa, sugar cane, rice, and soccer balls. There was also a note explaining the centerpieces and suggesting that every guest should read labels and choose Fair Trade the next time they went shopping, as well as thanking Fair Trade Judaica for our support.
Zach is following his passion and pursuing this issue past his Bar Mitzvah. Along with two other students from his synagogue, they are organizing a soccer tournament to raise the issue of child labor used in the production of soccer balls. They are putting together an educational campaign, as well as talking with the park and recreation department and other local leaders to adopt a policy of only purchasing Fair Trade soccer balls, which are certified to be free of child labor.
Zach has noticed that his friends are now beginning to research where the products they buy come from - “If even one person starts buying Fair Trade, it will be tremendous and help a lot.” My guess is that Zach’s efforts will inspire some big changes, both in his home town and in the world.
Celebrate October Fair Trade Month
October is Fair Trade Month, a great time to learn more about the positive impact of Fair Trade on farmers and artisans, and to make a stronger commitment to integrating Fair Trade into our daily lives.
I was inspired by this article by Jackie DeCarlo of Catholic Relief Services, who has been a fair trade advocate for a long time, and hope it will inspire you as well!
The Brawl Over Fair Trade Coffee
The controversy continues to heat up! Here’s a comprehensive review that was recently published in “The Nation.”
Bringing Meaning to Bar/Bat Mitzvahs
We are pleased to feature this guest blog by Rabbi Deborah Silver, serving Adat Ari El in Valley Village, California.
We live in a world made up of stories.
When we’re young, we don’t really notice that even the objects around us have stories. We can probably all remember how, as children, we desperately wanted a particular cereal, toy, or computer game. We might also remember how it felt not to get what we wanted. But we probably didn’t ask ourselves about the story of that product – where it came from, how it was manufactured, how it made the journey from its place of origin to our living rooms.
It’s a sad fact of life that the ceremonies that mark the way stations of our lives have also been commercialized. At the time of Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the worry about decorations, centerpieces and invitation design can all but subsume the moment at which a young person takes their first steps into being counted as a member of the greater Jewish community. And while the gifts and money are exciting, Bar and Bat Mitzvah is a wonderful opportunity to remind the young person concerned that they have a heart and a conscience, and that everything has a story.
To become responsible for the mitzvot – which is the true heart of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah rite – means asking questions. What is the story of this object, and how am I part of that story? Where does this object come from? Do I really need it at all? Can I recycle it once I have had my use of it? In purchasing it, am I making the right choice?
In the spirit of reminding our young people of the goodness of their own hearts at this special moment in their lives, we give them the gift of a kippah that comes with a story. For this latest cycle, we have chosen to give them kippot made by Mayan Hands, together with a letter explaining the origins of the kippah and the community from which it came.
By doing this, we hope to remind them that they are part of a greater whole, a whole in which choices matter, stories matter, and in which they themselves can be agents for fairness, compassion and change.
Fair Trade Judaica at the Fair
What could be better? A gorgeous day with beautiful blue skies, great music and dancing, lots (and I means lots!) of friendly people, delicious food, and … an entire booth of fair trade made Judaica products! The kippot made from recycled soda cans in South Africa definitely brought out the most smiles and giggles! Thanks so much to Sue Bachman and Sandy Curtis for their fantastic help and great photos. Here are a few photos to share the fun.
Fair Trade S’more Summer
Summer solstice is today and I’m already dreaming of my first s’more of the season!
One of my favorite memories as a child was practicing how to make the absolutely perfect s’more (marshmallow gooey but not burned, and getting it onto the graham cracker before it fell off) using a Hershey chocolate bar. But since I learned about forced child labor in the chocolate industry, it doesn’t sound very delicious anymore. Tens of thousands of children work in cocoa fields, exposed to hazardous conditions where they spray pesticides without protective gear, use sharp tools, and sustain injuries.
The GOOD news: There are lots of fair trade Kosher chocolates to choose from, and child labor is prohibited in Fair Trade certification.
There are several new Fair Trade Kosher chocolates that we’ve learned about this past year, including Tcho (an artisanal chocolate maker in San Francisco, new milk chocolate mini’s from Equal Exchange, and, finally, a real Fair Trade chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s (Belgian bars in dark or milk chocolate with the IMO “Fair for Life” certification).
Hershey’s is the only chocolate company in the U.S. which is not using any fair trade cocoa beans in its products. Join Fair Trade Judaica and the Jewish community in encouraging Hershey’s to support fair trade and child labor-free chooclate.
I’m looking forward to enjoying my first delicious Fair Trade s’more this weekend!
DVD Inspires 12 Year-old’s “SLAVERY IN CHOCOLATE MAKING”

Fair Trade Judaica is excited to bring you this guest blog by Jesse Noily, 12 years old of Oakland, CA. He was introduced to our “Bean of Affliction: Chocolate, Child Labor, and Choosing Fair Trade” campaign at a friend’s Passover Seder. He decided to focus on this issue for a year-end report at school. After watching “The Dark Side of Chocolate” DVD and visiting a local fair trade chocolate company, he wrote this report and made a video (Coming soon!). If you’d like to watch or show the DVD, here’s a link to it and our screening guide:
BITTERSWEET – SLAVERY IN CHOCOLATE MAKING
By Jesse Noily
The Story of My Search
Chocolate. There is something so wonderful about it. Something so magically innocent about the milky, sweet Hershey’s bar. Or so I thought a couple weeks ago, when I first started this project. I hadn’t thought at all about where my chocolate came from. I had greedily eaten my heart out every Halloween, and on Valentine’s Day I nibbled away all the pink Reese’s and mini Nestle Crunch’s that had stuffed my valentine bag. And on my own valentines, I had carelessly put small Hershey’s bars, classic milk chocolate and dark with almonds, Krackel and Mr. Goodbar. But if I had known then what I know now I would have hated myself. I remember the day when I was first introduced to the idea of slaves making chocolate. It was Pesach (a Jewish holiday celebrating freedom), and we were celebrating with a Seder (traditional feast) at our friend’s house.
Now our friends are not…traditional Jews and so at the end of Seder, when the adults are supposed to give the kids a gift, they gave me two packages of some obscure chocolate. One was made by a company called TCHO the other by Alter Eco. They then explained (more to my parents then to me) that most chocolate made by big corporations like Hershey’s and Nestle are non fair-trade, meaning that the people who harvest the cacao are slaves, kidnapped from their families and forced to work. I ate the chocolate, liked it, and forgot about it for about a year. But when we were assigned to write a report on s social justice topic, it immediately sprang back to mind. I love chocolate and it angered me that people were actually smuggling children, forcing them to work, paying them from less than minimum wage to nothing, and if they don’t work, or if they ask for more pay, they could be severely beaten or worse. It angered me how all these companies had covered up these facts so well. But mostly it angered me that all this time I had eaten away at these inglorious goodies the whole twelve years I’ve been in this world, and have been clueless as to where the actual chocolate came from.
I started my search with my friend Nico. For our extension activity we wanted to do a movie together, so it would make sense to write about the same topic. When we first started researching, I thought it was going pretty easy. There were a lot of websites that had really useful information. A LOT of websites. But then suddenly it became obvious that all these websites and articles were saying pretty much the same thing. For a while I had the idea that wasn’t a lot to say about slavery in chocolate making. Then I realized I was only hitting the surface of my research. I went to the databases, and found some very interesting articles on kids protesting non fair-trade chocolate and boycotting Hershey’s and Nestle, and me and Nico watched a documentary called “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” about two documentarians who went undercover to a cacao plantation. Then I realized that this report was going to be a lot of fun.
What I Learned
For what I learned, I’d like to start with talk about how the whole chocolate making process works. First I’ll start with non-fair trade. What trafficking literally means is trading and smuggling something stolen. In this case, the stolen goods are children. Children are lured away by the traffickers. They are offered money or a new bike, and when the children come close enough to collect their prize, they are grabbed by the traffickers and forced onto their motorbikes. In some cases, the traffickers circle a group of children with their motorbikes, fighting over who gets the best child. When the children are on the motorbikes, the traffickers drive them along a secret dirt road to the Ivory Coast, where all the major cacao plantations are. The kids are sold to the trafficker gets out of there with his money. The child is then forced to work, usually getting paid nothing, and just fed a few scraps to keep them going. What the child does is go around all the trees to find cacao pods (big, ovalish, smooth, long gourd like buds) and cut them off the cacao trees (Mistrati). You may ask why they can’t just have a machine do all this work. Well, the reason why they can is because of the way the pods grow on the tree. They just pop out from the branches and trunk like a person with odd growths sticking out all over their body. So anyway these kids walk around with huge machetes all day, cutting off the pods and putting them in a huge pile. All day, everyday, no breaks, no rest. The cacao pods are then opened up by other workers. When you open a cacao pod, what comes out is this white, larva-ish, marshmallow-like goo pods. In side these liquidy shells are the cacao beans. The cacao beans, after being taken out of their pods, are then shipped to all the major companies, who then roast them, turn them into cocoa butter and cocoa mass. Then those two ingredients are mixed with vanilla, sugar, soy lecithin and milk to create an ordinary Hershey’s milk chocolate bar (For a Crunch bar just add rice crisps).
Now I’ll tell you the same process but with a fair trade company. For some companies, like TCHO, the CEOs actually go meet the people who make their chocolate. They make sure that their living is healthy, that they’re given enough to eat, and that all the worker are NOT slaves, and there are no children working either. They call this “going beyond fair trade.” The true definition of “fair trade” is that the trade is carried on legally and all the workers are paid a fair amount. You see, its not like all the big companies have their own separate plantations. Hershey’s, Nestle, and Mars all buy their chocolate from the International Chocolate Company and the ICC buys their chocolate from all the small, unknown plantations that usually have child slaves working for them. But not TCHO. TCHO is making a point of making sure that the plantations where they buy their cacao from are fair trade. After being fermented at the plantation, it is then transported to their headquarters in San Francisco, where it is made into chocolate bars. That’s fair-trade. It is so simple.
Equal Exchange is a fair trade company that sells bananas, coffee, and of course, chocolate. To avoid trafficking, Equal Exchange actually buys from no plantations in Africa, where all the trafficking is (Evans). This may sound ridiculous to you, but the truth is that cacao trees are actually native to South America, but they can grow between twenty and thirty degrees of latitude from the Equator. You may be asking why all the companies don’t use fair-trade chocolate. I think the main reason is it’s just easier. There’s no international company for fair trade chocolate! The only way to sell fair trade chocolate is to make your own chocolate. Either that or use a different fair trade company’s chocolate, which is illegal. Another thing is it’s cheaper. The small plantations sell their cocoa beans to the ICC (International Chocolate Company) for maybe a dollar a pound. That makes it possible for the ICC to sell the beans to the companies for very little. Compare that to making several plantations of your own. Can you imagine how much that would cost? All this makes me admire fair trade companies even more. They could have saved a lot more money if they weren’t fair trade, but they decided to be instead. That decision is based on totally moral value.
Reflections
This project was a lot of fun. As I was doing it, I felt a lot more like an investigator/rebel/detective than a school child doing a report. I had proof and statistics. I had interviews and phone calls. I was a reporter! I demanded the truth! I was determined to find the truth. It sounds cheesy, I know, but when there’s injustice in the world you have to be a little bit cheesy. You have to know the truth and fight against it. When I started to learn about the injustice that was happened to make the chocolate that I’ve loved my whole life, I started to snarl whenever I saw a Hershey’s bar. Whenever we went to whole foods I’d by a bar or two of TCHO or Alter Eco or Equal Exchange. I found out how much better they tasted compared to a sugar loaded Nestle bar. I told people about what I was doing, and I hope they changed their habits as well. I emailed the International Chocolate Company, saying that I wondered if they knew who actually harvested their chocolate. They never emailed back, but I really hope they read it, and maybe someone there would go to Africa and actually see what’s going on there.
Work Cited
“Interview With TCHO.” Interview by Jesse Lev Felder-Noily and Nico Ruben Inchausti. Print.
The Dark Side of Chocolate: Child Trafficking and Illegal Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry. Dir. Miki Mistrati and U. Roberto Roberto Romano. Danish Broadcasting Corporation, 2010. DVD.
Crossdale, Akilah. “TCHO Factory Presentation.” TCHO Factory Tour. TCHO Factory, San Francisco. 7 May 2012. Lecture
Evans, Kelsie, Equal Exchange. “Questions About Fair Trade Chocolate.” Message to the author. 4 May 2012. E-mail.
BIG News in the U.S. Fair Trade World!
Life in the U.S. Fair Trade movement has been in flux since Fair Trade U.S.A. (formerly TransFair) decided to withdraw from Fairtrade International, the global umbrella certifying organization (see our blog).
Following several months of conversations with fair trade businesses, consumers, producers, and other key stakeholders, Fairtrade International has decided to create a legal presence in the U.S. by early April to facilitate use of the international FAIRTRADE Mark in the market here. They will establishing a consultative panel including a variety of fair trade stakeholders, to ensure an appropriate structure, good governance, accountability, and a strong voice for Fair Trade in the U.S. Their vision is to create a “powerful, collaborative diverse coalition that is united in its belief in producer development and empowerment.”
During 2012-13, while this model is being established, FLO member organization Fairtrade Canada will continue to assist companies who would like to remain part of the global Fairtrade system.
Fairtrade International recognizes “that there are many different approaches to Fair Trade. The global Fairtrade system will compete respectfully with FTUSA, to ensure that our cumulative efforts will continue to strengthen producers’ position in international trade and improve livelihoods.”
Good and Not so Good News about Hershey’s
Big news in the fair trade world! The good news is that Hershey’s has finally committed to third party monitoring; it has committed to purchasing Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa for its Bliss Chocolate products and will invest $10 million in education and its smart-phone CocoaLink project to teach West African farmers to be more efficient and increase their crop yields.
This is the first commitment that Hershey has made to using independent third-party certification to ensure that its cocoa is grown sustainably. But, increasing crop yields is not guaranteed to bring in sufficient income for a family to encourage its children to go to school instead of working in the fields.
This is great news, reflecting the positive impact that consumer advocacy can have on a company. Hershey heard from more than 100,000 consumers (including many Fair Trade Judaica participants), who expressed their concern about children being involved with harvesting cocoa for their products.
The not so good news has two parts:
- Rainforest Alliance certification focuses on how farms are managed, compared with fair trade standards, which are designed to tackle poverty and empower producers in the world’s poorest countries, giving them a guaranteed price for their products. Additionally, Fair Trade Certification monitors to assure that no child labor is used during production.
- When Hershey acquired the Dagoba chocolate product line in 2006, it maintained its Fair Trade Certification. Hershey has now decided to switch Dagoba’s certification to the Rainforest Alliance, eliminating the more stringent fair trade standards.
If you’d like to get involved, contact the Raise the Bar Hershey campaign!
A New Year and New Resolutions
Given that my New Year always begins on Rosh Hashanah, I don’t often pay a lot of attention to the December 31-January 1 transition, but this blog from Fair Trade Vancouver identifies simple things each of us can do to strengthen fair trade, and support the farmers and artisans. I’ve made a few edits so that the piece is applicable to those of us living outside of Vancouver. And, don’t forget to think “Fair Trade” when you’re buying Judaica products!
12 Fair Trade resolutions for the New Year
By Bryce, Fair Trade Vancouver on January 01, 2012
It’s that time of the year again where the crazy rush of the winter holidays winds down, and all of us get to reflect on how we can make the next year a better one. This year, why not make Fair Trade part of your New Year’s resolutions? To make things easier, the team at Fair Trade Vancouver have put together a list of 12 ways in which you can get more involved in supporting the Fair Trade Movement.
1. Decide to switch one product in your kitchen to 100% fair trade. It can be overwhelming to do it all, but by choosing among the many food options (bananas, sugar, coffee, chocolate, spices) you help to support improved labor and environmental practices around the world.
2. Advertise! Wear a button with the Fair Trade logo.
3. Start a conversation: carry a bunch of Fair Trade bananas down the street or on the bus and if people are looking, tell them why the bananas are special.
4. Ask for it! This doesn’t necessarily mean asking the establishments you attend to carry Fair Trade, but simply asking “do you have a Fair Trade option?” helps to get Fair Trade on people’s radars. It’s great to have Fair Trade at home, but sourcing Fair Trade at a restaurant, office, school, or community event can help build a movement.
5. Pass it on: take a couple of Fair Trade chocolate bars as a gift when you go to a friend’s for dinner.
6. Start another conversation: In the checkout line, make a comment to the cashier or the person behind you about how much you love the Fair Trade chocolate bar/other items you’re purchasing.
7. Potluck it: Re-create your favorite Fair Trade dessert and share it at a potluck with a list of ingredients (except for that secret one!)
8. Be an ambassador. Many people haven’t heard of Fair Trade or don’t really understand what it’s about. Be an ambassador among your friends. Ask questions together and be willing to look up answers.
9. Make the switch to reusable shopping bags made from Fair Trade cotton — support cotton farmers and the environment!
10. Continue to engage in online dialogue and advocacy. At the Africa Fair Trade Convention, there was a large cry out to have stronger connections between producers in the developing world and consumers in developed countries. African producers are starting to jump on the social media bandwagon and are ready to have conversations with consumers to further tighten the value chain. The more we ‘Vancouverites’ can spread and engage in real conversations online with producers the more we can hope to create ‘digital noise’ and spread the conversations across a larger network of consumers.
11. Gift it: for those upcoming birthdays, consider a Fair Trade item like a soccer ball, a cake made of Fair Trade ingredients, textiles.
12. Get involved. Attend (local) Fair Trade meetings. Make up a list of your questions and have coffee with someone. Teach yourself! Knowledge is power and you are in control.
BIG News in the Fair Trade Movement
Fair Trade USA (FTUSA, formerly Transfair) announced earlier this fall that it is resigning its membership in Fairtrade International (FLO), the international fair trade certification organization. FTUSA, the dominant certifier in the U.S. market has been a key member of the FLO since 1998 when it was founded; its certifiying label is widely recognized on fair trade products in the U.S. It has launched a new initiative, Fair for All, which expands fair trade certification to coffee laborers on plantations.
History of the Fair Trade Movement
Beginning roughly around the 1940s, Fair Trade as we know it today, began in reaction to the exploitive trading relationships and harsh working conditions that were common in many tropical commodities industries (coffee, chocolate, and sugar to name a few). Direct trade relationships were initiated by church and community groups in order to create direct trade relationships with producers, effectively creating an alternative supply chain parallel to conventional trade. These alternative trade relationships created direct partnerships among producers and consumers and were defined by better prices, longer-term contracts and personal relationships.
The movement spread to countries all around the world — including the US, Canada, countries in Europe, New Zealand and Australia — and, eventually, national Fair Trade groups such as Fair Trade Canada were formed. In 1997, these national groups joined under one umbrella organization called the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International headquartered in Bonn, Germany. The FLO has since changed its name to Fairtrade International.
In 1998, the Fair Trade label was born in order to help producers access more markets for their products, which catapulted Fair Trade towards the success it’s had to date. The Fairtrade Labeling Organization in Germany sets the standards for Fair Trade products, and FLO-CERT (a separate company) ensures that these standards are met by producers’ organizations around the world. In all the respective countries where Fair Trade goods are sold, local organizations (like Fair Trade Canada here, or the Fair Trade Foundation in the UK, for example) ensure that only products that meet the FLO standards bear the Fair Trade label.
Implications and Response
One of the FLO’s most important functions has been to set Fair Trade standards, which has ensured, that from Vancouver to Beijing, consumers know exactly what the Fair Trade label represents. The system hasn’t always been perfect, and the FLO, along with its member organizations, have done a lot to reform the standards to ensure that all stakeholders in Fair Trade are represented – especially producers and producer groups. Fair Trade’s most famous standards have been financial ones: the Fair Trade minimum price and the Fair Trade social premium, but that’s not all Fair Trade is about. One of the most celebrated Fair Trade standards has been the requirement that producers organize themselves in democratically run co-operatives, where all members have an equal voice in the way business is done and the way the Fair Trade premium is spent. These cooperatives have become powerful forces in Fair Trade, and have helped producers pool together resources and discover power in numbers that otherwise might not be available if they were working independently.
FTUSA’s resignation from FLO is highly significant:
- This is the first time since the birth of the FLO that any national organization has decided to leave the unifying umbrella network that the FLO has provided since the late 1990s.
- This is the first time ever that a national organization has decided to split from the FLO to unilaterally develop its own standards for a given product. Furthermore, the standards that Fair Trade USA has decided to develop for coffee do not include a requirement for producers to be organized in democratically run cooperatives.
FTUSA’s decision to leave FLO has been met with predominantly negative reaction from most sectors of the fair trade movement. You can read statements from a variety of organizations on the Fair Trade Resource Networks’ website
*** Thanks to Fair Trade Vancouver for this overview
New Fair Trade Principles
The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), the international network of organizations (those making Judaica products, not food products) demonstrating a 100% Fair Trade commitment, recently published a detailed description of their “Ten Principles of Fair Trade“.
These include:
- Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers
- Transparency and Accountability
- Fair Trading Practices
- Payment of a Fair Price
- Ensuring no Child Labor or Forced Labor
- Commitment to Non-Discriminatin, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association
- Ensuring Good Working Conditions
- Providing Capacity Building
- Promoting Fair Trade
- Respect for the Environment
We Want More From Our S’mores!
Summer has arrived. I just returned from a week in Minnesota, where it’s so hot you can melt chocolate on the sidewalk!
One of my favorite memories as a child was practicing how to make the absolutely perfect s’more (marshmallow gooey but not burned, and getting it onto the graham cracker before it fell off) using a Hershey chocolate bar. But since I learned about forced child labor in the chocolate industry, it doesn’t sound very delicious anymore. Tens of thousands of children work in cocoa fields, exposed to hazardous conditions where they spray pesticides without protective gear, use sharp tools, and sustain injuries.
The GOOD news: There are lots of fair trade Kosher chocolates to choose from, and child labor is prohibited in fair trade certification. I’m looking forward to enjoying my first delicious fair trade s’more this weekend!
Hershey’s is the only chocolate company in the U.S. which is not using any fair trade cocoa beans in its products. Join Fair Trade Judaica and the Jewish community in encouraging Hershey’s to support fair trade and child labor-free chooclate.
Let us know what you’re planning to do!
Chocolate Need Not be Bittersweet
I haven’t been quite the same since I watched “The Dark Side of Chocolate” DVD last September at the international fair trade conference in Boston. I had heard that children were involved in harvesting cocoa, the same cocoa that makes the chocolate bars that I love in my s’mores every summer. But who wants to believe that chocolate could be so bittersweet in that way?
The DVD documents Danish journalist, Miki Mistrati’s journey to Cote d’Ivoire to investigate these allegations. And what you see on the screen is quite disturbing. Not only are children working in the cocoa fields, but many are trafficked there, working involuntarily, and in hazardous conditions.
One moment your heart is broken, then inspired by the courage of others trying to stop the trafficking. And then outraged, when the chocolate company executives solidly deny these claims, even though Mistrati has captured all this on film.
Last September I brought home a copy of the DVD, part of the Raise the Bar Hershey campaign, inspired to spread the word. Fair Trade Judaica has developed an entire resource section called “Bean of Affliction: Chocolate, Child Labor, and Choosing Fair Trade“, which provides background information, ideas for raising this issue at Passover seder, and campaigns to promote fair trade chocolate (including Kosher for Passover chocolate!).
And since last September when I saw “The Dark Side of Chocolate”, I have only purchased Fair Trade chocolate – even the dark chocolate tastes sweet!
Start 2011 with a Fair Trade Calendar
With 2011 just around the corner, I‘ve been looking for the right calendar to hang in my office – something beautiful and inspiring. Usually I choose scenes from nature, a good balance to the mental thinking I do when I’m working.
This year, I’ll be purchasing the Fair Trade 2011 Calendar, featuring stunning photos of artisans and farmers which won the 2010 fair trade photo contest. What was most exciting to discover is that one of the months features a photo of MayaWorks’ artisans from San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala actually crocheting their beautiful Kippot/Yamulkes!
The full color 13.5″ x 9.5″ calendar is printed on environmentally friendly New Leaf paper using earth-friendly printing processes.
And every month you’re introduced to a group of hard working artisans and farmers who create beautiful crafts or grow the coffee, cocoa, tea, and more that we depend on, and in return, are guaranteed a living wage, safe working conditions, and enough profits to send their children to school, build health clinics, or install safe drinking water.
What better way to be inspired each day?
Jewish and Mexican Paper Cut Craft Traditions Come Together!
We are excited that our partnership with Casa Bonampak has resulted in a new line of Judaica Papel Picado (paper cut) Banners. Current offerings include a metallic banner for Chanukah, and two tissue paper banners, one featuring Jewish spiritual symbols and a Mazel Tov celebratory banner. A new wedding banner to be used with a chuppah and at wedding celebrations is in development.
Papel picado (“perforated paper”) is the Mexican folk art of paper cutting into elaborate designs. The designs are commonly cut from tissue paper using a guide and small chisels, creating as many as forty banners at a time.
Common themes includes birds, floral designs, and skeletons. They are commonly displayed for Easter, Christmas and the Day of the Dead, as well as during weddings, quinceañeras and christenings. Papel picado can also be made by folding the tissue paper and using small, sharp scissors.
Paper cutting has been a common Jewish art form since the Middle Ages. In 1345, Rabbi Shem-Tov ben Yitzhak ben Ardutiel, finding that his ink had frozen, continued to write the manuscript he was working on, by cutting the letters into the paper. By about the 17th century, paper cutting had become a popular form for small religious artifacts such as mizrachs (an ornamental wall plaque used to indicate the direction of prayer in Jewish homes) and Shavuot decorations. In the 20th century, the art of Jewish papercutting was revived in Israel. Today it is most commonly used for mizrachs and ketubot.
Fair Trade Judaica worked together with Casa Bonampak to design and produce each of these banners. They can be purchased on-line at the Casa Bonampak web site.
1st Annual FTJ Fair a Great Success!
“Who knew there were so many beautiful Judaica products made by fair trade artisans around the world?” was one of the most overheard comments at Fair Trade Judaica’s First Annual Fair in Berkeley on October 17.
Attendees were excited to find a range of beautiful and interesting Judaica products, influenced by the local cultures in which they were designed, from beaded mezzuzahs made in Guatemala, to over ten different kippot (crocheted, knitted, sewed, collage of recycled soda cans) from Guatemala, South Africa, and Thailand, to embroidered challah and matzah covers made in Guatemala.
The stories behind the fair trade organizations and the products captured peoples’ attention. One organization, Mayan Hands, was started by a Jewish Guatemalan woman. After conducting anthropological work among the Mayan women for 20 years, she decided that it was time to give something back to them, and launched her fair trade business both to help provide them with income, as well as preserve their cultural and craft heritage.
The idea for MayaWorks’ famous kippot, one of the first fair trade Judaica products available, happened when a local (Jewish) tourist was visiting the artisans, and saw the unsewn hackey-sack balls lying on the ground, realizing that they would also make beautiful kippot. And since then, they are one of MayaWorks’ best selling products.
And, Partners for Just Trade’s new line of Judaica pendants was inspired by fair trade supporter Yochi Zakai who visited the artisans at their Peruvian shop. He wanted to buy something for his Jewish mother, but not seeing anything relevant, he worked with the artisans, Partners for Just Trade,and Fair Trade Judaica to launch a new line, including a silver star of David, and two hamsah designs.
FTJ at the Fair Trade Futures Conference!
So exciting to be at the Fair Trade Futures Conference, joining over 780 fair trade artisans, farmers, advocates, retailers, and wholesalers from around the globe. It was inspiring to be among so many people committed to a fair trade world based on transparency, respect, and justice, as well as a willingness to self-critique where the movement may be falling short.
The stars of the conference were the farmers and artisans who came from South America, Africa, and Asia to tell their personal stories. It was the first opportunity for many of us to meet them directly, and there was strong support for their voices to be heard more loudly within the certification process.
Fair Trade Judaica was the only visible Jewish presence at the conference, and we were greeted with much support and enthusiasm, and many opportunities for collaboration. There was a lot of interest in developing the fair trade Judaica niche.
One of the highlights was being able to speak directly with artisans and fair trade organizations about creating new fair trade Judaica products – lots of interest in helping us build the movement. Keep your eyes open over the next year for these new Judaica products:
- Wire and bead kippahs for women from Guatemala
- Small wooden dreidels from India
- Beautiful baskets made from recycled metal
- Bracelets made from recycled paper in Africa
Fair Trade Judaica Fair
Only a month away from the first ever Fair Trade Judaica Fair, to be held in Berkeley, CA on October 17. This will be the largest gathering of all the fair trade Judaica products currently available in the marketplace, including challah and matzah covers, kippahs, tallitot, home decorations, menorahs, cards, jewelry and kosher chocolate and coffee! The Judaica products embody traditional cultural and artistic designs from countries in Latin and South American, Asia, and Africa.
Imagine praying in a kippah or tallit handmade by an artisan who you know was paid a fair wage for their work? Or knowing that the jewelry you are wearing may have helped a young child go to school?
If you’re not in the San Francisco Bay Area, please let friends and family know about this wonderful opportunity!
Fair Trade Futures Conference
Looking forward to attending the Fair Trade Futures Conference beginning Friday September 10 – a three day opportunity to meet with over 700 people from around the world, committed to the principles and practice of fair trade. Attendees will include producer groups (like Fair Trade Group Nepal), fair trade organizations here in the U.S. who represent some of the artisans making fair trade Judaica products, fair trade umbrella groups like Fair Trade Federation and Transfair USA, student campaigns for fair trade, and advocacy organizations like Fair Trade Judaica.
I’m hoping we will find a few producer groups who will be interested in working with FTJ to design and produce new Judaica products, meet fair trade retailers who are interested in adding Judaica items to their inventory, and talk about expanding the range of Kosher fair trade food products!
Stay tuned for a report back from the Conference!
Fair Trade Rosh Hashanah
One of my favorite Rosh Hashanah traditions is dipping apples into honey (and eating them!) as a symbol of starting the Jewish new year with sweetness. Last year I found out about fair trade kosher honey from Wholesome Sweeteners, and knowing that the farmers were paid fair wages and that they were able to preserve a long community tradition, made the enjoyment of the apples and honey even sweeter. Here’s some info on their story:
High in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico 46 beekeepers have formed a Fair Trade Certified cooperative, and the whole community prospers from the honey harvest. The hives have been tended by Mayan communities for generations, creating meaningful employment. The hives are isolated, deep within organic perimeters, and the bees forage only on native plants—wildflowers and, for one brief week every year, organically cultivated coffee blooms. As the season progresses and the flowers change, the honeys’ character changes too, deepening in color and flavor.
Before they formed a fair trade cooperative, middlemen, or “coyotes,” took a majority of the beekeepers’ income. Now, there are no middlemen involved and the cooperative works autonomously and directly with customers. The beekeepers are able to improve standards for their families (like sending their children to school), their communities and protect precious rainforests and habitat.
It’s a win-win for farmer and consumer alike.












I Recently returned from a wonderful week of Jewish community and learning at the National Havurah Institute. As I was preparing for a workshop I taught on community investing (a project from earlier in my work life), I found a connection with the fair trade world, bringing together two of my passions!


