a vantage point on activist consumerism
From the category archives:
Apparently, since the financial crisis began, sales of organic produce have plummeted. At the same time, sales of Fair Trade products are on the rise. Michael Skapinker argues that it’s because consumers are becoming more discerning. While Fair Trade has tangible benefits, such as improving the conditions and pay of the farmers and their workers, [...]
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Six weeks after Stop the Traffik organized their March on Mars, the chocolate giant has committed to make incremental changes towards producing chocolate without slave labour. According to a recent update, Mars’ global range will be free from human trafficking by 2020: As a first step, one of Mars’ leading brands, Galaxy bars, in the [...]
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An example of how luxury tourism and “fair trade” initiatives can work hand in hand: Amy and Neal Carter-James built their luxury eco-resort, Guludo Beach Lodge, here on a white sand beach on the edge of the Quirimbas National Park, not far from the impoverished village of Guludo. Says Amy, “We wanted to find a [...]
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How important is it to be consistently ethical? What if a company is fair trade, but has other weak spots in their business dealings? Once such example is American Apparel. They are well know for fashionable, “sweatshop-free” clothing, and pride themselves on having a strong relationship with their workers: For us “sweatshop free” was never [...]
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Saturday is World Fair Trade Day 2009, and to celebrate we have some facts about the history of Fair Trade: Fair Trade certification first began in 1988. It was first called Max Havelaar, after a character in a nineteenth-century Dutch novel The first fair trade product was Mexican coffee that was sold in Denmark. There [...]
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According to Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, the company are about to start “telling their story.” The cynics among you will argue that this is just another case of back-pedaling, when the corporate giant decides to announce “actually we’ve been into ethics all along.” However it’s hard to ignore the good press they get from [...]
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