October is Fair Trade Month!

I almost forgot to write this post. October is Fair Trade Month. It is an important reminder to consider fair trade purchases whenever possible. Not just during this month, but always. Having just returned from Europe, I was again astonished how much more prevalent fair trade products are in ordinary stores. The U.S. still has a lot of catching up to do.

As the mortgage-banking-credit crisis gathered full steam over the past two years, I could not help but see parallels between the ever more esoteric financial derivatives invented by profit hungry investment bankers and the lives of those stuck with an rotten mortgage on the one hand and the operations of the futures and options markets in relation to the lives of the farmers who grow the raw materials that satisfy our cravings on the other.

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Reverse Trick-or-Treat Campaign starts again

For the second year in a row, a number of organizations concerned about the fate of children in the cocoa sector around the world are pooling their resources for a reverse trick-or-treat campaign on Halloween. The campaign is indented to educate consumers about the labor conditions in the cocoa sector and the fair trade alternatives available to them.

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Robert Steinberg dies

This seems to be the week to report on the deaths of chocolate makers. I just heard that Robert Steinberg, founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolates, died of cancer last week . Those interested in good chocolate know, of course, that Scharffen Berger was among the first endeavors to bring good chocolate to the market in the U.S. I finally had a chance to tour their factory just last May. But I actually knew him personally.

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Klaus Jacobs dies

Growing up in Germany, my favorite chocolate bar was Suchard Milka, either in the milk chocolate, the chocolate-hazelnut, or the noisette flavor. Birthdays and visits of relatives were always occasions to get a new stash of Suchard. But these did not last very long. The first bar usually disappeared within a few minutes after I got it. I would just sneak away from the commotion created by arriving relatives, tear into a bar and wolf down a few pieces. Thinking about it now, I must have displayed all the signs of an addict getting his fix.

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