Straight From the Source
Cocoa at a Crossroads
This week on Straight, From the Source, Clay Gordon discussing some pressing issues with Fair Trade and cocoa farming today. The industry has a couple of years, maybe, to address some fundamental issues or they may lose control of the ability to be in control. In a six-month transnational project led by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), journalists from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and the Netherlands investigated the alleged benefits received by cocoa farmers in West Africa via the FAIRTRADE label. Tune in and learn more about this project and other reports that suggest all is not how it seems in the world of chocolate and fair trade. This program was sponsored by Fairway Market.
"Farmers selling through the Fair Trade umbrella do not necessarily receive more income for their harvest than ordinary farmers. The farmers are often kept uninformed about the world market cocoa prices by the Fair Trade cooperatives that are meant to empower them." [06:50]
--Clay Gordon on Straight, From the Source