If you can do ONE thing to protect children

[tortoiseSHELL]

have a look here

If you want to do ONE thing to protect children (and it really will), buy only fair trade chocolate, or that on the 'good chocolate guide' here. This is a concrete thing you can do which WILL help protect children.

I don't want this to be another of 'those' threads, but it seems we all want to protect children and this is a really easy thing we can all do. Read the webpage, and have a think. It will make a difference to children!

fair tradde website with places to go and products to buy.

lovely gifts here

I haven't seen it in in my local tesco, I'll look a bit harder though and online - thanks!

Great thread TS. I have been trying very hard to only eat fairtrade chocolate since I found this site shortly before Easter, at which point I tried to buy only Fairtrade Easter Eggs for everyone I normally buy for, it was a HUGE challenge, and apart from the Green & Blacks Maya Gold £2.99 egg I could find nothing similarly priced for everyone else. I wish retailers would become more passionate about this and make it easier (and less pricey) for consumers to do the right thing. It is so important to get this message across. Good on you TS.

Thats a great website by the way! Thankyou!

Well done TS - I have linked to Stop the Traffik before but your thread title has got more people looking.

DragonFaerie not my thread, I ahve done my usual charging in like a bull in a china shop routine and taken over.

LOL Twinset, I was using TS in ref to the OP, but great websites you linked to. [smlie]

even!

I have found out that all M&S own brand chocolate is 'fairtrade' even if it doesn't have the Fair Trade endorsement. As I understand it, M&S use their own suppliers (all accountable and the cocoa beans are sourced from reputable farms) which haven't been endorsed by Fair Trade as the M&S bosses don't see the need for it. Apparently it is VERY expensive to sign up to Fair Trade and use the logo.

That's interesting Callisto - I wonder if Waitrose is the same - I'll email them and ask. I know they are very fastidious about using only free range eggs in their own brand products (eg cakes), whereas most supermarkets will be using the cheapest possible eggs (i.e. battery) in their own brand products.

Bumping this for any weekday MNers who haven't seen it yet!

Bumping*

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In light of the rennet-infested chocolate thread I am now feeling extremely smug (and all of you other fairtraidies should be too ).

Just had an email from Waitrose - they say that they do not currently have their own fairtrade brand chocolate, but you can buy fairtrade chocolate there.

I'm quite surprised!

Thanks for this thread 0 I know I've mentioned teh 12,000 children traffiked into the Ivory Coast (where most of the chocolate comes from) before now - but good to have a thread dedicated to it.

Going back to Hot Chocolate - the Clipper Fair Trade Hot Chocolate is VERY tasty - and not only that it's massively lower in fat than the Cadbury's stuff

Thanks for this tortoiseshell, our big Faitrade/CHASTE/Stop the Traffic Sunday is next week.
We have a monthly Fairtrade sale after Family Service and demand has rocketed
Did you read that article about the guy who tried to live entirely on Fairtrade produce for a week...some of the recipes were...alarming! Roll on the day when the all the veg we import is sourced ethically too

and now even more reasons not to buy cheap chocolate .........particularly if you're a vegetarian !

Absolutely Marina! It's outrageous that you have to MAKE a choice to shop ethically in 2007 imo, there should be NO choice to shop unethically!

We have a monthly Fairtrade stall as well, but we are doing some major building works to the church (not the big church I emailed you about, the other one!), and along with eco buildings, I think we are hoping to have a permanent Fairtrade shop. Which would be fantastic!

Well done everyone for shopping Fairtrade! Do tell your friends about the chocolate thing as well - loads of people buy fairtrade coffee and tea, but not so many people think about who has produced that chocolate bar!

our diocease (sp?) is trying to get all churches to become "Fairtrade Churches" so that all the Tea/Coffee/Biscuits etc that are served after services/at coffee mornings etc etc is Fairtrade only - we were one of the first churches to sign up to the pledge in the Dioscese and got a big box of Fairtrade Goodies from the Cathedral (in order to encourage more churches to sign up they offered a box of fairtrade stuff to the first 50 churches )

nice fannyannie!

That's a really good idea fannyannie!

There are some fairtrade recipes here .

Fairtrade biscuits (esp the double chocolate ones) are fantastic.

We buy as much FT food as we can from Sainsbury's and this includes grapes and mangoes as well as bananas (IIRC S/bury's are planning to move to ONLY FT bananas from the summer because demand is such that it warrants it - hoorah!).

The Charlie & Lola FT book brought out from Comic Relief was a fantastic way of introducing the whole concept to our children and they can spot the logo at 20 paces.

I have seen Fairtrade coffee advertised here in WA now, all I have to do is track it down.