Green Options

During his first trip to the plateau continent, Obama has been greeted with much fanfare and love, but some are calling into question his motivation for visiting Ghana. Perhaps it is from eight years of the Bush Administration that have made us suspicious of our president’s oil motivations, but Ghana’s new offshore oil boom may give good cause for doubt.

Another wave of caterpillars is moving through crop fields in Liberia eating their way through plantains, bananas, coffee and cocoa.

The current wave is a different species than the first. Experts say the second caterpillar is black and white, while the one responsible for the damage in January is black and yellow (Achaea Catocaloides). The first damaging caterpillar has moved into the Ivory Coast and is eating crops there. Ivory Coast is the top cocoa producer in the world.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, in our home thoughts are turning to celebrating with fair trade, organic chocolate like Cocoa Camino.

Cocoa Camino is a line of premium Fair Trade Certified and certified organic chocolate, cocoa and sugar products produced by the Canadian La Siembra Co-operative.  These products include chocolate bars, sugar, hot chocolate, cocoa, chocolate chips, syrup and couverture.  They’re sold in natural health food stores, pharmacies and grocery stores.

With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, chocolate sales will be going through the roof. Unfortunately, many people do not understand the cost others pay so that we may have the chocolate we know and love.  It is important that each of us takes responsibility in teaching our children about social responsibility.

Did you know: 284,000 children toil in abusive labor conditions in West Africa’s cocoa fields?

Global Exchange is on a mission to change that! Educators of all kinds (parents, teachers, youth leaders, after school providers, daycares, etc…) are invited to take part in the Fair Trade Curriculum provided by Global Exchange, visit the curriculum page for more details!

Teach Global Exchange’s curriculum in your classroom anytime between now and Valentine’s Day and you will be entered into a prize drawing to win over $75 worth of Fair Trade chocolate and educational materials!

(Photo on Flickr by EmilyWJones under Creative Commons License)

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. The word is music to my ears, while the thing itself – when it is a bittersweet pearl of cocoa, or a spicy hazelnut praline, or again the warm melting heart of a rich gateau – why, no words can describe it! No wonder the famed Azetec Emperor Montezuma drank 50 cups of chocolate a day. No wonder the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus chose the name "Theobroma cacao" or "food of

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Divine Chocolate is a delicious Fair Trade brand that has established a competitive presence not just in Fair Trade chocolate, but in the entire chocolate market in the UK and, now, in the US. The mission of Divine is to "improve the livelihood of smallholder cocoa producers in West Africa by establishing their own dynamic branded proposition in the UK and US chocolate markets." Divine is unique in that it is

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