Cadbury Fairtrade

With all due respect to my 'free market' colleagues... to assume that the economic system, left to develop itself, will bring wealth and improved standards of living to all without penalising the poor or the unemployed is risky at best! Not all things of value are measured in the capitalist economic system and the models its built on all include assumptions not always bourn out in reality!!

There's no doubt if resources can be stripped more cheaply they will be, if labour can be hired without Union protection it will be an if cocoa can be harvested cheaply then all's well and good... except for farmers!!

On the flipside, neither will all cooperatives, protests, artificial barriers etc be without side effects or compromises... so is it any wonder Cadbury's entry into the 'fairtrade' world is not without drawbacks. This includes a need to monitor still unfair conditions and the way the multi-national's ability to absorb higher fees will effect smaller operators who've been the pioneers of this move.

Read more about it here

or

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/cadbury-introduces-fair-trade-chocolate-bar-20100510-uoua.html

Cadbury looks like going Fairtrade with Dairy Milk Chocolate

In a victory for people power it would appear Cadbury's decision to go 'Fairtrade' in the UK will rebound into other markets like Australia and NZ!! There is probably still work to be done on other cocoa based consumption BUT wow!!

When I was in the UK last year I was struck by the number of businesses and church's displaying the fairtrade logo as a seemingly obvious part of their mission. It seemed a really great outward sign to the community that thoughtful people were part of that place.

What a shame I am trying to get serious again about cutbacks, otherwise my annual dairy milk consumption could have saved whole continents let alone countries... perhaps I can still prop up a few villages with fair wages for work.