ONE CUP ONE SIP ONE CHANGE

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Phoenix Rising

HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING

You may have heard that phrase, attributed to many, often said in yoga classes and diametrically, personal coaching sessions…but, there is a certain resonance to it, if you think about it.

Once we are of an age to make mindful decisions, our choices are defined by our character.

By now, you’ve heard the term Fair Trade. Your fair trade certified purchases affirm that it matters to you that the people who produce the commodities you purchase, receive a fair compensation for their labor. When they receive a fair wage, their children can go to school and break the cycle of poverty that envelopes their community.

HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING.

Buying fair trade coffee, chocolate and other products affirms that you are who you are claiming to be.

BUY FAIR TRADE – IT JUST TASTES BETTER!

UNcoolbeans.com

UNcoolbeans.wordpress.com

THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Phoenix Rising

You love coffee. I mean, Really, Really love coffee! ♥ ♥ ♥ Sometimes at night, right before you go to bed, for a millisecond, you think, “Oh wow, I can’t wait ‘til morning when I’ll smell the coffee brewing, and then….pour a cup, and then …that rapid whiff of the aroma of the coffee as it makes its way from the mug, to the brim of the mug, to your mouth, where, ta da! the aroma and the taste mingle and mmmmm, life is good, or least, it has Potential. Cool.

And, it gets better. Unlike some moments, where the first moment can never be better, never be duplicated, where the first time is always that distant memory of, well, the first time, with coffee, the second sip, uh huh, is somehow better. The taste and the aroma blend with the first, almost imperceptible, little sensory excitement as the caffeine starts to do its thing where delicious meets energy and voila – life is great! Very cool.

Join the club. You and millions of others, globally, have helped make coffee the second most popular non-alcoholic drink, after tea, ever!

Fantastic! You love coffee. Coffee is delicious, aromatic, stimulating, cheap, and legal.

OK, a slight digression. On your way to work, you indulge in another cup and what if, just what if, the barista, the 7-Eleven clerk, the Denny’s cashier, the McDonalds’s nameless face at the drive-through, just handed a cup of coffee that was made through the use of forced, child labor.

http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=178

Seriously, what if the beans from that from that cup originated from a field where little kids are forced to work there, 12- 14 hours a day.

If you KNEW that, would you still buy that cup of coffee?

Awareness is freedom.

Think before you drink.

JUSTICE….JUST LIKE IT SAYS IN THE CONSTITUTION*

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Phoenix Rising

Reblogged from Uncoolbeans:

*What I am for is justice for everyone, just like it says in the Constitution.
Richard Pryor

Fair trade products are now readily available and often not more expensive than the mass marketer retailers where product origins can be traced to human trafficking, child labor and sweat shops. Coffee, chocolate and sugar are a few that are on every grocery and big box store shelves.

HERSHEYS BUYS TIME WHILE WASTING CHILDREN

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Phoenix Rising

“The Harkin-Engel Protocol,^[A] sometimes referred to as the Cocoa Protocol, is an international agreement aimed at ending the worst forms of child labor (according to the International Labor Organization‘sConvention 182) and forced labor (according to ILO Convention 29) in the production of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. The protocol was negotiated by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel in response to a documentary and multiple articles in 2000 and 2001 reporting widespread child slavery and child trafficking in the production of cocoa. The protocol was signed in September 2001. Joint Statements in 2001, 2005 and 2008 and a Joint Declaration in 2010 extended the commitment to address the problem. As of 2012, it is unclear if the protocol reduced child labor in the production of cocoa, though the cocoa industry claims five of the six articles have been addressed and the final one is being actively pursued.” Wikipedia

“Fair trade” campaigns have led to agreements by chocolate makers to help clean up the cocoa supply chain, but activists and researchers say little has changed in the decade since the U.S. Congress passed the Harkin-Engel Protocol to introduce a “no child slavery” label for chocolate marketed in the United States.”

“But all the protocol requirements were not met by the deadline.^[17] The cocoa industry failed to create and implement an industry-wide certification standard to indicate that cocoa had not been produced with the worst forms of child labor.^[17] The chocolate companies, who had $13 million in US sales in 2001, were criticized for executing the protocol at the smallest cost,^[11] remaining mostly hands-off in the process without changing the process,^[23] and maintaining a business model dependent on child labor.^[23] More importantly, they did not alter the price of chocolate to enable the cocoa producers to end the practice of slavery.^[11]^[23] One of the major obstacles to executing the protocol was the Ivorian Civil War.^[11]^[24] Along with diamonds and timber, cocoa was a conflict resource that made money for the militants.^[24]

…”After the deadline passed, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit in 2005 under the Alien Tort Claims Act against Nestle, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland on behalf of three Malian children. The suit alleged the children were trafficked to Côte d’Ivoire, forced into slavery, and experienced frequent beatings on a cocoa plantation.^[29]^[30] In September 2010, the US District Court for the Central District of California determined corporations cannot be held liable for violations of international law and dismissed the suit. The case was appealed to the US Court of Appeals.^[31]^[32]

…”In 2012, Miki Mistrati, creator of the award-winning documentary, The Dark Side of Chocolate, claimed the protocol is just “a document and politics” because there has been no progress. He thinks that the same issues will be present in five years and that changes will not come through the protocol, but instead from consumers who demand change.^[44]

Fact: Hersheys states in will align itself with fair labor standards by 2020.

Fact: You don’t have to be a bean counter to see that at least eight years will pass before Hersheys retools and commits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/hersheys-certified-cocoa-2020_n_1938741.html

TAKE A STAND -SLAVE FREE CANDY FOR HALLOWEEN

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Phoenix Rising

Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find

In “Chocolate’s Child Slaves,” CNN’s David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields. (More information and air times on CNN International.)

By David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN

Daloa, Ivory Coast (CNN) – Chocolate’s billion-dollar industry starts with workers like Abdul. He squats with a gang of a dozen harvesters on an Ivory Coast farm.

Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick cracks, snapping it open to reveal milky white cocoa beans. He dumps the beans on a growing pile.

Abdul is 10 years old, a three-year veteran of the job.

He has never tasted chocolate.

During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands.

It was not supposed to be this way.

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/child-slavery-and-chocolate-all-too-easy-to-find/

FUN SIZE?? NO, WALL STREET HYPE WHEN THERE’S SLAVERY IN YOUR CHOCLATE

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Phoenix Rising

WHAT IF THESE CHILDREN WERE YOUR CHILDREN? WOULD YOU STILL SPEND YOUR DOLLARS SUPPORTING THESE PRACTICES??????

THIS HALLOWEEN DON’T LET YOUR KIDS ACCEPT CANDY MADE BY CHILD SLAVES

SPEAK WITH YOUR DOLLARS AND DON’T BUY CANDY FROM COMPANIES THAT FAIL TO ADHERE TO INTERNATIONAL LAW AND STILL UTILIZE SLAVERY IN THEIR CANDY SUCH AS

HERSHEY’S

NESTLE’S

CABBURY’S

Cocoa’s first consumers are chocolate companies, which could clean up the industry by refusing to buy beans produced by children.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has a scorecard to assess the progress companies are making in their alleged efforts to stop exploiting child labor. It shows that if chocolate-makers had the same motivation to make chocolate as they are in fighting child slavery, the industry would have crumbled long ago.

Although the battle began in 2001, Hershey “continues to drag its feet in dealing with child and trafficked labor in its supply chain,” reports ILRF. “Like Mars and Nestle, Hershey has not effectively produced transparency or accountability…”

Nestle has been a main target of reformers because “unlike other chocolate manufacturers Nestle directly sources cocoa from West Africa and has direct control over its supply chain…” says ILRF.

http://www.viewzone.com/chocolarte.html

ONE CUP ONE CHANGE ONE SIP

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Phoenix Rising

HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING

You may have heard that phrase, attributed to many, often said in yoga classes and personal coaching sessions…but, there is a certain resonance to it, if you think about it.

Once we are of an age to make mindful decisions, our choices are defined by our character. Ponder whether you live your life in a manner in which, if it were all dissected, placed under a microscope and then broadcast to world, you would be OK with it. You give to your favorite charities, you coach the Little League team, you let a car get in front of you during rush hour -all good.

How about those non-public, unseen choices we make a million times a day. Do you zone out when your friend/colleague is sharing her pain relating to her husband/son/mother/daughter, or her own. Are you glancing at your watch when someone is sharing their new, exciting (to them) news? Do you allow it to register that at least 80% of the world’s population lives on less than $10.00 a day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”