May 20, 2008

Fairtrade Hand Knitted Rattle Sets

[Bambino Goodies - The baby products blog] All babies love to hear sound and see bright colours and these Fairtrade hand knitted rattle sets from Bangladesh do it with style and social awareness

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Posted at May 20, 2008 09:07 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade Hand Knitted Rattle Sets

[Bambino Goodies - The baby products blog] All babies love to hear sound and see bright colours and these Fairtrade hand knitted rattle sets from Bangladesh do it with style and social awareness

Continue reading "Fairtrade Hand Knitted Rattle Sets"

Posted at May 20, 2008 09:07 AM | Comments (0)

Fair Trade Fundamentals

 [Untitled] According to the Fair Trade Federation, the goal of a member organization is “to benefit the artisans they work with, not maximize profits. By reducing the number of middlemen and minimizing overhead costs, FTOs (fair trade organizations) return up to 40 percent of the retail price of an item to the producer.”

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Posted at May 20, 2008 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2008

Green Party FairTrade Coffee Break

 [Eventfinder: Latest Events] Join us for Fairtrade Coffee, Tea and nibbles which will be available, koha will be collected for the coffee and donated to Oxfam. Short DVD screening.

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Posted at May 06, 2008 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Green Party FairTrade Coffee Break

 [Eventfinder: Latest Events] Join us for Fairtrade Coffee, Tea and nibbles which will be available, koha will be collected for the coffee and donated to Oxfam. Short DVD screening.

Continue reading "Green Party FairTrade Coffee Break"

Posted at May 06, 2008 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

Fair Trade

[St Michael's Anglican Cathedral, Wollongong] Many will know I’ve been an advocate of buying Fair Trade Coffee. On my holidays I was again reading James in my ‘quiet times’, and was struck again by chapter 5:1-6.

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Posted at May 06, 2008 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2008

Justice for Farmworkers, in the United States too

 [CRS Fair Trade News] As Katy and I hurry to clear off our desks before heading to the Fair Trade Federation conference, I almost forgot this week is National Farmworker Awareness week. Luckily a new report, Children in the Fields: An American Problem, .

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Posted at April 04, 2008 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

M&S Organic Fairtrade Milk Chocolate With Rose

 [Chocablog] I don’t know if that’s because I was conditioned by The Chocolate Cellar’s bar or if this M&S bar is actually missing something. The flavours are all so soft and subtle that it doesn’t really give you a satisfying chocolate ‘hit’.

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Posted at April 04, 2008 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2008

Black Gold Fairtrade Film

 [Anthony's Blog] The showing which had been organised by the South Manchester Co-op Members Group and Withington Co-operative Party had around 100 people in attendance and included visitors from the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa co-operative in Ghana who were over in the UK to promote fairtrade.

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Posted at March 04, 2008 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

Black Gold Fairtrade Film

 [Anthony's Blog] The showing which had been organised by the South Manchester Co-op Members Group and Withington Co-operative Party had around 100 people in attendance and included visitors from the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa co-operative in Ghana who were over in the UK to promote fairtrade.

Continue reading "Black Gold Fairtrade Film"

Posted at March 04, 2008 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

Vale is a Fairtrade county

[Barry And District News | Latest news] Fifteen catering outlets and more than 30 retail outlets now serve and sell Fairtrade goods in the Vale and many businesses have signed a commitment to encourage staff to use Fairtrade tea and coffee.

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Posted at March 04, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

Vale is a Fairtrade county

[Barry And District News | Latest news] Fifteen catering outlets and more than 30 retail outlets now serve and sell Fairtrade goods in the Vale and many businesses have signed a commitment to encourage staff to use Fairtrade tea and coffee.

Continue reading "Vale is a Fairtrade county"

Posted at March 04, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

In brief: Fairtrade flowers, Alexa Chung's ethical jewellery and ...

[smartplanet News] The supermarket is reporting a 40 per cent year on year jump in sales for Fairtrade flowers. If you're running behind on Valentine's, you can pick up a dozen Fairtrade Kenyan roses (pictured) for £15 tonight.

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Posted at February 15, 2008 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

In brief: Fairtrade flowers, Alexa Chung's ethical jewellery and ...

[smartplanet News] The supermarket is reporting a 40 per cent year on year jump in sales for Fairtrade flowers. If you're running behind on Valentine's, you can pick up a dozen Fairtrade Kenyan roses (pictured) for £15 tonight.

Continue reading "In brief: Fairtrade flowers, Alexa Chung's ethical jewellery and ..."

Posted at February 15, 2008 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade Fortnight approaches

 [Maureen Rigg's Blog] The price comparison site, mysupermarket.com, has put up a page for some of the main supermarkets showing what Fairtrade products are available and at what price. The list includes three of the big ones in this area (and if you try all .

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Posted at February 15, 2008 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade Fortnight approaches

 [Maureen Rigg's Blog] The price comparison site, mysupermarket.com, has put up a page for some of the main supermarkets showing what Fairtrade products are available and at what price. The list includes three of the big ones in this area (and if you try all .

Continue reading "Fairtrade Fortnight approaches"

Posted at February 15, 2008 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2008

Fair trade, enviro-conscious Valentine’s Day roundup

 [green LA girl] Chocolate: Try some of these new organic, fair trade SLO Chai Chocolates, or pick from one of these reasonably-priced organic, fair trade chocolate gifts. Always opt for fair trade chocolates: Here’sa two-parter (one, two) on why you .

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Posted at February 05, 2008 09:04 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade fortnight

[Stroud News and Journal | Latest news] Fish for a Fairtrade banana in front of the Sub Rooms between 9.30am and 1.30pm. Catch a winning banana and take home a selection of Fairtrade goodies.

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Posted at February 05, 2008 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade fortnight

[Stroud News and Journal | Latest news] Fish for a Fairtrade banana in front of the Sub Rooms between 9.30am and 1.30pm. Catch a winning banana and take home a selection of Fairtrade goodies.

Continue reading "Fairtrade fortnight"

Posted at February 05, 2008 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

Sheffield Hallam University awarded Fairtrade status

[A Just Life] Staff and students have made Fairtrade food available throughout the campus and in all the student union shops.

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Posted at January 29, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

Sheffield Hallam University awarded Fairtrade status

[A Just Life] Staff and students have made Fairtrade food available throughout the campus and in all the student union shops.

Continue reading "Sheffield Hallam University awarded Fairtrade status"

Posted at January 29, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade Facts

 [Onlyfair's Weblog] The following items can be found bearing the FAIRTRADE mark - coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, apples, pears, grapes, plums, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, lychees, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, fruit juices, smoothies, quinoa, peppers, green beans, coconuts, dried fruit, rooibos tea, green tea, ice-cream, cakes, biscuits, honey, muesli, cereal bars, jams, chutney, sauces, herbs, spices, nuts, nut oil, wine, beer, rum, flowers, sports balls, rice, yoghurt, babyfood, sugar body scrub, cotton wool and cotton products.

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Posted at January 29, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

Fairtrade Facts

 [Onlyfair's Weblog] The following items can be found bearing the FAIRTRADE mark - coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, apples, pears, grapes, plums, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, lychees, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, fruit juices, smoothies, quinoa, peppers, green beans, coconuts, dried fruit, rooibos tea, green tea, ice-cream, cakes, biscuits, honey, muesli, cereal bars, jams, chutney, sauces, herbs, spices, nuts, nut oil, wine, beer, rum, flowers, sports balls, rice, yoghurt, babyfood, sugar body scrub, cotton wool and cotton products.

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Posted at January 29, 2008 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2007

McDonald’s brews up £1m fair trade deal - and wields it as a marketing weapon

 [Espresso News and Reviews - TheShot.coffeeratings.com] For example, Kraft, one of coffee’s Big Four, began buying Rainforest Alliance Certified beans in 2003 for worldwide use in their consumer coffees, including Yuban — a mass-produced coffee that CoffeeReview.com’s Kenneth Davids recently described as, “steamed to remove the sewery taints these coffees acquire through being dried inside the fruit in rotting heaps.”

Continue reading "McDonald’s brews up £1m fair trade deal - and wields it as a marketing weapon"

Posted at January 09, 2007 01:01 AM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2006

Another coffee code: 4C or not 4C

 [green LA girl] 4C’s a mainly Europe-based association that got together Dec. 1 to come up with its own set of guidelines.

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Posted at December 25, 2006 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2006

Know Where Your Coffee Comes From

 [Have Fun • Do Good] Through just one cup of coffee, we are inextricably connected to the livelihoods of millions of people around the world who are struggling to survive.--from the Director's Statement, Black Gold Black Gold is the kind of movie that makes you want to buy Fair Trade certified coffee, chocolate, Fair Trade everything. Now when I see a Fair Trade certified symbol (pictured here), I see two images from Black Gold in my mind: one of a long table of Ethiopian women sorting through thousands of coffee beans by hand for 50 cents a day, and another of a child being weighed at a therapeutic feeding station to determine if he is undernourished enough to receive food.

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Posted at November 21, 2006 12:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Fair trade event recap

 [green LA girl] We had a crowd of mostly USC students ”” many of them from SCALE ”” the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation :) The general talk ”” given by Pascual, translated by Jean from TransFair USA ”” presented a basic history of the farmers in Pascual’s community. After many years of basically working for middlemen ”” called coyotes ”” who rarely gave the farmers a good deal for their coffee, the farmers decided to get organized, forming the co-op in 1994.

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Posted at October 25, 2006 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2006

Bike hatin’ at Starbucks -

 [green LA girl] For ex, Larry was told in an LA Starbucks that Cafe Estima wasn’t being brewed today, then told that the coffee labelled Verona was actually Estima. Hmmm”¦ Now Starbucks Gossip reports that one customer was told by a barista in Manhattan: “We’ve been asking them to send us some for days but they won’t send us any and they won’t let us change the sign, so we’re brewing espresso instead.

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Posted at October 21, 2006 12:57 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2006

Ben & Jerry’s gets more fair trade

 [green LA girl] But I love vanilla more ”” I guess I’m getting more plain vanilla with age - Anyway ”” You may already’ve known that you can get fair trade coffee-flavored ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s. Coffee, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz, to be more specific.

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Posted at October 15, 2006 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2006

Frappuccino culture

 [green LA girl] That said, I also feel if we’re talkin’ ’bout fatty, crappy food, we have bigger burgers to fry ”” McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, etc. But maybe that’s cuz I’m somewhat lactose intolerant and never buy frappuccinos (though I’d like to also point out that many indie coffee shops have ”” reluctantly or willingly ”” followed Starbucks’ milk-n-ice blended example).

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Posted at September 03, 2006 12:56 AM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Coffee in Rwanda

 [green LA girl] The NYT reports: “Co-op members are able to sell directly to the roaster, cutting out brokers and wholesalers, and learn about buying, selling and bookkeeping in the process.” “When these prices are paid to cooperatives, instead of to private dealers, the profits go directly to farmers, 20 percent of whom are widows and orphans because of the genocide.” The financial benefit’s clear, despite the fact that the farmer gets “only” 70% of the profits ”” the rest of it get reinvested into the co-op “for management, marketing, equipment, training and other expenses.” I point this 70% figure out because companies like Starbucks...

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Posted at August 09, 2006 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Why isn’t coffee roasted where it’s grown?, part 2

 [green LA girl] The great thing about having awesome readers: Sometimes the comment stream’s way more informative than the post itself, as in the case of the original “Why isn’t coffee roasted where it’s grown” post. A roundup of the reasons why: Freshness: (mentioned in original post) Coffee starts to go stale beginning right after it gets roasted, though green coffee (as in unroasted coffee) can sit around for months and be ok.

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Posted at August 03, 2006 12:58 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

GOOD coffee tasting

 [green LA girl] “You guys can talk about the coffees, you know,” we were told, but decided to keep our opinions to ourselves till the end - At which point we burst into a hyper-caffeinated and super intellectual discussion, i.e.: “I would make love to that coffee. If it’s fair trade.” Can’t tell ya which coffees we tasted or which got the best reviews till the bit comes out...

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Posted at July 21, 2006 12:57 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2006

People’s Choice Award!

 [green LA girl] but plenty of interesting observations about Starbucks staff, some of whom thought they’d stopped doing fairtrade, or that all their coffee is fairtrade. No training problems there then, eh?

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Posted at June 05, 2006 01:00 AM | Comments (0)

People’s Choice Award!

 [green LA girl] but plenty of interesting observations about Starbucks staff, some of whom thought they’d stopped doing fairtrade, or that all their coffee is fairtrade. No training problems there then, eh?

Continue reading "People’s Choice Award!"

Posted at June 05, 2006 01:00 AM | Comments (0)

NEWS: Starbucks Challenge 4.0 People's Choice Winners

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] City Hippy and green LA girl are now proud to announce the Starbucks Challenge Peoples Choice Award nominees awaiting your votes. And the nominees for the Starbucks Challenge Peoples Choice Award for services to the Challenge are: Declan of Dublin Declan is a long time supporter of the challenge and in phase 4 did three challenges with mixed results but plenty of interesting observations about Starbucks staff thinking they either stopped doing fairtrade or that all their coffee is fairtrade. So no training problems there then eh? ;) Snooble Took 3 challenges within just 8 days and all in the Philly area :) On top of that, she took the time to educate others about fair trade and Starbucks' practices -- the good and the bad -- on Surfing on a Rocket. AND -- the baristas reading this will love this one -- she tipped 150% after her first successful challenge :) Two Heroes Two heroes has taken 13 challenges (surely a record?) and has blogged them all on one page. Now that is what I call...

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Posted at June 05, 2006 12:56 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2006

Fair trade coffee at Cannes!

 [green LA girl] That’s right ”” The 100% fair trade Equal Exchange was the official coffee sponsor for the American Pavilion at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival :) Julia of Equal Exchange (right) says Equal Exchange was invited to be the coffee sponsor, mainly cuz the American Pavilion ”” the HQ for the American movie industry people at the festival ”” was doing a greening initiative to coincide with the screening of An Inconvenient Truth. According to the American Pavilion’s website, it’s working “in partnership with Native Energy, Stop Global Warming and Global Green” to stop global warming.

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Posted at June 01, 2006 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2006

5 days till prizes

 [green LA girl] While I get that Starbucks makes a lotta lattes and frappuccinos, I see them as a coffee company more than a milk company…. I wondered if maybe somehow Starbucks is like a bigger purchaser of milk than, say, McDonalds with its McFlurries, but I think that’s unlikely…

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Posted at May 29, 2006 01:06 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

Fair Trade Cafe, Phoenix

 [green LA girl] The cafe’s a nonprofit operation that appears to be a part of Cathedral Center for the Arts, which is a part of the nearby Trinity Cathedral. But luckily for me, aside from some coffee for sale called Bishop’s Blend, the place didn’t have a religious feel –

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Posted at May 23, 2006 01:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2006

Its about Life

[A Thought Over Coffee] If I'm not mistaken, Cooperative Coffees members have direct relationships with their producers, and pay them fair trade prices, or more. However, the members have broken with TransFair USA, which certifies here in the U.S., because they feel that TransFair is too corporate-friendly, among other things.

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Posted at April 09, 2006 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2006

Ethiopia Sidamo: coffee that tastes like strawberries and cream

[Slashfood] Yesterday I picked "Ethiopia Sidamo" from the thermal pot at my fave local coffee shop, on a whim.

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Posted at April 07, 2006 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2006

Costco, Starbucks and Fair Trade Coffee

 [Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility] One of the questions that keeps nagging me, and also helps me justify our patronage to Costco, is whether or not there is value in supporting a company like Costco that is making positive steps (big ones in my opinion) as a matter of pushing issues into the public eye more rapidly and effectively. The best scenario for my wife and I would be to give our money and time to only small local businesses that support issues that are important to us, such as Fair Trade, organic farming (includes produce and poultry/meat), fair-labor apparel companies, and other like organizations.

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Posted at March 29, 2006 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2005

NEWS: Starbucks Challenge 3.0 Demand an answer!

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] So Starbucks admitted it hasn't lived up to its own highly trumpeted fair-trade-friendly policy to French press a cup of fair trade coffee for anyone who asks for it. It's a "break down in customer service," Starbucks said, and sent out some emails to its stores.

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Posted at December 04, 2005 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

Starbucks emails stores, again

 [green LA girl] This new email, sent out last Friday, gives some basic info about Starbucks' support for fair trade, then reiterates all the info in the previous email letting baristas know about the French-press on demand policy. A key difference though: While the first focused on customer service, the new email, titled "Fair Trade Certified™

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Posted at November 22, 2005 09:43 AM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2005

Starbucks Challenge 2.0

 [green LA girl] We'll be in frequent contact with Starbucks, but on November 30, City Hippy and green LA girl will contact Starbucks to find out what Starbucks thinks about the results of the challenge -- whether positive or negative -- and to get some concrete details as to what the company plans to do, if anything, in light of them.

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Posted at November 02, 2005 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

NEWS: Starbucks Challenge 2.0

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] We'll be in frequent contact with Starbucks, but on November 30, City Hippy and green LA girl will contact Starbucks to find out what Starbucks thinks about the results of the challenge -- whether positive or negative -- and to get some concrete details as to what the company plans to do, if anything, in light of them.

Continue reading "NEWS: Starbucks Challenge 2.0"

Posted at November 02, 2005 02:03 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Starbucks Challenge Awards!

 [green LA girl] So all North American stores, regional VPs, and international market presidents got emails "reminding" them about the coffee press policy for customers requesting fair trade. Cindy also forwarded bloggers' feedback to relevant district managers for follow-up.

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Posted at October 31, 2005 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

NEWS: Starbucks Challenge Awards

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] So all North American stores, regional VPs, and international market presidents got emails "reminding" them about the coffee press policy for customers requesting fair trade. Cindy also forwarded bloggers' feedback to relevant district managers for follow-up.

Continue reading "NEWS: Starbucks Challenge Awards"

Posted at October 31, 2005 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

Starbucks Challenge: Gig Harbor, WA: Fair Traded!

 [Radical Congruency » Spirituality, Technology, Emerging Ecclesiology] You might not know that if you don’t live in Seattle, because many people lump them in with Wal-Mart and other not-so-friendly megacorps. But they offer health insurance to employees, sell fair trade coffees, and give lots of grants to the community.

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Posted at October 30, 2005 05:15 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Supersize my fair trade coffee: McDonalds joins in!

 [green LA girl] I'm so shocked about this that it'll take me a lil while to digest what it means for the fair trade movement, but guess what: McDonald’s is...

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Posted at October 28, 2005 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

FEATURE: Activism 2.0?

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] Starbucks promise (PDF) is to make Fair Trade coffee for you, any day of the week in more than 20 countries - we wanted to find out just how easy that was. The goal For me the goal has always been to engage with Starbucks, to test that promise and to assist Starbucks in delivering on that promise.

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Posted at October 28, 2005 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2005

Starbucks update: Progress? You tell me

 [green LA girl] I'm not a coffee drinker, when I go to Starbucks I'm much more likely to get the hot caramel cider (mmmmmmm), but I'm thinking, perhaps you're missing something simple in wondering why the responses to your requests are so uniform. The responses you seem to recieve most often, listing whats brewing and charging for venti, are what I would expect of any small business owner when presented with a special and (to him/her inconvenient) request.

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Posted at October 25, 2005 06:55 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

Why care about Starbucks?: Fair trade opinions

 [green LA girl] Thom of Monkey & Son -- a local 100% organic and fair trade certified coffee company -- has some misgivings about Starbucks' business practices, but says it's great that Starbucks has gotten people to demand better-tasting, quality coffee. Ric of Groundwork agrees.

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Posted at October 17, 2005 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2005

Starbucks admits "break down in customer service"

 [green LA girl] The following "reminder" email was sent out to all company operated stores in the US and Canada this week: ______ Not all store partners may be familiar with how to “just say yes” when a customer requests a brewed coffee other than those being...

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Posted at October 16, 2005 07:11 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2005

Chicken or the egg? Consumer demand, corporate response

 [green LA girl] Some bloggers have said that by making customers ask for a French pressed cup -- when the barista's already busy and a caffeine deprived line's developing -- is enough to keep people from asking for fair trade coffee. in over your head sums it up nicely: "no one wants to be that asshole who makes the minimum wage labour monkey do that extra work - those people are already getting too much hassle for their hourly rate." (I'll point out here that I think most Starbucks baristas are paid a few bucks above the minimum wage rate and given progressive health benefits and stock options)

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Posted at October 15, 2005 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

NEWS: Starbucks Success

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] I like the look of this Starbucks Challenge thing, a great idea. I felt exactly the same when was in Costa the other day - had to ask for Fairtrade but it was a bit of a hassle and took them ages to sort it all out, whilst a queue formed behind me!

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Posted at October 14, 2005 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

NEWS: Starbucks Success

 [City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] I like the look of this Starbucks Challenge thing, a great idea. I felt exactly the same when was in Costa the other day - had to ask for Fairtrade but it was a bit of a hassle and took them ages to sort it all out, whilst a queue formed behind me!

Continue reading "NEWS: Starbucks Success"

Posted at October 14, 2005 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

Starbucks Challenge: Gallery Place-Chinatown

[the chutry experiment] According to green LA girl, Starbucks policy is to make Fair Trade coffee for you if you request it, and this week, one of Starbucks' featured coffees is the fair-trade certified Cafe Estima. I had some grading to do this afternoon, so I took the Metro down to the Gallery Place-Chinatown Starbucks, located at 800 7th Street, NW, here in Washington, DC (it was in the early afternoon, around 12:30 PM), to see if they could pass The Starbucks Challenge, reported G Zombie style:

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Posted at October 14, 2005 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

Starbucks Challenge FAQ

 [green LA girl] If you have more questions, please ask in a comment or email City Hippy or green LA girl. My local Barnes & Noble or Borders "proudly brews" Starbucks coffee.

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Posted at October 05, 2005 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Quality and equality in fair trade: Coffee Crisis 106

 [green LA girl] Well -- I think any discriminating coffee drinker would agree that Starbucks can't hold a candle to Monkey & Son's Velvet Hammer. If you're gonna buy bagged coffee, Starbucks is out, though maybe during the Cafe Estima Blend repackaging, Starbucks improved the beans, which would account for the difference in opinion between anonymous and I.

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Posted at September 28, 2005 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2005

Big changes at Starbucks, sort of

 [green LA girl] So although the uniformity bit of it -- you know, all of us sipping the exact same coffee in Starbucks clone stores, whether we live in Dekalb or Los Angeles -- is rather frightening, when fair trade coffee makes the schedule, it would be served in Starbucks across the nation (maybe even world?) for a whole week! That's like, tons of fair trade coffee!

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Posted at September 24, 2005 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2005

New photos

[Mark My Words] I have added two new photo sets to my flickr page. The first is a bunch of pics taken at Nia Morris' (not to be confused with Nia Williams or Nia...

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Posted at August 31, 2005 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

Africa needs solutions, not handouts

[weaverluke] This is why I think the Oxfam-sponsored Progreso is such a good idea—it seeks to build inclusive business relationships of equals with coffee producer communities in the developing world by granting them shares in the business, rather than merely throwing cash at them (Colin Firth stumped up for the shares for the Ethiopian growers co-op, then went to stay with them for a while recently).

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Posted at August 31, 2005 02:58 PM | Comments (0)

FEATURE: Gotta feel the love!

[City Hippy: The diary of our struggle to live a green and fair life.] I gotta disagree with City Hippy on this one. I do think second-hand furniture is the best, but IKEA has to come a close second.

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Posted at August 31, 2005 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2005

WiFi at Global Infusions

[little more than a placeholder] I'd been meaning to get back to Global Infusions with my laptop since I first noticed that they offer wifi access. Alongside a shop selling the fairly traded Ten Thousand Villages range of craft products and a selection of teas and health herbs, there is a tea/coffee bar and four tables, and the most multi-ethnic range of music of any of Grand Rapids' coffee shops.

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Posted at June 27, 2005 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

fair trade?

[weaverluke: fair trade?] If Costa is really behind Fairtrade, then why not add the following line to the barrista's script: "would you like Fairtrade coffee or coffee produced by exploiting poor people [so our shareholders can make bigger profits] madam/sir"? Then about a week later quietly discontinue selling Unfairtrade coffee amidst customer outrage.

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Posted at June 27, 2005 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

fair trade?

[weaverluke: fair trade?] If Costa is really behind Fairtrade, then why not add the following line to the barrista's script: "would you like Fairtrade coffee or coffee produced by exploiting poor people [so our shareholders can make bigger profits] madam/sir"? Then about a week later quietly discontinue selling Unfairtrade coffee amidst customer outrage.

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Posted at June 27, 2005 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Progreso progress

 [Metroblogging London] Yesterday afternoon, I visited the Portobello Road Progreso coffee bar, which is located at no. 156, on the corner of Elgin Crescent...

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Posted at June 27, 2005 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

Fairtrade fortnight

 [Mark My Words] Today marks the first day of 'Fairtrade Fortnight', which, as the name would suggest, runs for a fortnight, ending on the 13th of...

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Posted at May 10, 2005 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

fair trade?

[weaverluke] So Costa Coffee coffee shops now offer Fairtrade coffee at the same price as their standard (Unfairtrade?) coffee. This is great news—until a couple of months ago, it cost 20 pence extra per cup. Well done Costa.

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Posted at May 10, 2005 09:39 PM | Comments (0)