Focused on fair trade

The STOP Trafficking Club wants students to think twice before they scarf down Halloween candy this year.

Gonzaga University's STOP Trafficking Club is working to help the members of the Gonzaga community become more conscious consumers by creating awareness of fair trade products.

October is Fair Trade Month, and last week the club put on a Fair Trade Awareness Week in which students could purchase or try fair trade products from The Body Shop, Chocolate Apothecary and Kizuri. The main purpose of the event was "to spread awareness and educate Gonzaga about the chocolate industry and how their raw materials, cocoa and sugar, are collected by trafficked slave children in Africa in the Ivory Coast," according to the club's Gonzaga community page.

Rebecca Refoy, co-president of the club, said the time significant because the club wanted Gonzaga to be aware of fair trade chocolate options with Halloween coming up.

 "Everyone wants Hershey's or Nestles, but there are similar fair trade options. They may not be as convenient, but people have to make it a priority," Refoy said. 

The week kicked off with a showing of "The Dark Side of Chocolate," a documentary that "shows child slaves in the plantations. It is an eye-opener," Refoy said.

Chocolate Apothecary attended the event to sell fair and direct trade chocolate. Susan Davis, its owner, said the difference between direct and fair trade chocolate is that fair trade brands are purchased from an independent seller that has agreed to follow specific laws, but oftentimes there is not a lot that goes into making sure such laws are being enforced. Direct trade comes from groups that create their own plantations from the beginning and hire local workers.

"Independent companies agree to certain terms, but don't improve lifestyles or promote industry," Davis said.

Davis believes that if people want to make a change in the world then they need to be more involved than simply buying something because it has a fair trade certification.

"Do your homework," Davis said. "Just because something is not fair trade does not mean there were slaves who made it."

The Body Shop visited Crosby to sell its fair trade products each day of the week. Among its featured products were Soft Hands Kind Heart Hand Cream, with all the proceeds going to the STOP Sex Trafficking or Children & Young People foundation. They also had Bags for Life: reusable bags that benefit the foundation along with free pins of the symbol for the foundation.

The Body Shop recently helped get 1.5 million signatures on a petition for a safe harbor law that would place rescued children in a safe environment rather than charging them with prostitution.

On Oct. 20-21, GSBA helped fund the club to purchase fair trade chocolate from Main Market and Kizuri to be handed out in front of Crosby.

Kizuri is a local Spokane store that offers a variety of items from jewelry to coffee. Everything sold in the store is either fair trade, eco-friendly or locally produced.

Main Market, a downtown co-op, donated chocolate that was given away during the event. According to its website, the market's mission is "to provide wholesome, responsibly sourced food to you and your family, safe products for the home, and to be a vibrant part of the downtown area. With equal respect for consumers, producers and the environment, we strive to offer the highest quality with the smallest footprint."

Ben and Jerry's handed out mini ice cream cones to the Gonzaga community for the awareness week.

"We love doing events like this where we give out free ice cream, especially if it is fair trade" said Kerry Connor, the owner of the Ben and Jerry's franchise in Spokane.

Ben and Jerry's handed out a pamphlet that addressed its position on the issue and stated "the fair trade approach celebrates the fact that in the global economy, sometimes cooperation can deliver better outcomes than competition." Ben and Jerry's ice cream plans to be 100 percent fair trade by 2013.

There is always a story behind a product, so next time students take a bite into a piece of candy, they should think about the deeper issues behind that piece of chocolate, according to Refoy.