Link to the Show / Show Notes
This
edition of Canadian Voices features Martin Van Den Borre, Co-Director
of Ottawa-'s La Siembra Worker Co-op. He speaks on â
Cooperation and Survival: The Fair Trade Revolutionâ,
at an event co-presented by Canadian Voices and the Upper Columbia
Co-op Council, in Nelson, BC, in April, 2008.
La
Siembra Worker Co-op produces the award winning cocoa camino line of
organic fair trade cocoa , chocolate, and sugar products, and has
been a pioneer in North American Fair Trade Certification. The
Co-op's mission is to offer goods that improve the livelihoods of
family farmers and the well-being of communities at home and abroad.
Founded in 1999, La Siembra has chosen to identify with its producer
partners by adopting the same democratic, participatory and
transparent model that they follow in their own co-operatives in the
South.
Mr.
Van den Borre discusses how cooperatives in both the North and the
South are supporting a shift in international trade practices, toward fair trade, and away from the conventional
free trade system, which is characterized by poor working conditions
including low pay, overwork, pesticide exposure, and child labour; and by
trade regulations that are biased against small southern farmers.
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