The Chocolate Fudge Cafe

Rights of Mother Earth

An auspicious event is planned for Earth Day 2010.  President Evo Morales has called for the First Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights to be held in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba.  The event is planned to close on Earth Day – April 22 with a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth.  

A delegation from Nevada County is hosting a benefit on Saturday, March 13th in order to raise funds to attend the conference.  You can get more information about helping this delegation at www.arewelistening.net.

This historic conference is a grass roots response to the a call for broader international commitments to addressing climate change issues.   The call for a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth is following the precedent set by Bolivia’s neighbor to the northwest.  In 2008 Ecuador rewrote its constitution to include a Bill of Rights of Nature.

The Ecuadorian Constitution now includes:

Chapter: Rights for Nature

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems.

In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.

Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.

Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.

The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.

Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.

The environmental services are cannot be appropriated; its production, provision, use and exploitation, will be regulated by the State.

“Public organisms” in Article 1 means the courts and government agencies, i.e., the people of Ecuador would be able to take action to enforce nature rights if the government did not do so.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change includes a proposal for a Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth states  “The 20thcentury has been the century of the human rights. First, with the approval of the civil and political rights in 1948, and second, with the approval of the economical, social and cultural rights in 1966. Now, the 21th century has to become the century of the Rights of Mother Earth and all natural beings.”  For more information visit www.runwiththejaguar.com.

 Shawn Askinosie of Askinosie Chocolate talks about Direct Trade vs. Fair Trade

      The following is an excerpt from the FAQ page of Askinosie Chocolate’s website.  Shawn Askinosie, the founder, has traveled extensively in cacao-growing regions and he has a direct relationship with the farmers he purchases cacao from.  I really appreciate his “first-hand” explanation of “direct trade”, and the sharing of his experiences importing cacao into the U.S.  (Shawn is the tall one in the back of the photo.)

I shop fair trade as much as possible. How do you pay your farmers and how do they share in the profits? 
I love the Fair Trade idea.  I believe that we have to be vigilant that Fair Trade does not become a marketing gimmick or reduced to a bumper sticker.  We must ask the questions and dig deeper to find out how the company treats those that supply them raw materials AND how they treat their own employees. Fair Trade has been scrutinized because some question if the money ever finds its way to the farmer in the field and not coop bureaucrats. My chocolate is not “certified” Fair Trade mainly because the farmers I deal with cannot afford the certification and they are very loosely organized. They are very poor. I go way beyond Fair Trade and here is how I do it:

1. I deal DIRECT with the farmers 100%.  I have a rule that I will not buy beans from farmers I have not met - in person.  This is hard because I travel a lot and while it is fun it’s not always easy.  The travel is not the hard part; it is the complicated nature of importing that I do myself.  I have a local company that handles shipping and customs clearing, but other than that it is all me.  I am the only chocolate factory in the US (that I am aware of) that sources 100% of their beans direct. There may be one other person who does this, but I cannot verify this and he is a much smaller company.  When I go to these origins I see the farms and determine myself the issues that a Fair Trade certifier would look at. The main thing is that I am building relationships with the farmers and their families.  This is hard and takes time, but it is worth it.
2. I pay far above the Fair Trade market price (which is set above the world market price) for beans.
3. I have implemented a program called Stake in the Outcome^TM  (a profit sharing program for the farmers) which is described on our website at “The Farmers”.  This guarantees to the farmers open books.  This is not a negotiation tactic to get them to lower the price on the beans; it is in ADDITION to what I pay them for the beans.  I know the name of every farmer who contributed to the crop in both locations.  This is something that I doubt any other chocolate maker in the world can say.  You can’t share with someone if you don’t know their name.  I distributed my first profits in Ecuador in December 2007 and in Mexico in January 2008.  These were, by far, my best days yet in the chocolate business!  They said that nobody had ever come back to thank them, let alone share money with them and show the books.  
4. Why is Stake in the Outcome important?  This directly affects the quality of the cocoa beans I buy.  It affects quality in a way that Fair Trade never will. One day farmers will give me higher quality beans to my specifications when they see that they will make more money if I make more money.  They will literally share in my success.  I have a very detailed specification now for the beans I buy, but I know that what I buy will be even higher quality than what I have now.  I have done this with my law practice for nearly a decade.  My secretaries, for example, knew the details of our income statement and made more money when I did.  Why should companies in the US buy raw materials, jack up the price, and not share the profits with those who they source from?  My prayer is that one day a small company from another industry will ask me how to implement this model.  If I can inspire even one other company to adopt Stake In the Outcome, then I will have been a success in this business.  I have had the “career” and it is not about that now.  If I was doing this business to get rich I would have stayed in my law practice.  This program will not change the world but it might change the life of a farmer or two or three.

About the Recycle Revival:

Greater Good Productions, together with WECT, are proud to announce the first annual GREATER WILMINGTON RECYCLE REVIVAL!

This celebration of everything 2nd hand, recycled, and environmentally friendly will showcase area organizations, businesses, artists and farmers that contribute to an overall healthy and sustainable community. It will feature a community yard sale, artists and crafters that work in recycled or earth friendly materials, a farmer’s market sneak preview, locally made products and food, music, “green living” businesses, 2nd hand fashions, and more. Proceeds from this event will benefit the Cape Fear River Watch, PenderWatch, and the North Carolina Coastal Federation and their efforts to keep Southeastern North Carolina clean, healthy and beautiful.

GREEN LIVING SHOWCASE

More and more people are realizing the importance of living green. Whether its through buying local, using less toxic chemicals, or simply recycling, people are making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint and make our planet more healthy. This is what the Recycle Revival is all about - reusing, reducing, and doing what’s right for our planet Earth. We at GGP feel that the “green” trend is probably the most beneficial trend to ever impact our culture, so much in fact, that we hope its not a trend, but a planetary movement towards a better way of life. 

For more info about this event: http://greatergoodwilmington.wordpress.com/upcomingevents/rr/

Equadorean Protestors in Lago Agrio near the Columbian border

Cacao pods on trees

  Did you know that some of  the best chocolate comes from Equador?  Small family farmers are growing some of the best cacao in the world and the chocolate from those trees is delicious!  It is pure, organic and fair trade without the “greed energy” of some of the other cacao growing regions.

   This is why we must do all we can to protect the Equadorean rainforest and its farmers.  One way is to get Chevron to clean up its mess from an oil spill by Texaco.   The plaintiffs in a huge lawsuit in the Ecuadorean oil boom town of Lago Agrio, located just across the border from Colombia, allege that Texaco, which operated in Ecuador from 1964 to 1990 and was acquired by Chevron in 2001, poisoned their lands, rivers and ground water with toxic chemicals.

http://mobile.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/090429/chevron-ecuador

If you interested in signing a petition regarding this issue:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/chevron_ecuador/

There is also activity in Tena and the Kallari, where Ivanhoe, a Canadian oil company, has leased rights from the Ecuadorian government to prospect for oil. The form of oil that is found in the area does not lend itself to conventional drilling, instead, a form of strip mining must be used. Naturally, the consequences of unrestrained exploitation of oil in the region could be devastating not only to Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, but to large amounts of acreage planted in cacao, and to many members of the Kallari community. One only has to visit the town of Coca to see the potential for problems.  Keep updated:  http://www.thechocolatelife.com/group/tenadiaries