Sweet With Substance: How Fair Trade Cocoa Keeps Farming Families Healthy

Oct 8, 2015 10:00 AM ET
Choosing Fair Trade cocoa matters more than you think

It's ironic, isn't it? That many of the farmers and workers who grow the world's food struggle to feed their own families.

Chronic hunger and malnutrition are pervasive in agricultural communities across the globe. Many farmers skip meals so their kids don't go hungry, with entire families suffering the most between harvests--a time known as "the thin months".

With Fair Trade, producers earn additional Fair Trade Premiums, which they can use to invest in nutrition and diet diversification. Recently, cocoa farmers voted to spend Premiums on cows, to ensure the community has a steady supply of milk. Coffee farmers in Peru used their Premiums to plant quinoa and raise guinea pigs to supplement their diets. 

This Fair Trade Month, let's say 'thank you' to the hardworking farmers that grow our food, and choose Fair Trade so that they too can put food on their tables.