Supermarket Score Card

Fair Trade Los Angeles, a coalition of groups and individuals who support fair trade, are looking for volunteers to rate their local supermarket on fair trade availability. Fair Trade LA will compile the results of the surveyand use the information to lobby store managers to sell more fair trade-certified products. Read More.

Starbucks Challenge

Siel of greenlagirl.com presented the Starbucks Challenge at our January 2006 meeting:

The Starbucks Challenge is simple. Go in to any Starbucks (FYI -- There are 51 Starbucks within 5 miles of my zip, 90035) and ask for a cup of fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee is coffee for which the farmers who grew the caffeinated stuff were actually fairly compensated for their work. According to the its social responsibility department, Starbucks' baristas will French press a fair trade cup o' joe for you upon request, any day of the week. Of course, policy doesn't always translate into practice -- Thus, the Starbucks Challenge, a blog-based grassroots-activist effort to document when, where, and how Starbucks is -- and isn't -- living up to its promises -- and to confront the behemoth corporation with the documentation.