Fair Trade Chico!

On Valentine's Day Chico, CA officially became a "Fair Trade" town! A hard-working group of folks celebrated their accomplishment at the "Hands" near the municipal building. What is Fair Trade? According to one web site, "At its most fundamental level, Fair Trade is the practice of insuring that farmers and workers receive a fair and stable price for their products and labor." (Click here for a more complete definition of "Fair Trade.")

The first fair trade town in the U.S. was Media, PA (25 minutes west of Philadelphia), which acquired the status in 2006. Their web site states, "If buying a Fair Trade chocolate bar here means that somewhere children are going to school instead of working in the fields, we're taking a small step towards a better world with every bite. In a nutshell, that's what it means to be a Fair Trade town!" Sounds good to me. (Click here to view video.)

Local businesses like Bidwell Perk, Grilla Bites, and Chico Natural Foods (click here for complete list) have pledged to put "People before Profits" and have committed to offer at least two fair trade product lines in their businesses. I'd love to see more local businesses follow suit.

In a related topic, I just watched "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" via a Netflix DVD. Pretty interesting documentary about an individual (and rather eccentric) farmer but also about the plight of the farming industry in general over the past few decades. Obviously, this subject should be a concern to anyone who eats!