When it comes to Valentine’s Day and roses, it’s hard to think of one without the other! We’ve been thinking about them a LOT around here…not just how beautiful they are, but more importantly what our Whole Trade Guarantee™ roses give back to the communities where they are grown.

Grown in the Ecuadorian Andes by a group of Fair Trade certified farms, these “blooms with benefits” help to cultivate better working conditions and equitable wages for the farms’ workers. For each case of Whole Trade roses purchased by Whole Foods Market, an additional percentage is paid directly to worker groups from each farm who collectively decide how to use the money. Some development projects have included education, training, scholarships, health care and housing.

Growing conditions for roses can be finicky at best, and Ecuador has come to be one of the more popular growing environments due to its 10,000 feet elevation, proximity to the sun and its cool nights. The flower industry started there around 20 years ago and currently gives direct employment to more than 70,000 people, with indirect employment going to another 210,000 people. While on average the entire country holds an unemployment rate of 8%, there is very little unemployment in the regions where the flowers business has developed.

Through our journey with Whole Trade roses, we are learning more every day about the farms, their workers and the flowers they produce. The opportunity to share the splendor and beauty that flowers convey while simultaneously helping others…I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

Here’s how one flower worker describes the benefits of Fair Trade for his family:

My name is Segundo Polibio Chancusig Yánez. I am 36 years old. I was born in Pilacoto, Guaytacama. I studied in elementary school in my neighborhood, but couldn’t finish my studies because my parents didn’t have much money. I began working as a bricklayer after leaving school until I was 18 years old when I had to fulfill compulsory military training.

My wife and I have two daughters, Eslendy who is 10 years old in 6th grade and Yessenya who’s three years old and in pre-kindergarten. Eslendy dreams of becoming a doctor and she’s a very good basketball player. She also likes to dance. My other little one is Yessenya can actually dances better than her older sister. Our greatest desire is to be able to give our little ones an education and see them achieve a professional career.

I have worked in other rose farms as well, and none of them had a certification. They paid us the minimum wage, but we didn’t earn overtime or other benefits. I’ve worked at Agrogana since May 2007 and the environment is much better. As workers we have access to multiple projects. We now have a hot water heater in our house and we can acquire rice, oil and other food items at wholesale prices, which they deduct in very small quantities and without interest from my paycheck. Something else that is very important to my family is the English courses that the children of workers can take. They pick up the children in a bus at the house then return them after class. My daughter Eslendy began English and reading courses this year and is happy since she was able to improve her grades at the school she attends.

We have very interesting and large projects planned for the future. It’s the dream of the workers to complete them. For example, we have thought about a housing cooperative that would help us a lot. And another Project would be to give us the opportunity to finish our high school degrees. All of these projects depend on the quality and acceptance of our roses in the Fair Trade market-that determines whether the premium will continue to grow and if we can improve our quality of life and benefit directly in our homes.

So, anytime you find yourself thinking of roses, think Whole Trade and become a part of the budding community for “knowing where it’s growing!”

Thanks to our Whole Trade Guarantee program, I get to work with a ton of great vendors who are using their businesses in order to change people’s lives. Every day I hear stories that are truly inspiring, and this blog is a place where I get to share it all with you.

As you may remember, The Whole Trade Guarantee is a buying program that brings together a strict set of criteria for products from developing countries. This program guarantees exceptional product quality, more money for producers, better wages and working conditions for workers, sound environmental production practices and the support of poverty eradication through a donation of one percent of product sales to our Whole Planet Foundation.

The Republic of Tea was so excited about this program that they decided to create an original product line exclusively for Whole Trade Guarantee. Their new Whole Trade Tea Collection includes FairTrade Certified™ blends made from premium organic full leaf black, green and red teas. The Collection includes: Big Bold (Wake Up the World Black Tea), Bing Cherry Vanilla (Share the Bounty Black Tea), Blueberry Lemon (Fruitful Partnership Green Tea), Blood Orange(Harvest of Hope Green Tea) and Apricot Honey (Branch Out to the World Red Tea – Rooibos). Each tea is packaged in a recyclable, airtight tin containing 3.5 ounces of full leaf tea (brews 50-60 cups).

So what about the inspiring story? Here’s one. The green and black teas in their Whole Trade Guarantee teas come from Korakundah Garden in Southern India. This FairTrade Certified™ organic garden uses sustainable production methods and works to conserve local ecosystems. Tigers, panthers, elephants and sambars are spotted regularly in the dense jungle surrounding this pristine garden. And the tea sales fund healthcare, education, retirement, and safety for the workers. Here are a few highlights provided by Transfair USA:

• Fair Trade funded school improvements, including construction of a well-equipped new science laboratory, and purchase of a school bus and a set of 12 computers. Fair Trade income has also been used to construct a hostel that houses students who live far away from the tea garden’s school.
• Cooking gas is provided to all tea workers, reducing their reliance on time-consuming and resource intensive firewood collection.
• The workers created a pension and housing fund for retired tea workers. In a country that lacks adequate care and services for the elderly, this fund provides vital financial support, and helps retired members maintain their homes.
• All workers and children are now vaccinated against Hepatitis B and Typhoid at the garden’s health center. The workers are provided with accident insurance and medi-claim policies for all the workers.
• Fair Trade revenue funded infrastructure improvements to the workers’ community hall, including purchase of 700 chairs and protective window grills, and electricity installation.

I told you it was inspiring! A choice as simple as which tea to drink can have a huge impact on other people’s lives.

Want to learn more about these Whole Trade Teas? Check out this video created by The Republic of Tea.

Dr. Bronner’s Magical Soap was one of the first Whole Body products offered at our original Whole Foods Market store in Austin, Texas in 1980. Over the years Dr. Bronner’s and Whole Foods Market have successfully grown their business in parallel, always committed to caring for the communities and environment around them. Today Dr. Bronner’s and Whole Foods Market have taken great strides towards improving the lives of producers in Third World countries with the fair trade certification of Dr. Bronner’s ingredients and the establishment of the Whole Trade Guarantee.

In shifting their supply chains to certified Fair Trade ingredients, Dr. Bronner’s makes a big difference in the lives of several thousand farmers and workers. Here are a few of their stories.

Olive Oil from Palestine

Olive oil imparts velvety smoothness to Dr. Bronner’s soaps. Since 2005, the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) and Canaan Fair Trade, an ethically motivated trading company, have organized some 1,700 olive oil farmers in the Westbank into fair trade cooperatives. The Issa family is one of them. In 2004, Mahmoud worked as a day laborer. With the price of olive oil so low and the economy crippled under occupation he wanted to give up farming his family’s land. Fair trade changed his life. Now he and his extended family are farming olives full time in the traditional manner. Their oil is produced and marketed by Canaan under fair trade principles to buyers in the U.S. and Europe.

Mahmoud’s entire extended family — there are 7 brothers and 4 sisters — benefits from their land and labors. His brother Arafat told with pride that his oldest daughter Renad, who’s in high school and earned a Canaan college scholarship award this year, wants to go to medical school. Arafat’s wife is a member of one of Canaan’s women’s cooperatives, making couscous. Arafat’s family is expanding their home by two stories as their lives improve.

Fair trade cooperatives in Palestine bring back traditions lost in the midst of conflict. They reintroduce a new spirit into the work ethic of the villages and renew the social values and ties weakened by the conflict. Farmers receive organic and fair trade premiums over unsustainable market prices. Canaan and PFTA have developed modern processing and storage facilities and support several community development programs.

With his natural leadership skills Mahmoud was elected to the PFTA Board and leader of the local cooperative, one of 43 in 2008. Mahmoud says that “…before fair trade, life was bad. Now, things have improve much and working the land pays off.” The overall program is coordinated by only a few PFTA employees and by 1,700 owners who volunteer their work for the common good.

Coconut Oil from Sri Lanka

To build a supply of organic and fair trade coconut oil, in 2006 Dr. Bronner’s founded Serendipol (Pvt) Ltd., a Sri Lankan subsidiary. Its first task was to recruit coconut growers and convert them to organic and fair trade practices. Serendipol hired Dhanoj Meegahapola to build and oversee the required “Internal Control System” (ICS) and manage the purchases of coconuts and fair trade programs.

Dhanoj (39) comes from a modest middle-class background that taught him social values. In high school he participated in community projects that helped city beggars start small vending businesses. After high school he worked for several coconut fiber companies and got to know and love the “Coconut Triangle,” Sri Lanka’s rural center of coconut production. During that time he advised groups of women producers on setting up small-scale manufacturing businesses, such as charcoal making.

His own small coconut fiber business failed due to a drop in the market and he was stuck with high-interest debt. Now married with three children, the offer by a former supervisor who knew his potential, to set up Serendipol’s organic and fair trade structure changed his life. Dhanoj trained a team of five extension officers who then identified and converted some 400 growers with 6,300 acres to organic practices. The team also handles the purchasing of some 15 million coconuts per year.

His leadership skills and familiarity with local growers and their lifestyle allowed him to develop relationships of trust and loyalty. Admittedly a bit of a “control freak” he is familiar with the problems of Serendipol’s workers, jumps in if other departments run into bottlenecks and commonly stays at the factory until after 8pm to ensure that someone is there to receive the last coconut deliveries.

He particularly likes that the company treats people with respect and appreciation and offers opportunities for growth to those who are motivated and show performance. Favoritism and grudges aren’t well tolerated – something not common in mid-size Sri Lankan firms.

Dhanoj sees the company’s commitment to organic and fair trade practices as a great opportunity to implement his favorite ideas: fair compensation, support of farmer and worker families, providing basic needs in rural areas, such as health care, and education – through hands-on economic activity. One pet project is offering counseling services to workers and their families, who often go through family dramas without having tools for conflict resolution.

Dhanoj used to support one rural child with money for a school year; now Serendipol gives that support to 47 of its staff’s children. One personal goal is to plant 100,000 trees in his life – Serendipol’s organic program helps him improve the health and productivity of some 600,000 coconut trees in the “Triangle” – in the course of doing business.

Palm Oil from Ghana

Since early 2008, three women have been producing palm oil for U.S. customers at a new, simple oil mill in rural Ghana that gives work to more than 20 villagers. Lucy Aboagye (32), Grace Ampofo (37) and Janet Karikari (35) all come from the village of Asuom, some 100 miles inland from the capital Accra. In that area, many small farmers grow palm fruits on plots a few acres in size. The fruits are bought by local entrepreneurs and processed in very basic mills, called “crammers” and the oil is sold in Accra.

With support from the German development agency GTZ, Dr. Bronner’s funded the installation of a simple but advanced crammer, dedicated exclusively to the production of organic palm oil. The project is coordinated by the non-profit organization Fearless Planet. Its director Danielle Gold selected the women who now jointly operate the business as “Danieama Women’s Organic Palm Oil Association.” All three were previously involved in the palm oil business. Lucy bought oil from women in her village and sold it in Accra where she now lives. She felt the need to develop small-scale oil production in her area and when she met Danielle saw an opportunity. Lucy is married to a minister and has a ten-year-old son. She oversees oil processing and works closely with farmers and buyers. She ensures quality and safety standards and assists in all areas of production. To improve communication with the foreign project partners she takes English lessons. Of her work in the project, Lucy says, “This project makes me feel proud.”

Grace lives in Asuom where she used to run another crammer. She is at the site every day to buy fruit from the farmers and manage the workers. Unlike at her previous crammer she can now provide her workers with health insurance and a retirement fund. Grace has five children between the ages of 4 and 17, and is married to a schoolteacher.

Janet was a middle person in the palm oil business. She bought palm fruits from farmers and processed them at a local crammer before selling the oil to Lucy. Now a co-owner of the crammer business she coordinates purchasing and production with Grace. Having received accounting training she now manages the daily accounts. She started a hot lunch for all crammer workers, for whom she has taken on the role of the cook. Janet has three children aged 5 to 12.

Lucy, Grace and Janet see this project as an opportunity to make a more predictable living while improving their business skills and helping their community provide better paying and more dignified jobs. They enjoy cooperation with the agricultural researchers who ran the organic control system and with the foreign project partners who give them a sense of connectedness with the rest of the world.

As the first and only organic and Fair Trade chocolate factory in the U.S., bringing Theo Chocolate to our stores as part of our Whole Trade Guarantee makes perfect sense. They have a bar for everyone, but I’m partial to their Ivory Coast Dark Chocolate Bar with 75% Cacao and the Venezuelan 91% Chocolate Bar. And you have to check out their Jane Goodall “good for all” bars, which are now exclusively available at Whole Foods Market stores. Learn more about their high standards for social and environmental responsibility. Their excellent outreach work is exemplified by Juanita Vilchez’s story below.

Chocolate is a divine subject for chocolate lovers around the world. Many do not know, however, the story of chocolate’s raw material, the cocoa bean. Cocoa, known in Latin as Theobroma cacao — literally the “food of the gods” — has been the anchor of indigenous farmers across Latin America for centuries. Theo Chocolate, the only organic, Fair Trade bean-to-bar manufacturer in the U.S. (based in Seattle, WA) buys organic and Fairtrade cocoa from the diverse farms of the Cabecar and Bribri indigenous communities in the remote region of Talamanca, Costa Rica. These indigenous farmers intercrop organic cacao, banana and other fruit trees with food and fuel crops in a way that preserves water and soil quality along with fragile tropical ecosystems.

Juanita Baltodano Vilchez, 48, is the President of the Talamanca Small Producers Association, or APPTA as it’s known by its Spanish acronym. APPTA was formed in 1987 to market the farmers’ organic, fair trade cacao and bananas to raise farmers’ standards of living but also to promote an agricultural model that could conserve tropical ecosystems threatened by logging, tourism development and large scale agriculture. The Talamanca region holds at least three percent of the world’s biodiversity — but its human communities are among the poorest in the country. APPTA farms lie in the crucial ecological buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Amistad Biosphere Reserve.

Juanita’s story exemplifies the challenges of rural life and the benefits of community enterprise and fair trade. Juanita had a difficult childhood, being abandoned by her father at birth. In her youth she saw her estranged father give each of her five brothers 25 hectares of land each while she was left to fend for herself. In her adult life she has dealt with a serious tumor and a contentious split with her husband but has remained the strong center of her family and her community. She became a rural leader after her children were grown and eventually she was elected the first woman president of APPTA. To this day, she still farms the land she bought herself. With the help of her daughters and grandchildren, she grows both organic cacao and banana, along with the traditional food crops of the region including yucca, rice, beans, and local tropical fruits.

Juanita is an eloquent spokesperson for the benefits of fair trade. She states that while the stable and above market prices of Fairtrade are critical to APPTA’s farmers, it is not all about the money. Other benefits are equally important such as the strong sense of ownership of the association felt by the farmers, their resulting self-esteem, and the tangible benefits of APPTA’s community and technical assistance. APPTA has also built a community school, a local cacao processing plant and trained local extension agents with the premiums delivered by Theo Chocolate.

Juanita and the staff of APPTA are dedicated to bringing the concepts of sustainable agriculture into the daily lives of farmers through training and collaborative projects such as their own sustainability measurement tool. In addition to international standards, APPTA is now measuring ecological and social sustainability according to the definitions of the farmers themselves.

APPTA’s deep commitment to sustainability, quality and integrity has become a perfect match for Theo’s dedication to handcrafted, excellent quality chocolate that is sweet for the planet as well as the farmers’ profits.

In years past, middlemen, or “coyotes,” took a majority of the beekeepers’ income. With assistance from TransFair USA, Wholesome Sweeteners is able to pay a fair price directly to the beekeepers, who have formed vibrant worker-owned cooperatives that create meaningful employment, improve product quality, and send their children to school – until now, an unaffordable luxury in these economically-depressed regions. Additionally, by protecting the hives and native plant forage areas, Fair Trade encourages biodiversity and helps the forests thrive.

All that and the honey is amazing! The multi-floral honey is collected from hives isolated deep within southern Mexico’s rainforests and designated organic agricultural zones. The bees forage only on wildflowers and, for one brief week every year, organically cultivated coffee blooms. As the season progresses and the flowers change, the honeys’ character changes too, deepening in color and flavor.

Look for the Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic in two varieties: amber honey and raw honey. You can find other TransFair certified products throughout our stores—just look for their seal. By the way, October is TransFair USA’s Fair Trade Month.

TransFair USA enables sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating a more equitable global trade model that benefits farmers, workers, consumers, industry and the earth. In partnership with TransFair USA, our Whole Trade Guarantee program will continue to promote these certified items in our stores, and track their sales so that we can donate 1% of their sales to our Whole Planet Foundation, whose mission is to end world poverty through micro-credit loans.

But that may be about to change when all the vegans out there find out about our 365 Everyday Value™ Vegan Cane Sugar (which retails for about $4 for a 4-pound bag). Our vegan sugar goes through a 100% animal-free carbon deactivation process to decolorize. This carbon is a mineral and therefore, a non-animal source. Great news, right?

And we didn’t stop there…our vegan sugar is also part of our Whole Trade Guarantee.  Read on to see why this sugar may be a perfect choice for non-vegans too! Any product with the Whole Trade Guarantee must meet all four of these criteria:

• Meet our high quality standards
• Provide more money to producers
• Ensure better wages and working conditions for workers
• Care for the environment

To sweeten the deal, we also donate 1% of all Whole Trade product sales to the Whole Planet Foundation, which funds micro-credit loans around the world with the mission to help end world poverty.

Our vegan sugar is grown and processed in Malawi and the communities there are directly impacted by the sale of this sugar. The Whole Trade premiums paid to Malawi sugar farmers have increased their income, which has allowed them to drill for water —providing safe access to clean drinking water. Previously, people carried water from the Shire River, where crocodiles have killed several water-gatherers, and the unsanitary water supply frequently caused diseases such as bilharzias, cholera and dysentery.

Additionally, the Whole Trade premiums have brought power to the village, which previously had no access to electricity. The Malawi sugar farmers have been able to improve their schools and build a new community clinic. They plan to build a school for children in remote villages and a secondary school near the co-op’s offices.

So, the next time you buy sugar… think about the impact your $4 purchase can help make — even if you don’t follow a vegan diet.

Their family, the Weltzien’s, founded EcoPath in 1981 in São Paulo, Brazil after relocating from Spain. The family business was the first company to introduce biodegradable, concentrated cleaning products to the Brazilian market. The products have improved along the years, eliminating all petrochemicals. Now, EcoPath has the first and only ready-to-use cleaning product line that is certified Natural by IBD (Biodynamic Institute), Rainforest Alliance Certified and part of the Whole Trade Guarantee program, all of which guarantee social and environmental responsibility.

All of EcoPath’s products are hand filled with labels that are applied by hand, thus providing jobs around their community. All of their product lines contain organic and biodynamic aloe vera grown on the family farm. The workers receive above standard salaries and are educated about recycling, organic agriculture and environmental protection. They also participate in neighborhood recycling programs to raise funds for public schools and other charitable entities. Today, the siblings — Falk, Thorsten, Becky, Folko and Klaus — are working hard to continue their father’s legacy and introduce these products to the world!

EcoPath Cleaning Product Listing:
• Eco Purpose All Purpose Cleaner
• Eco Purpose Dishwashing Liquid Lemon grass
• Eco Purpose Dishwashing Liquid no fragrance
• Eco Purpose Laundry Wash Liquid
• Eco Purpose Laundry Wash Powder fragrance free

Brothers, Matt and Mark Seiler, started a company that not only provides great quality products, but it has a conscious too. Maine Root Soda Company uses ethically sourced sugar from Paraguay in all of their sodas. In fact, Maine Root Soda Company was the first soda company to use exclusively ethically-certified sugar. All of the sugar cane comes from a biodiverse farm co-op and is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizer. All weeding is done by hand, thereby eliminating the use of chemical herbicides.

It’s hot here in Austin, so a nice cold beverage is a must. I love their Root Beer and Ginger Beer Soda. The Ginger Beer is nice and spicy. So, grab a Maine Root Soda the next time you need a nice cold, refreshing soda, and be reassured that these brothers are doing the right thing! (Not everyone reading this will be able to find Maine Root Soda in their local Whole Foods Market but they are expanding. Look for them now throughout the Southwest, North Atlantic, Northeast, and South regions.)

Oh yeah, Maine Root Soda is part of our Whole Trade Guarantee program, so in addition to the great work that they do, we donate 1% of sales on their products to do more great work through our Whole Planet Foundation.

Check out the Maine Root website to learn more about Matt and Mark’s great story.

One of my favorite companies to work with is Alaffia Bodycare. The owner and founder Olowo-n’djo Tchala was born and grew up in Togo, Africa located on the West African coast. Times were extremely difficult growing up due to political unrest. Olowo-n’djo made a promise to himself he would do all he could to improve the lives of the women from the community he grew up in. Indigenous to the country of Togo, shea nuts are the main ingredient used in Alaffia’s Bodycare products, which provides ethical wages to the women in the community.

Olowo-n’djo explains:

Because I grew up in poverty in Togo, I feel morally responsible to dedicate my life to empowering our communities in Africa. I have chosen to promote indigenous African natural resources that are culturally, spiritually, economically and ecologically sustainable. Traditionally handcrafted shea butter fits these criteria. It is a renewable resource of African origin; shea trees are wild, requiring no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Furthermore, it is an integral part of many savanna communities and, consequently, there is a wealth of local and traditional knowledge of making shea butter. The fair trade of our handcrafted shea butter and shea butter skin care products is bringing income to and empowering our communities in Togo, while making indigenous, sustainable and effective skin care available to the global community.

Fairly traded, handcrafted Shea Butter benefits the communities that produce it as well as the communities that purchase it. Members of our Agbanga Karite/Alaffia Shea Butter cooperative gain pride as they are able to use their traditional knowledge and skills to support their families. Our customers benefit because they are receiving an authentic product directly from the source. As part of our Fair Trade philosophy, we use 10% of our sales for community enhancement projects in Togo, West Africa and locally in Washington State.

We also believe that Fair Trade applies to more than African communities and resources. The same care and philosophies are applied when crafting our creams, lotions, and soaps in Olympia, WA. We bring our handcrafted oils to Olympia, where we make our final products by hand in small batches. We combine our handcrafted oils with other high quality ingredients, including pure essential oils and food grade preservatives. We believe customers should have access to body care products made with unrefined, natural ingredients free of harmful chemicals, such as parabens and petroleum derivatives.

Check out more about Alaffia on their website.