But how can students begin to relate to people half way
across the world, to have an inkling of what it is like to work on a cocoa
farm, at a t-shirt factory, a banana plantation?

ANNOUNCING TRANSFAIR’S K-12 CURRICULUM: FOCUS ON FAIR TRADE

The Focus
on Fair Trade Curriculum offers an accessible way to introduce
students of all ages to the concept of global interdependence through an
exploration of familiar foods produced outside the USA: chocolate, bananas and
coffee; and an introduction to Fair Trade.

Here is a snippet that was written yesterday by Reuters entitled Wal-Mart pushing Chinese suppliers to go green:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc will meet with its thousands of Chinese suppliers
this fall as part of a big push to reduce waste and emissions at
factories that make its products, Chief Executive Lee Scott said on
Thursday.

The company's top priorities in China will be to address the
appropriate disposal of waste as well as to make reductions in both
waste and greenhouse gas emissions. It will also work on reducing
packaging and boosting energy efficiency, much as it has in its U.S.
business, Scott said.

Still, Nader remains unique to the Democratic contenders for the
labor issues he is persistent about addressing – issues that seem to be
off-limits for the Democratic Party. For example, none of the other
candidates will talk about repealing anti-union laws like Taft-Hartley,
instituting a tax on Wall Street securities speculation and cracking
down on corporate welfare. These often marginalized issues should be
seen as critical to the interests of the labor movement and the fact
that only a candidate outside of the Republican-Democratic fold will
raise these issues should give some pause about the limits of the
Democrats’ labor rights credentials. There is something systemic about

Kirana was eight years old when he first went to work in the fields.
Estate owners transported him and his parents from their home village,
Mulanje, along with 45 other families. The truck journey covered more
than 1,000 kilometers and ended in the tobacco fields in Rumphi in northern Malawi.
   
   
   

Kirana's
mother, Jane Kapito, 45, says the family left home seeking a better
life. “Four years later, my whole family is still struggling with
poverty. My son has to work as hard as everyone else if we have to
afford the basic necessities. The money that my husband and I receive
from the tobacco estate is not enough,” she says.