Sunday, January 24, 2010

A New Light on Chocolate

With Valentines day a few weeks away the increase of chocolate in the grocery store aisles is very noticeable. Valentine's day is an odd holiday. While I am all for more reasons to express your love, the whole commercial diamonds, chocolates, teddy bears thing is kind of weird. The commercial part of the holiday isn't something we participate in. That said we do still celebrate it, in the past we have attended valentine's day parties, been part of exchanges with friends, sent letters expressing our love, made gratitude trees, etc.

A few weeks ago I came across a fabulous curriculum on this site focusing on fair trade chocolate that was being marketed specifically for Valentine's day. The curriculum includes of both a book and activities. Students are invited to look at the process of chocolate making, the geographical location, question how the cost of chocolate is broken down and where the money goes, is it fair? The power of purchasing and consumer advocacy is addressed. It looks excellent.

While the concepts that are part of fair trade have been discussed in the grocery store and around the dinner table we haven't ever gone this in depth with one particular product. I think chocolate is a great one to start with.

fair trade chocolate
chocolate process
fair trade oxfam

raising global citizens (my friend karen has started a fabulous blog with lots of resources for
educating ourselves and our children on global issues and social justice)

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