Here’s the deal. A kid comes up to your house, takes the candy you give them. They give you a flyer about how Fair Trade chocolate makes sure that cocoa farmers sell their crops to chocolate companies for a fair market price, it isn’t grown with forced labor, is sustainably grown and how you should be giving it out instead of whatever you are giving out. Sometimes they give you a piece of Fair Trade chocolate.
Some folks think that coming into a stranger’s house or doorstep and automatically judging them and assuming that they are jerks because they are not giving out or obviously caring about Fair Trade chocolate is a perfectly OK way to spread the word. I don’t. Why don’t they focus on encouraging people to GIVE OUT Fair Trade chocolate at their own homes instead? That’s less antagonistic and could sell a lot more Fair Trade chocolate which is the goal. I’d also like to see them work harder at getting more Fair Trade chocolate for sale in regular grocery stores especially the fun size/Halloween type candy. The only type of Fair Trade chocolate I can buy locally are full size bars of chocolate. Even though I love them and I want to support the cause, I can’t just blow the entire month’s grocery budget on buying full size Fair Trade chocolate bars to give out to the army of Trick or Treaters that knock on my door.
It kills me that there is an organization out there that thinks that I should and is encouraging children and their parents to judge me in my own home if I don’t.
Reverse Trick or Treat also assumes I don’t care when in fact, I do care. While I don’t blog about it much (and maybe I should) everything I bring into my home I think about. Hard. In fact, last year I agonized over the Halloween candy decision, got depressed, and gave myself a migraine trying to think of something that was also allergy free, vegetarian, plastic free, cruelty free, low waste, organic, local, and isn’t a toddler choking hazard.
Reverse Trick or Treat assumes that I’m not aware the issue. Wrong again. I visited cocoa, coffee, and sugar farms in the Dominican Republic. I’ve seen with my own eyes how the “rich” family who owned the farm lives in a house with a dirt floor and has the luxury of a 13” TV hooked up to a car battery because they do not have electricity.
I can’t fault the cute little munchkin with the flyer on my porch or their parents for being the only one full of wrongful assumptions. In my research for this article, I found that when it comes to Fair Trade chocolate, the Fair Trade chocolate industry isn’t always fair to it's farmers. It’s not just the Fair Trade coca industry either. In some countries Fair Trade collectives do not pass the extra money they get from selling their coffee at the higher Fair Trade price back to the farmers in the collective. That’s right. I assumed that when I buy a Fair Trade product that someone is watching the watchers to ensure that Fair Trade stays that way. I was wrong.
This feels like a punch in the gut. Now I know how Dorothy felt when she pulled back the curtain and found that the Great and Powerful Oz wasn’t a wizard at all but just an old man.
This doesn’t happen in every country or with every Fair Trade collective or Fair Trade product, but it’s apparent to me that the discussion about Fair Trade chocolate and how to make sure as a consumer that I’m buying something that is as Fairly Traded as the name implies is much larger than a doorstep conversation. And trust me, it’s a conversation that I’ve had and it’s not very easy to verify either way. So like a lot of questionable things, I’m going to try to limit my consumption. I’m not going to stop buying Fair Trade chocolate or Fair Trade goods altogether because there are many countries and collectives where the Fair Trade system works as it should. But I am going to be even more selective about Fair Trade items and start asking a lot more questions about what I buy and how I buy it.
What is your take on Reverse Trick or Treat? Green? Mean? Or otherwise?
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13 comments:
I would say green bordering on mean. There are many options out there- I give quarters. My mom gives bags of Chips.
To me- this is something borrowd from the religous right. Last year at Christmas eve... a knock on the door- I answered- a woman and her child at the door- Asking me if I knew the story of Baby Jesus' birth. I assured her I did and thanked her for her concern. And closed the door.
I agree with the "green bordering on mean" comment. I'm glad you posted about this. I've thought about this topic as well as the organic vs. regular candy thing. There's just so much to think about. My daughter is now to the age where she'll be sort of trick or treating and, like you, I'll probably get a migraine trying to deal with it all. Thanks for bringing topics like this up!
I agree. Offending people is rarely effective.
It's like, thanks for the candy and all... but here is a little info oh how big of a douche you are!!
Def. the wrong way to go about it. Pre-Halloween Education on the matter is a way better plan.
I haven't had a trick or treater - reverse or otherwise to my home in about 15 years. It's not that I don't want them, but I've never lived in a kid neighborhood. Now I'm on the 5th floor of a gated community condo with a bunch of retired folks.
I would be totally ticked off with getting a lecture from someone on a pretty great day of the year. I wouldn't buy full sized bars of any candy unless I only had 5 kids or fewer come to my door.
I had no idea that there was such a thing as fair trade chocolate, thanks for the heads up - you always give such good information. Thank you!
Kristin - The Goat
I don't like the idea of the fair trade chocolate fliers being what kids are giving out. I did give up church fliers with one group, which is fine in my town since pretty much everyone is Christian here.
I think kids could come up with a better thing to hand out to spread awareness. If you are going to do the fair trade chocolate fliers tape some fair trade chocolate on it. More people will be okay with it if they get some candy lol.
I like the idea of collect money for a cause during trick or treating. Or canned food for the hungry.
My husband and I are planing to hand out organic suckers this year.
I forgot! You also won an award on my blog-
http://retrohousewife05.blogspot.com/2009/10/another-award.html
It's not mean at all! It all depends on your delivery (pun intended)...we give out organic lollipops and glee gum, but i do not want my kids taking that crap from everyone's homes...supply and demand! So, reverse trick or treating gives them the fun and reason to still run around the neighbourhood from home to home and smiling at everyone door to door...you can read more about what we do for halloween including bribery at www.bordencom.com/bordenhalloween.pdf
We participated in reverse trick or treating last year and plan to do it again this year. My kids really enjoyed it, and because I've done it, I disagree with a log of your points here.
First, the information cards have a piece of candy attached. Always not sometimes.
Second, just because you are informed about the issue doesn't mean everyone is. Most people aren't.
Third, the point is not just to get more people buying fair trade chocolate but also to spread the word about the issue, which is why there's chocolate and a card. It wouldn't be as effective to hand those out from your own door because you'd be giving it to the kids instead of the grownups.
Fourth, just because the fair trade system isn't perfect doesn't mean you should avoid fair trade. For one thing when enough people support fair trade the big chocolate giants will start taking notice (like cadbury did last year) and fair trade will make more of a difference. But buying conventional chocolate does nothing to hep the problem.
Fifth, because of the issues with cocoa farming, chocolate should be a luxury. If fair trade chocolate seems too pricey for a holiday where we binge on chocolate, maybe we should be reconsidering how we celebrate the holiday. it seriously seems like our priorities are our of whack if it is more important to us to hand out cheap chocolate to a bunch of kids than to send other kids to school or keep them out of forced child labor. There are plenty of options for treats besides chocolate - edible and not edible.
Finally, everyone we gave the candy to was very receptive. My kids said, "Thank you for the candy. Now here's one for you." We didn't lecture, we weren't judgmental, and everyone was happy and kind.
Erin – It’s great that your kids were polite when they handed out flyers and that your flyers had a piece of Fair Trade Chocolate on them. However, this isn’t always the case. Some people hand out flyers without a piece of fair trade chocolate attached.
I think there are better and less antagonistic ways to get the word out about Fair Trade chocolate and the problems with conventional chocolate production and reach more than a handful of houses than Reverse Trick or Treat. The Fair Trade chocolate information campaign has to happen more than just a few weeks a year around Halloween to be useful and successful. Fair Trade chocolate should take a few pages from Fair Trade coffee’s book. More people know about Fair Trade coffee than Fair Trade chocolate because Fair Trade coffee has a better PR campaign. Availability of Fair Trade chocolate is also an issue.
I didn’t say that I was avoiding buying Fair Trade goods. I said that I was limiting my consumption and that I was going to try to buy fair trade products were the Fair Trade cooperatives are working as they should - that the workers are getting the extra money when a fair trade product is sold.
Reverse Trick or Treat assumes that I’m giving out “cheap chocolate.” I’m not because there are problems with conventional chocolate as well as Fair Trade chocolate. In fact, last year I gave out suckers made from an Ohio company with a compostable stick because Ohio has 11% unemployment and companies are leaving the state in droves.
Reverse Trick or Treat also assumes that the Fair Trade chocolate system is always perfect and that conventional chocolate system is not. That’s not the case. Both systems have their issues and problems (some are much larger on the conventional chocolate front) that are much bigger than a doorstep discussion. And that’s my main point the problems with chocolate farming and production is much bigger than a doorstep discussion once a year at Halloween. We need the people involved to make this an all year round informational campaign so that more people know about it, like Fair Trade coffee has done.
I agree if there is even just one person who is forced to farm chocolate for my consumption that is one person too many. I want people who buy conventional chocolate to know this and contact their favorite chocolate companies and ask them not to buy chocolate from those suppliers.
However I also hate the fact that there are Fair Trade collectives that are so corrupt that they keep the cooperative fees so high that the farmers barely can afford them, that there are corrupt Fair Trade co-operatives that don’t give the farmers the extra money that they should earn under the fair trade system so they are living in poverty. It infuriates me that no one in the Fair Trade system is making sure that these bad cooperatives change their ways or are enforcing the rules so that Fair Trade is always as fair as the name implies. I want people who buy Fair Trade chocolate to know this and contact their favorite Fair Trade chocolate companies and ask them not to buy chocolate from those suppliers.
Lisa S, Lisa B, Erin - I think that you're confusing my criticism with the Reverse Trick or Treat method as criticism of the cause. The effectiveness of the method can’t be measured by the purity of the cause. When Fair Trade works it is a noble cause and worthy of support.
Reverse Trick or Treat can only be measured by the effectiveness of the method. Since Reverse Trick or Treat reaches only a few people and only happens once a year (unlike year long campaigns for other Fair Trade organizations) and it can upset more people than it educates (there are readers who commented that they would react negatively if confronted with a Reverse Trick or Treater), it’s not an effective method for informing people about the Fair Trade chocolate cause.
The flyers from Global Exchange (the organization behind reverse trick or treating) come with chocolate. They say "glue chocolate here. So if you're getting flyers with no chocolate, you should ask them, "Who ate my chocolate?"
Erin - Global Exchange also allows you to print out the flyers on your own from their Website when they run out of kits, which they already have. Some folks also make up their own flyers which may or may not have chocolate attached.
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