By GREG HITCHCOCK
Greg.Hitchcock@TheBallstonJournal.com

BALLSTON SPA – Kim Andersen of Mango Tree Imports and her Fair Trade associates are planning an awareness campaign during Halloween called Reverse Trick or Treating.

Reverse Trick or Treating is a Fair Trade program in which Fair Trade chocolate is given back to adults from trick- or-treaters along with an informational card to help raise awareness of social and economic injustices in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade offers a solution.

“Fair trade is about supporting producers in the developing world,” Andersen said.

She said Fair Trade is about providing farmers and artisans with a fair living wage for what they produce by eliminating the middle man so they won’t get exploited.

“It goes beyond the living wage. It is also about child labor, gender equity, and cultural sustainability,” she said.

Farmed products are farmed organically and often certified organically, Andersen said.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating was launched three years ago to raise awareness of the pervasive problem of child labor, forced labor and trafficking in the cocoa fields, to empower consumers to press the chocolate industry for more fair cocoa sourcing policies, to shift the industry toward sourcing Fair Trade certified cocoa, and to inform consumers about Fair Trade companies that are leading the way to industry reform. Fair Trade standards prohibit the use of abusive child labor, contain extensive environmental sustainability protections, and enable farmers to escape poverty.

Andersen said October is National Fair Trade Month and Ballston Spa is a Fair Trade town meaning a community with businesses carrying Fair Trade products and a mayor declaring a resolution that Fair Trade is important.

Andersen will be recruiting teachers, youth groups, and churches in an effort to organize the event.

To learn more about reverse trick or treating visit www.reversetrickortreating.org, stop in at Mango Tree Imports, write to Trade Fairly at MangoTreeImports.com,  contact Andersen at 884-4652 or for church and religious groups contact Meg Knight at knight@nycap.rr.com.