Nestle and Fairtrade, eh? Not the most obvious bed partners, but from this week onwards the giant behind Nescafe will be selling Partners' Blend, a Fairtrade-stamped instant coffee. The Arabica beans in the coffee are being sourced from farmers paid the scheme's above-standard rate in El Salvador and Ethiopia. Depending on which way you look at it, Fair Trade's either selling out or finally hitting the mainstream - I like to think it's the latter. Nestle's move has already prompted Douwe Egberts to announce it'll produce a FairTrade brew in the next six months. Partners Blend should be in shops in the next few days at £2.70 for 100g. Partners Blend website
I wonder what percentage of nestles coffee output will be fair trade? Also surely by producing a fair trade blend they are in effect admitting that all the rest of their coffee production is "unfair trade"?
Yes, while this is obviously a step in the right direction, most of Nestle's business is still unfair. I'm not too sure why Hippy Shopper is advertising this product with a picture. It seems Hippy Shopper is increasingly dominated by advertising, however.
Hiya Beev, the Nestle story's not an advert - all the stories are editorially independent and I run a picture with them all to make the site easier to read. On the adverts front, there are no more than usual - the Naturismo and Ecologist links are just deals I've set up for HS readers.
Like Beev, I do find this kinda bizarre. Nestle are hardly known for there ethical policy hence I'm a bit sceptical, suspect this decision is more about profit than any concern for the grower. Similar to Starbucks supporting fairtrade, yet simultaneously funding Zionist forces...
How about the pop-up ads for AOL? They are most annoying - the kind of thing that will make me boycott a site. I'm currently linking to Hippy Shopper, but having second thoughts about that now.
I know you can get pop-up blockers but I leave them switched off because some sites I visit use them in a constuctive way and I generally avoid sites that use them for ads. Very un-hippy, in my view.
I've posted my own thoughts about the Nescafe thing, if anyone's interested...
www.ethicaladventures.org
Beev, please drop me an email if the AOL ad is really bugging you and I'll look into bringing it down. The revenue helps keep the site online and helps me pay the bills!
Personally I think I'll stick to cafedirect, I don't think that even Fairtrade Nestle coffee would be ethically palatable.
I think maybe you should have done a little more research on this article to avoid making it seem positive. Yes Nestlé have launched a fair trade product but this counts for 1% of Nestlé's total coffee production (and barely makes a mark on the world's total coffee production!!). So aside from gaining themselves good publicity and potentially winning custom from people who buy fair trade without really thinking too much into anything else (because let's be honest, it's rather fashionable to "care"). I urge people who read this to continue to boycott all Nestlé products.
Where can I purcharse the type of Nestle's Coffee used in the "House Of Blues" at the Mandalay Resort in Las Vegas?