Bottoms Up

Anyone tried the Fair Trade Certified wines available at Target and Whole Foods? They’re only about $9.99 and buying them benefits the growers in Chile, South Africa and Argentina. There’s talk of a sparkling wine coming out in time for New Year’s Eve, so we can toast and do some good.

Apparently, these wines are the first sold in America that are officially Fair Trade Certified according to international (FLO) standards. They’re already doing well in Europe. The Fair Trade Certified label guarantees that vineyard workers will be paid fair wages, they will use sustainable agriculture practices, and premiums from sales of the wine will go toward education, child care, or anti-crime programs in their wine growing communities.

I had a friend working harvest in Stellenbosch and the stories he would tell about treatment of the native farm workers sent chills up my spine. So wrong.

The Fair Trade Certified guarantee is made by TransFair USA, an Oakland non-profit. So we have a local reason to uncork too. You numbers folks might be interested to know that In 2007, U.S. sales of Fair Trade Certified product surpassed $1 billion for the first time, according to estimates from TransFair USA and the Fairtrade Labelling Organization. These sales have helped TransFair USA deliver more than $100 million in additional revenue to farmers throughout the world in just over eight years.

Here are some of the labels to look for. They have a black and white Fair Trade logo and should be in stores this month:

Live-A-Little - South Africa’s Stellar Organics
Wandering Grape - Sourced from grapes in Argentina and South Africa.
Neu Direction - Argentina’s Bodega Furlotti Winery and the Viña de la Solidaridad Co-op