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FAIR TRADE SUSTAINABILITY ALLIANCE
Collaborative Excellence and Accountability
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
A new year with new hopes and challenges lies before us. This year we will put more emphasis on the work and life of women in international agriculture. Another focus will be on the role of organic agriculture and specific agricultural practices designed to minimize carbon and methane emissions and for carbon sequestration. This is in line with our conviction that only a comprehensive approach to Fair Trade really deserves that name - social fairness for all - women, men and children - and a verdant planet enabling and supporting life for all beings.
For the FairTSA team
Winfried Fuchshofen
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Amazon Health . . .
A Fair Trade FairTSA Producer in the Peruvian Amazon
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Sacha Inchi Seed
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FairTSA is happy to announce our partnership with Amazon Health Products and their Starseed branded sacha inchi products. The company started with two childhood friends who fell in love with the Peruvian Amazon, its rich terrain, and warm people. Now they are helping to organize agricultural communities and heal the Peruvian Amazon through sustainable agriculture practices and harnessing the power of local plants and pioneering the sacha inchi market worldwide. This ancient superfood has been consumed for more than 3,000 years by the native pre-Inca civilizations.
"It makes us very proud that sacha inchi, which is a plant that we have cared for many generations - is now our main source of income",
says Manuel Vallejo, a sacha inchi farmer of Amazon Health. They focus on three aspects of sustainability in their Peruvian communities: Environment, Society, and Economy. They currently work with 1,000 registered farming families and over 200 farms. As they are now certified Fair Trade, FairTSA looks forward to support growth and strengthening of their already admirable community development work.
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Field Inspection in the Amazon
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Amazon Health, true to its name, is hard at work to end the toxic agriculture and land practices ravishing the Amazons' natural balance. In experiencing the fertile land nestled between the Amazon rainforest, the Andean slopes, and the Pacific coastal valleys, co-founders Wallace Winder and Manual Benavides noticed many problems affecting the Amazon.
Between cattle grazing, illegal timber extraction, and invasive monoculture farming, diverse and rich forest is being turned into grassy and barren slopes. The industrial approach to agriculture is worsening conditions in this fertile place very quickly. Slash-and-burn agriculture, illegal drug plantations, and informal mining practices are other common operations hurting the Amazon. It's in the Amazon's most valued treasure that we find its best defense mechanism: Biodiversity!
Taking place in small villages and towns, Amazon Health organizes 240 local farm school sessions annually, plus 45 group sessions specifically teaching about organic and biodynamic farming practices, and setting up and managing internal control systems. Amazon Health Products is doing a lot of good for its farmers while bringing the power of the Amazon to the world!
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New Licensees
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Founded in 1981, Voicevale, of London, England, is an International Nut, Dried
Fruits and Seeds trading company. Sourcing quality products from 20 different countries around the globe, Voicevale manages the supply chain to an array of food industries throughout the world.
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Since 1973, Terry Laboratories of Melbourne, FL, has been advancing the Aloe Vera Industry with pioneering research and development, new processes, products, and customer education. The world's oldest, largest and most trusted manufacturer of quality Aloe Vera products, Terry Labs has global representation in over 60 countries.
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Quick Links to Cooperating Certifiers
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