Have you ever wondered where the chocolate in your favorite candy bar comes from？ Chocolate comes from the cacao1 tree， which grows in warm， tropical2 areas of West Africa， Indonesia， Malaysia， Mexico and South America. And who eats the delicious chocolate made from the cacao grown in these places？ The majority of chocolate is consumed3 in Europe and North America. This probably sounds like a familiar story—developing countries produce cheap raw4 materials that are produced and sold as finished goods in developed countries. Generally， that is what happens with chocolate. Large chocolate companies buy cacao beans at a low price and produce cocoa and chocolate products to sell at a high price.

But the familiar story has a new chapter. Beginning in the 1980s， some consumers learned that cacao farmers were living difficult and uncertain lives. The farmers received money for their crops based on world markets， and the market price for cacao was sometimes so low that farmers received less for their crops than the crops had cost to produce. In response， groups of consumers in Europe and the United States developed “fair trade” organizations to make sure that farmers of cacao， as well as coffee and tea， would receive fair and consistent prices for their crops.

Fair trade organizations5 help farmers by buying cacao beans or other products from them directly at higherthanmarket prices without“middle men” such as exporters. Fair trade organizations also encourage farming techniques that are not harmful to the environment or to farm workers， for example， growing cacao without chemical pesticides6 or fertilizers7 in the shade of rain forest trees. One organization， Equal Exchange， helps farmers set up farming cooperatives in which they can share resources and work on projects such as community schools. Another， Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International （FLO）， guarantees that products bearing its label meet standards that improve the lives of growers and producers.

The results of fair trade are a better standard of living for some farmers and nicer chocolate bars made with organically produced cocoa that consumers dont feel guilty8 about buying. And although fair trade chocolate is somewhat more expensive than other chocolate and now makes up only 1% of chocolate sold， the fair trade idea is spreading quickly. You may soon see fair trade chocolate right next to the more famous bars in your favorite store.

你可曾想過你最喜歡的巧克力糖果從哪里來？巧克力來自可可豆，可可樹生長在溫暖的熱帶地區(qū)——西非、印度尼西亞、馬來西亞、墨西哥和南美。誰吃過生長于這些地區(qū)的可可做成的美味巧克力？大量的巧克力銷往歐洲和北美。這或許聽起來像一個熟悉的故事——發(fā)展中國家生產廉價的原材料用于制造并且最終以成品銷往發(fā)達國家。通常巧克力的生產過程就是這樣。大型巧克力公司以低價收購可可豆，然后生產出可可和巧克力商品，以相對較高的價格出售。

但是熟悉的故事有了新的篇章。從上世紀八十年代開始，一些消費者得知可可農民生活困難且不安定。農民根據(jù)世界市場情況靠農作物賺錢?？煽墒袌鰞r格有時候太低以至于農民收到的價錢比農作物成本低。為此歐洲和美國的大量消費者成立了公平貿易組織，以確保農民的可可、咖啡和茶將獲得公平一致的價格。

公平貿易組織以高于市場的價格購買農民們的可可豆和其它商品以幫助他們，而不用經過中間商如出口商。公平貿易組織還鼓勵發(fā)展那些對環(huán)境和農民無害的農耕科技，例如，種植可可時雨林的范圍內不使用化學殺蟲劑和化肥。一個名為“公平交易”的組織幫助農民建立農業(yè)合作社，他們可以共享資源、共同完成項目，如社區(qū)學校。另一個國際公平貿易標價組織（FLO）則確保帶標價的產品達到標準從改善農民和生產商生活。

公平貿易帶來了好結果。有些農民生活標準提高了，有組織地生產出更好的巧克力棒，這讓消費者買起來不用再內疚了。雖然公平貿易的巧克力比其他巧克力貴，只占據(jù)了巧克力銷售的百分之一，但是公平交易的理念迅速傳播開來。你也許很快就會在喜歡的商店里看到有名巧克力旁邊的公平交易巧克力了。