Coco-Zen: Video Posts: 3/1/10

Monday, March 22, 2010

VIDEO: The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water

Today, March 22, is World Water Day which was is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. It was started to raise awareness about the world's increasing water quality challenges.

Check out this great educational film created by the folks over at the Surfrider Foundation (it's animated!!)... and pass it along!

The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water from Surfrider Foundation on Vimeo.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

VIDEO: Chocolate Country (documentary)

Can't believe we missed this film...

"In the isolated hill towns of the Dominican Republic, cacao farmers have been fighting a losing battle with the global economy (and hundreds of opportunistic middlemen) for as long as anyone can remember. “Chocolate Country” is the story of a village with a plan to turn the system on its head. Like many poor farmers, the people of Loma Guacanejo have never been able to afford herbicides or pesticides. Shifting demands in the first world are about to turn this disadvantage into an advantage. If the farmers can certify their cocoa beans “organic”, and leverage the benefits of "Fair Trade", their product could instantly double - even triple - in value...

What the Loma Guacanejo cooperative is fighting for amounts to a win-win situation for consumers and growers. For consumers, it provides an alternative to the unsanitary and unappetizing conditions of conventional production, where cacao is dried on roadside tarps and exposed to rain, mold, car exhaust and wandering livestock. For growers, it promises a fairer, more direct relationship with the marketplace, and a better income for households where running water is still a rarity and electricity a far-off dream."