Our Sugar Source………Wholesome

Sweeteners How Sweet this story is………..

We are proud to be using Sucanat from Wholesome Sweeteners, who is based in Sugarland, Texas, (yes I’m serious, they are based in Sugarland!). Sucanat is milled in Paraguay from organically grown sugar cane. With all of the cane's natural molasses still in each granule, Sucanat is as close to the cane as sugar can come. It's simply dried cane juice, collected and milled within 24 hours of harvesting.

Wholesome Sweeteners takes Social Responsibility very seriously. They hold fast to a "Fair Trade, Not Aid" philosophy. Wholesome pioneered fair trade certification for sweeteners and in so doing fostered ever widening agricultural and community development programs while providing stable economic resources for our cooperative partners in developing countries. They have created a viable economic incentive to protect communities, traditions and the environment. This means that farmers can compete against factory farms, keep their land (and buy more), send their kids to school, develop the quality of their crops and build community resources. Wholesome Sweeteners' Fair Trade programs also help small sugar farmers earn more so they can pay for organic certification and training in sustainable agriculture techniques as well as converting land to organic cultivation.

Here’s a great quote from one of their Fair Trade farmers co-op members…….

We no longer think of migrating to other countries or to the cities. Thanks to FT we can work and progress in our homeland. In 2002, we had 40 children in our first grade class; then for a while we had just 15 attending. Too many people had to migrate, but the ones who could stay are all one way or another affiliated with the Fair Trade program. Now people can come home.

--Carlos Cabral, Co-Op Member since 2002