All cuz of an informative comment here, I finally chatted with Tom Neuhaus, one of the founders of the fair trade choco company Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, today.

Actually, I first contacted him cuz of the trip he’s planning to visit West African cocoa farmers. Tom emailed me back, saying he’ll be at his choco factory today — which is how I found out I was communicating with the founder of one of my fave choco companies.

Me: Dude, I’m a huge fan of Sweet Earth and fair trade chocolate! I bought fair trade chocolate for halloween last year!

Tom: The “boo-tiful” ones?

Me: Um, yes! Did you make those?

Tom: My hand touched every one of those!

This guy’s SOOO inspirational — not just cuz he’s older and wiser than I am, but because the guy started acting on his socio-environmental convictions just FIVE years ago!!

Tom’s in his mid 50s. That in itself blows my mind. In our culture, we’re so often led to think that you gotta do things fast, do things young. Yet here’s a super-cool, super-committed guy who got started — IN HIS FIFTIES — in playing a part in changing the way the cocoa biz is done in the world.

What amazed me about Tom was his honesty. He said he want to Oberlin back in the day, where he saw people protesting the Vietnam war. “And I didn’t do a thing!” he says.

Now, he’s making up for lost time. He teaches at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he works at Sweet Earth, and he runs a charitable org to help cocoa farmers.

And in just a few weeks, Tom’ll be leaving for West Africa — and wants you to join him.

Why? Tom’s been investigating why West African cocoa farmers — who face no competition from the western world — are poorer today than ever, pretty much.

So starting August 22, Tom’s gonna be travelling around Cote d’Ivore in a small van distributing farm implements to villages in the area. He’ll also visit 2 fair trade cocoa co-ops, as well as a school and a school that educates and trains the kids of cocoa farmers.

The trip’s mostly an educational one, an opportunity for visitors to understand why and how Africa’s been kept so poor.

Wanna take the trip with Tom? Then email him at tneuhaus@calpoly.edu. The 9-day trip does cost $4200, but keep in mind that the flights alone cost $2000. $500 of the trip’s cost will be used to purchase supplies that’ll be distributed to farmers.

More on Tom’s thoughts on chocolate, fair trade, child labor and West Africa in a soon-to-come post –

Update, 7/25/06: More on chocolate and fair trade, here.