You imply that La Siembra/Cocoa Camino are somehow piggyback marketing on the concept of Fair Trade, which is a rigourous third party certification system guaranteeing co-operatively organized co-ops not just a fair price but long term contracts, access to low interest credit (if the farmers want it) etc.
Had you taken a bit more time to explore the site you would have discovered that La Siembra is NOT the name of a co-op of farmers, but rather the name of the worker owned co-op behind the Cocoa Camino brand name. Where pray tell do you think cocoa grows? Canada?

It is grown near the Equator, namely the cocoa in Cocoa Camino is grown in the Dominican Republic and Peru, which La Siembra then buys from the farmers in the south. They were actually the first company to import and sell Fair Trade cocoa and sugar products in North America. They operated under Fair Trade principles for their first three years of existence since cocoa and sugar were not yet on the registry of approved Fair Trade products, all the while establishing the relationships and assisting the co-ops down south in getting Fair Trade certified and assisted Trans Fair Canada (the certifying body in Canada) to get cocoa and sugar on the registry. Cocoa and sugar weren’t fully certified until 2002. La Siembra does have a spanish name, it means ‘the sowing’ as in seeds as in seeds of change. They adopted that name as well as the co-op business model in solidarity with their producer partners in the south.

Before you start making inaccurate and misleading statements, do a bit of research.

The story is all here on the website

http://www.lasiembra.com/en/coop.php

Cocoa Camino is one of the pioneers of Fair Trade chocolate in not just North America, but the world.

If only more business were as transparent as they were in their dealings and business practices.

Good luck with your research.

Wendy
(By the way, their chocolate also kicks ass!)