Are the Onion and Greenpeace working together? The Onion has called attention to otter subterfuge. Otters have been complaining about oil spill exposure after a spill Monday:

According to Shell president Marvin Odum, the otter has been putting on "quite a show" in front of rescue workers and clean-up crews, and is making the 860,000-gallon, three-mile-wide toxic slick seem like a much bigger deal than it actually is.

Odum, who was alerted to the massive petroleum spill early Monday morning, claimed that the attention-seeking otter was not only overdoing it with his frantic and anguished squealing, but that his habit of gasping desperately for oxygen was "melodramatic."

In addition, Odum claimed that the otter's rapidly fluctuating body temperature and growing heart palpitations were nothing more than a sad attempt to curry favor with Coast Guard officials, Greenpeace volunteers, and anybody else not smart enough to see right through his "little ploy."

 The issue is particularly relevant because Greenpeace activists have been occupying Alberta oil sands equipment and installations this week.

Fortunately, for Shell and other oppressed oil companies the Alberta government has vowed to crackdown on protestors:

Assessing fair trade's effects on development and small farmers requires a balance between effects for individual farmers versus the reach of the fair trade standard: the higher the fair trade premium the smaller the market share.

Time magazine asks "What price for good coffee?"

Fair Trade pays $1.55 per lb. for Antonio's  organic coffee, almost 10% more than the market price. But Antonio is left with only 50¢ per lb. after paying Fair Trade cooperative fees, government taxes and farming expenses. By year's end, he says, from the few thousand pounds he grows, he'll pocket about $1,000 — around half the meager minimum wage in Guatemala — or $2.75 a day, not enough for Starbucks' cheapest latte.

The price per pound suggested by Christopher Bacon, and colleagues, of the University of California, is $2.00 / pound. However, the Fair trade labelling organization (FLO) and Transfair USA are concerned about the effect this would have onfair trade market share:

"What good is it to have $2-per-lb. coffee if you can only serve tens of thousands of farmers" instead of millions? asks Paul Rice, president and CEO of TransFair USA, the California-based nonprofit that oversees Fair Trade in the U.S. "You risk killing the goose."

The goose that is fair trade is force for change, but it is still subject to market forces...