A new campaign has launched this Fair Trade month. Fair Trade Towns USA is “a campaign organized by local and national Fair Trade advocates whose aim is to encourage and support the Fair Trade Movement in the U.S. Following the example of the Fair Trade movement in Europe, the campaign strives to support local, grassroots groups by offering tools and resources to become a Fair Trade town or city through successful local campaigns.”

This campaign makes it even easier for your town to become a Fair Trade town, following in the steps of Media, PA and Brattleboro, VT. This campaign has developed guidelines on how to achieve the five goals required to become one: the formation of a steering committee that meets regularly; availability in local stores, cafes, and other venues of a range of Fair Trade products that are either certified by TransFair USA or sold by retailers that are members of Fair Trade Federation; the use of Fair Trade products by a number of local organizations, such as places of worship, schools, hospitals and offices; attraction of media attention and visible public support of the local campaign; passage of a resolution supporting Fair Trade by the town or city council/governing body and a commitment to serve Fair Trade products at meetings.

A Fair Trade Toolkit(pdf) is available that covers in depth, each of these five goals. Forming a steering committee is the first step towards your towns new designation. First check out Co-op America’s list or search your community groups and find out if a Fair Trade coalition already exists in your area and if not start one up. The toolkit offers advice on how to structure your group and ideas for hosting various events in your community.

The second item states that Fair Trade must be available; there should be “at least one business selling Fair Trade products for every 2,500 residents in a town of 10,000 or less. There should be at least one store selling Fair Trade products for every 5,000 residents in a town that has over 10,000 residents.” To increase the number of Fair Trade products offered consider sending a letter or hitting your grocery store with Co-op America & Oxfam’s Super Market Campaign Kit. To get a gauge on your town’s knowledge and interest in Fair Trade send out the Merchant Survey and use this as a baseline to measure your progress. This survey can also be useful in getting Fair Trade products into local organizations such as churches, schools, hospitals and offices.

To assist in media attraction, begin building relationships with the press immediately upon your journey. Send out press releases each time there is an event (including your very first event, the coalition formation!) Offer to be a speaker or interview candidate for any related articles.

And finally getting the local governing body to pass a resolution use all your previous accomplishments. Present a collection of merchants that sell Fair Trade, and show the growth using your Merchant Survey. Get signatures and proclamations of support from local community members and business leaders along the way and compile these. Bring in all media coverage as well as your own coverage of all meetings and events, including future plans.

The ultimate goal of the Fair Trade Towns movement is to grow Fair Trade through grassroots efforts including access and education. Beyond the normal benefits of Fair Trade to both the producers and consumers, Fair Trade Towns bring together diverse people within the community united towards a single goal, receive recognition from the community on up, and lead the way in making positive changes within our world.

For more information, contact Fair Trade Towns coordinator Sara Stender: by phone: 802.356.0551, or email: sara@fairtradetownsusa.org .

(Originall written for Green Options)

(Originaly published at Green Options)

Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart, annouced that they have converted their “private label Member’s Mark premium ground coffee” to Fair Trade Certified. The process from bean begins with 3678 small scale, independent farmers who then sell their beans to “democratically-run cooperatives for a set, guaranteed minimum price.” This pool of beans from thousands of independent farmers is what composes the Member’s Mark brand. In conjunction with this announcement, Sam’s Club is offering a grant for teachers and students to spend one week studying the Fair Trade process of their coffee in Brazil. While this is not the first Fair Trade brand offered in either Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club, it is significant as it is a bulk ground coffee targeted towards mainstream shoppers.This new move is a mixed blessing and hits upon one of the main points of contention within the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade has moved into mainstream and is appearing everywhere from McDonalds to Dunkin’ Donuts to Wal-Mart. Any and all exposure of Fair Trade and it’s ideals to consumers is beneficial. And a larger market translates to more sales for producers and their communities.

However, as Fair Trade is embraced by large corporations with questionable ethics, so too is the potential to for exploitation and weakening of Fair Trade. Similar to companies that “greenwash,” to bolster their environmental credit, there are companies which seek to cash in on the feel-good PR Fair Trade offers, without making a true commitment to the ideals and meaning of the movement. One such gap between company marketing and ethical behavior occurred when Nestle released its Fair Trade coffee in 2005. Nestle has been at the center of ethical controversy for over twenty years, with boycotts for their “aggressive and irresponsible promotion of infant formula,” and for contributing to child abuse and torture within the cocoa industry, including large distribution from the Cote d’Ivoire. There was much critism of Nestle’s Fair Trade coffee and following it’s release, they were reported to the UK Advertising Standards Authority for a misleading and dishonest advertisement.

“Nestlé’s advertisement and website for its Fairtrade product imply it will have a significant impact on farmers in El Salvador and that the company’s activities in the coffee industry are ethical. The truth is only about 200 farmers in El Salvador supply coffee for Partners’ Blend and over 3 million farmers globally who are dependent on Nestlé remain outside the Fairtrade system. Nestlé is held partly responsible for forcing down prices paid to suppliers, driving many into poverty, while its own profits have soared. Recently I interviewed a researcher from Colombia who told me 150,000 coffee farming families have lost their livelihoods due to Nestlé policies.”

There is also confusion relating to the different Fair Trade labels and what they mean, and, unfortunately, companies are happy to prey upon this confusion. The Fair Trade Certified Mark means that particular product was certified. In most food products, this means it is certified at the beginning point such as farming and harvesting, but not always beyond this point. This creates opportunity for corruption at subsequent points along the way, such as with the problems with Fair Trade bananas and the exploitation of banana ripeners. Such inconsistencies occur when a company wishes to use Fair Trade, rather than commit to it.

Then what is the solution? Should Fair Trade be confined to its current size and guarded from the large corporate giants? I don’t believe this is the solution. I believe the growth of Fair Trade, when true and committed, should be an important goal. Fair Trade is not a premium brand label, but a different approach to our entire concept of trade. The Fair Trade movement is based upon a fair and just interaction between the consumer and the producer. If the vessel for this interaction is corrupted or dishonest, then it is upon our shoulders as consumers to correct or discard the vessel for one that is more trustworthy. The fact that Fair Trade is entering large corporate retailers is not necessarily a reflection of their goodwill, and it is important to remember this. The mainstreaming of Fair Trade is, however, a reflection of our growing desire to consume ethically and responsibly and it is upon this foundation that we should build the movement and hold all participants accountable. So it is with skeptical optimism that I welcome this Fair Trade expansion, and a hope that the company will commit to the true Fair Trade and an acceptance of responsibility to ensure they do.