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)

As I continue to write and think about the issue of Fair Trade it becomes more and more apparent to me that our economic system is a root cause for a wide array of our world’s woes. Instances of poverty, disease, wars (and the dehumanization that accompanies all three) and our quickly degrading environment occuring all over the world, but especially in the poorer Southern hemisphere, can all be traced back to an economic system that prizes pure economic profit above all else: above fairer distribution of the world’s wealth, above the health of the world’s poor, above the lives of those unfortunate enough to live in resource rich regions targeted by corporations (and therefore governments and militaries) and even, amazingly, above nature and its delicate environment that produces these economically valuable resources. This economic system, very obviously, is unfair and unsustainable. We can do better.

Fair Trade is proving that an economic system that focuses on a triple-bottom line, considering people, plant and profit as equally important outcomes of business operation, can work, and work better, for everyone and everything involved. October is Fair Trade Month and Global Exchange’s Fair Trade Month page says it best, this is indeed “a great opportunity for people throughout the United States to support, promote and celebrate a socially responsible system of trade that prioritizes the needs of human beings and the environment over the drive for profits.”

So this is the month to get involved and make some collective noise about economic justice and sustainability. One great way to shout out is to direct a video about Fair Trade for the Connect with Fair Trade Video Contest. Doing so could just end in your visiting a Peruvian Fair Trade farming co-operative courtesy of TransFair. If you make a great video and end up winning, I also suggest you write to GO editor Jeff McIntire-Strausburg and offer to do a write-up of your experience in Peru.

According to TransFair 56% of people who are aware of Fair Trade make a point to purchase Fair Trade certified products whenever available. Help increase awareness and availability of Fair Trade products by encouraging your local grocery market to carry Fair Trade and participate in the Fair Trade month celebration. TransFair makes it easy with educational marketing materials and contest promotions to intrigue customers.

Perhaps my favorite Fair Trade month promotion joins activism and a great holiday, Halloween. Order your Fair Trade Trick or Treat action kit from Global exchange and you’ll have everything you need to tell others just how boo-tiful(!) trade can be: tasty chocolate from Equal Exchange and knowledge of a better way to trade.

At the very least, talk to your friends and family about this idea, email this article around, whatever little bit you can do to just keep the Fair Trade buzz growing.

(Written for Green Options)

You’ve heard about how to introduce your friends and family to Fair Trade, and how to build the movement within your community. Now let’s look at how to bring this important education into your school.

• Fair Trade fundraising. With many different options and rewards, it’s easy to make the switch to selling a sweeter chocolate.
• Raise awareness and funds with a Fair Trade bake sale. Check out the many delicious recipes at Equal Exchange, Divine Chocolate, Transfair or the Fair Trade Cookbook.
• Form a Fair Trade group with other students, teachers and parents.
• Present the Fair Trade movement to others, either peers or younger classes. Check out the this Fair Trade powerpoint for an introduction.
• Teach Fair Trade. Global Dimension has 56 different resources for helping students understand Fair Trade, with age groups ranging from 5-7 years, 7-11 years, 11-14 years and 16 and up. Most resources are free or cost a small amount, and the topics are varied and interesting. Traidcraft also has lesson plans for various age levels and subjects.
• For primary schools check out the free ‘Make your School Fair Trade Friendly‘ pack, which includes seven different activity sections.
• Have a Fair Trade stall at your next school event. Here are some tips to help in your success. Spark some tastebuds with samples of coffee, tea or chocolate and feed, them information while they enjoy.
• Play Sweet Injustice: the chocolate game. With 6 volunteers, you can visually drive home the reality of the tiny portion of chocolate profits that actually ends up in the farmer’s hands through traditional trade.
• Play fair! Get your school to switch their footballs, soccer balls and volleyballs to those sold by Fair Trade Sports. Play an intramural game with information for spectators and players.
• Host a Fair Trade fashion show to demonstrate how “beautiful” and “trendy” can still be ethical.
• Check to see if your school has a United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) group. If not, start one!
• Have your school group become one of the Co-op America’s Fair Trade Alliance members, with a pledge to
  • Serve Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, tea, cocoa/chocolate, and other certified products as available for meetings and gatherings.
  • When possible, purchase commodities or crafts from members of the Fair Trade Federation.
  • Educate co-workers, community members, classmates, and others about Fair Trade.
  • Promote Fair Trade through events or other activities whenever possible.
• Help others each time you get dressed with an alternative Fair Trade school uniform.
• Host a discussion. Check with local Fair Trade businesses and teachers to bring in a speaker, or hold an open discussion with your teachers, peers and parents.
• Host a screening of a Fair Trade movie, such as Black Gold, and hold a discussion afterwards.
• Make some Big Noise with a Fair Trade campaign and OxFam’s toolkit.
• Give the students and teachers a chance to give twice this holiday season by hosting a Fair Trade holiday sale with the help of Ten Thousand Villages or A Greater Gift.

(Originally written for Green Options)

(Originally posted at Green Options)

The Fair Trade movement operates under the basic market principle of supply and demand. In order to spread the ideas of economic sustainability and justice to others, we create demand for Fair Trade by spreading the word. But with demand for Fair Trade products repidly increasing (by more than 40% a year) around the world, we need to ensure that Fair Trade products are easily accessible in the marketplace. And just like we generate demand through educating consumers, we can help create supply by educating the retail shops that supply the goods we consume.

There are many excellent resources available online to help you organize and start an effort to educate the retailers in your community. Coffee shops and grocery stores are great places to start. Here are four actions you can take to start planting the seeds of Fair Trade in your community and then grow those seeds into a healthy Fair-Trade-supporting community.

1. Ask. Start planting the seeds by simply ask your local coffee shop and grocery store if they carry any Fair Trade products. With the rising popularity of Fair Trade, the chances that you can find Fair Trade coffee or bananas at the shops you frequent are getting better and better, especially if you live in the UK or Europe.

2. Send a letter to the manager. Global Exchange provides a good template for a letter about Fair Trade coffee to send to the manager of a store you frequent. Oke Bananas will send you request cards that friends, family and other interested consumers can sign and deliver to your grocery store to educate and encourage management to carry their Fair Trade bananas from Central America. Catholic Relief Services and Divine chocolate has a good one-sheet of talking points (PDF) that could form a good letter on why your grocer should carry Fair Trade chocolate.

3. Start a campaign to educate your supermarket. Co-op America and Ox-Fam America have teamed up to put together a great Super Market Campaign Kit. The Kit provides materials, information and practical tips to help you organize a campaign to pressure your supermarket to carry Fair Trade products whereever possible.

4. Nourish your town into a Fair Trade community. Gather a group to help you get your town or city council to pass a purchasing restriction that legally requires local government to use Fair Trade coffee. If you belong to a faith community, encourage the community to incorporate Fair Trade into the official budget (PDF). Finally, TransFair Canada has put together a great document to guide you through the Fair Trade Town (PDF) certification process.

Good luck, and keep us updated on any efforts you might take to help make Fair Trade products more easily accessible in the market!

(originally written for Green Options)

You’ve heard about Fair Trade. You believe in the idea and look for it when you shop. Now it’s time to let others know. From the passing comment to the big party, here are some ways to introduce your friends and familys to the benefits of Fair Trade:

1. Grab a cup of Fair Trade coffee, tea, hot cocoa or wine with a friend and start a discussion.

2. Give a Fair Trade gift and be sure to include a bit of information about the artisans who work hard to make it.

3. Bring some Fair Trade coffee to your office, school, church or social gathering with some information on Fair Trade. If you’re looking to make a permanent change, use some of the petitions and templates provided to get your organization to make the switch, and then join Co-op America’s Fair Trade Alliance.

4. If you are a student, grab some friends and join or create a campus organization with the United Students for Fair Trade.

5. Make a Fair Trade goodie: from banana bread to chocolate cake, there are plenty of delicious recipes to incorporate Fair Trade products. Check out recipes from Transfair, the Fair Trade Cookbook, Divine Chocolate, or Equal Exchange. Enjoy your delicacies with some family, or give to a local bake sale with a bit of Fair Trade information.

6. Host your own film festival with TransFairs help. They provide the short DVD Fair Trade: The Story, as well as an action kit and discussion guidelines for other films. Or check out Black Gold for the story behind your morning brew.

7. Host a Fair Trade Party and choose from many different types of products. Try a product tasting from TransFair or Equal Exchange: both come with educational materials. A Greater Gift consignment deal lets you offer an array of crafts, and you can return what doesn’t sell. If you enjoy the party, consider becoming a consultant for Pachamama World. For a larger sale with your community, check out Ten Thousand Villages.

8. Present the Fair Trade model to a classroom or group.

9. Learn more with others. Use resources as foundation to open conversations.

10. Start a Fair Trade campaign with friends using OxFam’s toolkit, with action ranging from letter and email writing to hosting events and media coverage.

When talking with your friends and family, be open and candid with your conversations. The confusion between Fair Trade and the other fair trade, and the propaganda surrounding current free trade practices, can create conversations that are both enlightening and engaging. Most of all, do not be intimidated: trade is a complex issue. However, there are many resources available such as the Fair Trade Action Guide (pdf), Co-op America’s Guide to Fair Trade (pdf) and many free resources from CRS.

Starting today Brady and I will be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the Green Options blog. This is the first installment and can be found on Green Options here.

Saturday May 12th is the third global World Fair Trade Day. This day of celebration is an opportunity to increase Fair Trade awareness and expand understanding of the benefits it provides to poor families, deteriorating cultures and the environment. It also happens to be just before Mother’s Day, which offers a great chance to give your mom a gift that is also a gift to mothers across the world.

This year World Fair Trade Day will focus on children, with the motto “Kids Need Fair Trade.” Children are deeply affected by unfair trade policies. They become trapped in the cycle of poverty with little to no access to healthcare or education. Children in poor households are forced to work simply to eat. The World Fair Trade Day website claims “Coffee, cocoa (chocolate), bananas, oranges and sugar are among the food sectors that most exploit child labour.” Most of these products have a Fair Trade alternative.

Fair Trade requires, among other stipulations, that workers are paid a fair wage in the local context making parents more able to support families. Fair Trade also provides a social premium, such as ten cents per pound of coffee sold that is then used by producer cooperatives to build schools and health centers, and pay teachers and clinicians.

Fair Trade is also committed to gender equality, an idea that is being passed down to young girls and cultivated in these strongly patriarchal societies. The opportunity for women to provide for their families not only allows their daughters to attend school, but also instills in them a sense of empowerment and independence. This increased self worth is helping to create a generation of women who will question and change their oppression in these cultures.

There are many ways to raise awareness for this celebration:

• Transfair is sponsoring an art contest about Fair Trade for children 3rd – 12th grade, entries due May 15th
• Purchase Fair Trade gifts this mother’s day and start the conversation. I encourage you to support your local fair trade establishment or you can peruse my fair trade shop, Two Hands Worldshop.
• Host a Global Trade Soccer Game and get a Fair Trade Soccer ball with donations.
• Bake Mom a delicious dessert with Fair Trade chocolate. You can find tasty recipes at Divine & Equal Exchange. Enjoy it with some delicious Fair Trade coffee or tea.
• Support Fair Trade, check out the Fair Trade Federation to find a business which carries Fair Trade near you or look for World Fair Trade Day events close by at the World Fair Trade Day site or the Fair Trade Resource Network.

Ronald Reagan used the term ‘free and fair trade’ in a radio address in 1986 and the term ‘fair trade’ has been thrown around the political landscape ever since. Now, this political ‘fair trade’ movement has little to do with the independent international consumer movement of which Two Hands is a part.

This political ‘fair trade’ movement is pushing for accountability in US trade agreements and it is nonetheless important. The November 2006 election was enormously successful for politicians who are using the term ‘fair trade’ to describe their approach to trade policy. The voters who issued this mandate are still fighting and their focus right now is on stopping the renewal of fast track authority. David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover, writes that the domestic fair trade movement has just scored a big victory by successfully pressuring Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to reverse his position on the issue. Fast track gives the president authority to negotiate agreements that the Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster. It was passed as part of the Trade Act of 1974 and is subject to Congressional renewal periodically. The Congress did not renew fast track in 1994 and did not renew it again until 2002, but then by just three votes in the House literally in the dead of night at 3:30am.

Under fast track, the president is authorized to negotiate trade agreements with foreign countries without consulting Congress or state legislators. After the executive branch locks down the terms of the deal and writes the implementing legislation, Congress is only permitted a yes or no vote, while states are virtually left out of the process. Thus, state and congressional officials elected to represent the public interest have no role in the process but to approve or disapprove the whole package.

Without the terms of the trade details subject to debate and amendment in the House or Senate trade deals under fast track nearly always lack provisions most Americans support such as labor rights for foreign workers and a propensity to drastically favor the interests of US-based multinational corporations over the interests of US workers.

While I don’t necessarily agree with every position the ‘fair traders’ maintain, I certainly agree that fast track authority is undemocratic and gives even more power to an already incredibly powerful branch (err… person) of our government. The people should have a say in the terms of trade agreements our government authorizes, not simply a yea or nay vote without possibility of amendment.

What say you on the issue, dear readers?

It appears that San Francisco will be the first city in the US to ban plastic shopping bags. The Reuters article says San Franciscans use an astonishing 181 million plastic bags per year. That’s about 120 bags per person per year. This works out to saving “450,000 gallons of oil a year and (will) remove the need to send 1,400 tons of debris now sent annually to landfills.” Imagine the cumulative impact as similar bans spread around the planet and begin to reduce the 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags we use globally every year!

The goals are to stop using the non-biodegradable bags and cut down on oil consumption but it is certainly not to switch back to using paper bags. Remember those comes from trees. Instead the ban hopes to motivate shoppers to start using reusable canvas shopping bags. The city of San Francisco gave out free canvas bags to residents the day it voted to ban plastic bags.

So, why wait for a ban in your city? Pickup a few fair trade canvas shopping bags for yourself.

“Trade is neither inherently good nor bad. But how it is conducted is a matter of great concern-and an unprecedented opportunity. Trade can either contribute to the process of sustainable development or undermine it. Given the rapidly accelerating destruction of the earth’s natural resource base, there is no question what the choice must be.” -Hilary French, author of Costly Tradeoffs: Reconciling Trade and the Environment

One of the most common confusions the Fair Trade movement has to contend with is that of Free Trade. In essence, Free Trade sounds great (hey, it’s free!). Not surprisingly, the US tends to use its power to bully poor countries into joining Free Trade agreements which are far from fair and balanced.

Free trade is based on the conventional economic idea that “international trade without the interference of tariffs, subsidies, price controls and pork-barrel politics is by far the most efficient way of matching global supply to demand while making all the participants more prosperous.” In theory this is a wonderful concept, however the gap from theory to reality is quite broad. George W. Bush made the proclamation shortly after securing the presidency for the first time that “open trade is not just an economic opportunity, it is a moral imperative.” It is not surprising then, that the current white house has been eager to fast track all free trade agreements during it’s remaining time, after all, W. is simply following his moral imperative, right? However, free trade initiatives are not a partisan issue, they have been embraced by both sides to appease large corporate benefactors, at expense of US jobs and workers overseas.

Theorist’s claim that removing all barrier’s and tariffs to trade will “be beneficial for workers, whose wages and benefits can rise as foreign markets expand for their goods.” However, when free trade practices are implemented what often follows is the opposite of this prediciton. Large corporation push out smaller businesses, US jobs are lost to overseas production where labor and safety laws are non-existent or not well enforced (879,280 U.S. jobs moved overseas after NAFTA), money is drained from the poorer countries as corporations fail to reinvest locally and all but forced servitude is common and even children are forced into hard labor conditions to survive. This has only furthered the gap between the rich and poor as “the richest 20% of the world’s population has 60 times the income of the poorest 20%.” Our moral imperative should not be to the profits earned but rather to the people. We have found it necessary in the US to outlaw child labor, require safe working conditions, and set a minimum wage. Why then do we take advantage of the lack of these laws in other countries to produce cheap goods? We have placed a value on human life and a standard treatment as such, now we must extend that to people other than US citizens and stop conflating profits with human rights.

At its core remembering the value of the people is the ultimate goal of Fair Trade. It is not, as some propose, simply an attempt to set a price floor which will destroy the natural flow of supply and demand. Rather it is placing the value of human life and labor above the value (but not at the expense of) profit. We have found cause to implement this within our borders and there is no true reason, moral or otherwise, to make this an exclusive arrangement.

Similarly a new economic theory has been proposed by Frank Rotering, which he terms Human Economics. “The objective of human economics is to formulate economic concepts and analytical tools that permit the maximization of human well-being subject to ecological constraints.” There is extreme poverty, death and suffering in today’s world, to the extent which we must re-evaluate our current policies and approach, because as dominant countries we are frequently the cause to, and continuation of, these problems.

Fair Trade is not perfect, there are legitimate criticisms and challenges it faces, nor should it be the ultimate solution. Rather Fair Trade is a necessary step towards improvement as it helps establish a new basic economic imperative, the realization that trade is fundamentally a human interaction. If we ever cease taking these steps toward something better it will not be the Fair Trade movement that fails but rather us that has failed ourselves.

It has become ‘in’ within the tumultuous fishbowl of celebrities to be a charity face, which presents a double edged sword. While getting the issue into public awareness is always beneficial, this celebrity craze sometimes leads to people lending their name for a one night romp rather than making a true commitment. Or spending $100 million on pretty faces only to raise $18 million.

However, there are certainly celebrities out there that use their fame for causes they are truly passionate about. One of my favorites is Angelina Jolie and her continuing fight to bring worldwide injustices and hurt to our eyes. She does so not in an effort to seek more personal publicity, but rather as a reluctant awareness that her image “can draw you in a little because I’m familiar, then that’s great. Because I know that at the end you’re not looking at me, you’re looking at them.” She travels without an entourage, works hard and dirty, and is willing to relinquish her visits if they were ever to hurt rather than help.

Currently she is brining attention to Sudan and the need for the ICC to prosecute the crimes against humanity.

It’s important for the American people to know that a lot of people believe—I certainly believe—that it has been their outcry and their interest that has motivated our government. I think that the American people have paid attention to Darfur—a really amazing groundswell of people that really care, and are moved and emotional about the things they’ve seen when it is brought to their attention.

We have finally shone a much needed spotlight on this crisis, it is now time for true action and to hold the criminals responsible.

On Monday I asked a group of refugees about their needs. Better tents, said one; better access to medical facilities, said another. Then a teenage boy raised his hand and said, with powerful simplicity, “Nous voulons une épreuve.” We want a trial.