Tomorrow, May 14th is World Fair Trade Day. Fair Trade is particularly important to me. When I was in college I was one of the 1st interns at TransFair USA (now Fair Trade USA) in Oakland, CA. I was there when the Fair Trade Coffee movement was just getting started here in the US. Since it's Fair Trade month, I want to tell you about my personal involvement with the Fair Trade movement.
My personal history with the Fair Trade Movement: I used to coordinate the volunteers, stand outside health food stores doing education and getting customers to sign petitions telling the stores they'd pay the extra $.10 per bag of coffee and doing coffee tastings. I spent many a day at a card table outside the Global Exchange Fair Trade store in San Francisco.
In fact, I think Global Exchange for my getting that internship. I had originally applied to be an intern at GX. However, their positions were already full. So, they sent my application & resume to TransFair USA. It was the best of both worlds because I got to work closely with both organizations. I spent 2 weeks in the GX office working with their Fair Trade coordinator updating their database and making phone calls. It was here that I met my hero and friend, Kevin Danaher.
The best experience I had was when TransFair USA brought in a Nicaraguan coffee farmer to do a speaking tour around the Bay Area and I was privileged to drive him around. This gentleman was just amazing! Despite not having a formal education, he was much wiser about the workings of the world and international politics than most Americans with a college degree. As he told his story of how Fair Trade helped his family, his village and his Co-op, how could you not support Fair Trade?
This was a man who had never had a hot shower until he came to the US. A man who had to pull his kids out of school because he couldn't afford the couple of dollars it cost to send them and he needed their labor to help support the family...That is until he benefited from Fair Trade.
No one is getting rich by producing Fair Trade products. But, it does mean the family can eat. It means the children get an education. It means the family can support itself. It also means the coffee is passively organic and grown in its natural habitat rather than on clear-cut plantations. Small, Fair Trade coffee growers are generally better stewards of the land.
The best things I learned from my internship at TransFair USA is the way our purchasing decisions directly affect producers around the world and that just because someone doesn't have a formal education or access to the media doesn't mean they aren't intelligent and able to understand the interworking of international governments and corporations. If anything, they have a much better understanding than the people of most developed countries.
Fair trade doesn't just apply to coffee. Fair Trade organizations certify and work with farmers of numerous crops as well as artisans in many developing nations.
For more information on Fair Trade and the Fair Trade products you can buy check out these organizations:
Tex
said on May 25, 2011
Thanks!
Tex
Global Exchange
www.globalexchange.org