Kids Need Fair Trade
Editor's note: We're also pleased to welcome Alicia Erickson to the writing team. Alicia, along with her husband Brady Swenson, will be covering Fair Trade issues for us. Alicia and Brady live in Lawrence, Kansas, where they own and operate Two Hands Worldshop.
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.
Tags: Fair Trade, fair+trade, mothers+day, world+fair+trade+day
- Uncategorized
May 9th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Thanks to you too Andy. I didn’t feel any kind of a jerk vibe… I appreciate being corrected when I’m wrong. So, thanks. It’s always hard to get subtle sentiments across in an web discussion.
All the best, man, and hope to see you around here again!
Brady
May 11th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Alicia, Brady,
Thank you for your patient discussion about how Fair Trade works, and why its needed.
I often give public talks about Fair Trade and will tell people that it is not about either “Giving a man a fish” OR “Teaching a man to fish” BUT RATHER “Just simply pay the man a fair price for his fish” (something Northern countries have largely not done for centuries). In our case (at Equal Exchange) its not fish, but coffee, cocoa, tea, etc. And with very few exceptions our farmer partners already know very well how to grow their crops, etc. The problem is that the free market pits these farmers against much more powerful buyers, and actually compels those buyers to use their market leverage to pay the farmers as little as possible.
Further, for many farmers export crops like coffee or cocoa are usually their best economic option - despite the low prices - that’s how constrained their choices are. With Fair Trade we are not “subsidizing” farmers to stay in ill-advised activities, when they should switch crops or move to the cities (which usually means living abhorent shanty towns). Rather we are acknowledging that even when they pursue their “most rational economic choices” they still earn so little money that they can neither provide a decent standard of living NOR makes the basic investments that would in fact expand their own economic choices and those of the children and grandchildren.
Consequently its very heartening to see that some Fair Trade cooperatives are doing exactely this now that they’re earning a little more. They’re educating the next generation - sometimes all the way to college. They’re moving up the supply chain into more profitable activities like processing, packaging, and exporting their crops. They’re improving the quality of their crops so as to earn better prices and more leverage in negotiating. And they’re investing in diversifying into other activites (like bakeries, local stores, and restaurants).
Lastly, re: Fundraising. At Equal Exchange we’ve recently launched a proper, full-service Fund Raising operation that makes it easy for schools anywhere in the U.S. to start selling organic, Fair Trade chocolate, or coffee, tea, etc. in lieu of conventional products (who were sourced who knows how). For more info, see: http://www.equalexchange.com/fundraiser )
May 14th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
For those of you who are interested in the issue of Fair trade, there is a powerful documentary out called “Black Gold,” that documents the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers and clearly demonstrates why all of us should be asking for Fair Trade coffee. The film was recently released in the theater but is now available to the public on DVD via California Newsreel. You can read more about the documentary or pick up a copy of it here at http://newsreel.org/
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
You don’t have to make a donation to get your own Fair Trade soccer ball (although we’d love you to). Check out our full line of sports balls certified for both FSC and Fair Trade at http://www.fairtradesports.com.
We’ve got high quality sports balls for soccer, volleyball, rugby, and more!
- Scott James
Fair Trade Sports
http://www.fairtradesports.com
Fair Trade Soccer Balls with FSC Certification!