Several contests launched this month in honor of Fair Trade month. From free chocolate to trips, there’s a chance for everyone to win.

Divine, a delicious Fair Trade chocolate company, has a tasty deal for all the top chefs out there. They’re looking for recipes that have "heaps of creativity, Divine appeal, and powerful statements about why contestants are hungry to change the world through Fair Trade." The sweetest entry wins a trip to Washington D.C. and some chocolate. The entries are due December 15th, and with the holidays coming, there’s a perfect opportunity to test out your creation on family and friends while introducing them to Fair Trade. If you need a snack to get your creative juices flowing, try out some of Divine’s or Equal Exchange’s recipes.

TransFair is sponsoring a Connect with Fair Trade video contest and the winner gets a trip to Peru. Simply create a short movie (less than 5 minutes) that shows how you connect with Fair Trade, and you could see first-hand the effect your Fair Trade purchases have on farmers. If you are a bit camera shy, you can enter the sweepstakes to win $100 gift certificate for Fair Trade products. No Oscar-winning performances required; simply tell how you connect with Fair Trade.

In conjunction with the launch of their new Fair Trade coffee line, Sam’s Club is offering a week long study grant in Brazil for teachers. "Study grants will be awarded to teachers who express exceptional ideas to educate students on the economic, social and business lessons surrounding fair trade." Eligibility is for teachers of grades 7 - 12 "who can reasonably expect to teach at least fifteen (15) hours a week during the 2008-2009 school year and dedicate at least five (5) lessons to topics related to Fair Trade." A 1,000 word essay must be received by December 15th and must detail how Fair Trade will be incorporated into five lesson plans.

Lessons could cover corporate social responsibility, international trade and economics, environmental issues, human rights and labor, consumer marketing, etc. Essays will be judged on (a) Professionalism in application (25%), (b)Coherent approach to examining relevant issues (25%), (c) Creative engagement with students (25%), and (d) Plans for documenting the trip to farming cooperatives and sharing the experience with students (25%).

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 footsteps of Media, PA and Brattleboro, VT. This campaign has developed guidelines on how to achieve the five goals required to become one:

1. The formation of a steering committee that
meets regularly.
2. 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.
3. The use of Fair Trade products by a number of local
organizations, such as places of worship, schools, hospitals and
offices.
4. Attraction of media attention and visible public support of
the local campaign.
5. 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. 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. 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 aletter 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. Send out press releases each time there is an event (including your very first event, the coalition formation!) Offer to be a speaker or an interview candidate.

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. Compile signatures and proclamations of support from local community members and business leaders along the way. 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 .

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.

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.

October is Fair Trade month and a great chance to introduce the movement to your friends and families! If your plans are grand but you need a bit of help to get them up and moving, then check out the mini-grants offered by TransFair. They average $500 and are to help promote Fair Trade in anyway you like. "From house parties and café crawls, to fashion shows and festivals, advocates have organized thousands of creative and inspiring activities that build the movement for Fair Trade and bring the benefits of globalization to people all over the world."

Entries are due September 15th, 2007 so move fast and get the creative juices flowing! From TransFair, the objectives are:

• Projects should contribute to education and awareness of Fair Trade and aim to increase the availability, demand for, and sales of Fair Trade Certified™ products. We encourage you to gather names from event participants to add to TransFair USA’s email list.
• Projects should aim to engage members of your community to become active in the Fair Trade movement. We rely on grassroots supporters just like you to spread the Fair Trade message — and any get involved after attending a Fair Trade event.
• Build the Fair Trade movement by financially supporting TransFair USA. We recognize that you may not have thought about using your event as a fundraiser, but we would like you to consider it. We can provide materials to help you think through this component and we are happy to speak with you if you would like additional support.

With requirements only 500 words or less, the grant-writing portion of this great opportunity isn’t as frightening as you might think. Along with typical contact information and budgeting expectations, TransFair wishes to know your experience and inspiration to become involved in Fair Trade. They also ask for a brief description of your project and possible challenges, with such topics as:

• How will your project increase the visibility, availability, and sales of Fair Trade Certified products?
• How many people do you expect to reach at your event?
• How will you publicize your event?
• What educational materials do you plan to use?
• What other groups or organizations are you collaborating with?
• Do you plan to collect donations to support TransFair’s work? If so, what is your fundraising goal?

Proceeds in 2006 were used to fund everything from "Fair Trade fairs and product tastings, to radio shows and farmer tours, to conferences and panel discussions." Highlights of some of the larger projects included bringing Tadesse Meskela, Ethiopian Fair Trade coffee cooperative manager to speak at screenings of Black Gold and supporting tours with Fair Trade rice and banana farmers. Be creative and find ways to engage your community in an exploration of Fair Trade!

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.

As schools and fall activities start their momentum, so too does the need for funding. I spent many fall afternoons in my school days hauling a box of chocolates door to door in the name of a field trip or project, all while resisting the urge to eat them… sometimes successfully.

It is not common to think of where our chocolate bars come from. I did not even know what a cacao pod looked like until several years ago. Few people, including children, understand where or how these delicacies reach us. Yet there is a dark side to chocolate, ranging from fueling wars to child labor, with around 286,000 children working farms in the Ivory Coast alone. It is important that we not only consider what chocolate we grab for ourselves the store, but also the message we send our children out to fundraise with. Fundraising with Fair Trade chocolate both helps your local organizations in their endeavors while also supporting the hard-working cacao farmers. And using Fair Trade also presents the opportunity to educate people, including those selling the products, towards an alternative to the dark side of the chocolate industry.

For Fair Trade fundraising check out:

• Equal Exchange Fundraising provides everything you need to get started. There is a template for permission slips and letters to other parents, press releases and posters for promotion. Their incentive programs include chocolate samples, coffee roaster tours, school presentations and the chance to win a trip to a cacao farming community, as well as a tiered structure ranging from $1,000-$5,000 with organic shirts, caps, etc. And don’t be locked into just chocolate: try offering coffee, tea, cocoa, dried cranberries or roasted walnuts to bring in funds.
• The Lutheran World Relief Fundraising Kit offers Divine chocolate that is focused more towards faith-based fundraising, with great ideas on how to help people find connection between fair trade and their spirituality. They offer planning tools, posters, educational presentations to supplement chocolate.

The next time an organization you or your children are involved with wants to raise money, suggest the Fair Trade option and help farmers while bringing in your funds.

How do we celebrate the "labor" in next weekend’s holiday? Labor Day typically brings to mind BBQ’s, three-day sales and the last celebrations of summer. Yet this holiday was created for the working man, a day to celebrate camaraderie and spirit within trade and labor organizations, and a day of rest and respect for those who labor through the remaining year. These organizations helped to bring labor rights to working people such as the right to a safe work place, maximum hours and minimum wage, health benefits and an end to abuses suffered by minorities and children.

The laws continue to protect the basic human rights of workers in the industrialized West, but are not ensured for billions of laborers who make up much of the backbone of the global economy. Child labor and forced servitude still exists. There are still dangerous and deadly working conditions which must be withstood to earn a meal. We in the West have accepted that such working conditions are not humane, and it is now time to extend these basic rights to our fellow laborers.

Through the Fair Trade movement, consumers are raising their voice and refusing to contribute to an economy that denies labor rights for all. Fair Trade helps to ensure that workers receive fair wages, a safe work environment, and are able to invest in their community. Fair trade artisans typically receive 15-20% of the total price of their products, as compared to less than 1% from conventional transactions. The benefits of fair wages manifest themselves in higher education rates in Fair Trade communities. Empowering women to work and help support their own families gives a new generation of women a new sense of self worth and respect. With a stable and livable income, communities are able to shift their focus from survival to improvement. This serves not only to better the community through specific programs and projects, but unites them with self-respect and pride.

Labor is a common denominator among us all, but, unfortunately, safe, just and fair labor is not. So this Labor Day stop and take a moment to think about the people who have labored to make all the stuff we consume at increasingly dizzying rates, then take some action. Here are some simple ways to help support Fair Trade:

1. Buy Fair Trade: fair trade products now range from coffee and chocolate to earrings to soccer balls. Look for Fair Trade alternatives to your purchases, and give Fair Trade gifts to introduce others.
2. If you do not find Fair Trade, ask the store to carry it. Many products such as coffee, chocolate and tea come in many varieties, so get your local store to offer some up.
3. Host a Fair Trade party at your home, work, church, school or any other group. Introduce your friends and family to Fair Trade and help them explore what it truly means. Have a discussion over coffee and nuts, or shop for some with a glass of wine; there are many ways in which to introduce them to the people behind the products.

Check out the Fair Trade Action Guide (pdf) for more ways to support Fair Trade.

Fair Trade is growing rapidly at a 40% compound annual rate, and it is increasingly important to ensure the over 1.4 million producers and workers within the Fair Trade structure have a voice.

The Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO) was established with the mission to go beyond the basic minimum requirements of both producers and traders by expecting them "to continuously improve working conditions, to increase the environmental sustainability of their activities and to invest in organizational development for workers and small farmers" through progress requirements.

In November 2006, FLO’s Meeting of Members unanimously voted to adopt a new constitution allowing producers to become full and participating members. Barbara Fiorito, Chair of FLO Board says “This unanimous decision to expand FLO General Assembly membership to include Producer Networks is an important step for FLO to become a truly multi-stakeholder organization“ On May 25, 2007 FLO made further progress towards this end as Coordinadora Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Comercia Justo (CLAC), African Fairtrade Network (AFN) and the Network of Asian Producers (NAP) all officially became full members of FLO. Raymond Kimaro, Chairman of the African Fairtrade Network (AFN), says

… we are optimistic that the new FLO Constitution shall ensure that right arrangements are in place to sufficiently accommodate member producer aspirations and expectations. The new arrangement should facilitate more understanding of the difficult living conditions in the south and possibly trigger urgent transfer of wealth to the south where the poor are badly in need.

From the developed world point of view, Peter Gaynor, head of Fair Trade Ireland points out

… we think it is important that producers are now co-owners of FLO – we are working to improve their situation and need to know what their priorities are. Whilst what we do is very simple, it’s important that we listen to each other and then do what will make the most difference to people in developing countries.

This is a positive step toward keeping the Fair Trade movement honest to it’s ideals. Similarly IFAT has producer groups represented by a majority membership, and Transfair has a council to include producer input into objectives, strategies and polices. It is important that as Fair Trade gains more mainstream notoriety companies hold true to the fairness in their trade and make sure treatment of producers is just and their voices are always heard.

Editor’s note: We’re always happy to share green and ethical financial opportunities with you. We ask that you remember that we’re not financial advisors, though, so we are sharing… not recommending. Always do your own homework before making an investment.

Whether you just cashed in with a winning lotto number or just have a bit of extra cash lying around, investing can be easily overwhelming and intimidating. If you want to avoid financing companies that sell products such as weapons or oil, there are options which offer more control over the direction of your investments, with Shared Interest playing a vital role in Fair Trade through financial assistance.

In 1984, the first ethical investment funds were introduced in the UK. While concerns about poor performance of ethically-based investments still linger, there has been no correlation discovered between the two. In fact the "performance of ethical funds is just as reliant on good management techniques as that of conventional funds."

Shared Interest is a UK-based co-operative lending society of over 8,400 members which seeks to help finance and support Fair Trade projects. Shared Interest achieves this goal through two avenues: one focused on the developing world; the other on Fair Trade businesses in the developed world. Trade finance is given to producers against both individual orders and through long-term loans to help with business development and expansion. As Shared Interest is supportive of Fair Trade, they understand the limitations faced by producers, such as collateral and credit history, and take such into account when evaluating applicants. On the buyer side, capital is provided to both help new stores acquire initial inventory of Fair Trade items and to assist in bridging the gap between advance payments to producers and subsequent sales. The latter is especially important within the Fair Trade movement as it is the prepayment which allows a direct trade to be successfully established between the retailer and producer.

Shared Interest qualifies companies on individual basis, but typically asks that they be members of Fair Trade groups such as International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT), Fair Trade Federation, or Fair Trade Labelling Organizations (FLO), to ensure Fair Trade practices are being followed. To create an understanding with consumers about the need for Fair Trade, Shared Interest has created the Beekeeper game, which allows you to make the tough decisions faced by poor producers in a "choose your own adventure" setting, and to see where they take you. This drives the point that without Fair Trade and financing opportunities, the producers face choices of bad or worse, jailed in a cycle of poverty frequently exploited by traditional international trade systems. Consumer impact is also achieved through stories about producers and buyers and the success they’ve found with Shared Interest support.

With over $40 million in share capital, Shared Interest is able to support many avenues, making a significant impact upon individual lives and within the Fair Trade movement. While becoming a member is currently limited to residents of the UK, hopefully the success of such companies as Kiva will inspire expansion or others to fill the gap and offer investment opportunities in other developed countries.