Healing Victims of Torture

Yesterday was the United Nations Day for Victims of Torture, one single day to help build awareness of the extreme cruelty some individuals have endured and the resources they need to re-build their lives. With all the coverage in recent years of the U.S. government's treatment of detainees and prisoners and Supreme Court rulings about the rights of those held, you might think we don't need any more awareness. But from my time working on refugee and immigrant issues I know that torture is a persistent fact of life in many societies even outside of wartime. Victims are often civilians like church woman Diana Ortiz or unknown women and men who have been brutalized to intimidate them and break down civil struggle for justice.

Here in the United States we have institutions dedicated to naming and healing these unspeakable acts, such as the Marjorie Kovler Center in Chicago or the Center for Victims of Torture based in Minneapolis. In addition to providing counseling and support services to the individuals and families whose lives have been nearly destroyed, CVT and others have joined together to advocate for banning torture. These campaigns need supporters, of course, so check out their sites. In your local communities there may be refugee resettlement agencies looking for volunteers to provide direct services, if you are inclined to that type of action. Confronting and ending torture can happen outside the headlines, through people like you, just as the acts themselves may be hidden from view.

Thanks for considering this uncomfortable subject, which might seem removed from considerations of Fair Trade but certainly not from justice. And to tie it all together: speaking of CVT in Minneapolis, the 1/2 marathon I spoke of last week was a big success. My time in MN was filled with not only running, but also enjoying tasty Fair Trade Peace Coffee at local establishments such as Moose and Sadie's (their granola is incredible even if you haven't just run 13.1 miles!) and the Birchwood Cafe. At the Birchwood you'll be treated to locally and sustainably grown meals in the middle of a tree-lined neighborhood that attracts many cyclists as customers. My friend Kathy and I left with not only full bellies but also some cool sports socks!

Nine Minutes of Fair Trade Education

I'm technically on a three day vacation, heading to Minneapolis (home of Peace Coffee!) to run/walk a half-marathon tomorrow.    A goal of mine was to blog before I left... here I go.  I am taking a bit of a short-cut, though, just sharing a video I recently found on YouTube.  Called "Fair Trade: the Movie" it is a quick introduction to Fair Trade Certified food, with testimonials from farmers, businesses and advocates, including students in Seattle, a city I recently became very enamored of.   Although this story of Fair Trade misses out on the artisan sector, I found it a pretty useful intro and hope you enjoy.  Of course, if you have other videos to recommend, comment away!

Sweatfree tees on College Campuses

The U.S. government isn't always the best source for information on Fair Trade, but I was happy to give a background interview to the news service, America.gov , on the history of the Fair Trade movement and how it relates to apparel. The resulting article features the t-shirt company of my friend and colleague, Joe Falcone.

I think the article does a pretty good job of sketching out the problems some of us in the Fair Trade movement have with so-called "Fair Trade" clothing. Currently there is no certification for the vast and complicated clothing value chain and industry-created standards are themselves hard to verify.

Still, the scale and transparency of Joe's operations build confidence in me. He works directly with nongovernmental organizations in Bangladesh, his business model is based on the success of pioneers such as Equal Exchange, and his sales pitch is always wrapped up with consumer education (I know because he gives free copies of my book away!) With trail-blazers like Joe building long-term relationships, rooting their work in solid Fair Trade principles, and sharing financial benefits with workers, I am proud to wear my UCONN and University of Madison t-shirts from Counter Sourcing. I'm also hoping that enough consumers will get behind companies like Joe's to ensure their success. Consumer interest and the pressure to prevent consumer confusion will help the Fair Trade movement focus on how we can claim clothing as part of our efforts at economic justice.

Farmworker Victory Makes Fast Food a Little More Appetizing

Greetings from the Seattle-Tacoma airport!  I've just finished a training with the CRS Fair Trade program and a series of meetings with colleagues and allies who make the Pacific Northwest their home.  In addition to business meetings, I got to catch up with my artist friend Krissy Maier, who helped me and others at the Fair Trade Federation and Fair Trade Resource Network pull off the Fair Trade Futures conference  a few years ago.  Krissy now owns her own jewelry making business, Orange Box, and I proudly sported one of her rings while sipping the mandatory latte in this city of java.  It REALLY is true that Seattle is a coffee town-- I ended up my stay with quite an appreciation for latte art.  It is a amazing--even a bit scary--what a Barista can do with a cup full of foam.

Beyond a caffeine buzz,  I was also jazzed by time with the likes of Scott James, who runs Fair Trade Sports, a socially responsible enterprise that personifies the ethos of doing well by doing good.  Scott and his team work to make sure that athletes can embody the values of good sportsmanship by using adult-made sports balls that are environmentally friendly.  My CRS colleague, Katy, and I were also treated to a tremendous amount of chocolate and a tour of the factory of Theo Chocolate, the first roaster of Fair Trade certified cocoa beans in the United States.  Founder Joe Whitney got involved in the chocolate business when working with cacao farmers.  When he didn't get any response to a letter-writing campaign asking major chocolate companies to source their cocoa beans responsibly, he decided to start his own company.  If you are in Seattle, be sure to get a reservation for the factory tour.  

But what does this have to do with fast food?  Well, after a great trip enjoying the highest quality coffee and chocolate, I am now faced with dinner from a food court.  I love to travel and I know many people are struggling for one meal these days, so please don't hear this as complaining.  But for somebody who tries to avoid encouraging industrial agriculture, eating out can be a challenging experience.  Now, thanks to the advocacy campaigns of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers   major fast food chains such as McDonalds, Taco Bell and, most recently, Burger King have agreed to pay a net penny per pound more to farmworkers for the tomatoes they harvest.  That makes digesting the 7 layer burrito I just ate a little easier. 

One more penny a pound for grueling work doesn't totally solve my current version of the "Omnivore's Dilemma," but it does give us an example of how grassroots activism can make corporations do the right thing.  That's thinking outside the bun I can get behind. 

Helping Artisan Cooperatives Get Their Start

At a book discussion at the Ten Thousand Villages in Pasadena, California recently, I was asked a familiar question along the lines of, "How do you help craftswomen enter the Fair Trade market?" Many folks, whether volunteers with groups like Peace Corps or Catholic Relief Services or backpackers who stay in a community awhile, develop close bounds with a community and want to help them use their talents and skills to create products under Fair Trade terms.  The Fair Trade skin care company Anti-Body is an example of committed entrepreneurs working with their partners in Africa to develop products and get them to market.

Inspired their example and the history of Villages founder, Edna Ruth Byler, I like to encourage these new enterprises, but with a clear eye to the challenges of the handcraft market.  Luckily there are many professionals who do product and cooperative development for a living.  I'm sharing a recent announcement from Aid to Artisans about a training available this summer to help producers and importers develop market readiness.  

And while we are talking about building capacity, on my to-do list is to reach out to Oikocredit a leader of microfinance and a leader in Fair Finance.  If you are interested in borrowing money under fair terms to work with producers you might want to research the Oikocredit requirements and criteria. 

I hope these two leads help those helping producers become Fair Traders!

Intergenerational Support of Fair Trade

In the wake of World Fair Trade Day--did you hear more than 12,000 North Americans participated in the World's Largest Coffee Break??? Check out the slide show!--I am brimming with blogging ideas. Also, this weekend I saw episodes of the Tracey Ullman show, State of the Union, on Showtime and I now have a wacky desire to be match the work of Arianna Huffington. I mean if she blogs daily, shouldn't I????

But I have this "order in which they were received" attitude about email messages, and a friend alerted me in early May that the AARP Bulletin recently featured Fair Trade shopping as a way to be economically smart. Initially I kind of winced because sometimes "outside of the industry" blurbs about Fair Trade can be riddled with errors. I was surprised to find on target comments like, "Generally, fair trade products cost the same and sometimes less than mass market items, because the large percentage taken by the middleman is removed from the equation. For example, FTC coffees and chocolates are generally priced competitively with specialty coffees and chocolates—but they are more expensive than mass-produced varieties."

As more people start looking carefully at their personal budgets, I wish we would take this as a wake-up call to reflect on our consumption patterns. Can we fixate less on the price of a gallon of gasoline and more on why we drive so much? Why don't we take these moments of economic uncertainty to consider life priorities, economic justice, and care for the planet?

Absent those kinds of queries, if the American Association of Retired Persons wants to promote Fair Trade as a way for seniors and others on fixed income to be frugal, so be it! In fact, the premise of the article is "you can save the world by changing your shopping list." Saving the world is a motivator for many age groups. On my travels I have certainly met many a retiree who is making Fair Trade advocacy a second career....let's welcome AARP and to the movement!

A little bit of Fair Trade irony

I'm processing a wonderful set of experiences in California this past week. Before I post any reflections about participating in the (hoped for) World's Largest Fair Trade Coffee break with the San Diego Friends of Fair Trade, traveling across the border to Tijuana, and debating Fair Trade at UCLA along with members of Fair Trade LA, I'll pass on this bit of levity in a video clip from Comedy Central. The Brits have long been ahead of the United States on several of the Fair Trade fronts. This is just another example that they "get it," courtesy of comedian John Oliver. The video reminds me of the classic, if somewhat more sardonic, written piece from the Onion a few years back. Enjoy but maybe also reflect: are there one too many "ouch" moments in that piece?

Here's to not taking ourselves too seriously even as we work on some pretty serious issues. And a toast to treating the person right next to us as well as we want farmers and artisans treated!