Trade Talk:  Conversations with Leaders in the Fair Trade Movement

As part of Fair Trade Local’s “Trade Talk” series, GGP invites leaders in the fair trade movement to answer questions about global trade, grassroots activism, poverty, women’s rights and their favorite fair trade products. For our first installment, we're pleased to be speaking with Scott Codey of the New York City Fair Trade Coalition.  Scott is a committed, accomplished activist with years of experience, and we're honored to have him here on Fair Trade Local. Thanks for joining us on Fair Trade Local, Scott. Q:  There are a lot of economic development models out there, and a lot of debate over which works best.  Why have you decided to devote your time to Fair Trade?  What makes it a good solution to ending poverty? I think Fair Trade is attractive to a lot of people because it’s a simple and easy way to make a significant difference in the lives of people at the other end of the supply chain.  Most people I come across are not indifferent to the exploitation of workers around the world – they simply don’t know what is happening.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been approached by people at the end of the wonderful film “Black Gold” which lays out the grim reality of the coffee industry who say, “I had no idea any of this was happening.” When people learn about learn what is going on, they want to do something about it. At its best, I think Fair Trade is “gateway activism” – a first-step way for people to engage with these issues in a way that makes a difference but does not require going to meetings, learning a whole set of acronyms or having to endure long bus trips to Capitol Hill. But trade activism cannot stop with buying products.  I think we have to remember that Fair Trade is not a panacea for poverty.  It is something that we can and should do while we work for profound changes to the current rules of international trade. Q:  Many critics claim that Fair Trade is a form of “charity,” a “band-aid” instead of a sustainable solution.  How do you respond to such critiques? I don’t think Fair Trade is any more a form of charity than minimum wage laws.  We have those laws in place because we believe that people should be paid a minimum for their labor, irrespective of market forces.  I think of Fair Trade more as a form of civil disobedience – as a way of refusing to consent to, if only for a moment, participate in a global trading system that causes such severe poverty and exploitation around the world. Q:  For a lot of people, the term “global trade” conjures abstract, elusive, perhaps even negative thoughts.  WTO.  Closed doors.  Men in suits.  How can regular people advocate for fairer trading practices without being a policy expert or political bigwig? If people think of the WTO and men in suits behind closed doors when they think of global trade, they are not far off the mark.  To this point, the rules of international trade have largely been written by and for large corporations where short term corporate profits are the most important thing and everything else – public health and safety, workers rights, women’s rights, the environment and the health of local economies are secondary. I think what is so exciting about the Fair Trade movement is that over the last 20 years, regular people – not policy experts or political bigwigs – have gotten organized not only to raise their voice in protest of the current system (which is important) but to build positive alternatives that model the kind of economy we want to see. Q:  What impact do you think the new Obama Administration will have on fair trade, global poverty and women’s rights?  Should we expect to see some important gains, or more of the same? I think it’s a bit too early to tell.  I expect we will see some important gains in some areas but it is by no means guaranteed that at the end of the Obama administration, we’re going to have a global trading system that is better than the one we have today.  If you look at who Obama has chosen as his trade advisors, it seems reasonable to expect that they will try to advance a vision of global trade that is not that different from the one advanced by the Clinton administration.  However, political leaders are generally only as good or as bad as the political pressure they feel like they have to respond to.  Our challenge is the coming years will be to expand consumer awareness of Fair Trade while at the same time continuing to build a political movement that is strong enough to enact a set of policies that make Fair Trade a baseline principle for doing business in the global economy.  One promising piece of legislation is the 2009 TRADE Act which folks can find more information about here: http://action.citizen.org/t/1153/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27339 Q: Thank you for your informative responses.  For our final question, we’d like to end on a lighter note: what’s your favorite fair trade product?  Coffee? A fair trade bag?  Or perhaps those delicious fair trade bananas? Well, I had a lovely Fair Trade bag until a few years ago when I left it in a cab in Chicago.  All my friends told me it made me look like a goat herder which made me like it even more!

5.7% of NYC's residential waste is textile waste although textiles are 100% Recyclable Jeeez, NYC.  Get with it.  If you're in the Big Apple, bring old towels, shoes, clothes, hats  and anything else that might be a "textile" to one of many recycling hot spots throughout the city.  Collection centers often set up shop at greenmarkets, but check the Council on the Environment of New York City's events page for details. Not in NYC?  Let us know where your local is, and what recycling activities are taking place there.

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Just in time for summer, Seald Sweet International announced it will be importing fair trade citrus from South Africa.  And you thought only bananas could be FT certified... Click here for more info...

For those of you Fair Trade enthusiasts who make your homes under rocks, away from 24-hour cable news networks and BBC radio, we’re here with the skinny:  serious change is underway in Iran.  Following the June 12^th elections, in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supposedly defeated opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousevi, severe rioting broke out in the capital city of Tehran.  Mousevi’s allegations of fraudulent results led thousands of his supporters to take to the streets, calling for an annulment of election returns and a nation-wide recount.  As journalists and pundits debate ceaselessly about what's coming next, there’s one thing they can agree on:  Iran has changed for good.  Perhaps the most important manifestation of this change has been the role of women in this year’s election cycle.  In a country where women are treated as second-class citizens in the eyes of the law and the men who make it, women are making their voices heard.  Mousevi’s wife Zhara Rahnavard, an out-spoken and therefore controversial figure in Iranian public life, has called for “equality between men and women,” and the dialogue about women’s rights has appeared on the agenda like never before.  Goosebump-inducing photos of brave women are surfacing all over the web from citizen journalists (most official journalists have been expelled), showing women in headscarves standing up to police and protesting passionately in the streets.

  Although 65% of Iran’s college students are women, Iran’s leading clerics and politicians still withhold equal rights and opportunity from the country’s female population.  Men are favored in cases of divorce, child custody, inheritance and crime.  And all women—despite their religion or beliefs—are legally obligated to wear the hijab.  Women face an uphill battle in Iran, but the tide is changing.  This is truly a monumental time for grassroots activism, and you--yes you!--can participate.    To stand in solidarity with the grassroots movement for change in Iran, support the One Million Signatures Campaign—a coalition of women's rights groups calling for gender equality and an end to discrimination. To "Let Iran Know that the Global Community is Monitoring Their Every Move," sign this petition from Amnesty International and Change.org. For more info and the latest updates on the Iranian elections, visit the BBC's website.  They offer up-to-date, digestible news and lots of background to get you up-to-speed.

 

According to The Fair Trade Foundation, worldwide sales of fair trade products grew an impressive 22% in 2008--despite the global economic crisis.  This is an exciting number considering the wide scale destabilization the recession has caused in the developing world.  As Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Foundaton points out (and we whole-heartedly agree): “In the current global economic climate, farmers need Fairtrade more than ever. So it is profoundly reassuring to know that globally, consumers are still wholeheartedly backing a better deal for farmers and workers around the world, enabling them to survive this crisis and continue investing in stronger businesses and a better life for their communities.” The only bad news?  Sweden totally kicked our cheeseburger loving butts.  That’s right, Sweden’s FT growth rate reached an astonishing 75% last year, while the good ‘ol US of A pulled away with a measly 10% growth rate.   Maybe this year we should take a lesson from the Swedes… For the full report, click here.

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