World Fair Trade Day talk

Yesterday was World Fair Trade Day. The multiplicity of organizations and groups involved in the fair trade movement globally throw events and campaigns to increase awareness of fair trade initiatives. The Mercy Corps Action Center in downtown Manhattan hosted a full day of events and numerous vendors with the help of The Fair Trade Resource Network and The New York City Fair Trade Coalition. I was invited to speak about the two fair trade certified farming cooperatives I’ve worked with.

I opened my talk with a definition of fair trade, as approved by F.I.N.E.:

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations (backed by consumers) are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.

I went on to explain, with the help of my photographs, the histories of Santa Anita La Union in Guatemala and Sanjukta Vikas Cooperative in Darjeeling, India.

The question & answer portion of the presentation ran almost as long as the presentation itself.  I took many questions about how fair trade works as a certification system, which can be extremely complicated, as one might expect with any international trade system. Because my experience involves deep knowledge of a few communities, I can speak about fair trade on a granular level that is often glossed over when promoting fair trade to new audiences in the global North. I use this intimate knowledge to impress that while fair trade is primarily an economic justice system, the organization and engagement that fair trade certification requires of the communities enables them to implement that organizing toward social justice measures, from securing government aid for war time injuries to establishing schools in their communities.  A number of people said that they appreciated having such specific examples of how fair trade factors into the historical and political situations of the communities.

It was great to get so many engaging and critical questions. By the end of the presentation and lively question & answer session, the audience grasped the social justice implication of fair trade as outlined in F.I.N.E.’s definition and as experienced by Santa Anita La Union and Sanjukta Vikas Cooperative.

Thanks Kate Amanna for inviting me to speak and Mercy Corps for hosting the event.