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!

World Fair Trade Day: How Will You Participate?

Just four days left but it is not too late to participate in World Fair Trade Day this Saturday, May 10. I just placed my order for Fair Trade Certified flowers as a Mother's Day gift for the best mom in the world (okay, I am biased) and I'm finishing up preparations for my trip to California to participate in World Fair Trade Day activities (see more details in the post below). I'm encouraging my colleagues at CRS headquarters in Baltimore to participate in the World's Largest Coffee break by handing out a bunch of postcards produced by my friends at Fair Trade Resource Network. Check FTRN or one of its sponsors out for details on how you can get involved. Really, if you can brew a cup of coffee or tea YOU can participate or maybe even attend an activity in your community.

As this year's theme says: Isn't it Time We Made the World Fair?

REACH ACROSS THE WORLD: Transforming Lives Through Fair Trade

I know technically I am on "blogging vacation" but I'm getting excited about my plans for World Fair Trade Day....

Reach Across the World is the theme of the San Diego Friends of Fair Trade seminar on May 10, 2008. I'm excited to reach across the country to join them in this World Fair Trade Day celebration! Not only will there be information sessions and food tastings, but we'll also participate in the Fair Trade Resource Network's and Fair Trade Towns Initiative's attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest Fair Trade coffee break ever. Then, on Monday and Tuesday, thanks to colleagues at Catholic Relief Services, I'll be headed to Ten Thousand Villages in Pasadena and an event at UCLA.

Great people, great activities. This is why I love Fair Trade! Visit FTRN to find out what's happening in your community this World Fair Trade Day!

A Fair Trader's Work-Life Balance

There is so much great stuff to report from the Fair Trade Federation conference in Austin this weekend: interesting workshops from the likes of Tex Dworkin of Global Exchange and Jacquie McDonald of Ten Thousand Villages Canada, fun and inspiring colleagues too numerous to mention (but I'll give a special shout out to Elizabeth Cole a friend and local Fair Trade activist who took a bunch of us on a tour of Austin one night), and dozens of challenging conversations and strategy sessions. But I'm going to focus on the fact that three people separately talked to me about being "overwhelmed" by all the work that needs doing in the Fair Trade world. Of course, it is not unique to our social movement that we have high aspirations, limited resources, and a ton of problems to confront. But because I had one friend and ally tell me for the second time in recent weeks that he thought I was a candidate for burn-out, I have decided to take the warning signals for myself and those I care about (Fair Traders who uttered the world "overwhelmed" you know who you are).

I'm going to put this blog on hold for awhile. This is hard to do as a compulsive person who wants to answer "just one more email" before I go to bed each night, but one of the things that motivated me about the conference was that I want to give my best to the Fair Trade movement. I can't do that if my brain is foggy and my body tired, not to mention my spirit worn thin. Even though I only post every week or so, I feel stressed out most days that I need to think of useful and fun postings. It is very gratifying to have people tell me in person and read from google analytics that this blog is helpful, but then I worry that I have to be VERY helpful, ALL the time.

This attitude is foolish and, arrogant, I know in my heart. I need to listen more to my heart and less to the nagging soundtracks in my mind. My vision for the world is one in which we all have enough of our basic needs met, and we all have enough opportunity to pursue our higher aspirations. Although my motivations and aspirations are good--I want to help you live a Fair Trade life!--I need to tend to my own basics. I hope to return to this blog when I am restored and refreshed. That will mean--I trust--that I'll have better information and insight to share. And if any of my struggle sounds familiar to you, as you strive for your own vision of a just world, I hope you will consider what you can let go of for awhile. Join me in practicing a work-life balance that is full of the same respect we try to offer farmers and artisans....

Doing My Part to Keep Austin Weird

I'm headed to the Fair Trade Federation conference this week in Austin, TX and I'm pretty excited to be in that town for more than 12 hours (the duration of my last visit!) I know a few Fair Traders there, and I want to experience personally what so many love about a town who started a campaign called "Keep Austin Weird." Before my conference activities begin, on Thursday night at 7:00, I'll be doing a book signing at BookWoman, a feminist bookstore whose independence seems to capture the spirit of a town dedicated to local businesses and unconventional thinking.

If you are in Austin, please join me Thursday night at 7:00. I'd love to hear directly from locals about why Fair Trade resonates with the likes of world-renowned music makers, BBQ cooking, and political action. Also check out the FTF public exhibit on Saturday afternoon at the Wyndham Hotel. Fair Traders are a fun lot and sometimes considered a little weird ourselves, so we should all get to know each other!

Diet Globalization

When I was as an undergraduate I kept having the experience of thinking I had discovered a brilliant new idea, only to find out someone had thought of it already. The notion that what irritates us about somebody else is a trait we don't like in ourselves...Thanks to the psychologist Jung for that. A conception of the universe as balanced between forces of creation and destruction, good and evil...chalk that up to ancient Chinese philosophers of the Tao. My consolation was that I was stumbling upon the work of deep, wise thinkers and philosophers, so I must be on to something.

As I've gotten older I am a little more confident on the validity of my own experience and insights. But I still do like to be verified, which is why I want to call your attention to last week's NY Times article , "A Global Need for Grain that Farmers Can't Fill." It is a good summary of the problems of rising food prices for those struggling in poverty, and offers up a term for a phenomenon that has shaped my advocacy for Fair Trade: "diet globalization."

When I was traveling in Mexico and Central Amercia in 1999-2000, I was very unsettled to find so many people aspiring to have a U.S. lifestyle. Certainly struggling to have basic needs for food and clean water, not to mention clean clothes and decent housing, needs no explanation, of course, but I was a bit horrified to see how U.S. culture and material values of over-consumption were infiltrating small communities and big cities. When I talked to friends or home-stay hosts, it was clear that achieving "The American Dream" was a driving force. As someone traveling, in part, to clear my head of the conspicuous consumption of U.S. life, this was very distressing. I wondered how the Earth could sustain such consumption and how the human heart might be diminished by a focus on achieving more, more, more material possessions.

I encountered Fair Trade among coffee farmers in Chiapas and realized soon that not only was it a way to have those communities organize for economic justice, but Fair Trade was also a way for consumers in the Global North (what I now call the "minority world" thanks to Albert Tucker) to think about and shift their spending habits. I came back to the United States with the desire to help U.S. consumers understand how Fair Trade could help improve their lives and the lives of others, not to mention protect the planet.

It turns out that this notion that the Majority World--those across the globe who want to work their way out of poverty to have a lifestyle similar to the average North American--is called "diet globalization." In the Times article the quote that stuck out for me was:

'“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,”
said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy.
“But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”'

At this moment, world demand for crops central to the typical U.S. diet, as well as biofuels, is driving food prices up for economically poor people and also for the existing middle classes. An irony, of course, is that increasing rates of obesity in the United States is a growing health concern, even as billions worldwide are malnourished. Health issues aside, as average households experience budget crunches, I hope we can take this moment to help people consider if their lifestyles are sustainable for themselves and billions of others on our planet. Do we really want our diet globalized for the rest of the world???

Maybe as prices go up, those of us with middle class lifestyles can consider going on a philosophical diet to change our own and others' expectations of what the proverbial good life is. In addition to using Fair Trade as a tool for taking those steps (which is the topic of Chapter 10 in "A Beginner's Guide) we can check out the simplicity movement and organizations such as "Center for a New American Dream" to help us reconsider our lifestyles and those of others.