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Category: Fair Trade Connections
Fair Trade is connected to all issues: environmental, social, economic, health, spiritual…. This part of the blog explores these interconnections and attempts to help us see how actions in one area connect to and effect all others.
Healdsburg may become region’s first ‘Fair Trade’ town
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Denise, owner of Ganesh Himal Trading, with Kim and Gretchen from One World Fair Trade Here is a reprint of an article about a fair trade town in California. Featured in the article is one of our fabulous customers, One World Fair Trade! Denise just got back from a trip down south where she was able to meet up with them and see their beautiful store.
Healdsburg could become the first “Fair Trade Town” in Sonoma County, part of an effort to promote fair labor practices and decent work environments in the production of imported food and goods.
Healdsburg City Council members this week expressed unanimous support for a resolution in support of the designation, which is intended to promote a fair wage and safe and healthy working conditions.
The idea is to make consumers more aware of the products they buy, avoid supply chains that rely on child labor and human trafficking, and guarantee “fair wages” to farmers and artisans.
“I love the mission, the positive education,” Councilman Jim Wood told the fair trade activists who made a presentation to the City Council.
“You encourage people to think about what they’re purchasing — how it was made, how it was grown,” he said.
To be designated a Fair Trade Town, a community must have one business per 5,000 residents that carries at least two fair trade items.
The goods typically are certified by a fair trade federation and might include commodities such as coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas, as well as jewelry and apparel.
Healdsburg more than meets the minimum requirements, since 10 stores in town currently sell two or more fair trade products.
Among those are Safeway, Big John’s Market, Shelton’s Natural Foods Market, Copperfield’s Books and some smaller coffee shops and stores.
The most high-profile store, One World Fair Trade, which faces the Healdsburg Plaza, sells nothing but fair trade items.
“We have thousands of products from 38 different countries,” said the owner Ray Ballestero. He sells crafts, jewelry, home decor and apparel and is a main proponent for putting Healdsburg on the fair trade map.
Ballestero said the wholesalers who provide him with merchandise are members of fair trade organizations that have protocols that ensure an item is produced equitably.
He said wages paid the foreign workers generally are four times the minimum wage in the country of origin. That means fair trade goods are likely to be more expensive. A pound of fair trade coffee for instance, might cost $14, versus $12 for non-certified.
Some critics have dismissed Fair Trade as essentially a marketing ploy that benefits retailers more than Third World farmers and workers.
But advocates like Ballestero argue that buying such products helps alleviate poverty, along with achieving other goals, including environmental sustainability, access to education and health care.
“We can make a decision with our dollars whether it’s important to support that cause,” he said.
He added that the Fair Trade Town designation will not mean that merchants in Healdsburg need go through a membership process like he’s done to certify their entire store is fair trade.
“Anybody can carry a fair trade product if they choose to,” he said. “We want to provide a platform for awareness.”
The movement gained momentum in Europe. To date in the United States, there are 21 cities designated Fair Trade Towns. A dozen are in the process, including Calistoga, according to a report prepared by Healdsburg officials.
Healdsburg would be the fourth Fair Trade Town in California.
“It’s a very worthwhile endeavor,” said City Councilman Gary Plass, who like his colleagues decided to wait at least until the next council meeting in September to act on the fair trade practices resolution.
“I’d like to make sure there are no lingering questions by some of our retailers,” he said.
By CLARK MASON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]Promote Peace Through Fair Trade
In Eli Bhatt’s article below she asks us to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela and to recognize, as he did that “by serving others, we actually fulfil our own humanity”. Fair Trade is the perfect example of how we can, as Eli advocates, put peace into practice in our own lives. Fair Trade is what Eli Bhatt talks about in this article. It’s about “strengthening families, work-places and communities that give us strong foundations, on which equal societies are built” and so much more.
At Ganesh Himal Trading we have supported the Girl Child Education Fund at the Association for Craft Producers for many years. Our goal has been to empower the women producers we work with to keep their girl children in school. We believe that educated girls are fundamental to creating strong, sustainable communities. We work hard every day to bring you beautiful, functional, affordable fair trade products that bring strength and empowerment to those who produce them as well as to bring you the opportunity to practice peace through your purchases. Enjoy the article below and Happy Mandala Day!
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Girl Child Education Fund recipient PEACE BY PRACTICE: Mandela Day 2011
By Eli Bhatt, July 15, 2011 www.theelders.org
To me, Nelson Mandela is a supreme symbol of freedom’s struggle. Next week, on 18 July, he will celebrate his 93rd birthday, a day that around the world people now recognise as ‘Mandela Day’.
Let us take this opportunity to reflect on the life of a man we have come to know and respect as a great leader, one who sacrificed his own freedom for the freedom of his people. How best do we honour his achievements? What can we do to live up to Madiba’s example?
Looking for a solution
It is often said that the problems facing our world are too overwhelming or intractable – that you find endless conflict, injustice and poverty.
I agree that if you want to fix the world’s problems, you have a mighty task. In my own country, India, the scale of the poverty we see is enough to break your heart. After decades of independence, freedom has still not come to every citizen – discrimination has taken new forms, and the poorest of the poor live on the margins, the invisible engine of our so-called ‘Tiger economy’.
When we see such suffering, it is natural to wish to solve everything at once. We turn to our governments for a solution, and feel frustrated when they fail to act. But I have never been one to argue that governments have all the answers.
Change is up to us
Our greatest source of strength is right under our noses; the families, work-places and communities that give us strong foundations, on which equal societies are built.
Thinking local, we can turn power upside down. In my work with Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), I have seen some of the poorest, most vulnerable women transform their lives and the communities they live in. From being home-based workers, landless labourers or illiterate food vendors they have claimed their rights and have become the owners of their own resources, the beneficiaries of their own land. They meet resistance from the authorities at every stage but they stand firm, together, saying “We are poor, but so many!”
I believe strongly that to bring widespread change, we must first make that change ourselves. Another great teacher, Mahatma Gandhi, imagined this as ripples in water, small circles of change that grow ever wider. Our actions have an impact we may never even see.
Peace by practice
Rather than find yourself immobilised by the scale of the world’s problems, look around you. Even when a problem is right under your nose, it is easy to ignore it – we curse fate, blame tradition or say “it’s God’s will.”
But you will not have to search far before you find people who are hungry, lonely, downtrodden, persecuted – sometimes we just need a reason to reach out to them.
When Nelson Mandela founded The Elders, he invoked the idea of ubuntu: that we are human only through the humanity of others. What he describes is more than charity, it is a certain outlook or way of life. By serving others, we actually fulfil our own humanity – these actions are full of faith, a form of prayer.
This Mandela Day – a day for personal, local action – let us spend our energies serving our own communities to honour the 67 years Nelson Mandela dedicated to fighting for a better world.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Fair Trade-“a counter movement to greed and waste and dominance”
“…what we both want to happen—a counter movement to greed and waste and the dominance of corporations—is already happening. It is happening simply because a lot of people have seen things needing to be done and are doing them. They are at work without grants, without official instruction or permission, and mostly unnoticed by the politicians and the news industry. Eventually this movement will have political powers which will be in some ways regrettable. I hope it will have the sense and strength to remain locally oriented, and to resist the simplification and corruption that will come with power”
-Wendell Berry in YES magazine http://www.yesmagazine.org Summer 2011 Issue A Quieter Life Now
Today I just want to acknowledge all of the great local work so many Fair Traders are doing. It is indeed such powerful work and it is as Wendell Berry so beautifully writes,so often “without grants, without official instruction or permission, and mostly unnoticed by the politicians and the news industry” yet the movement is growing and educating and evolving. Everyday we at Ganesh Himal Trading remind ourselves of what an amazing network of people this is. We are grateful that there is such amazing diversity, so many innovative ideas and so many young people engaged. We constantly strive to stay true to the principles of Fair Trade and to stay committed to the small, local change-makers whether they be in Nepal or here in North America. Thanks to all of you for joining us on this journey of hope and change.
The Elders tackle the issue of child marriage
If you aren’t aware of what these wonderful Elders are doing please visit their website www.theelders.org. They have a mission to reach out to those who most need our help and to give a voice to the voiceless. Recently they have been tackling the issue of child marriage. Here is what they have to say:
“Millions of girls who are forced into early marriage are among the most silent, invisible members of our society. They are barely treated as citizens, with no space to speak on their own behalf; they have no choice about school or marriage, no choice about if or when they want children.
The consequences of child marriage are multifaceted. Young brides are often pressured to prove their fertility before they are physically ready and this presents real danger: the leading cause of death in developing countries for girls aged 15-19 years old is childbirth. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are also at greater risk of violence and are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than their unmarried counterparts. Very few child brides continue their education.
This month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we brought together 70 people from around the world who are striving to give these girls a voice; courageous women and men working tirelessly to create alternatives for girls to avoid early marriage by organising discussion and debate within their communities.
In the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia the most common age of marriage for girls is 12 – yet attitudes are changing. At the Berhane Hewan project, girls are encouraged to stay in school, know their rights and delay getting married.
By building an international Alliance to end child marriage, we hope to scale up these successes from communities and villages to the regional, national and global level.
Some say that it is not possible to change tradition. But tradition is man-made. Yes, we must be respectful, but we must also have the courage to acknowledge when traditions cause harm. When we give girls a voice, when we recognise their value, we enable them to fulfil their potential and fully contribute to their families and communities.”Ganesh Himal Trading has donated to the Girl Child Education fund at the Association for Craft Producers since the 1990’s. This scholarship program helps the women producers we work with keep their girl children in school. As with The Elders we believe in empowering young women through education and providing meaningful work and economic advancement. We have seen through our Fair Trade work with women in Nepal that when they are given this chance they become leaders in their communities and create societies that no longer condone the subjugation of young women.
Please visit The Elders website www.theelders.org for more information on their great work on behalf of all humanity.