Fair Trade Your Home and Win

The clocks have sprung forward, the bulbs are sprouting through the muddy earth, and the March equinox is just days away. It must mean spring-time, and for me that means getting ready for World Fair Trade Day. Globally the day is celebrated in dozens of countries, and here in the United States we look to the Fair Trade Resource Network for organizing help. Check out their website for a whole tool kit full of ideas for planning celebratory events and details about entering WFTD contests.

I have my eye on the "Most Fair Trade product types" at home contest. Since I've been participating in Fair Trade for 10 years now, I've had many chances to bring Fair Trade into my home. Thank goodness for the talent and creativity of artisans and designers. I often joke that if it weren't for Fair Trade, I'd have no sense of style at all.

I must be on to something because a couple of months ago when I moved in with my partner she seemed pretty pleased with my offerings (although we do still battle over coffee brands). As I get to meet the new neighbors, there is nothing like pointing to a product and telling its story to help me explain what I do for a living. Here are some of the items on display:

* Haitian wall decor sold through Global Exchange
* Floor rug certified child labor free by Goodweave
* Dark chocolate from Equal Exchange
* Larry's Beans "Frankie's Blend" from Sumatra
* Business blazer from Nepal and shirts from Fair Indigo
* Curtains from Marketplace India
* Soap dish and bathroom mirror from Ten Thousand Villages, not to mention garden bird bath, and dining room place mats, jewelry and stationery. I can get most of my home products from Villages because I am fortunate to have not one but three stores in a 10 mile radius of my house.

With that kind of advantage, I probably shouldn't be in the running for this contest, but I hope the list gives you just a glimpse of how easy it is to have a Fair Trade home. As FTRN says, "Fair Trade is about so much more than coffee and tea. By integrating Fair Trade throughout our homes, we maximize the benefits for producers around the world." For a list of Fair Trade companies selling household goods and gifts, visit the Fair Trade Federation. If you are hankering for some coffee or tea, or any other food product, check out TransFair USA for a list of places to buy in your neighborhood.

As a homeowner, I'm facing some daunting repairs and the complexities of a new suburban lifestyle. Yet through Fair Trade I can stop and celebrate some of the people who grow my food and produce my goods, on May 8th and everyday.

I Broke Up With My Bank

Ever since the global financial system almost collapsed, the good folks at Green America have been reminding us of the merits of investing in community banks and credit unions. I have been a credit union member for awhile, but had found some of their services inconvenient so just kept a small account as an act of solidarity. But I did my daily transactions with Bank of America. Green America's "Break Up With Your Bank" campaign convinced me not to put my resources in the hands of businesses who are making the most of Wall Street bailouts and legitimizing mind-boggling corporate bonuses. For the record the Dupont Circle tellers in DC are very nice and professional. But I want my money to help non-profits that share my values and vision of economic justice. It seems worth it to walk a little farther to find an ATM now.

I got help identifying a credit union in my new neighborhood through the Move Your Money website. I learned of their resources from their great You Tube Video at the holiday season where they used the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" to depict how banking can help or harm communities. Just in time for St. Valentine's day they have a new video and if you are the creative type, a contest to go with it. Check it out.

The tune is catchy, for sure, and the over-riding message even more compelling: "Community banks [and credit unions] are typically more conservative about how they manage their money, they’re more closely connected to the people and businesses who live near them, and they’re more inclined to make loans they know will get paid back. In other words, they have the values that more people would want banks to have."

Maybe Valentine's Day is time to shift your financial resources, just as you do with fair trade purchases, to institutions you love. I did it this weekend, and it took about an hour in all. And I still have time for a romantic dinner!

Come to Boston and Share Your Views...about Fair Trade

The news these days is full of analysis about the discontent of the people of Massachusetts. Domestic politics aside, that great state will also be the scene of international debate and dialogue regarding challenges and celebrations in the Fair Trade movement. The Fair Trade Futures conference will be held September 10-12, 2010, and NOW is the time for you to submit ideas for conference workshops, town halls, seminars and so forth.

To make sure the conference--which I am helping lead as a representative of Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade--is a success, consumers and advocates will need to lend your voices. Do you have a unique experience with Fair Trade that you want to share? Are you concerned about some of the weaknesses, or even myths, in the movement and you want to pull back the curtain? Are you excited by the possibilities of the movement and want to deepen your commitment? To create a professional, lively, fun, inclusive, and practical atmosphere, the conference needs to address just these types of queries and we need a broad and new set of voices.

The deadline for proposals is February 10. For a set of guidelines, please contact Rachel Bradburd whose email is conference "at" fairtradefederation.org. Or give her a call at (202) 636-3547.

All sessions are expected to range between 60-90 minutes in length and be engaging and interactive. While only very limited funding is available to offset travel expenses, some scholarships will be offered to support the attendance of registered students and producers. If chosen to present, presenters will receive a complimentary registration for the event.

Speaking of registration, even if you don't want to present, please plan to attend! Early bird registration discounts end March 31. I look forward to seeing you there.

Haiti Relief Recommendations

As we emerge from the shock of Haiti's latest tragedy and try to find ways to be helpful in the midst of heart breaking devastatip, people are asking me for recommendations of relief organizations to support. I know some of the people working on the ground in Haiti for Catholic Relief Services. I can assure you that not only has our immediate reaction been full force but that we will also remain committed to Haiti as it goes through a long period of recovery. Call 1-877-HELP-CRS
To send a check:
Catholic Relief Services
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090
Memo portion of check: Haiti Earthquake

I am also a long-time fan of Oxfam.

Thank you for wanting to help. It is pretty obvious that in times of tremendous emergency, "conscious consumerism" is not want artisans and farmers immediately need. Once the people of Haiti start to recover, supporting through social enterprise will be an important next step. For now, let's try to give what we can.

Trading in my dryer sheets in 2010

Yesterday a colleague irked me a bit. We were picking our way through a snowy sidewalk, after departing a commuter train between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland. I was trying to convince him to join a carpool with me in 2010. After four years of 90 minute commutes (in one direction) and to celebrate my new home, I am trying to find a way to drive to work that is environmentally friendly. From my time in a simplicity group and by rubbing shoulders with the green crowd in the Fair Trade movement, I am acutely aware that car driving is a particularly bad habit to get into.

Alas, I am not such a good recruiter, and it looks like come January I will be a lone driver. I told my colleague that I plan to stop drying my clothes as one big move to offset my carbon emissions. The popular home appliance actually turns out to be quite an energy sucker. My colleague laughed out loud. Not a belly laugh but a punchy "HA!," followed up with a comment something along the lines of "trying to rationalize your way onto the beltway, eh?"

It seemed like a mini version of the what might have been the tensions behind two weeks of the Copenhagen struggles. Two people agree that driving 70 miles round trip is a bad thing (or 193 countries agreed that climate change is a reality). But how to confront it was open to much debate (reduce output, switch technologies) and a bit of finger pointing (your country goes first with goals and commitments!). By the time we reached our office lobby a shrugged resignation: you do your thing, I do mine. (See you in Spain this summer!)

My in-box is filled with "Last Minute Fair Trade Shopping" advertisements, and I know that some of you are still scurrying around trying to find fair, green, and simple gifts. Occasionally you are going to yield to time pressure and pop into a department store. Or you are going to let your hand go toward an irresistible bargain on the shelf from uncertain locations during tight times. I join you in these less-than-perfect compromises. I feel like I am in good company and I look forward to more learning and decision making in the new year.

(The photo above is of my sister, mom, and me last Christmas.)

Join the Party: Fair Trade White House Gift Guide

I don't want to give too much away to loved ones, but as I undertake holiday shopping today my best source is the Fair Trade White House holiday gift guide.

I've blogged before about the nonpartisan, grassroots invitation to Mrs. Obama that she make the White House a Fair Trade Home. Most of the businesses involved have put together a guide of some of their most popular products to help the First Family and you shop fairly. Using fun software, you can even flip the pages of guide virtually (this is way beyond scrolling through a boring PDF). Think of it as a paperless green effort too.

Good luck with your shopping (modest and conscious though we want it to be!) and don't forget to sign the petition and join the Facebook fan page to encourage Mrs. Obama to bring the justice of Fair Trade into her home. Maybe she'll make it a New Year's Resolution?

The Focus of Holiday Shopping

For the past few months I've been honored to be a lead blogger for the Fair Trade Resource Network. Here's a slightly modified last entry for them, with a big thank you to readers of this blog too!

Part of my daily routine is to read from inspirational sources. Currently I am revisiting Simple Abundance, a daybook I received as a gift about a decade ago. A recent reflection included,

“At this time of year our conscious attention often turns to what we don’t have rather than what we do—and for a very good reason. The season of non-stop shopping has arrived. [After Thanksgiving] the race to get ready for the next round of holidays begins. No sooner have we celebrated the season of plenty then, with the advent of the first official days of [holiday] shopping, we enter…frenetic weeks of looking, finding, buying, and ordering—but not for ourselves. We feel overwhelmed by a season of lack….

Before we head to the mall, it would do our souls good to have a reality check, in the form, not only of counting our blessings, but of focusing on them. Money is going to have to buy a lot in the next few weeks, but it can’t buy the gifts that count the most: good health, a loving and supportive [relationship], healthy [children and loved ones], the fulfillment of creative expression, and inner peace. We forget this, not because we’re ungrateful louts, but because we get distracted by the razzamatazz of real life. Now is the time to remember….”
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

The “razzamatazz” of this year makes me eager for the holidays to fly by so 2010 can get here. The illnesses of elderly relatives, the purchase of a new home and the resulting shift from an urban to suburban lifestyle, a global economic crisis impacting my day job and the Fair Trade movement I love—all are my own special type of 2009 distractions and reasons for dread as I look at my holiday list and check it twice.

Yet this week, I have received cheerful greetings from a friend with the World Food Program who narrowly escaped a kidnapping in Pakistan. Another friend in Sudan wryly reported that his humanitarian service includes sleeping in tool sheds and having only a towel to provide warmth in the cool night air.

Definitely this is the time to count my blessings and to recommit myself to a season of more than just making it through the shopping process. I’ll start by offering a word of thanks to you the reader-as-shopper.

If you are visiting this site, you are probably already doing your best to make plenty of Fair Trade holiday purchases. You are building a just marketplace gift by gift. You’ll likely offer educational pointers on economic justice to relatives and friends while they unwrap your offerings. You do so because you recall that across the world there are many who can hardly remember good health, love, companionship, freedom, peace. You are taking small actions in a big, complex world to alter that reality for others.

Fair Traders like you make holiday shopping worth a lot of focus. Thanks for motivating me.