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Mankato First Fair Trade Town in Minnesota View this email in your browser Issue No.11, November 6, 2015

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SOUNDS RATHER LIKE FAIR TRADE – in MN

On October 21, 2015 George Boody, Executive Director of the Land Stewardship Project, gave a public lecture on “The Necessity of Sustainable Agriculture for Healthy Communities in Rural Minnesota”. The LSP, a private, non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, was founded in 1982 “to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop healthy communities.” George Boody’s wide-ranging talk will soon be able to be seen at www.mnsu.edu/greencampus.

At the core of all the work of LSP are the values of stewardship, justice and democracy, concepts which, to MAFTTI Chair Paul Renshaw, sounded remarkably close to those of Fair Trade. A conversation afterwards between George and Paul led to an exchange of letters. Part of Paul’s read as follows:

“The principles [of Fair Trade] …. apply everywhere, especially in this globalized world. I found many of them embedded in your presentation on Minnesota agriculture and sustainable rural communities.

Among the triggers for me were:

The quest of LSP to “keep farmers on the land”. That is precisely the motivation for promoting, inter alia, Fair Trade coffee, even when there is no overall shortage in the global market for coffee. Small farmers growing shade-grown coffee using increasingly organic methods in Central America and other places are doing something for the environment and long-term sustainability that sun coffee plantations will never do. The farmers and their families can stay on their land, preserve their culture, contribute to rural sustainability and resist the drift to the cities. You spoke of working with MN farmers in ways that combat the highs and lows of commodity markets. That is precisely the motivation behind the international Fair Trade systems setting a minimum price which is guaranteed when the world price goes below it. A corollary of this, of course, is the need for long-term relationships to develop between producers and buyers that have more of the idea of the “triple bottom line” about them than conventional accounting allows for."

Paul also asked George if the LSP had any connections with the Domestic Fair Trade Association, a 10- year-old North American body supported by a range of different kinds of organizations, from farmers to certifiers. (There are two members in Minnesota-Seward Community Co-op in Minneapolis and Bluff Country Co-op in Winona.)

Here is part of George’s reply:

“Thank you for following up with me after the presentation and sharing comments about the connection to the worldwide fair trade efforts. It is a vitally important and practical way we can collectively take power back from the corporate-controlled marketplace and put people's rights before corporate profits.”

George also mentioned that he is proud to be a member of the Seward Co-op in Minneapolis and “appreciates its Principle-6 efforts to purchase regionally and fairly traded when possible.” He also mentioned two organizations that MAFTTI has had contact with in recent years – the MN Fair Trade Coalition (to which the LSP belongs), and Peace Coffee.

He concluded – “In past years I participated in some national meetings related to Fair Trade with many of the members of DFTA. Although we are not now members, LSP does work with a number of its members through other groups such as the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.”

Paul comments – “In principle MAFTTI should address issues of local food production from a Fair Trade perspective, but where are the resources? Perhaps some other groups in the Mankato area could get involved with the DFTA.”

WORLD FAIR TRADE ORGANIZATION

MAFTTI has not really given the WFTO very much profile so far. Recent developments within this global network suggest that now is the time. Some well-known Fair Trade names in the USA are WFTO members - Cooperative Coffees, Dr. Bronner’s, Equal Exchange, Fair Trade Federation, Global Crafts, SERRV, Ten Thousand Villages.

The World Fair Trade Organization has some 360 member organizations and 40 individual associates in more than 70 countries spread across five continents. They all share a 100% commitment to Fair Trade. The WFTO’s name dates only from 2008. The International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT) was its precursor, established in 1989. Though originally an initiative in the Global North, producers from the South have been full members since 1991.

In its own words “WFTO aims to improve the livelihoods of marginalised producers and workers, especially in the South. We strive to change unfair structures of international trade, mainly by means of Fair Trade, to improve and coordinate the co-operation of our member organisations and to promote the interests of and provide services to our member organisations and individuals.”

As a global network, WFTO is supported by five regional branches located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific (including North America and Oceania). file. Head offices are in Culemborg, Netherlands.

The WFTO website provides both words and pictures that convey its history. It also lays out the WFTO’s governing ‘10 Principles of Fair Trade’ , which led in 2009 to its cooperation with Fairtrade International (known then as FLO) in publishing ‘The Charter of Fair Trade Principles’ as a single international reference point for Fair Trade. The Charter provides a concise explanation of Fair Trade principles and the two main routes (product certification and organizational commitment) by which these principles can be implemented.

2014 was an important year for WFTO in that a new Fair Trade Standard and Guarantee System for its members began to be implemented as a means of allowing them to prove their identity as Fair Trade Organizations and their compliance with WFTO principles. As WFTO President Rudi Dalvai said in the WFTO Annual Report for 2014. “At that time [of the founding of IFAT] Fair Trade was still a niche market mainly known to committed people. There was no need for FTOs to promote a common identity at national or international level. This has changed. Now there are more and more organisations out in the market which claim to practice Fair Trade and, in the absence of any public regulation of this sector, anybody can make such claim, independently from the principles and values which are behind this claim. The need to be recognized as a Fair Trade Organisation, which has small and marginalised producers as its main target group, and which sticks still to the initial Fair Trade values, has become essential for us.” WFTO holds a biennial conference. The last was in May, 2015 in Milan, Italy. The report includes some short videos. One features Safia Minney (People Tree UK) talking about the value of the WFTO Guarantee System. Another has some comments by Fr. Franz Van Der Hoff Boersma, one of the key instigators of Fair Trade certification 25 years ago, on the current state of the movement as he sees it.

They and others are well worth looking at and will take no time.

The Sustainable Development Goals – through the eyes of a Fair Trade producer

In February 2014 Marike de Pena was elected Chair of the Board of Fairtrade International, one of the key hubs of the global Fair Trade system. Director of Banelino, a 400-member Fairtrade banana cooperative in the Dominican Republic, she is the first Fairtrade producer to hold the position.

Born in Holland, Marike has lived and worked in the DR for more than 25 years. Prior to co-founding Banelino in 1996, she worked for the Dominican Land Reform Institute supporting small farmers as they developed sustainable agricultural practices. She also is current Chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Producer Organizations (CLAC), the Fairtrade Producer Network representing Latin American and Caribbean farmers and workers.

Commenting on her election she said,

“It’s a clear sign of growing producer empowerment in the Fairtrade system. We in Fairtrade have a unique structure that gives us the opportunity to join our strengths – producers, workers, national Fairtrade organizations and civil society – to make Fairtrade grow in impact,” said de Peña. “The ‘producer driven’ concept is more than just some words, it is part of our daily mission, producers and workers participate actively in the governance of the Fairtrade system.”

“I believe this is a sign to the world that Fairtrade is more than just products and markets, it’s a movement of dedicated people working together to change the rules of trade and enable producers and workers to decide on their own future.”

The Sustainable Development Goals, agreed at the UN September 25-27, featured in MAFTTI’s October Newsletter. Marike is in a good position to explain their importance to Fair Trade producers, as she does here. CHRISTMAS IS COMING

Fair Trade gifts will be on sale at these locations:

First Presbyterian Church River Hills Mall, Mankato Sunday, November 22 11:00-12:15 Broad/Hickory Streets, Mankato Ten Thousand Villages

First Congregational/UCC Sunday, December 6 & 13 10:30-12:00 noon 150 Stadium Court, Mankato (Stadium Road/Stoltzmann Road) A Ten Thousand Villages kiosk organized by Joyce Bucklin (Mountain Lake) will be in place for all Ten Thousand Villages, SERRV, the hours that the Mall opens between Bead for Life Thanksgiving and Christmas.

St. John’s Episcopal Church This venture is building on the success of patronage in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The MAFTTI Sunday, December 6 network provided a lot of the volunteer staffing 9:00-10:15; 11:30-12:15 and plans to do so again – with your help. Broad/Warren Streets, Mankato If you are interested and have time to give Ten Thousand Villages, Bead for Life please contact Jane Dow on 507-625-5092 or [email protected]. It would be great if The Fair Emporium you could offer a 4-hour stint or two, but Jane is See website for opening hours happy to negotiate. A minimum of two hours at a www.thefairemporium.com time would be very helpful. 213 Minnesota Avenue, St.Peter Ten Thousand Villages, SERRV and other suppliers. GUATEMALA

Our special focus on Guatemala on October 8 was a great success, not merely in terms of attendance (70) or program (with Catholic and Congregational Church inputs) but also in the Guatemalan food provided as donations-in-kind.

The recipes of the dishes are, by popular demand, now on the MAFTTI website here.

CATCHING UP WITH MAFTTI

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

Just as this Newsletter was being completed the text of the controversial and far-reaching TPP trade and investment agreement was released after months of secret negotiation. MAFTTI is not set up to take a view on it but encourages interest in the Congressional debate that will unfold. MAFTTI’s priority is support for small farmers and other producers in the Global South. Their voice was consistently lacking in a protracted negotiating process involving 12 Pacific Rim countries where the proceedings were dominated by corporate interests.

The Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition has been actively following these negotiations as far as circumstances have allowed. The MNFTC is a members of the Citizens’ Trade Campaign, a broad and diverse national coalition of environmental, labor, consumer, family farm, religious, and other civil society groups founded in 1992 to oppose the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Watch out for media analysis of the pros and cons of the TPP and initiatives from the CTC and other concerned bodies that encourage representations to members of Congress.

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