World Fare: October 2005 Archives

Plenary Session III (10/1 at 10am): Kimberly Grimes, Made by Hand International

• Fair trade businesses are just like conventional businesses, but they care about all of the players.


• A new concept in business is the ?tri-line?, which encourages the consideration of social, economic and environmental costs (as opposed to the ?bottom line?.)


• ?Cooperation? should replace ?competition.?


• If we leave control in the hands of a few powerful corporations, we are not a democracy.



She expressed concern about a fair trade retailer talking about being in competition with another fair trade retailer, saying there?s no such thing as competition in this work because we?re all working toward the same goal. This idea was met with some criticism during the brief Q&A time. It?s an interesting question--is World Fare in competition with local churches who are selling fair trade coffee to congregants at the wholesale price through their denominations? Interfaith Coffee program? Or are we all just working toward the same goal?

Plenary Session II (10/1 at 10am): Joan Neal, Catholic Relief Services

• All members of the human family deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.


• John Paul II wrote a lot about global solidarity (commitment to the common good of all).

Nothing very new to me in this session (which is perhaps why I didn?t take as many notes as I should have). It was good to see Catholic Relief Services and Lutheran World Relief represented in an official capacity as organizers of the conference. I hope there will be more denominations and faith organizations involved next year?

Plenary Session I (10/1 at 10am): Pedro Haslam, CECOCAFEN Organization, Honduras

• There are approximately 125,000 coffee farmers in Honduras.


• Communities that don?t sell their coffee through fair trade networks are suffering because the family units break up when members are forced to seek work in the cities.


• Fair trade allows self-sufficiency.


• Fair trade farmers invest back into their communities and experience solidarity (not charity) with consumers.


• We do have the power to transform the market.

It was good to hear throughout the conference from producers and people working directly with producers. The firsthand witness offered was incredibly valuable--we need to find more ways to tell these stories.

Haslam said fair trade allows self-sufficiency which, in a way, it does because it empowers people with discretionary income that they can put toward food, education, home improvements, etc. Fair trade is very different in this sense from charity. However, there is also a dependence on people in the U.S., Europe and Canada to make principled purchasing choices. There is a fragile beauty in this symbiotic interconnectedness that is not present when buying choices are made based on cost alone, when the consumer becomes the end of the line instead of one participant in a circle of good.

Keynote Address (10/1 at 9am): Pauline Tiffen, Fair Trade Federation

?If you?re not outraged, you?re not paying attention.?

• The lie we?re being told is that the market is neutral (?free trade?) because no one controls it and therefore it is a force for good.


• Free trade doesn?t really exist because when one person wins, another person has to lose (zero sum).


• We need to focus on cultivating the relationships represented in the marketplace


• The market changes all the time--why? Economic reasons, trends, fashions, regulations/prohibitions, dumping, etc.


• The variety of products we have access to is a myth because they are controlled by so few companies (ex. the ?big 3? in chocolate of Hershey, Nestle and Cadbury)


• Even a representative from Nestle, when confronted by Tiffen, said his company was too small to make a difference.


• A business can respond to changed in the market without compromising values and mission.


• The success of fair trade in having a positive impact proves our interconnectedness and the far-reaching effects (positive or negative) or our everyday actions.


• If we are going to overcome ?the dark side of the force? (big sci-fi fan) we need to be more urgent, set goals, realize ourselves as both consumers and producers, and provide real alternatives for every product.

Tiffen was both hopeful and realistic. Unfortunately, her thoughts on the bias of the market would be perceived as mere rhetoric by those who believe the market is neutral. But I believe she?s right--the market needs guidance. The market does not exempt us from our individual responsibility.

Well, here we are in the grand ballroom of the Holiday Inn in downtown Chicago, which appropriately enough is right across the street from the monolith of consumerism, the Chicago Merchandise Mart. We're gathered with 715 fair trade advocates, consumers, store managers, students, etc. Today's schedule includes two keynote addresses and two workshop sessions, along with a gathering in the evening featuring the Chicago Afrobeat Project.

Last night's opening address was so...satisfying. It's amazing how much it resembled a worship service in an evangelical church, with songs, a "sermon", video clips, powerpoint and lots of clapping. It's interesting that the Church struggles with questions of how to get more young people involved and how to achieve a higher degree of diversity--a large portion of the people in attendance are under 30 and the attendees come from 17 different countries. I'll let you draw the conclusions.

The keynote address last night was given by Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase of Kuapa Kokoo, an organization of 47,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana who united to receive a fair price for their beans. The co-op is also part owner of Divine Chocolate company, which gives them a say in the processing and marketing decisions that directly affect them. The most important statment he made was that "for people in our part of the world, fair trade is the solution to poverty." This is coming from the son of a cocoa farmer who represents small-scale farmers in a developing country. We are--the Church is--obligated to listen.

Well, this morning's activities are about to start. More later...