|
|
...Any
definition of a culture of peace must address
the problem of achieving justice for communities
and individuals who do not have the means
to compete or cope without structured assistance
and compassionate help.
--
Mahnaz Afkhami
|
"Fair
Trade supports some of the most bio-diverse farming
systems in the world. When you visit a Fair Trade
coffee grower's fields, with the forest canopy
overhead and the sound of migratory songbirds
in the air, it feels like you're standing in the
rainforest."
-- Professor Miguel Altieri, Leading expert and
author on agroecology
NAFTA
and GATT have about as much to do with free trade
as the Patriot Act has to do with liberty.
-- Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Presidential
candidate
"It
hit me very early on that something was
terribly wrong, that I would see silos
full of food and supermarkets full of
food, and kids starving. ... In Fair Trade,
we see ourselves as this infinitesimal
part of the world economy. But somebody's
got to c ome up with an alternative model
that says children eating is No. 1."
-- Medea
Benjamin, co-founder, Global Exchange,
and former U.N. nutritionist
|
|
There
is hardly a study in the entire literature which
fails to demonstrate that satisfaction in work
is enhanced or that other generally acknowledged
beneficial consequences accrue from a genuine
increase in workers' decision-making power. Such
consistency of findings, I admit is rare in social
research
-- Paul Blumberg
"It
is very important for you to know that fair trade
leads to better roads, better health and better
lives for farmers not just in Nicaragua, but around
the world."
-- Rosario Castellon, former director of PRODECOOP
"When
people become economically empowered, they gain
political and social power. Many of the groups
that we work with do more than just produce crafts;
they're involved in community development, health
and education. For the women we work with, the
effe ct is even greater. As they gain employment,
they become able to leave abusive situations,
to seek legal assistance, to acquire education,
to become independent. Their work allows them
to be economically significant in the family and
gives them leverage to be considered an equal
."
-- Bob Chase, executive director, SERRV International
"The
fair price is a solution. It has given us the
chance to pay a good price to our farmers. Those
who are not in Fair Trade want to participate.
For us it is a great opportunity. It gives us
hope."
-- Benjamin Cholotío
The
low prices paid to small producers on the national
market mean that the best Mexican products are
exported. Fair Trade makes it possible for small
producers to also receive dignifid prices in the
national market and to not depend exclusively
on export
-- Comercio Justo Me´xico
"The
needs of small farmers, whether they grow coffee
[in the South] or produce [in the North], may
be quite similar. Both groups need better access
to and more control over the market. That can
only happen if consumers use their market power
to vote for fair prices to the grower, better
access to financing for small farmers, and more
environmentally sustainable production."
-- Rink Dickinson, Co-Director, Equal Exchange
The
Equal Exchange warehouse houses organic coffee
from peasant farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico. It houses
watermelons from disadvantaged, black farmers
from Georgia, South Carolina, and other parts
of the south. Both the watermelon and the coffee
farmers have created co-ops to arrange marketing
and give them a chance against larger growers
and processors. The implications of this convergence
between the work of the watermelon farmers, peach
farmers, tea growers, and coffee farmers is immense.
-- Rink Dickinson, Co-Director, Equal Exchange
I
pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the
man or woman who produces the cloth will starve
in the process.
-- Benjamin Harrison
"Fair
trade. Would it not be more logical to label unfair
products?"
-- Loesje
"A
bite of fair Trade chocolate means a lot to farmers
in the South. It opens the doors to development
and gives children access to healthcare, education,
and a decent standard of living."
-- K. Ohemeng-Tinyase, Managing Director of Kuapa
Kokoo cocoa cooperative, Ghana
"Fair
Trade is part of a larger movement about corporate
social responsibility, influenced by the public's
desire to deal with companies that are (committed)
to workplace quality, the environment and employee
well-being."
--Mac McCoy, president, dZi--The Tibet Collection
|
|
"Fair
Trade is a market-based, entrepreneurial
response to business as usual: it helps
third-word farmers developing direct market
access as well as the organizational and
management capacity to add value to their
products and take them directly to the global
market. Direct trade, a fair price, access
to capital and local capacity-building,
which are the core strategies of this model,
have been successfully building farmers'
incomes and self-reliance for more than
50 years."
~ Paul
Rice, TransFair USA
|
|
No
business which depends for existence on
paying less than living wages to its workers
has any right to continue in this country.
By living wages I mean more than a bare
subsistence level --I mean the wages of
decent living.
--Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
Goods
produced under conditions which do not meet
a rudimentary standard to decency should
be regarded as contraband and not allowed
to pollute the channels of international
commerce.
--Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
|
|
"In
our country there was no tradition of fermenting
cocoa. With Fair trade income we were able to
implement a fermentation program to improve the
quality of our cocoa and to convert our production
to certified organic. This improved our position
in the export market. The Fair Trade market is
a very important market for the survival of our
associates."
-- Isidoro de la Rosa, Executive Director of CONACADO
cocoa cooperative, Dominican Republic
"We're
not here at Equal Exchange just to be tools of
farmers, but to explore what it means to be of
service. Business in our society has lost the
notion--if it ever had it--that it should do more
than create wealth and move goods back and forth,
that it should be of service to greater society.
... We learn from the farmers about life's basic
priorities, about getting by with less, about
living in harmony with the earth. They learn from
us about international business, the marketplace,
promotion and fina nce. Our customers hold the
web together. As more take part, the web grows
stronger and we all gain hope from our exchanges.
That's alternative trade."
-- Jonathan Rosenthal, executive director, Equal
Exchange
We
want to begin in working-class neighborhoods.
We want to test the concept there, because our
idea is that fair trade should not just be for
the elites, but for everyone, for the majority,
for the poor people. Quality food for poor people.
Why just quality for the rich? And at an equal
price
-- Victor Sua´rez, Exective Director, the National
Association of Peasant Marketing Enterprises
If
Free Trade has been so good to our standard of
living, then WHY has our largest employer gone
from high union wage paying and benefits GM to
low wage paying benefits skirting Wal-Mart???
-- Barbara Toncheff
Fair
trade benefit many. From farmers in producer countries
to students in a U.S. school studying the environment,
the concept and practice of fair trade connects
producers and consumers in new and powerful ways.
It is the nexus for: meeting both environmental
and economic considerations of indigenous peoples;
re-balancing the trading relationship between
North and South; building a link between U.S.
policy and publics to a larger world community
that is knocking at the door
-- TransFair USA, 2002
"Thanks
to the Fair Trade market, our standard of living
has substantially increased. With your support,
we look forward to a more promising future."
-- Miguel Trigoso, Marketing Manager, APARM coffee
cooperative, Peru
"Thanks
to Fair trade, we will not die of hunger. We will
not lose our land. Our children can attend school.
I want to send thanks to all of the churches that
purchase our coffee. Thanks to you, we have a
seed of hope in our lives."
-- Jose Luis Castillo Vasquez, member of the Equal
Exchange-supported Las Colinas cooperative, El
Salvador, and father of six
"With
Fair Trade we have an incentive to invest in social
programs that benefit producers and the community.
We also receive higher incomes to sustain ourselves.
If it weren't for Fair Trade, we wouldn't exist
as banana producers since the amount we receive
for a box of conventional bananas does not cover
our expenses."
- Edinson Cabana Zapata, co-op member, ASOPROBAN
banana cooperative, Colombia
