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Fair Trade Awareness Month in Ohio
an article by Randy Wilson

Video: Fair Trade

This October marks the 9th annual Fair Trade Awareness month. Here in Ohio, there are several efforts to expand awareness and access to Fair Trade throughout the state. Fair Trade is a way to think globally and act locally, by buying items that we know that they were made by workers and farmers that were paid fairly for their work. Fair Trade means that the people who produce the items aren't being held in slave labor and a fair wage gives them the ability to invest in their communities, to rise up out of poverty and secure a better future for their families. As Ohioans, Fair Trade aligns with our values to respect one another and to value the work of ourselves and others.


New Fair Trade Logo

click on photo to enlarge

On August 9th, 2013, Dayton was certified as the 2nd Fair Trade Town in Ohio! We tracked where Fair Trade items could be found throughout the city, in stores and even schools that sold fair trade chocolate as a fundraiser or churches that served fair trace coffee. We worked with other organizations and businesses to discuss where they could obtain fair trade products to use or sell. In schools, we are working with students and teachers to source fair trade items, like t-shirts for events and have conversations with administrators to change policies. The city of Dayton also passed a great resolution supporting Fair Trade on August 2nd, 2013. You can find more info about our work in Dayton, including our efforts to make Montgomery County the first Fair Trade County at Peace on Fifth or on Fac ebook to see how you can get involved.

In the Cleveland area, there will be an Ohio Fair Trade Expo on October 12, 2013 to bring together community members from throughout the state, vendors and organizations to learn about Fair Trade options and how to increase access to these items locally.

Do you want your town to be a Fair Trade Town? Check out Fair Trade Towns USA.

Look for these logos on Fair Trade items:
New Fair Trade Logo - see above.
Older Fair Trade Logo - following:
Older Fair Trade Logo

You can find more info on Fair Trade here:
Fair Trade.net
Fair Trade Federation

DISCUSSION

Question(s) related to this article:


How can we get to a sustainable, peaceful economy?,

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LATEST READER COMMENT:

Annie Leonard: How to Be More than a Mindful Consumer

The way we make and use stuff is harming the world—and ourselves. To create a system that works, we can't just use our purchasing power. We must turn it into citizen power.

by Annie Leonard
posted Aug 22, 2013

   Stuff activist Annie Leonard: “Consumerism, even when it tries to embrace ‘sustainable’ products, is a set of values that teaches us to define ourselves, communicate our identity, and seek meaning through accumulation of stuff, rather than through our values and activities and our community.” YES! photo by Lane Hartwell.

Since I released "The Story of Stuff" six years ago, the most frequent snarky remark I get from people trying to take me down a notch is about my own stuff: Don't you drive a car? What about your computer and your cellphone? What about your books? (To the last one, I answer that the book was printed on paper made from trash, not trees, but that doesn't stop them from smiling smugly at having exposed me as a materialistic hypocrite. Gotcha!)

Let me say it clearly: I'm neither for nor against stuff. I like stuff if it's well-made, honestly marketed, used for a long time, and at the end of its life recycled in a way that doesn't trash the planet, poison people, or exploit workers. Our stuff should not be artifacts of indulgence and disposability, like toys that are forgotten 15 minutes after the wrapping comes off, but things that are both practical and meaningful. British philosopher William Morris said it best: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Too many T-shirts

The life cycle of a simple cotton T-shirt—worldwide, 4 billion are made, sold, and discarded each year—knits together a chain of seemingly intractable problems, from the elusive definition of sustainable agriculture to the greed and classism of fashion marketing.

The story of a T-shirt not only gives us insight into the complexity of our relationship with even the simplest stuff; it also demonstrates why consumer activism—boycotting or avoiding products that don’t meet our personal standards for sustainability and fairness—will never be enough to bring about real and lasting change. Like a vast Venn diagram covering the entire planet, the environmental and social impacts of cheap T-shirts overlap and intersect on many layers, making it impossible to fix one without addressing the others.

I confess that my T-shirt drawer is so full it's hard to close. . ...more.


This report was posted on October 7, 2013.