TAOS, N.M.—Taos has been designated a fair trade town.
Taos town councilors approved a fair trade resolution in February and enacted guidelines to prepare for the designation, which was announced this week.

“Right now, it’s of a nascent concept here,” said Steve Gloss of Sustaining Cultures, a Taos educational organization that runs a gallery of crafts from around the world.

Fair trade developed as a trading mechanism to deal fairly with people from undeveloped and developing nations. It promotes goods produced in an environmentally sustainable fashion under safe working conditions and for which their producers get a fair price.

In Taos, fair trade items are primarily sold in coffee shops and grocery stores, although some places also offer fair trade clothing and children’s items, said Gloss, who provided the impetus for the town to pass the resolution.

The movement is well known in Europe and is spreading to the United States through groups such as Fair Towns USA. Two organizations—one for agricultural products and a second for items such as crafts—certify fair trade products in the United States, Gloss said.

“We view buying fair and buying local as objectives that are not in competition but are complementary,” said Mayor Bobby F. Duran. For example, people in Taos can buy fair trade coffee wholesale from a local roaster or retail from coffee houses and grocery stores, he said.
To be recognized as a fair trade town, a community must have a local fair trade steering committee that meets regularly; a range of fair trade products available in stores; a local campaign for fair trade; and local groups such as schools, churches and offices that use fair trade products. The designation does not require that all businesses offer fair trade products.

A number of communities around the nation are fair trade towns, such as Media, Pa.; Brattleboro, Vt.; Amherst, Mass., and Milwaukee. More than 300 communities in Europe are recognized as fair trade towns.