FTRN UPDATE, February 2009

9TH FAIR TRADE TOWN IN U.S. DECLARED: BALLSTON SPA, NY Fair Trade has yet another active home in the U.S. Ballston Spa, NY, has joined Media, PA; Brattleboro, VT; Milwaukee, WI; Amherst, MA; Taos, NM; Northampton, MA; San Francisco, CA; and Montclair, NJ, as committed locales advancing Fair Trade. Fair Trade Towns are initiatives brought about by local and grassroots efforts in towns across the United States (and the world) to grow the Fair Trade movement. The designation means that Fair Trade items are readily available throughout the town -- sold at shops and served at different institutions -- and there are strong educational efforts to inform the public about the Fair Trade movement. For example, Fair Trade Town activists play leading roles in organizing World Fair Trade Day events. For WFTD this coming May 9th, they are already planning coffee breaks, soccer games, chocolate tastings, and drum circles-all with Fair Trade materials. To learn about scores of other local Fair Trade Town efforts, or to start your own, visit Fair Trade Towns.

NEW JOURNAL OF FAIR TRADE STUDIES COMING SOON!

The Victoria Press seeks articles related to Fair Trade studies for its inaugural issue of the academic Journal of Fair Trade Studies, appearing in April 2009. This journal will be issued in April and October each year and will be the first of its kind published in the United States. Articles are invited from scholars and graduate students from around the world which address Fair Trade and related topics such as rural development, international trade, globalization, community participation, women's empowerment, economic justice, child labor, agroecology, rural sociology, sustainability, local markets, trade justice, debt relief, environmental conservation and more. The Journal of Fair Trade Studies will encourage a scholarly treatment of Fair Trade which supports the idea that Fair Trade combats and challenges conventional global trade practices. This journal will be international in scope and will support and encourage the representation of producer communities, Fair Trade organizations and local, regional, national and international leaders in fair trade. Visit Journal of Fair Trade Studies for details.

OBAMA CALLS FOR SUPPORTING SOME KEY PRINCIPLES OF FAIR TRADE

During an Inauguration that swept the country with inspiration, hope and emotions, President Barack Obama highlighted several ideals that guide the Fair Trade movement. The following three excerpts from his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2009, powerfully ask us all to help the poor in other countries find opportunities through mutual fairness and social responsibility:
"The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good..."
"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds..."
"Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends-honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism-these things are old. These things are true. They have been quiet forces of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility-a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world..."

FAIR TRADE HELPS CHILDREN FIND LOVE

One particular artisan family in Nepal, Nanda and her husband Ganesh, have used Fair Trade to uplift themselves as well as many disadvantaged children. The couple makes traditional Nepali drums and other instruments that MacroSun International has sold both retail and wholesale for years. Nanda had herself come from an extraordinarily painful childhood, and had always had the vision to help children who faced challenges like she faced as a child - without parents or educational opportunity. She shared this vision with friends working with MacroSun in the U.S. This vision ultimately led to the creation of "Mitrata-Nepal" ("mitrata" means "friendship" in Nepali). Mitrata has, for nearly ten years, provided food, shelter, education, and perhaps most importantly, a loving home for nearly 100 children in and around the Kathmandu Valley. Fair Trade helped transform Nanda's vision into reality. You can find learn more about the organization at Mitrata.