So, I have been enveloping myself in the past two days with recent articles and information about organic and fair trade practices, where they are at and where they are going. I am pleased to say that it seems the concept of fair trade is more on the rise than I had imagined, I get several alerts a day about a new article. I am not so pleased to realize that almost every article I get (say 4 out of 5) is from the UK, who yet again seem to be light years ahead of us Americans on such important issues. If you have ever been to Europe perhaps you got the same feeling I did. This feeling that the world you came from in the United States was indulgent, chaotic and a bit shallow compared to the seemingly simple lifestyles of those who are living and thriving well in European cities. There are so many little things I noticed were done differently, but most importantly what seemed to be different was the consciousness. The lack of fear driven purchasing, swirling time entrapment and most importantly for me the emphasis on maintaining quality over quantity. I am sure I could be considered to be stereotyping beyond borders here, however, I do feel that generally this is the overall shared perspectives of most Europeans. This is perhaps why they giggle and gawk at us Americans, it's like watching a child respond to the world, full of nothing but desire and inexperience. I do understand the age difference in our cultures could play a significant role, but I don't know.
Most recently, I read a letter written by a women from the town of Torrington requesting that her town be considered a Fair Trade town. According to the letter there are two other towns that have now recieved that label, officially and have done so by fulfilling certain requirements that Torrington has also fulfilled. Taken from the letter:
To be an official Fair Trade town, you have to meet a number of criteria. These are:
1, To have an active steering group, promoting and developing Fair Trade locally;
2, For a number of businesses, churches and organisations to be using fairly traded products in their staff rooms, offices and at events;
3, For a number of shops to be selling fairly traded goods;
4, For a number of cafes and restaurants to be serving fairly traded refreshments; and
5, For the local council to be using fairly traded tea and coffee and serving fairly traded tea and coffee and serving it at their events.
So, it seems that there are 5 standard criteria, that can very easily be met to allow a town or city consideration for Fair Trade Town status in the UK.
Research tells me that the town of Torrington or Great Torrington of Devon, has a current population of approximately 60,000 people. The author of the letter claims that there is plenty of each one of the criteria taking place in this town. Plenty of restaurants, businesses, churches, retailers and a council dedicated to Fair Trade and supporting themselves and their economy this way.
Here in Lafayette, Louisiana, which boasts an in-city limit population of 110, 000 people we are lucky to be finding fair trade coffee in our most popular grocery stores (including SAMS, Albertsons, SuperOne Foods) and a few health food stores which only sell organic and is often relative to fair trade. As for finding a restaurant, cafe, clothing retailer, or group so far that has taken on fairly traded products as a mission and business, it is yet to be seen. Although we are currently working on establishing this in our own way, our resources only go as far as our internet retail business. Our bigger vision is to take our business "out onto the streets," so to speak and have a physical store of some sort that supports our values and mission with fair trade.
My suggestion to my husband is that we buy up a few of the unused (beautiful) buildings in our city's downtown area and create a Fair Trade Alley. To have shops that are dedicated to fairly traded products as well as some of our organic products, in order to make the items more accessible to our community while educating them about conscious consumerism. Problem is that this would take lots of money, at the very least...
See, I do not think that it does not exist here because people resist it, I believe it is because we are not as resourceful in nature. I believe that if only we can create a voice in each of our towns and cities that gathers others with similar morals and values that we can learn and grow together through exposure and experience and potentially change the world. At least in our little corner of it and hopefully be the inspiration that Torrington was for me.
My theory is that time will tell. Each day I am amazed at the evidence that supports our goals to live our lives in accordance with our beliefs in equality and health. So far, in a short amount of time we have grown in knowledge, business and spirit through our endeavors and feel nothing less than awesomely motivated to keep on truckin'. My hope is, although we may not be as quick as the UK and some other countries in developing our humanitarism within our communties that we are as successful in our own time. And may we have faith in the time it takes.
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