Archive for 2008

I confess I am behind on my blog postings. But Business Week did my job for me today by posting a story about faith-based commitment to Fair Trade. Check out this news about our friends at Lutheran World Relief and Presbyterian Church USA, as well as how the Adrian Dominican Sisters helped get our [...]

Read the entry: Business Week Reports on Faith-based Fair Trade →

The Economic Justice team just wrapped up another successful CRS Fair Trade Ambassador training near Seattle, WA. Eighteen individuals, alongside CRS-West staff and our program partners, received intensive training and were offered space and time for spiritual reflection, before committing themselves to be word-of-mouth marketing Ambassadors. Our first such training was this time [...]

Read the entry: What is a Word-of-Mouth Ambassador Anyway? →

 The Fair Trade Labeling Organization International (FLO) has increased the price for Fair Trade Coffee! FLO sets the minimum price for Fair Trade coffee and, effective this June, increased the price to $1.25/lb. The price increase is the result of extensive field research into the real costs of sustainable coffee production, which indicated that an adjustment [...]

Read the entry: A Better Price for Coffee Farmers →

Katy and I are putting the final touches on the next edition of our Fair Trader, an electronic newsletter that we hope you subscribe to. Just as we try to post to our blog twice a week, the two of us work to write a newsletter every two months (do you see a pattern here?). [...]

Read the entry: Traveling for Fair Trade and Faith →

And the Fair Trade travels continue! Just because World Fair Trade Day is over doesn’t mean the fun has to end. Last weekend our CRS Southwest office hosted a Fair Trade training in their hometown of San Antonio and invited me down to help out. We were so fortunate to be hosted by the San [...]

Read the entry: Fair Trade San Antonio-Style →

As Jackie hangs out in California this week, today we remember when she trekked across the world to Ghana with the Raise Money Right contest winners. Check out our new video of their trip and visit CRS Ghana programming, the cocoa famers of Kuapa Kokoo and basket weavers at Trade Aid.

Catholic Relief Services requires Flash [...]

Read the entry: Reaching Across the World II →

I’m using the down time of post-World Fair Trade Day events to catch up on some reading, and I see the crew at Oke bananas have launched a new website. With their usual paradigm-busting thinking and quirky humor, these tireless advocates for justice and purveyors of tasty bananas offer readers an introduction into the [...]

Read the entry: Are You Oke? →

The backs have been slapped in congratulations, the hugs of accomplishment exchanged, the coffee mugs rinsed, the crafts packed up, and the soup refrigerated for another day. Such is the satisfying aftermath of a World Fair Trade Day event.

Yesterday I was fortunate to be with the good folks at San Diego Friends of Fair [...]

Read the entry: Reaching Across the World →

During the opening ceremony of the 2008 SCAA in Minneapolis, MN, Bill Fishbein, owner of CRS coffee partner Coffee Exchange and founder of Coffee Kids, made a presentation on the 20th anniversary of Coffee Kids, an organization which helps coffee-growing families improve the quality of their lives. He made the simple but challenging statement that [...]

Read the entry: Specialty Coffee’s Return to Its Roots →

Part of my Sunday morning routine is listening to the Speaking of Faith public radio program. Yesterday I was especially pleased that the guest was Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner who started the Green Belt Movement. The movement began by organizing women who were living the impacts of deforestation through the [...]

Read the entry: Planting the Future →