Author Archive

The summer season means travel time for many people, and Fair Traders are no different. Our own Simone Blanchard, Program Officer and Fair Trade Enthusiast in the CRS Atlanta office, is joining our friends from Cooperative Coffees to visit Central America. Simone and her traveling buddies aren’t taking a summer vacation though. They [...]

Read the entry: Three Coffee Countries in Eight Days: CRS Hits the Trail →

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? →

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 →

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 →

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 →

That’s the slogan for this year’s World Fair Trade Day. As a proud sponsor of World Fair Trade Day here in the United States, CRS Fair Trade is proud to support the activities large and small to make the world a bit fairer through participating in economic justice activities.
On the fun side, we are [...]

Read the entry: Isn’t it Time We Made the World Fair? →

The Pope has been visiting, the Fair Trade Federation had its conference, and now we are all gearing up for World Fair Trade Day. Spring has sprung at CRS Fair Trade!
Our friends at TransFair USA have also reminded us that this Mother’s Day falls only one day after World Fair Trade Day [...]

Read the entry: Honor Mom with Fair Trade Flowers →

As Katy and I hurry to clear off our desks before heading to the Fair Trade Federation conference, I almost forgot this week is National Farmworker Awareness week. Luckily a new report, Children in the Fields: An American Problem, from my colleagues at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, jogged my memory and motivated [...]

Read the entry: Justice for Farmworkers, in the United States too →