Celebrating FTF Values

As Jackie wrote in a recent post, she will be participating next weekend in the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) conference, which runs from June 1-3 at American University in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, this year’s event is a members-only affair. Since folks won’t be able to wander in and get to know the remarkable people at FTF and the extraordinary Fair Trade community it serves, I thought I might help you get acquainted virtually.

FTF is a trade association comprised of retailers, wholesalers and producer organizations committed to uphold Fair Trade principles and practices in all their trading relationships. It is, in short, home to the “100 percent” Fair Trade community here in the United States. That term — 100 percent — may have a familiar ring, since we at CRS partner exclusively with organizations that are 100 percent committed to Fair Trade. In a few cases, that means working with coffee companies that sell only Fair Trade Certified coffee. But mostly it means working with members of the Fair Trade Federation, who are all Fair Trade, all the time. As of this writing, we have formal partnerships with 14 different FTF members and promote a 15th (Divine Chocolate) through our Chocolate Program. We are currently in discussions with other FTF members about new partnerships that would push this number closer to 20.

What’s so great about the “100 percenters” in the FTF community? For me, it is that their commitment to Fair Trade principles is so radical and so complete. Some of the major corporate entrants in the Fair Trade market may sell one or two Fair Trade Certified products, but this marginal commitment does not require these companies to move in any fundamental way toward more equity in the rest of their operations. It is just business-as-usual, with a side order of Fair Trade. For FTF members, the core commitments to fairness, equity, mutual understanding, mutual respect, mutual support and mutual benefit mean that there is no way to marginalize Fair Trade — it is baked into the DNA of these organizations. That is pretty radical, and marks a pretty significant departure from the mainstream model of corporate Fair Trade. For CRS, the work of FTF is worthy of celebration and support. That’s why we are pleased to help sponsor this year’s FTF conference with a grant from our Fair Trade Fund, and why we are proud to promote FTF values and FTF to conscious consumers here in the United States.

Below is the ad I created for the FTF conference program. Since only FTF members will see the program next weekend, I wanted to share it here to let you all know how happy we are to be associated with the Fair Trade Federation and so many of its members.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 and is filed under 100% Fair Trade, Events, Fair Trade, Fair Trade Federation, Fair Trade Fund . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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