Town Hall Meeting on Transparency: What would you say?

The Fair Trade Federation is gathering its membership–those companies and organizations 100% committed to Fair Trade–for a conference coming up June 1-3 at American University. I’m going to be joining some CRS partners, Bob Chase of SERRV International, Bill Harris of Cooperative Coffees, as well as Mirian Ortiz, Coordinator of the wonderful Mayaworks Guatemala for a town hall discussion on how Fair Trade creates change.

The idea for the session is to explore some key elements in the Fair Trade model and why they are critical to the changes in the marketplace that Fair Traders are trying to create. My job–in three minutes or less–is to discuss why transparency is a key element, particularly for consumers and partners in the Fair Trade movement. I think I know some of the answer to that question, but I’m wondering why members of the CRS Fair Trade Network and readers like you (and if you aren’t part of the network, please join now!) believe transparency–openness about business practices–is key to commitment to this movement. Do you have a favorite example of how knowing the stories behind products helped you live your values? Are you turned off by the scandals of the corporate world? Let me know why knowing, so to speak, is important to you as you make your daily choices to live in solidarity with farmers and artisans overseas. I’ll gather your impressions and passions and try to share them. Then I’ll report back on the whole conference in a couple weeks…you know, kind of putting transparency and accountability into practice!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 and is filed under 100% Fair Trade, Fair Trade, Fair Trade Federation . Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed.