Local Fair Trade Label to Launch!

The Local Fair Trade Network (LFTN) will celebrate the debut of the Local Fair Trade food label with four events events in Minneapolis and Winona, Minnesota, July 22-25. Produce from four local organic farms have been pilot certified to meet or exceed the standards of the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP).

It all starts from 3:00-6:00 PM, Sunday, July 22 when representatives of LFTN and AJP and Keewaydin Farms co-owner Rufus Hauke will be present at Seward Co-op to talk to customers about Local Fair Trade while co-op staff distribute free samples of food from participating farms. Seward Co-op is located at 2111 East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis.

Next we will head to Bluff Country Co-op from 11:30-1:30 and 4:00-6:00 Monday, July 23 to talk to customers while co-op staff distributes free deli items from participating farms. Shoppers at both co-ops will also have the opportunity to become the “face” of the conscientious consumer in Local Fair Trade marketing materials. Bluff Country Co-op is located at 121 West 2nd Street in downtown Winona.

We will be joined by Bluff Country general manager Liz Heywood and Featherstone Farms owner Jack Hedin at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse, located across the street from Bluff Country Co-op at 162 West 2nd Street, from 6:00-8:00 PM on Tuesday, July 24 for a Local Fair Trade Open House. The public is invited to sample Blue Heron’s delicious specialties featuring Featherstone Farm produce and hear about the movement towards fair trade is American agriculture. The event is free and will feature live local music.

We will wrap up with another Local Fair Trade Open House at the Birchwood Café from 6:00-8:00 PM on Wednesday, July 25. We will be joined by Seward Co-op and Peace Coffee staff, Riverbend Farm owner Greg Reynolds and Brad Conley of Etica Fair Trade Wine. The public is invited to sample the Birchwood’s delicious specialties featuring Riverbend Farms produce, sample Etica Fair Trade wines and Peace Coffee's new blend and hear about the movement towards fair trade in American agriculture. The Birchwood Café is located at 3311 East 25th Street in Minneapolis.

The Local Fair Trade label is an innovative effort to certify social justice in domestic agriculture. Over the last twenty years a system of Fair Trade has been built for imported products like coffee and chocolate. In this system, farmers in the developing world are guaranteed prices for their products that will allow them to stay on their land, educate their children and improve their communities. The Local Fair Trade label pilot project works with two co-op grocery stores and four local farms that practice fairness in their relationships, including sustainable prices for farmers, establishing long-term trading relationships, treating farm workers with dignity and respecting their right to organize. The project aims to create a model that can be replicated regionally and nationally, and can demonstrate that food can be produced in the United States without exploiting farm workers or driving family farms out of business.

The Local Fair Trade Network (LFTN) builds on the foundation created by the organic food, farm worker and cooperative movements, bringing together the growers, sellers and eaters of food to cooperatively build a food system that is just and healthy for everyone. Based in Minneapolis, LFTN focuses its work on the Upper Midwest and aims to be a model for the creation of other regional Fair Trade bodies.

LFTN is partnering in the label pilot with the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP), a non-profit initiative to create fairness and equity in our food system through the development of social justice standards for organic and sustainable agriculture. Project partners Rural Advancement Foundation International—USA, Comité de Apoyo a los Traba-jadores Agrícolas/Farmworker Support Committee, Northeast Organic Farming Association, and Florida Organic Growers/Quality Certification Services are leaders in the fields of sustainable agriculture policy, workers’ rights, community-based food systems, and organic certification.