Articles about LFTN and the Domestic Fair Trade movement

LFTN and the Agricultural Justice Project Partner in the Creation of a Domestic Fair Trade Label
by: Erik Esse, LFTN, Dec. 2006

In the Summer of 2006, the Local Fair Trade Network and the Agricultural Justice Project agreed to join forces in the creation of a Domestic Fair Trade label. Two co-ops and five farms in the Upper Midwest will serve as the subjects of a pilot project that will develop a certification process for the standards developed by AJP, as well as refine those standards. The goal of the pilot project is to have certified Fair Trade products from those farms in co-ops during the growing season of 2007. LFTN and AJP are seeking input on the standards, how the label should be marketed, as well as the governance of the Domestic Fair Trade system. Read more

Bringing Fair Trade Home to the U.S.
by: John E. Peck in the Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007 issue of the Sustainable Times

Ever wondered why the fair trade label only applies to products from outside the U.S.? Why are all the fair trade certifies located thousands of miles away from the producers? How can corporations that are so unfair towards workers, farmers, and consumers in the U.S. get away with selling and promoting themselves as fair trade? What ever happened to the idea of applying fair trade principles in our own backyard? Read more

LFTN: Applying Fair Trade Locally
by Hilary Johnson, in Sprout, newsletter of Seward Community Co-op.

As Greg Reynolds, of Riverbend Farm in Delano, Minn., can attest, farming is not an easy life: “I have worked for $3 an hour farming and didn’t like it.� He is not alone in identifying one of his biggest challenges in the market as “artificially low prices.� In election years, politicians wax poetic about Minnesota’s rural roots and the plight of its small farmers. Some local activists, however, are looking not to the government for help but to consumers. Read more


Bringing Fair Trade Home
By Erbin Crowell in Cooperative Grocer, Nov/Dec, 2006

Domestic or international? One of my most lasting memories from my visit with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in Georgia last summer was a profound sense of commonality. When I embarked on developing a Domestic Fair Trade program at Equal Exchange, some people questioned whether small farmers in our own country really experience the same struggles as coffee growers in the developing world. While I knew intellectually that rural communities around the world are being devastated by globalization in similar ways, I wasnt prepared for the degree to which this was confirmed during my visit with Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Read more


Beyond Organic
by Barth Anderson in Cooperative Grocer, Nov/Dec, 2006

Organic food is still growing at a remarkable clip, especially now that this pure product has made the leap from food co-ops to megastores like Wal-Mart, which is infamous for driving down wholesale prices and paying nada wages to workers. But with no social justice component in sight for USDA organic standards, many co-op customers and other ethical shoppers are turning their attention to Fair Trade. These consumers would like to know that U.S. farmers, along with international Fair Trade coffee growers, are making a decent profit on the food they grow and that farm laborers have been paid well for their hard work. Read more