Farmworker Conference for Fair Trade

April 28-29, 2007
Owatonna, Minnesota

Farmworkers and farmworker organization staff are invited to this first-of-its-kind meeting to explore how farmworkers can best use the tool of Fair Trade to empower themselves and improve their lives.

In the last decade, an increasing number of farmers and farm workers in the global South have achieved a significant improvement in their lives by participating in the Fair Trade system. In Fair Trade, small farmers and farmworkers come together in cooperatives, increasing their power and income by trading with ethical consumers and businesses.

In recent years a domestic Fair Trade movement has arisen, with participation from sustainable farmers, food cooperatives, ethical businesses, consumer groups and some farmworker organizations. In order for this work to have meaning and be effective for farmworkers, it is vital that farmworkers become full partners in it.

The conference will include discussion of three main areas:

1. Sharing information on how various farmworker organizations are currently working for workers’ rights.
2. Examination of the standards being developed for a domestic Fair Trade label and coming to consensus on what standards should be included.
3. Finding ways we can use the idea of domestic Fair Trade to advance our farmworker organizing work.

The full conference agenda in English and Espanol.

We have some funds available for travel expenses and stipends for farmworkers. You can register here and ask any questions you might have here.

Convening Organizations: Centro Campesino (Owatonna, Minnesota), Local Fair Trade Network (Minneapolis, Minnesota), El Comité de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agrícolas/Farmworker Support Committee (Glassboro, New Jersey), Community to Community Development (Bellingham, Washington), Pesticide Action Network North America (San Francisco, California), Farmworker Association of Florida (Apopka, Florida), University of Minnesota Department of Chicano Studies

Additional staff support from the International Labor Rights Fund and students from the University of Minnesota Department of Chicano Studies.