Local Fair Trade Network - Businesses

Postville: Iowa's Kosher Catastrophe

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 11:34:51 -0800

Article:

By Sara Nurmi

In many American towns, plants and factories rely on immigrant labor to keep business and the economy running smoothly. Such is the case for a large kosher meat packing plant called Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa that was raided earlier this year.

However, before the immigration raid took place, Morris Allen, a conservative Jewish Rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, MN made a visit to the plant. Rabbi Allen was disturbed with the working conditions he saw in the plant and was now faced with a contradiction: a worker must slaughter an animal according to the ethical laws of kashrut, yet at the same time he/she is underpaid and working in unfair conditions. He knew that something had to be done soon to protect the livelihoods of the workers.

Local Fair Trade Sessions for Co-ops

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:39:26 -0800

Co-op managers and employees are invited to two information and feedback sessions by the Local Fair Trade Network (LFTN). The session for managers will be at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, November 27 at the Seward Co-op satellite office. The session for employees will be at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, November 28 at the Bedlam Theater.

LFTN works to apply the Fair Trade model to local food in order to create a better life for everyone involved in our local food system. During the 2007 local growing season LFTN has been working with Seward Co-op, Bluff Country Co-op and four local farmers on a pilot project for a Local Fair Trade food label. We have also begun discussions with local farmers about creating a cooperatively-owned transportation system in order to get their produce to the Twin Cities market more efficiently.

Co-ops Weigh In On Domestic Fair Trade

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:00:46 -0700

Article:

by Joe Riemann

On April 18th, 2007 LFTN steering committee members met with marketing and management staff from regional food cooperatives to discuss the Local Fair Trade Label pilot program that LFTN has been working on with our partners, the Agricultural Justice Project(see above article for more information). Staff from Whole Foods Co-op (Duluth), Lakewinds Co-op (Minnetonka, Chanhassen and Anoka), Bluff Country Co-op (Winona), The Wedge Co-op, Linden Hills Co-op, Seward Co-op and North Country Co-op (all Minneapolis) discussed how the program would fit into the needs and expectations of co-op shoppers. While there have been ongoing discussions within the co-op network about the emerging domestic fair trade movement, this discussion created a unique opportunity to cultivate opinions and advice from co-op retailers, the ones who know how to deliver complex messaging and abstract concepts to shoppers hungry for healthy, sustainable, and socially just foods.