Paul Renshaw, MAFTTI Chair, has compiled some “ruminations” seven years after the founding of MAFTTI and in advance of the 5th Anniversary celebration of Mankato’s status as a ‘Fair Trade Town’ in October, 2016. Paul's reflections are here. Picture: Paul & Arlene Renshaw at the first Sustainability Expo, MSU, April 2014
MAFTTI Chair Paul Renshaw attended the 9th International Fair Trade Towns Conference in Bristol, England, July 4-5, 2015. One workshop was devoted to "Resilience, Convergence and Fair Trade". This is a complex trio of concepts, one that needed much more time than the hour allotted. However, here are some notes of a preliminary nature. They contain some material shared by the speakers but also the result of some foraging on the internet in search of greater understanding, even of how a cashew nut grows.
Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech in 2008 has just been published. Some of her thoughts are apt as World Fair Trade Day (May 9) approaches. “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” This speaks to the heart of Fair Trade, a global movement of millions of people – farmers, artisans, consumers – who dream that a world of greater equity, justice and compassion is possible. J.K. Rowling challenged her Harvard audience to cultivate empathy alongside the power of Read More
On March 17, 2015 a presentation on Fair Trade was made in the MSU Social Justice Lecture series. The speakers were Mark Hudson and Mara Fridell, sociologists from the University of Manitoba. Their speaking at MSU was proposed by MAFTTI and facilitated by the Sociology Department and other interested on-campus entitities, both faculty and student-led. The stimulus for the lecture was the publication in 2013 of "Fair Trade, Sustainability and Social Change" (Palgrave Macmillan). Mark Hudson and Mara Fridell shared in co-authoring this book. Notes on the presentation were drafted by Sally Coomes (First Presbyterian Church, Mankato),augmented by Paul Renshaw Read More
Fair Trade clothing is a complex subject because the supply chains in the industry are so complex. The need for Fair Trade clothing was highlighted in April 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed with tragic loss of life. In the USA the availability of Fair Trade clothing is growing, but is still very limited. Apparel businesses that are members of the Fair Trade Federation and others which have products carrying the Fair Trade Certified label recently developed by Fair Trade USA are listed at the end of this article to help "The quest for Fair Read More
Fair World Project has produced a valuable interactive, evaluative chart focusing on six certifications, four of them seen on products in US stores. Click here.