Bringing Fair Trade Home

Perhaps you've seen the words "fair trade" on imported products like coffee beans and chocolate bars, but have you ever seen the label "domestic fair trade"? Fair trade typically denotes products from international small farmers that are purchased and traded at a fair price. The fair trade movement also works to improve small farmers access to markets. However a new movement, led by the Domestic Fair Trade Association, seeks to broaden the definition of fair trade to encompass the needs of struggling domestic farmers.

In the face of industrial agriculture and the consolidation big organics that often threatens to push small farms out of business, domestic farmers feel the need to create a more local fair trade label. This labeling would distinguish that the food we eat is produced through a series of equitable relationships, implying that farmers get fair prices for their products, and that farm workers receive a livable wage and healthy working and living conditions. The emphasis on the people behind food production is an opportunity to build relationships across the agricultural system, uniting small farmers seeking fair prices and farm preservation, farm worker justice movements, and encouraging a more holistic definition of sustainable agriculture.

The Domestic Fair Trade Association, originally a collaboration between the international fair trade organization Equal Exchange and the Agricultural Justice Project, kicked off a pilot program several years ago to test the feasibility of local or domestic fair trade in Minnesota. The project followed four small-scale family farms and two food co-ops. The pilot program seemed to go smoothly. Farmers who not only farmed organically but also signed on to the fair trade guidelines-namely providing good working conditions and a livable wage- saw some notable market preference. Although the original pilot program has since ended, there is still growing interest in bringing fair trade to local markets all over the country.

It's great to eat organic. Organic is better for our bodies and better for our planet. But we need to expand our thinking beyond the stewardship of our land to include social stewardship as an important pillar of healthy agriculture. We need to think more about the people behind our food, who helped plant and harvest it, prepare and package it. The fair trade label for domestic products would make us, as consumers, more aware and concerned about the hands behind the scenes that prepare our food for us. Adding a Domestic Fair Trade label to qualifying products increases transparency and promises a healthier agricultural system in the U.S.

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