A market-based approach to sustainable development that links consumers directly with producers, thereby reducing the number of levels in the distribution chain. As a result, a greater share of revenue gets in the hands of small-scale farmers. The purchase of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate bars, bananas and other fruits benefits producers and consumers by promoting:

• Fair prices
• Cooperative workplaces
• Environmental sustainability
• Access to financial and technical support
• Quality products

This is a system of trade favorable to local growers and the environment and, therefore, consistent with a jubilee, OneEarth economy. Free trade, by contrast, is a system highly favorable to the global corporations and ruling elites that create it resulting in “Multi Earth” economics.

In 2000, when JEM sponsored our first delegation to Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, a relationship was begun with a fair trade cooperative of coffee growers, Maya Vinic. Their story is featured in the video, Grounds for Action, that JEM produced in 2003. It was directed by Marco Tavanti, professor at DePaul University, Chicago, and a JEM Advisor. The video is bilingual and has been used internationally to educate on fair trade in high schools, colleges, congregations, and informal groups.

JEM continues to work organizationally with fair trade groups, being the fiscal sponsor currently for Fair Trade San Diego and Fair Trade Berkeley. Board member Dan Swanson who lives in San Cristobal, Chiapas, continues direct relationships with the Maya Vinic Cooperative and other fair trade initiatives.

When shopping for coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, rice, and other products, always look for the Fair Trade Certified™ label. If your local market doesn’t stock these fairly traded items, encourage the store manager or owner to do so. In different parts of the world, over 200 products now carry the FT certified label.

When we can buy products knowing that the workers and the land are being treated justly and kindly, we feel the convergence of our ethics, faith, and purchase. This is what happens in our practice of jubilee economics. We can help spread this feeling to others who seek to be ethical buyers. Our congregations, households, schools, and workplaces are all venues in which we can encourage the shift to fair trade, increasing awareness as we do so. In many cases, it’s an easy “sell.” Though the free trade system has created many destructive international free trade agreements negotiated by countries and corporate alliances, we do have a choice. And an expanding one at that.

The following video illustrates how fair trade helps Mexico’s coffee growers live sustainably.

As advocates of justice for both indigenous workers and God’s creation, we offer educational workshops that focus on fair trade for organizations, businesses, churches, schools and college campuses. If you would like to arrange a fair trade presentation in the San Diego or Chicago areas, please contact us.

For a more comprehensive understanding of Fair Trade concept, please visit Fair Trade USA. For the history of Fair Trade, you can click here—a page suggested to us by the youth group in Kentucky who were helped by the information on our website as they prepared for a fair trade fundraiser to raise money for their mission trip.

We’ve created two podcasts on fair trade interviewing an expert and two local business people who have started a 100% organic, 80% fair trade roasting, wholesale, and retail business. Access them both on this website:

• Listen to our podcast about Fair Trade, featuring David Funkhouser of Fair Trade USA. Our podcast with Cafe Virtuoso also deals with Fair Trade.

Additional information can be found on the following web sites:

• Green America Fair Trade Your Supermarket
• Fair Trade Federation
• Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International
• Make Trade Fair (Oxfam International)