Here’s a list of city or area-specific fair trade organizations.

If you live in any of the following areas, get involved already! Otherwise, you might consider starting a group of your own :)

As always, please let me know of any organizations I’ve unwittingly omitted, either via email or comments (A list of national and student-specific fair trade organizations will come soon).

Update, 4/9/06: A list of national and multinational fair trade orgs is up!

California
Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition. A group of consumers, students, non-profits, fair trade businesses, activists and community members working together to raise awareness and build demand for Fair Trade in the Bay Area.

Fair Trade Los Angeles. Our first big educational event’s on March 5! Email me, or fairtradela@gmail.com for more information or to be involved.

San Diego Friends of Fair Trade. A group dedicated to increasing the understanding and use of Fair Trade throughout San Diego through education, policy change, and a shift in economic paradigm

Colorado
Denver Justice & Peace Committee. A volunteer organization dedicated to promoting human rights, economic justice, and lasting peace in Latin America through education, solidarity projects and nonviolent activism. DJPC had a v. informative booth at the USFT convergence, with interesting information about everything from fair trade bananas to defeating AFTA.

A list of fair trade-friendly stores in Colorado.

Illinois
Chicago Committee on Fair Trade. A group that works to increase support for Fair Trade products in the Chicago metro area through education, advocacy and targeted major-purchaser campaigns.

Maine
Maine Fair Trade Campaign. A group of individuals and orgs that’re working together for international trade policy and a global economy that is socially, economically, and environmentally just.

Massachussets
Boston Fair Trade Coalition. A diverse, coordinated network of university and high school students, organizations, local businesses, and individuals in the greater Boston area working to support local, healthy, sustainable communities by promoting fair trade principles through community outreach efforts and working to address injustices of the world trade system.

New Hampshire
New Hampshire Fair Trade Coalition. The group’s mission is “To raise awareness of fair trade in an effort to create justice on a global scale.”

Portsmouth Fair Trade Coalition.

New Jersey
South Jersey Fair Trade Alliance. This alliance has a bill in the State House! To get involved, email southjerseyfairtrade@hotmail.com or call 609.713.7272 for more info.

New York
New York City Fair Trade Coalition. Dedicated to raising public awareness and increasing visibility and availability of Fair Trade products. Visit The Worsted Witch, an involved member, for more deets :)

Oregon
Oregon Fair Trade Coalition. A statewide grassroots organization that fights for trade policy that prioritizes quality jobs in communities across the state, creates markets for Oregon products by raising the standard of living in neighboring countries, enforces consistent standards for labor and the environment across borders, and allows producers to compete on a level playing field.

Texas
Texas Fair Trade Coalition. A diverse, nonpartisan coalition of unions, environmental advocacy groups, consumer groups, family farmers, religious organizations, women’s advocacy groups, low-income and immigrant advocacy groups, professors, students, public interest and fair trade groupspromoting democratic control over fiscal and social policies, social justice, workers’ rights and livable wages, and sustainable development in trade policy, in Texas and worldwide.

You might also be interested in Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization committed to improving public policies and private practices to better the economic and social conditions of low- and moderate-income Texans.

Washington
Community Alliance for Global Justice. CAGJ works locally to mobilize individuals and organizations to create fair trade & sustainable economic development. The group did a Starbucks Challenge-esque thing a few years ago to see if Starbucks was serving fair trade as coffee of the day on the 20th (the policy has since changed, as Starbucks moved late 2005 to Coffee of the Week). The results? “Discouraging,” according to Allan, a member of CAGJ’s board of directors.

Fair Trade Puget Sound. A coalition of groups and individuals working to educate local consumers about fair trade coffee and to increase the availability and consumption of fair trade Certified coffee within Seattle and the greater Puget Sound area. Note that this group sticks to strictly non-confrontational interactions — so non-confrontational that it declined to participate on the Starbucks Challenge. While I feel simply asking for a product Starbucks says it offers is hardly confrontational, I still hope FTPS is able to galvanize the fair trade movement up there.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition, based in Madison, sez it’s “a statewide collaboration of environmental, labor, consumer, family farm, religious, and other civil society groups founded in 1994 during the fight over NAFTA.” They believe that international trade and investment must be viewed as a means for achieving goals such as economic justice, human rights, healthy communities and a sound environment.

Community Action on Latin America (CALA), based in Madison, is a student and community org “committed to pursuing issues of social justice and US accountability in Latin American affairs.” The group, which is behind the Madison Annual Fair Trade Holiday Festival, works on education, community development, and solidarity work with groups in both Latin America and the United States.

Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance (MadFTAA)’s an org made up of environmental, labor, faith based and social justice groups in Wisconsin. The alliance works “for fair trade alternatives based on democratic, grassroots participation, social and economic justice, and environmental sustainability. Use of non-violent actions and strategies is integral to our approach.”

Canada
Fair Trade Toronto. This group of volunteers dedicated to fair trade works with communities, businesses, farmers, NGOs and governmental organizations.

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