A question I get often: Fair trade sounds nice, but what about the stuff grown on US soil?

Most of you are already aware that often, US farm workers aren’t treated so nicely — especially the migrant workers. Even some the workers on our organic farms are getting a raw deal.

Enter domestic fair trade. This new(ish) movement’s trying to change the way farming is done and the way farm produce is sold and marketed in the US.

What’s been done so far? Well — A Domestic Fair Trade Working Group has been formed to discuss these issues and come up with some guidelines.

Who’s in this group? So far, participants include:

• Erbin Crowell, Domestic Fair Trade Manager at Equal Exchange,
• Jason Freeman of Farmer Direct Co-op / fairDeal,
• Michael Schneider and Cecil Wright of Organic Valley / CROPP Co-operative, and
• Michael Sligh of Rural Advancement Foundation International & the Social Justice in Agriculture Project. [Update, 12/19/06: The Social Justice in Agriculture Project has since been renamed Agricultural Justice Project]

The group had its first official meeting at La Farge, WI in Aug. 2005, where it drafted some Principles for Domestic Fair Trade (PDF), modeled closely on those of IFAT. A long list of values are listed, but to summarize, domestic fair trade supports:

Environment: Family scale, sustainable farming that uses appropriate technology (no GMOs!).

Human Rights: Democratic, participatory ownership and control that allows for equality and opportunity, giving workers rights of labor that conform to all ILO Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A respect for indigenous peoples’ rights.

Market Access: Direct trade relationships that reduce the number of intermediaries and strengthens the ability of farm workers and producers to access the marketplace. This means fair and stable pricing, shared risk and affordable credit, long term trade relationships transparency and accountability, and education and advocacy.

All that sounds good — but will there be a new domestic fair trade label? That’s still up in the air, according to Erbin of Equal Exchange.

I’ll try and contact all the members of the domestic fair trade working group in the next week, to lend some more perspective and historical background to the issue. For now, you can read more on Equal Exchange’s perspective here :)

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