The official highlights from the Equal Exchange Stakeholder Summit last month are now out!

An overview of what happened: There were 2 main “tracks”:

• How to build Small Scale Farmer Solidarity, and
• What are our collective Measures of Success as leaders in this movement?

I joined the 2nd track, and went to its 3 attendant workshops:

1. Volume, (covered here and here) which asked what fair trade success would look like. Consensus: Fair trade success is not measured by volume but by stronger producer organizations and educated consumers; large public corporations should follow standards, and the standards should be set by Fair Trade organizations.

2. The Trade Relationship, which asked what a sound fair trade relationship would look like. Consensus: A sound relationship would allow for mutual learning, economic stability, and collaborative problem solving.

3. The Power of Consumers, which asked how to engage and track the consumer communities that will help demand and define the future of fair trade. Consensus (sort of): The goal’s to get 3 times more fair trade products sold than are being sold now.

Check out these and more details from the summit here, and lemme know your thoughts :) A more comprehensive summary will come out in the fall, sez Equal Exchange.

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