Green Options » supply http://greenoptions.com/tag/supply Posts tagged 'supply' Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:30:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en How To Plant the Fair Trade Seed in Your Community http://bradyswenson.greenoptions.com/2007/09/17/how-to-plant-the-fair-trade-seed-in-your-community/ http://bradyswenson.greenoptions.com/2007/09/17/how-to-plant-the-fair-trade-seed-in-your-community/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:30:25 +0000 Brady Swenson http://bradyswenson.greenoptions.com/2007/09/17/how-to-plant-the-fair-trade-seed-in-your-community/ The Fair Trade movement operates under the basic market principle of supply and demand. In order to spread the ideas of economic sustainability and justice to others, we create demand for Fair Trade by spreading the word. But with demand for Fair Trade products repidly increasing (by more than 40% a year) around the world, we need to ensure that Fair Trade products are easily accessible in the marketplace. And just like we generate demand through educating consumers, we can help create supply by educating the retail shops that supply the goods we consume.

There are many excellent resources available online to help you organize and start an effort to educate the retailers in your community. Coffee shops and grocery stores are great places to start. Here are four actions you can take to start planting the seeds of Fair Trade in your community and then grow those seeds into a healthy Fair-Trade-supporting community.

1. Ask. Start planting the seeds by simply ask your local coffee shop and grocery store if they carry any Fair Trade products. With the rising popularity of Fair Trade, the chances that you can find Fair Trade coffee or bananas at the shops you frequent are getting better and better, especially if you live in the UK or Europe.

2. Send a letter to the manager. Global Exchange provides a good template for a letter about Fair Trade coffee to send to the manager of a store you frequent. Oke Bananas will send you request cards that friends, family and other interested consumers can sign and deliver to your grocery store to educate and encourage management to carry their Fair Trade bananas from Central America. Catholic Relief Services and Divine chocolate has a good one-sheet of talking points (PDF) that could form a good letter on why your grocer should carry Fair Trade chocolate.

3. Start a campaign to educate your supermarket. Co-op America and Ox-Fam America have teamed up to put together a great Super Market Campaign Kit. The Kit provides materials, information and practical tips to help you organize a campaign to pressure your supermarket to carry Fair Trade products whereever possible.

4. Nourish your town into a Fair Trade community. Gather a group to help you get your town or city council to pass a purchasing restriction that legally requires local government to use Fair Trade coffee. If you belong to a faith community, encourage the community to incorporate Fair Trade into the official budget (PDF). Finally, TransFair Canada has put together a great document to guide you through the Fair Trade Town (PDF) certification process.

Good luck, and keep us updated on any efforts you might take to help make Fair Trade products more easily accessible in the market!

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