Recent article that have been in the media.
At Mango Tree Imports in Ballston Spa, owners Kim and Chris
Anderson display one of many Fair Trade items they sell - a
kite made in Indonesia.Photo by Jon Richard Flemming.
The Fair Trade movement has gone mainstream. You can now find
certified Fair Trade items in chain supermarkets.
In recent years, the Fair Trade partners - Dean's Beans and
Equal Exchange - of the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition
have grown about 20 percent a year, said Maureen Casey, international
projects coordinator for the coalition.
"As Fair Trade has caught on, a lot of companies want to be on the
bandwagon," she said. The movement has been promoted by many churches,
including Lutherans, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics.
It also has been boosted by the leadership of unions - NYSUT,
in particular. In 2006, the NYSUT Representative Assembly passed a
resolution promoting "solidarity and support for these workers by
pledging to purchase Fair Trade products especially, coffee, tea and
chocolate, whenever possible." NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi and Albany
Catholic Bishop Howard Hubbard co-chair the Labor-Religion Coalition.
"We believe NYSUT is the first union to have a policy to promote Fair
Trade," said Brian O'Shaughnessy, coalition executive director.
O'Shaughnessy said many unions fighting for new trade policies, such as
the Steelworkers, are natural Fair Trade allies.
It's important for consumers to look for the Fair Trade symbol that
guarantees goods are 100 percent Fair Trade, said Casey. For more
information, see the Web site of TransFair, the certifying authority, at
TransFairUSA.com.
NYSUT is promoting the concept in curriculum. Two of the union's
subject-area committees - on social studies and on the arts:
music, dance, theater and visual arts - are developing a
curriculum that addresses Fair Trade.
The panel members are taking a cross-curricular approach, said Walter
Robertson of the Dunkirk Teachers Association in western New York, who
is on the social studies committee. "We wanted to create something to
show how students can impact the world, that their purchases affect not
only their lives but children like them around the world."
A couple of Saratoga County teachers have embraced Fair Trade both in
curriculum and retail. Kim and Chris Anderson have opened Mango Tree
Imports in Ballston Spa. In back of the store there are colorful
classrooms and sitting areas where students gather and learn at Las
Mariposas Language Center.
Everything centers on a belief: embracing other cultures. In school
Chris and Kim Anderson, drawing from their travels, bring cultures alive
for their students, just as they do in their store and learning center.
Chris teaches sixth-grade science and is a member of the Shenendehowa
Teachers Association. Kim teaches high school Spanish and is a member of
the Ballston Spa TA. Chris taught in Botswana for the Peace Corps. The
pair met teaching in the inner-city Mission District in San Francisco.
After teaching for four years at an American school in Paraguay, they
left South America and moved to the Capital Region to teach. They were
astounded at the flourishing of "big box" stores and dismayed by the
goods that lacked quality and cultural connections.
"Everything had become disposable and cheap," Chris said. "I come
from a union family and I'm aware of the labor issues."
The couple started an artists co-op, selling products from Paraguay
along with local art. They began small community language classes from
home. Then they widened their reach.
"There's another step, and that's social justice," Chris said. "We
started feeling the impact on a small community."
And so the Mango Tree was planted. The products come from artists and
craftspeople around the earth who are paid a living wage. The couple
have met many of the talented artisans who fill their store with silk
butterflies, scarves, ceramics, sculpture and hand-blown glass. The
store (http://www.mangotreeimports.com/)
and the language center both opened in 2006. Some staffers who work at
the store are retired teachers.
"Fair Trade is about respect, diversity, quality and hope," said
O'Shaughnessy. "Mango Tree Imports brings these values home in ways both
concrete and creative, and illustrates how teachers' love for children
reaches beyond all borders."
Call it consciousness-raising in commerce.
Kim takes handmade lace from Paraguay into class so students can feel
the textures of the countries they are learning about. She also teaches
at the Greater Capital Region Teacher Center: Spanish for educators and
lesson plans for the Mexican Day of the Dead.
At the Las Mariposas Center, Kim works from the inside out. "This is
my experiential classroom for the community," she said, beaming. Las
Mariposas, she added, means "the butterflies."
- Liza Frenette and Amanda Martini-Hughes