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

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