La Mesa Fair Trade Towns campaign in action!

Denise and Anne at the Sustain La Mesa Enviro Festival

The La Mesa Fair Trade Towns campaign is really gaining momentum!  They are on track to reach their goal of becoming California’s 5th Fair Trade Town by February of 2012, if not sooner!  They have achieved three of the five necessary badges required to become an official “Fair Trade Town” and will be presenting a Resolution to the City of La Mesa tomorrow in hopes of receive their 4th badge which signifies gaining local government’s support.

Their Team badge was earned by forming their very effective and passionate Steering Committee, their Media badge was attained by attracting media attention and visible public support and their Retailers badge was secured by ensuring there are a designated number of Fair Trade retailers in La Mesa.  For an interactive map of these Fair Trade vendors, click here.

With the organizational support they have been receiving, they are making great strides towards their Town  badge which requires that Fair Trade products are used by a number of local organizations, such as places of worship, schools, hospitals and offices. It’s exciting to see the growing awareness of Fair Trade which is anticipated to build a demand for Fair Trade products in La Mesa, thereby providing increased benefits for farmers, workers and artisans in developing countries. 

Please join us tomorrow, October 11, 2011, to show your support as the La Mesa Fair Trade Towns steering committee presents their Fair Trade resolution to the La Mesa City Council.

City Council Chambers La Mesa City Hall
8130 Allison Avenue
La Mesa, CA
4pm

LISTEN UP! Coffee as a Virtue podcast

To celebrate Fair Trade month, an enlightening and genuine conversation with Stephan von Kolkow and Laurie Britton of Café Virtuoso is featured on The Common Good podcast with host Lee Van Ham!  The co-owners of this organic and fair trade coffee company in San Diego discuss how Fair Trade looks to them as businesspeople with a bottom line to mind.

Stephen and Laurie each give personal accounts of how they started Cafe Virtuoso, how they educate customers on the products, the pros and cons of Fair Trade’s certification and the trends in the industry.

It turns out to be a bit more expensive, yes, but it was hard to turn down since their experience at farmer’s markets taught them that individual customers were asking more and more for Fair Trade product. Seeing the demand, they in turn led the way with their wholesale customers, a victory for Fair Trade as more and more vendors will be moving FT product at an increasing scale that bodes well for FT to be a sustainable model.

Listen to free podcast here: Episode 18: Coffee as a Virtue

The Common Good postcasts, a project of Jubilee Economic Ministries, profile aspects of sustainable economic practices that move us toward a model that is in compliance with Earth’s abundance.

A Fair Trade Bike Ride

Day 29, Bay Area Fair Trade

Back in July, Fair Trade San Diego received word of a biker dedicated to fair trade who was making his way down the coast from Vancouver, British Columbia.  While we weren’t able to meet up with Kieran during his time in San Diego, we wanted to be sure and share his message with all of you.  Below is a message from Kieran.  Keep in mind that this message is over a month old.  He has since traveled over 3,400 miles and is now in Mexico en route to Chile!

What I'm doing is a personal initiative after being involved with Fair Trade Vancouver for the last 18 months I wanted to get some more in-depth knowledge of Fair Trade and how it's helping/affecting the actual producers. I have wanted to take time to travel and enjoy cycling so I put all of that together as inspiration for my trip. I'd love to get sponsorship/backing from interested groups but that's a bonus really.

In Vancouver I can see how the efforts of the group can pay off with increased sales/awareness of FT within the city, but finding out more for myself and hopefully then spreading that knowledge when I'm back is my minimum goal.

So far I've made it all the way from Vancouver [to Southern California], taking about 6 weeks to do 2,000 miles or so. To Santiago I'll probably do another 6.000 miles at least, depending on routes. So far I've had Fair Trade visits to Thanksgiving Coffee in Fort Bragg, FT USA and Alter Eco but it's likely I won't have much now until southern Mexico, but plenty of opportunities after that.

To learn more about Kieran’s ride and to read about what he has learned along the way visit his blog at www.FairTradeBikeRide.org.