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I'm really excited about this Face of Fair Trade installment. This running piece aims to highlight different people in the movement that have been working hard to make a positive impact for Fair Traders across the board. Today's Face of Fair Trade is a special one because it is a profile of our guest blogger, Shayna Harris. Shayna has written about Starbucks for us before and will soon be sharing more words with us in the coming weeks. She just recently returned from a stint in Brazil [check out her travel blog] working with the local agricultural community there and is now back in the States working with the Fair Trade Resource Network. Here is her Fair Trade story.

What is your role in the Fair Trade movement?

I’m currently coordinating grassroots activities for World Fair Trade Day 2009 (WFTD09).  Our goal is to re-claim the record from Finland and hold the world’s largest Fair Trade Coffee Break. We’re trying to involve over 50,000 people this year!  Join us: check out www.ftrn.org for the latest on how to make a Big Bang for WFTD09.

How did you first get involved with Fair Trade?

In college I organized one of the US’s first Fair Trade Coffee campaigns at Boston University.  I was also interning at the organization Oxfam America, which gave me an important global perspective on trade and poverty. And I had an amazing opportunity to follow the coffee supply chain down to the Sierra Madre Mountains in southern Mexico on a study abroad program; I wanted to understand what Fair Trade was all about from the farmer perspective.  I came back from Mexico with SO many more questions than answers!  That was seven years ago, and I am still involved because I have experienced so much inspiration and hope via this movement.

Why is Fair Trade important to you/in general?

Well, as Naomi Klein so poignantly outlines in her new book The Shock Doctrine, the past 30 years of neoliberal trade policies have been both detrimental and ‘shocking’ to human beings around the world, as public policies supporting healthcare, education, and public infrastructure have progressively been stripped away.  Poverty has deepened, and we’re just now starting to feel the effects in formerly sheltered economies like the United States.  Fair Trade represents one -- among many -- responses to corporate globalization.  I’ve also been a part of the solidarity economy movement in Brazil, which is built upon similar principles.  These movements are important to me because they show that human beings are creative and resilient, and that we have the collective capacity to construct humane economic systems at the grassroots which work for people, the environment, and local development needs.

What do you see as the challenges of the Fair Trade movement?

Fair Trade is a dynamic and complex concept which runs against the grain of the dominant economic model – at least that of my lifetime.  At 27 years old and born during the Reagan era, I can’t actually remember a time when international economics was conducted in a humane, transparent, and respectful way. And so the challenge for our generation is to construct a movement which makes possible a reality that we have not yet experienced on a large scale, but those that we have experienced in slices.

An example.  There are many different definitions of Fair Trade, and these stem from the collective and different experiences of those involved in this ‘movement’. In order to solidify and strengthen our movement, we need to develop a common understanding of what Fair Trade is, and embrace the complex dynamics surrounding this term.  Only once we understand our differences can we find common ground.  And so the largest challenge to the Fair Trade movement remains the need to find common ground.

Any background/general information about yourself that you would like to add?

I recently lived in Brazil, a country that really is stuck between the ‘developed and developing,’ a government which in supports export-led growth/corporate agriculture in one government ministry and small-scale family farming/local economic systems in another.  Yet the solidarity economy movement is expanding and strengthening at the grassroots, winning over allies in the political and corporate arena alike.  Brazil’s small farmers still form the breadbasket of the country.

The socioeconomic situation of the US now looks like Brazil’s in terms of income inequality, healthcare, and education standards, but our numbers are falling and theirs are rising.  Through my work I have been humbled enough to learn from countries like Brazil, as there are lessons of resiliency and growth in the most unlikely corners of that country.  We can take those lessons learned to form a stronger movement for Fair Trade right herein the US.

One way to start is by banding together to get involved in World Fair Trade Day 2009… so please visit www.ftrn.org today!

You can continue to follow Shayna on her own blog, Mama Shayna's Musings.

If you've been paying any sort of attention to the news lately, you might have heard about Somali pirates that have been hi-jacking ships left and right. Well, while some are using ships for evil, the guys over at the Greenheart Project are looking to use sailing for nothing but good. I stumbled across this project a few hours ago and I am completely fascinated.

Has anyone else heard about it? Because I really want to know more, beyond the website. Here is what I gathered so far. They are planning on establishing a trade vessel that will run solely on sun and wind.

By using trade winds and traditional sailing routes in addition to electric motors powered by the sun, S/V Greenheart will be able to deliver her cargo without burning petroleum products for propulsion.

One of the main goals of the project is to "publicize international cooperation, clean energy, fair trade and sustainable industry". They will zig zag around the world between the Global North and the Global South. They will have charitable missions, such as aid and relief.

Greenheart will coordinate with local and international charities, NGO's, relief organizations and ministries of the relevant governments in order to load aid supplies, medical and educational donations, and development project support. These cargoes will be delivered free of charge to countries in the developing world.

AAaand they will participate in Fair Trade commerce.

As the charitable supplies are delivered, Greenheart will buy environmentally sound and sustainability sourced products from small producers and cooperatives at better-than-market prices to support their efforts. Because of her extremely shallow draught, S/V Greenheart will be able to load at small ports and up rivers presently unable to accommodate ocean-going vessels, thus providing new access to international markets for small producers.

They will then sail to other countries and sell the Fair Trade wares that they found along the way.

By combining both charitable and profitable aspects while embracing the principles of environmental protection, sustainability and fair trade, Greenheart will offer a very public model of a self-funding, respectable institution. We hope to inspire people and organizations around the world to re-think the boundries of business and of international aid. In time, we intend to build a fleet of non-polluting sailing cargo ships for use in poverty abatement programs around the world.

Their official mission statement:

We at Greenheart are striving to create a new model of a clean, cooperative and sustainable enterprise. We commit to supporting equally the environmental, the social, and the economic viability of our world by adhering to the principles of fairness and accountability in trade, respect and stewardship for the environment, and a charitable, global disposition. By operating a solar-power assisted sailing trading ship around a global route with complementary loads of development aid and fair trade goods, we intend to function as a self-funding charitable merchantman. Our goal is to forge connections, both physical and institutional, among societies, environments and economies the world around. We propose using our unique platform to bring together organizations, institutions, governments and corporations with sincere desires to further sustainability for our planet. Both our ship and her crew are dedicated to promoting, by example, the practice of environmental protection, fair & equitable trade relations, and the responsible use of renewable resources.

Friends. I ask again. Has anyone heard of this project? I want to know more. All about it basically. I will do more sniffing around and report back. It sounds too good to be true. But I want it to be true! Developing!

All over the U.S. today, people are casting their ballots. I've never missed an opportunity to vote since the day I turned 18, and today I'm giving you an opportunity to cast your vote for a group of small-farmers in South Africa who are cultivating for change for themselves and the world around them.

Fair Trade pioneers, Equal Exchange, have been supporting the Heiveld and Wupperthal cooperatives for years by working directly with them to offer their delicious Rooibos Tea. The Heiveld and Wupperthal cooperatives also put their land and the environment first by mitigating the effects of the warming climate on their production. Thanks to their work for the environment, they have been selected as one of 12 finalist in the 2008 BBC World Challenge competition. This challenge is aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. The winner will receive $20,000 to invest in their project/business and two runner-ups will each receive $10,000.

Voting is now open on the BBC website (and goes through November 21st), and you can also view a short film clip from the movie on their site.

Show your support and vote for them now. These small farmers have had a long history of oppression during the years of apartheid and have fought through it and have survived through the production of the rooibos plant. With the rooibos plant, a plant of their ancestors, they have been able to see change. They went from sharecroppers during the Apartheid era to being part of a democratically run cooperative. In doing so, they also put the environment into mind by implementing soil and water conservation, enhancing biodiversity, and recapturing indigenous strategies of natural resource management used by their ancestors.

This vote isn't about politics, this vote is about enhancing opportunity for others across the world making a difference and changing the world around them.

Learn more about the cooperatives and their work.