Face of Fair Trade: Shayna Harris, Fair Trade Advocate

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.