Fair Trade Experts to Discuss Globalization’s Impact on Indigenous Peoples

EUGENE — (Oct. 20, 2006) — Fair Trade: Equity Within Reach, a symposium examining fair trade and its impact on native peoples, will be held Thursday, Nov. 2 at the University of Oregon Knight Law Center. The symposium includes a panel presentation with notable Fair Trade experts from around the world at 7:00 p.m. in Rm. 175 Knight, with a fair trade bazaar and coffee and chocolate tasting from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Wayne Morse Commons.

The concept of “Fair Trade” has gained popularity in American markets, offering an innovative alternative economic model for the shrinking world. Co-organizer and law student Aaron Grieser says the Wayne Morse Fellows (a group of high achieving students who are funded by the Center) decided to organize this symposium because “Fair Trade is probably the most exciting thing happening right now in international trade, and people need to know about it.”

Grieser became interested in Fair Trade in 2005 while working in New Delhi for Indian environmentalist Supreme Court lawyer, M.C. Mehta. While in India he learned of the work local Fair Trade groups were doing with textiles. Grieser notes that Fair Trade has blossomed from the grassroots, local level.

“Fair Trade really stands for the idea that we don’t need to wait for the big players to come around to make a change in the world – we can do it right here, by doing simple things like taking the time to inquire into where our products come from,” he says.

Dina Dubson, also a Wayne Morse Fellow, organizer of the symposium and director of the Latin American Law Students Association, adds, “Fair Trade products often have the added benefit of being produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. So, as consumers, we can feel good about our purchases, knowing that we are helping provide someone with a living wage as well as helping to promote ecological responsibility.”

Panelists at Thursday evening’s presentation will include several notable Fair Trade experts. Priya Haji, acclaimed co-founder of World of Good, a Fair Trade store and development organization, will discuss how the U.S. market is driving demand for ethically produced goods, and how it is changing lives around the world.

After studying the fair trade movement in the U.S. while earning her MBA at UC Berkeley, Haji, who was recognized in 1998 as one of America's 10 Most Outstanding Young Leaders (Brick Award) by the Do Something Foundation, MTV and Mademoiselle Magazine, realized that the lives of thousands of women artisans the world over could be improved by “extending the growing power of conscious consumerism from agricultural products to handcrafts.”

Her year's travel and interaction with craftsmen across Asia and South America led her to understand that “the most important challenge faced by artisans was access to volume markets.”

She also serves as the Board Chair for the World of Good: Development Organization, the non-profit sister organization of World of Good, Inc.

Other panelists include Ubon Yuwa, a Thai fair trade practitioner and organizer who has helped establish Fair Trade rice cooperatives in Thailand and Judith Wise, a legal scholar and professor of law at Willamette University who will contrast Fair Trade with classical economic trade models.

The free coffee and chocolate tasting, from 5:30 to 7 pm at the Wayne Morse Commons, will feature a presentation by Edouard Rollet of Alter-Eco, France’s largest fair trade retailer. A fair trade bazaar featuring locally available fair trade goods presented by Café Man, Greater Goods, Better Yet and others will run concurrently.

The symposium kicks off the previous evening, Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. with the film Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Fair Trade Certification at the Bijou Art Cinemas. Film director John de Graaf will be present and will discuss, exploring how conscious consumers can use the market to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through product labeling. There is a $5 admission fee for the film.

The symposium is open to the public and free. Info: www.waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu Sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, the Latin American Law Student’s Association (LALSA), Asia Pacific Law Student’s Association (APLSA), and the International Law Society.

 

Link: Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics: http://www.waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/pastthemes_2005-07.html