Fair Trade Blog

If you haven’t seen us featured in the latest Discover Wisconsin episode, check us out here. You can see the Hotel Fortney, where we are located, and the inside of the store during the 30 minute show. I’m in there too. If you leave a comment, please be kind!

We were pleased to see our store so well represented in the clips from downtown as well as the large number of local businesses that were mentioned.  We are located in a fun little corner of the state, so I hope that the program will inspire you to come and visit!

What is the status of fair trade in Haiti? I’ve been wondering that for the last couple of weeks after the shock of the initial earthquake crisis subsided.

Since then, reports have been trickling in from organizations that work with artisans there. They report no deaths, but some injuries among those that work in fair trade. However, development has been dramatically set back.  Homes and workshops have been destroyed along with tools and materials. 

SERRV’s partner in Haiti, Comite Artisanal Haitien, reports that they do not know when rebuilding will begin.  Most Haitiens are still trying to build some stability back into their daily lives.   Last week, SERRV sent it’s first shipment of material relief including tents, blankets, and toiletries to meet immediate needs. 

We have some beautitul items from Haiti — painted metal geckos and fascinating wall hangings cut from oil drum metal.  Stone carvings, clay nativities, and other items are also made there.  Don’t forget Haitian Mangos which you can sometimes find at the grocery. 

Don’t be offended or angry if you see these items on sale on our site or other fair trade sites.  These items had already been purchased from the artisans for a fair price.  Your purchases will sustain demand and interest, so that the artisans can produce more for the market.

With your purchase of Haitian crafts, we can help support long-term relief for Haiti.

Keep shopping your good values!

The news that Haiti had been hit by a devastating earthquake wrenched my heart. If ever there was a less prepared or deserving country for that kind of trauma, it is Haiti.

As far back as I can remember, Haiti has never gotten a break. I remember clearly when President Clinton sent in troops because the country was literally falling apart and military intervention was the only way to try to pull it back together.  Since then it has been hit by four hurricanes in a row in 2006 and recently suffered political turmoil when Parliment threw out it’s corrupt president. 

About 200 years ago, Haiti liberated itself from the French through a slave uprising, but has been an impoverished nation ever since.   Despite numerous, generous aid efforts, Haiti has never been able to pull itself up.  In the past decade, economic growth has fallen into negative territory, though it had been more stable recently. 

Even those in the Fair Trade community have looked at Haiti and shaken their heads with a helpless feeling.  Late last year I talked to a woman doing mission work there.  She wanted to start a woman’s knitting cooperative.  On the day she had set for a meeting, dozens of women trekked up a hill to a small house looking for work, but they had so few resources, she did not know if they would be able to get a cooperative off the ground.  Many of them had needs much more basic than getting work.  Some had not eaten in days. 

A wholesaler I work with also told me that he had been considering a visit to Haiti to investigate starting businesses there.  But he said he was hestitant because he has been told by others there are simply no resources to make hand crafts.  The once lush, green countryside has been more than 90 percent deforested.  

Now a quake has left the country without infrustructure even to support the distubution of aid. 

As I read about the millions pouring into disaster relief, donating dollars feels like an empty gesture.  Haitians don’t need money right now.  They need food, water, stability, and hope — things I can not bring them just by opening my wallet.  Later, the survivors will need my donations to rebuild, but not now.

Perhaps, all I can do right now is pray and push my government to send the things that will make a difference – supplies, heavy equipment, and people power.

No year is without its challenges. In 2009, we challenged ourselves to open a new shop (Rhubarb), to expand our Fair Trade business, and to meet more of you, our customers. We did that and then some! I even went to Ecuador on an educational trip earlier in the year.

We consider ourselves blessed to have grown our business.  But, it’s not easy to appreciate our growth with so many hurting from the sick economy.  

I had the privilege of taking a customer’s order for gift cards over the phone a few days ago.  She said she appreciated our store and thought it was quite lovely.  I hear that sometimes and it warms my heart.  What she said next, though, made me really think.   ”Thanks for being part of the solution,” she said.    

Part of the solution…  It’s particullarly easy this time of year to focus on a day or a week or a holiday that’s literally around the corner.   But as the new year approaches it’s also time to reflect on who and what we are, and how we want to manifest the gifts we are given. 

So, although I don’t often sit around thinking about how we are changing the world, it’s nice when someone reminds me that I’m trying to be part of a solution and not part of a problem.

I am going to ponder that as we take our winter’s rest.  We’ll be closing the store for a few weeks starting December 24th.  It’s time to visit family and friends to make sure they know how special they are in our lives.  (Most of them live much further south than us, which is a nice little perk.)  

We’ll be back and open for business on January, 15th, 2010.  See you then, and in the meantime…

Keep shopping your good values!

My heart rose into my throat as I read the latest notes from the field, penned by Arghand Cooperative’s Jennie Green after her recent trip to Afghanistan. The challenges Arghand has faced in the last few months have nearly undone a venture that I support and respect.

I want to do more to support them. So, Arghand soap will be featured with a discount from Friday, November 27th through Thursday, December 24th.   I’ll take for a little less to make your holiday shopping more affordable in the hope that you will buy a little more of their wonderful product.   

Arghand has always had it’s share of challenges, but not as overwhelming as the ones they have just worked through.

The Canadians had recently withdrawn their consent to ship Arghand products through their APO.  As Jennie prepared to go to Kandahar to help find a way to ship out a backlog of supply, three men in the cooperative confronted Sarah Chayes, the founder, about deteriorating safety in Kandahar.  Since the corrupt election in August, resurgence of the Taliban (who are now blending with the local populace), and renewed violence, they had decided the danger of working for Arghand had become too great.

As always, the Taliban had it in for those Afghans who were known to collaborate with foreigners, or worked for the government, and the daily reports of murders kidnappings, suicide attacks and bomb blasts became especially worrisome when the victims started to be neighbors and friends – Jennie Green

They wanted to dissolve the cooperative and distribute the assets evenly among the members, so that they could take their nest eggs and begin again, perhaps in a safer places, even Pakistan.

After many days of painful discussion, Sarah and Jennie convinced the three men to stay on at the cooperative as they put it into “survival mode.”  For six months the cooperative will be operating at reduced capacity as they attempt to remain under the radar and hope for the situation to improve. 

We have a growing history with Arghand since we started carrying their soap in the fall of 2007.  You’ve helped us provide income for them as we continue to reorder.  More than a dozen Afghans, mostly women, are supported, at least in part, by Arghand. 

Jennie assures me there is plenty of supply for the holidays, thanks to the backlog that had built up before shipping resumed.  We just got another box with all of their soap varieties and more pebbles are on the way. 

We badly want to succeed.  We don’t want to surrender our years of hard work to a sinister enterprise. – Jennie Green

They have not surrendered.  As long as Arghand survives, I know there is hope for the Afghans. 

Keep shopping your good values.

You’re an early bird. You’re already thinking about the holidays and gift giving.

Well, we’re definitely here to help you stay ahead. “I never shop this early for presents,” one of the customers said just the other day, “it sure is a good feeling.”

We’ve got delicate ornaments and unique handmade nativities to get you off to a good start.  Our online store is full of great gift ideas including jewelry, tableware, bath and body products, and lots more. 

And don’t forget our best seller, irresistible Arghand soaps in wonderful varieties.  

Keep shopping your good values!

That’s what is posted on a small sign outside the retail greenhouse in our village of Gays Mills, Wisconsin, where we live.

It’s not your usual come on for a retailer. If I said it to you as you passed our shop on the sidewalk, I would be rude and insenstive. Still, I chuckle to myself everytime I see it.

We live in a village of 625 and counting down — but that’s another blog post.  Anyway, if we want the greenhouse to stay open, we have to walk in and spend money, regularly.  The greenhouse owner knows that, and we know that, so that’s why that little sign is posted near his front door, and why I see it when we stop each spring and fall to buy plants. 

The same is true of any business, whether it’s down the steet from you or not.  The technologies of travel and information exchange have made new forms of community possible and real.  In many ways, the Fair Trade community would not be possible if not for speedy travel and instant communications.  It’s allowing me to talk to you, a member this particular community, even if I never met you before.  

But just because we have a global reach doesn’t mean we don’t need you to survive and thrive.  We have a little community too, it’s just spread out over four or five continents and we all have to support each other.

So, let’s take a look at that sign again: 

“Get in here and buy something!”

… and keep shopping your good values!

Arghand Cooperative, maker of wonderful soaps, body oils, and scarves in Afghanistan, is once again facing a big challenge. So many of you have purchased their products, so I thought you would appreciate an update.

Until recently, the Canadian Military was allowing the cooperative to use their postal service at Kandahar Air Field to deliver product to North America.  Suddenly, they shut down that option without explanation.  The cooperative has been scrambling to find an alternative.  Word is they have uncovered some promising leads.

Unfortunately, hundreds of packages of Pebbles (my favorite item) are waiting in Kandahar for a way to our store and others.  That’s why they are currently unavailable on our website.  We still have plenty of single pieces in great varieties like Desert Fields and Pomegranate.

The good news is that the solar power system, so long in coming, is up and running! The 14 members of the cooperative are no longer at the mercy of the local power grid, so they can run their oil presses and other equipment whenever needed.  This means Arghand will be able to produce body oils again.

Here are a couple of photos.  On the right are the new solar panels on the roof.  On the left, Abd Al-Ahad and Bacha work on the installation.

Keep shopping your good values!

Congratulations! You are making a difference!

Flying in the face of a global recession, you grew the Fair Trade business last year. In the U.S., sales of Fair Trade Certified products gew by 10 percent, according to the Fair Trade Foundation in the United Kingdom.

We weren’t even the strongest supporters of Fair Trade. Consumers in Australia and New Zealand spent 72 percent more on Fair Trade products, the highest of any group. Canada increased spending by 67 percent and seven countries increased spending by more than 50 percent. The Brits spent 43 percent more and exceeded the U.S. in spending for the first time.  

What were you buying with all that money? Tea sales rocketed up by 112 percent, cotton products rose by 94 percent, and coffee gained 14 percent in sales.  

Most importantly, how many were you helping by spending dollars to support sustainable production, living wages, and community building? At the end of last year, there were 746 Fair Trade Certified producer organizations representing over a million and a half farmers and workers.  

Good job!

Keep shopping your good values.

Last fall I was lamenting to a friend and customer about the state of the economy. He said he didn’t think it had anything to do with the amount of money available, but everything to do with the velocity of money.

I understood what he meant right away. There is still money out there. Lots of it, in fact.  The country is awash in stimulus money from residential energy grants, to new infrastructure projects, to cash for clunkers, and that’s just the tip of the pile. 

Main Street needs it’s share of that new money.  As an accelerator of dollars, there is none better than your local downtown businesses. For every $100 spent, about $63 gets recycled through local hands like yours and mine.  

That’s the beauty of the program known as the 3/50 project.  It’s brilliantly simple.  Think of three independently-owned businesses that you would miss if they closed.   Stop at each one and say hello while you pick up something that will make someone smile. 

If you spend a total of just $50 at three independently-owned businesses each month you can help keep them open.  If just half of all the employed in the U.S. spent that much each month it means local businesses would benefit from $42.6 billion in revenue. 

We’re all getting back to basics and there’s nothing more basic than local brick and mortar.  Don’t forget to visit the one’s near you.

Keep shopping your good values!