Dear TransFair USA Donors and Friends,

Happy Fair Trade Month! If you didn't yet know, October marks Fair Trade Month – the most important month for us in leveraging business and consumer support around the country. It seems timely to launch The Fair Trade Harvest, our first Quarterly Donor Newsletter. We are deeply grateful to partner with you in harnessing globalization to be equitable and empowering for people all around the globe.

We are thrilled to share more about the critical impact the launch of Fair Trade Certified™ flowers will have on the hired labor market in Ecuador and other flower producing countries. You'll meet Luz, an inspiring young woman who has taken on a leadership position in her factory to help decide where Fair Trade premiums should be invested. We are also ecstatic to share the great news about Tully's – a national gourmet coffee chain - who has committed to serving only Fair Trade Certified espresso. And we have so much more to share: Fair Trade producers on GoogleEarth (check it out – this is really cool!), the strategic work of our Global Producer Services and, of course, highlights of Fair Trade Month.

We are also truly humbled to shine the spotlight on two of our recent donors, the Goldman Fund who granted us $75,000 for our Business Development work, and Treasa Ewing, an individual donor and Fair Trade pastry chef who is organizing her 2nd Annual Bake Sale for Hope this October 6, in San Francisco. Their visionary contributions are just a few examples of what so many of you are doing to spread the word and expand the benefits of Fair Trade to millions of farming families around the globe.

With deep respect and gratitude,

Paul Rice
President and CEO

October is Fair Trade Month! This marks a significant opportunity for retailers, grassroots organizers, and consumers alike to become involved in a variety of events and activities that enhance the visibility of Fair Trade in their communities and stores. TransFair USA begins preparing for Fair Trade Month in March in order to provide the necessary support to all of those involved in Fair Trade awareness building projects. These preparations include supporting retailers to most successfully increase the sales of Fair Trade products in their stores. For retailers, Fair Trade Month is an annual promotion that breaks sales records year after year. TransFair also prepares months beforehand to help grassroots organizers and consumers find systematic ways of harnessing their creativity as they engage with their communities.

What sort of events can you keep an eye out for this Fair Trade Month? Many companies around the country that sell Fair Trade products are specifically promoting Fair Trade on their websites, setting up demos in retail locations, and organizing events with community groups across the country. Alterra Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee is organizing a month's worth of activities with the local Fair Trade coalition and Divine Chocolate is bringing a farmer from Ghana for a four city tour. Also, TransFair USA is working with organizers in over sixty cities to plan and promote educational events including many product tastings, film screenings and speaking events.

Many local campaigns are beginning to take the steps to declare their cities a  Fair Trade Town. With TransFair's support, two towns have already declared themselves Fair Trade and a new nationwide movement was launched October 1st to further guide towns in this process. All in all, Fair Trade Month offers a genuine opportunity for those involved to bring their community closer together, forge new relationships with consumers and retailers in their area, and create links with farmers in the developing world.

In the mountainous region of Cotopaxi, a predominantly indigenous area of Ecuador, over 80 flower farms employ 15,000 workers.  The 24-year old flower industry is booming, making cut flowers the third largest export for Ecuador, topped only by oil & bananas.  However, the labor practices used in cultivating stems and bouquets for North American and European consumers are far less pleasant than their final product. 

Flower workers, the majority of whom are women, experience unjust working conditions; they face exposure to agrochemicals, sexual harassment, employment insecurity, uncompensated overtime, and unlivable wages on a regular basis.  Many conventional flower farms do not require the greenhouse to be shut down while fumigating nor do they provide protective gear to the workers, with no exception for those who are pregnant; female workers exposed to these chemicals have demonstrated dramatic side effects like cancer and birth defects. 

Read the entire article here.

TransFair USA is proud to collaborate with Google Earth to bring you this exciting new way to discover the farms and producer groups behind your Fair Trade products.  Navigate the globe with satellite images in the new Fair Trade layer and discover over 75 coffee, cocoa, fruit, rice, and tea cooperatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.  Each of the Fair Trade farms found on Google Earth includes a profile of the producer group so you can learn how the Fair Trade price and social premium are affecting their lives.

Viewing Fair Trade farm profiles is easy!

1. Download and install the Google Earth application >
2. Activate the Fair Trade Certified layer in the 'layers palette' (located under the heading ‘Global Awareness’).
3. Look for the Fair Trade Certified logo and click to read the producer group’s profile.
4. After you’ve clicked on the Fair Trade Certified logo once, Google Earth will give you more detail as you continue to explore. Instead of the Fair Trade logo, you’ll now see symbols for coffee, cocoa, fruit, rice and tea cooperatives.  

When you order your espresso drink at any Tully's Coffee store, you can rest assured that you're getting a fair deal. Since September 19th, all espresso drinks sold by the chain and by all licensed operators will use 100% organic, Fair Trade Certified™ coffee beans. TransFair USA has successfully continued to engage with and support Tully's from the time of their initial test-launch of Fair Trade beans in their Bay Area stores to the current company-wide sourcing of all Fair Trade espresso. This is an important and highly public commitment from one of the largest nation-wide gourmet coffee roaster and cafes in the country. The impact of supplying Tully's 138 stores in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho with Fair Trade Certified coffee is undoubtedly affecting the lives of a growing number of farmers and farm workers throughout the developing world. Read more about Tully's switch to 100% Fair Trade espresso here.

To ensure that the farmers and farm workers Fair Trade Certified products are able to seize market opportunities and make greater investments in the sustainability of their operations, TransFair USA has a unique technical assistance program. TransFair USA's Global Producer Services (GPS) staff works with our unparalleled network of industry and nongovernmental allies to coordinate projects that empower participants to overcome barriers to accessing lucrative market segments. GPS's most recent efforts include a variety of projects in Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. These strategic endeavors focus on a range of capacity building skills such as organic conversion, more environmentally efficient coffee processing, and related investments in sustainability and quality.

In Ethiopia, the effects of one GPS project are reaching 81,000 farming families. GPS is working with Sidama Coffee Farmer's Cooperative Union, an association of 41 primary coops, on a large scale effort to strengthen its management capacity, increase the volume of its Fair Trade coffee supply, and institute inventory management systems. In partnership with an on-site volunteer MBA consultant, GPS is also collaborating with the Union to improve sales and reporting systems on the Fair Trade premium that the Union receives. Next steps in the project include designing a co-op governance training curriculum to facilitate the successful organization and growth of this large network of coffee cooperatives in Ethiopia as its volume of Fair Trade coffee increases.

To continue implementing projects like this one as well as expand its outreach and impact, GPS is in the process of identifying new sources of funding for a variety initiatives. One such effort is a project of enormous scale to develop organic and Fair Trade cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon. GPS is currently designing a program that will help more than 100,000 farmers by assisting with certification, converting to organic production, governing and managing producer organizations, and building relationships with international buyers.

The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most important philanthropic institutions, and an innovative force within the environmental and community-development movements.  Over the past 53 years, the Fund has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the Bay Area, the Jewish community and the environment on a global scale by the generous grants they have awarded to many organizations and initiatives working towards these causes.

One of the Goldman Fund’s chief environmental initiatives is to reduce the impact of industry on the environment.  This past March, TransFair USA proposed support from the Goldman Fund for our efforts to promote more responsible sourcing among some of the most powerful companies on the planet.  As large companies wield enormous power, Fair Trade Certification can provide these companies with a powerful tool to ensure the socioeconomic and ecological integrity of their sourcing. The Goldman Fund’s support would ensure that Fair Trade Certification becomes the gold standard for retailers seeking to source more responsibly, and would ultimately reduce the impact of industry on agroecosystems around the global South on an unprecedented scale. 

In response to this proposal, TransFair is extremely honored to have been awarded $75,000 from the Goldman Fund.  TransFair USA sends its sincere gratitude to the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund for playing a key role in making TransFair’s efforts towards sustainable sourcing possible. 

Treasa Ewing’s inspired creativity to build awareness for Fair Trade has thoroughly impressed us here at TransFair USA.  As a socially-conscious gourmet pastry chef in San Francisco, Treasa is familiar with sourcing Fair Trade Certified™ and sustainably-produced ingredients for her sweet creations.  However, after watching “Black Gold”, a particularly revealing movie about the hardships of Ethiopian coffee producers and the impact of Fair Trade, she became determined to engage a broader community in the Fair Trade movement.  Treasa asked herself how she could increase public consciousness about the lives of farmers and farm workers who produce the many goods we use everyday. 

Her vision and commitment led her to organize the first “Bake Sale for Hope” for Fair Trade Day, March 12th, to benefit Fair Trade farmers like those she had seen in “Black Gold”.  In her many delicious treats, Treasa used Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate, sugar, vanilla, and green tea (in her truffles!).  For those ingredients not yet certified, Treasa put in the extra effort to find sustainably-sourced products.  Treasa was astounded by the positive outcome.  Her customers were not only won over by her epicurean expertise, but also impressed to learn about the good intentions and responsible ingredients behind her work.  She then donated the proceeds to TransFair USA.

Treasa has since been planning her second “Bake Sale for Hope”, scheduled for October 6 (that’s this weekend)! To educate her customers about Fair Trade, she will attach flyers from TransFair USA to her baked goods as well as showcase the ingredients on a separate table.  TransFair USA would like to acknowledge Treasa for her hard work and dedication to Fair Trade.  She has shown how Fair Trade can touch a variety of communities in different ways, and done so by finding a personal way to contribute to the Fair Trade movement. 

Can’t make it to San Francisco on October 6? Be part of her Virtual Bake Sale for Hope.

Consider these new and creative ways to contribute to Fair Trade:

• Donate stock to TransFair USA.  Did you know you can donate a gift of stock to TransFair USA?  Giving stock is a great way to give and easy to arrange.  Contact Ginger Daniel in the Development Department at (510) 663-5260 or at development@transfairusa.org
• Host awareness building and fundraising parties.  Fair Trade House Parties, film screenings and product tastings are great ways to raise awareness and educate others in your community about the importance of Fair Trade. We offer tools and materials to make your event successful and fun as well as instructions to help you incorporate fundraising. Be sure to register your event with us so we can support your efforts.
• Shop and search online using the novel tools on TransFair USA’s website.  What do Evo, Good Search, Freepledge, and Econcious Market have in common?  They all donate proceeds to TransFair USA at no cost to you.  Simply use these tools to shop and search online as you normally would.  Read more about how to use these websites here.

We're always working to expand and grow the impacts of Fair Trade on farming communities around the globe as soon as we possibly can. We need your help to do this. Please contact us to learn more about our strategic new projects that would deeply benefit from your financial investment, including our:

•Fair Trade Flowers Launch
•Pilot Studies on New Products – Garments, Diamonds and more
•Market Linkage for Farmers and International Buyers
•Direct Technical Assistance for Farmers in the Field
•Building the Fair Trade Movement in the U.S.

As a non-profit, we are dependent on the generous support of individuals and foundations like you to advance this critical work. We are incredibly grateful. We hope you will continue your financial commitment to TransFair USA. Donate today!

If you have any questions about our work or how your donations are put to use, do not hesitate to contact the Development Department at: 510-663-5260 or development@transfairusa.org.

On Friday, October 26, TransFair USA's offices will be moving, but only across the street. Please make note of our new street address. Our phone, fax, e-mails and website will remain the same:

TransFair USA
1500 Broadway, Suite 400
Oakland, CA 94612