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Fair Trade Certified™: A Mainstream Tool to Fight Human Trafficking

Fair Trade Certified™: A Mainstream Tool to Fight Human Trafficking . Texas Abolitionist Workshop, Houston TX, September 24, 2011. What do these companies have in common?. They have all made major commitments to source and sell Fair Trade Certified™ products!. What we’ll cover today….

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Fair Trade Certified™: A Mainstream Tool to Fight Human Trafficking

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  1. Fair Trade Certified™: A Mainstream Tool to Fight Human Trafficking Texas Abolitionist Workshop, Houston TX, September 24, 2011

  2. What do these companies have in common? They have all made major commitments to source and sell Fair Trade Certified™ products!

  3. What we’ll cover today… • What is Fair Trade Certified™? • How “mainstream” has it become? • How does it relate to human trafficking? • What is “Fair Trade for All”? • What are Fair Trade Towns and Universities? • What can you do to help?

  4. What is it? • Worldwide voluntary certification program: • Stakeholder-basedprinciples, criteria, and indicators for improved corporate practices • Third-party independent verification of compliance • A consumer-oriented seal of approval for compliance • Historically, the UL seal one of the best examples:

  5. Leading social and environmental certification systems Assures that wood and paper products come from well-managed forests, not forest devastation Assures that farmers and farm-workers have been paid fairly and have protected the environment… and it fosters both empowerment and community development Assures that seafood has been harvested sustainably, restoring fisheries in the oceans

  6. How does Fair Trade work? • Farmers get certified to FTC standards, subject to annual audits on their continued compliance • Certified farmers are entitled to FTC minimum prices and “social premium” • Companies are licensed to use the FTC logo, but only for products fully traceable to FTC farmers • Consumers find the logo and can be confident about the improved fairness of the products they purchase that carry the FTC seal.

  7. And check out the FSC label on the right-hand side of Ben & Jerry’s packaging!

  8. How “mainstream”? • More than 800 partner companies licensed by FTUSA to sell FTC products in the U.S. • Now more than 10,000 different FTC products in U.S. stores • More than $220 million in additional benefits for farmers and farm workers in recent years • Approx. $1.6 billion in U.S. retail sales in 2010 • Quarterly growth of FTC sales in Q2/2011 up more than 63% in U.S. grocery & specialty chains

  9. Look at just 4 commodities..

  10. Links to trafficking? • Forced labor and (inappropriate) child labor is strictly prohibited by Fair Trade standards, and every certified producer is audited against that standard every year. [Stronger than government enforcement!] • Freedom of association is guaranteed to all workers in FT hired labor situations. • All forms of discrimination are prohibited (incl. race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs) • Any producers found with violations are quickly suspended from the FT system

  11. The BBC “Panorama” story March 2010 BBC story on “Tracing the bitter truth in chocolate and child labour” • Reporter found child slave labor from Burkina Faso in Ghanean cocoa plantations, and tried to link it to Cadbury’s chocolate bars • Cadbury’s sources were all FT certified; farms with child slavery had been suspended, and, he reported: “It means that unlike other chocolate products, Fairtrade cocoa is traceable to the source farm and action can be taken when bad practices are uncovered…”

  12. The problem with Hershey’s ‘GETS “F” FOR FAILING TO REMOVE CHILD LABOR FROM ITS CHOCOLATE PRODUCTION’ • According ‘Report Card’ -- just last week -- from Green America, Global Exchange, and International Labor Rights Fund • Failed to meet a promise of 10 YEARS AGO to eliminate child labor from its supply chain • Recommendation? “Go Fair Trade”

  13. “Fair Trade for All” • New program of FTUSA designed to expand both who benefits from FT certification and how rapidly those benefits grow. Includes: • Expansion of eligibility to more landless farm workers and unorganized producers • Expanding supply of FT products so that more businesses can engage with FT certification • Providing new and greater support to FT farms and communities • Doubling FT impact by 2015

  14. FT Towns and Universities • Most dynamic program for building FT awareness, local engagement, and FT sales • Requirements relatively simple • 24 towns across the USA now certified as FT towns, 50 more in the process, including Houston & Austin >>> Houston RR leading the effort here • FT Universities, 4 so far, formed in similar fashion (UW Oshkosh, UCSD, WKY, and Siena College)

  15. What can you do?? • Support the Houston RR “Fair Trade Houston Campaign” • Sign the petition to Hershey’s to “Go Fair Trade” at www.ilrf.org/cocoa-campaign • Build a Fair Trade Coalition in your college or school • Bring more Fair Trade Certified™ products into your own lives, because: Every Purchase Matters.

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