My friend Carmen runs the Fair Trade Federation. Although I can’t attend this year (new team member on the way), she asked me to let you know their annual conference is sure to be a worthwhile event.
FTF is inviting interested retailers, wholesalers, and friends to the 2007 conference – Changing Hands: The Work of Fair Trade - in [...]
Archive for April, 2007
Fair Trade Federation conference
April 26, 2007Producer profile for our manufacturer
April 25, 2007The FLO writes a Producer Profile for each new organization that they certify to be Fair Trade. This is the one for Talon, our manufacturer in Pakistan.
It was written in June 2006, the summer before we launched Fair Trade Sports. The company noted in the profile called FairDeal Trading is my friend, business partner, and personal [...]
Reviewing us on SustainLane
April 18, 2007There is a wonderful site called SustainLanewhich makes it easy for consumers to “go green”.
It’s a community-powered directory of green products, businesses, and user reviews.
I read about SustainLane recently in LOHAS Journal, and serendipitously my friend Sami at The Change pinged me today.
He suggested we ask our consumers to pop over to write a [...]
Celebrating Earth Day
April 16, 2007In celebration of Earth Day (April 22), I’m pleased to announce all Fair Trade Sports balls are now being equipped with certified latex by the Forest Stewardship Council.
FSC certification is the same eco-label you see on other forest products at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Kinko’s. Products bearing the FSC logo guarantee that the product (in our case, [...]
Using essays to fight child labor
April 13, 2007As we mentioned earlier, the International Labor Rights Fund held a contest for students over the Easter | Passover holiday to speak out against child labor in the cocoa industry through essays and art.
The winners received a fairly
traded youth soccer ball.
Congratulations to the winning students, and thank you to everyone who entered!
First prize: Third [...]
Social Venture Competition winner
April 12, 2007Yesterday I had the honor of being a judge at Seattle Pacific University’s first ever Social Venture Plan Competition.
The winning team was a dynamic group called Care for Kids, led by a charismatic young man named Karman Tandon. This guy’s level of salesmanship was outstanding.
His passion for helping children in Zambia and Uganda was obvious, [...]
Special offer for World Fair Trade Day
April 11, 2007The Fair Trade Resource Network (FTRN) raises consumer awareness about improving people’s lives through Fair Trade alternatives. They just launched a special offer as part of World Fair Trade Day, May 12, 2007.
When you contribute $100 or more to FTRN, we’ll give you a Fair Trade Sports soccer ball to organize your own Fair Trade soccer game on [...]
Transfair USA and sports balls
April 10, 2007Since I came from the world of Fair Trade coffee, alot of folks ask me if I have that little black and white mark on my sports balls from Transfair USA.
The short answer is “not yet” as Transfair USA does not yet certify anything other than agricultural commodities, such as bananasand tea.
All our fairly traded sports [...]
Teaching tool for Fair Trade
April 6, 2007From our friends at Oxfam America comes this wonderful teaching tool to help both the young and old learn about the principals behind Fair Trade in a fun and memorable manner.
What a great educational game to use with a fairly traded soccer ball to demonstrate how global trade rules put some countries at a disadvantage!
Speaking of education, [...]
