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Honor Traditional Farmers on World Fair Trade Day, May 13
World Fair Trade Day 2023 is on Saturday, May 13. This year’s theme, ‘Start Where You Are,’ inspires us all to support small and Indigenous farmers who embrace traditional practices, prioritize people and planet, and put human rights, sustainable and humane agricultural methods, and nutritional value at the forefront.
Fair trade practices empower small-scale farmers to seek equal compensation for their products, which helps to build thriving farms while advancing economic growth and resilience in their communities. In particular, workers’ rights are also protected, ensuring that workers are not exploited and are provided safe and healthy working conditions.
Interview: Fair World Project co-founder Dana Geffner:
In “Shifting the Dialogue on Fair Trade,” from our Journal of Health and Healing, Dana Geffner provides an overview of the challenges facing the fair trade movement and provides recommendations to enable us all to identify brands we can trust.
Fair trade also provides the economic potential for producers to embrace traditional and regenerative organic methods of agriculture. Under fair trade guidelines, the prosperity of people and the planet are integrated with a focus on profit, with healthy soil, healthy food, reduced greenhouse gasses and carbon sequestration as attainable outcomes.
Not long ago, these outcomes were the norm. In the 1930s, Dr. Weston A. Price studied Indigenous communities worldwide that lived harmoniously and sustainably with nature. Guided by the knowledge they developed over millennia, many of today’s fair trade farmers also follow pre-industrial practices and produce foods with nutrient densities similar to those Dr. Price examined nearly 100 years ago!
Regenerative, organic agriculture is making a comeback.
Want to learn more? Tune in to webinars from friends of Price-Pottenger and organic movement originators:
For more information on the relationships between fair trade practices, regenerative organic agriculture, nutrient-dense food, and stronger food systems, please tune in to my talk and many more from nutrition, human, and planet health leaders, May 18–21, during the Food as Medicine Global conference.
Your actions on World Fair Trade Day (and every day) can serve to both honor and help preserve small-scale and Indigenous farming practices and the rich foods they produce. Look for fair-trade-certified producers where you shop; visit your community’s farmers’ market or local farms; and, whenever you can, choose foods grown in harmony with nature.
If, like us, you’re concerned with the quality of the food we depend upon and would like to share your ideas on how together we can procure a more resilient food future, email me at [email protected] (or respond to this email). And please also share how we can support you on your journey to health and well-being.
To your best health,
Steven J. Schindler,
Executive Director