Mexican Coffee Farmers Promote Fair Trade in Chicago; Chicago Consumers Must Assume an Integral Role in Alleviating Global Poverty 5/3/2004
From: Helen DaSilva of Oxfam America, 617-728-2409 or hdasilva@oxfamamerica.org Chicago, May 3 -- Fair Trade leaders and activists will gather at the World Fair Trade Day Fair at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum this Saturday, May 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will highlight what the average citizen can do to make trade fair. The day will feature presentations by expert Mexican coffee farmers and a fair featuring fair trade product vendors. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/campaigncoffee/art6940.html The featured speakers, Policarpo Faustino Garcia Pineda, president of the Mexican coffee farming cooperative CEPCO, and vice-president Librado Osorio Pascual, are from communities that have been devastated by rigged trade rules that benefit rich countries at the expense of the world's poor. For coffee farming families in the cooperative, Fair Trade Certification helps with the overall living conditions in their communities. "Our homes now have electricity and many of our children can attend school because of the impact of Fair Trade Certification" said Pascual. Fair Trade Certified products, ranging from coffee to cut flowers, ensure that producers in poor countries receive a reasonable market price for their crops. In the case of coffee, unfair trade practices, compounded by massive oversupply, have caused the market price of coffee to plummet to approximately $.60 per pound - a rate 50 percent lower than the price of coffee was just 3 years ago. However, Fair Trade Certified coffee growers receive a baseline price of a $1.26 per pound of coffee. Fair Trade Certification enables cooperatives of farmers to provide basic education for their children, healthcare, and electricity and sanitation to their communities. Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign mobilizes consumers to be a voice for farmers, laborers, and factory workers whose livelihoods have been undermined by unfair trade rules. "Fair Trade Certification is an alternative approach to the sale of coffee, tea, clothes, jewelry, and handicrafts that is increasingly becoming more mainstream, putting more of the profit in the pockets of the communities that need it most," stated Lauren Skrundz, spokeswoman for the Chicago Committee for Fair Trade. Event Details -- Location: Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, 1852 West 19th Street -- Time: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. -- Special Presentation: 12 p.m.; Policarpo Faustino Garcia Pineda, president of CEPCO; and Librado Osorio Pascual, vice- president of CEPCO Oxfam America is dedicated to creating lasting solutions to hunger, poverty, and social injustice through long-term partnerships with poor communities around the world. The Chicago Committee for Fair Trade, a network of community, faith, student and academic groups, is dedicated to raising awareness and consumption of fair trade products. Committee members include: Center for Labor and Community Research; Center for Latin American Studies; Chicago Jobs with Justice; Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN); Enlaces America; Faith in Place; Heartland Alliance; Jubilee Economic Ministries; Marketplace India; Nicaragua Solidarity Committee; North Park University Green Team; U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project |