May is Fair Trade Month and Saturday is Fair Trade Day.
If you look up the flag pole at Market Square you'll see the Fair Trade flag flying. Guelph is officially a fair trade town.
About 20 people turned out Friday at noon for a fair trade flag raising and fair trade awareness raising event at Guelph City Hall. A large, thick chocolate cake made entirely from fair trade ingredients was served.
Members of J.O.E (Jobs, Opportunites and Enterprise), an organization that fosters employment skills and opportunities for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, were there. The group is well known for serving fair trade Planet Bean coffee and other fair trade products at the library and at community events.
From May 12-14, Planet Bean is participating in the World Fairtrade Challenge, and will be counting all the cups of its coffee that get consumed over those three days. Last year, 5,825 cups were counted, and this year the cooperative coffee roaster and local cafe chain hopes to surpass that total.
Sarah Martin, a volunteer with Fair Trade Guelph, set out a number of fair trade products at the event, including bunches of bananas. She said there are 45 local retail outlets that feature fair trade products in Guelph, including grocery stores, coffee shops, clothing stores, and restaurants.
She said that larger local businesses are starting to get into the fair trade act.
"When you are a fair trade town it says that you care about how other people in the world live," Martin said. "It makes a significant difference in the lives of those living in the global south."
Fair trade producers form democratically run cooperatives, and receive a guaranteed price and a premium for their product, regardless of what the commodity markets do.
Martin added that fair trade products are of a high quality, and generally organically grown.
To support fair trade, look for the fair trade label on the products you purchase.
