Tag Archives: Global Crafts

Fair Trade Pillar #4: Pay Promptly and Fairly

Most of us can usually come up with a few dollars for lunch or even stepping out. We take it for granted that loose change can always be found. Of course, there are exceptions even in this country. There are way too many people living on the margins in the United States.

In the global south, this is not the exception but quite often the rule. Money is a scarce commodity to be used for essential things like food and shelter. Buying a sandwich for lunch is a luxury. Stepping out is unheard of.

Revy learned very early with our fair trade business the importance of this. We always asked our artisans to keep a sample so that they could make the same product when we re-ordered. Fat chance. The sample was made, and then sold in a local market. We now have to supply photos with our orders and in some instances send a sample from our inventory.

Naturally, if an artisan can’t afford to keep a sample in inventory, they certainly can’t afford to buy raw material for an order. This is one reason that members of the Fair Trade Federation like ourselves send a 50% deposit with each order. It is a great income generator for PNC Bank with these extra wire transfers, but it’s the only way to do business according to the principles to which we subscribe.

In some instances, we supply the raw material ourselves. Earring wires must be stainless steel with an absolute minimum of nickel content and we supply them. In this case, the artisan has zero material costs since the earring itself is usually made from a seed or gourd. Regardless, we still advance 50% to them.

In other instances, the material cost is minimal. Our line of accessories from recycled inner-tubes uses scrap as the main component. Only a small amount is needed for linings, zippers, etc. Again, we advance 50%.

There is an added bonus to this since our payments for most products are mainly compensation for labor.  This has a much greater impact than when the artisan needs to acquire material. The balance is always paid upon shipment.

Compare this with the “free trade” model where the artisan must wait until the product is shipped to get paid. Sometimes, payment can be months or never at all. This is what we mean by “fair.”

Ron and Mary Ober
Revy Fair Trade

The Obers are the founders and owners of Revy Fair Trade, a Cleveland based fair trade wholesale business that imports from fair trade cooperatives in El Salvador. Revy means revitalization. Their emphasis is both on recycling and natural materials. The product line consists of: Jewelry created from clay, bamboo, coconut shells and a variety of seeds.
Handbags dyed with indigo, teak, tree moss and other organic materials.
Recycled materials including plastic bags, glass, used tires and leather scraps.

Check them out at revydirect.com

Fair Trade Federation Annual Meeting – Why should you go?

Let’s face it – the fair trade movement in the United States is small. The good news is that it is growing – really growing. And, it’s powerful! How powerful? Come to the annual Fair Trade Federation (FTF) Conference to find out.

This annual gathering of retailers and wholesalers from across the United States and Canada is an opportunity to network and learn about the movement. This year, it will be in Burlington, Vermont from April 26th to the 28th.

Revy Fair Trade has been a member of the FTF for the past five years, and we’ve never missed a Conference. Besides the traditional greeting of old friends with “hellos and hugs,” the various seminars and workshops are awesome.

I remember many keynotes from individuals such as John Rosenthal, co-founder of Equal Exchange to Stacey Toews of Level Ground Trading. Although the majority of attendees sell crafts, these individuals represent the growing number of farm and food suppliers joining FTF.

If you live in Northeast Ohio, you are extremely fortunate to have the Ohio Fair Trade Network to meet other like-minded individuals. Other parts of the country from Los Angeles to Miami also have regional fair trade associations. Of course, none of them sponsor the best regional show in the country with the Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In & Expo.

It’s true that the Teach-In & Expo provides networking and education, but nothing can beat the lunches, dinners and bar talk at the Conference. If you want to truly feel a part of the national movement, plan to attend. You will come away better equipped to help the cause with both knowledge and motivation.

To learn more about the conference, go to http://www.fairtradefederation.org/ftfconference/ or contact the writer at ronober@revydirect.com. We’ll be glad to answer questions and fill you in on the details.

Peace,
Ron Ober

Ron Ober is the founder and owner of Revy Fair Trade, a Cleveland based fair trade wholesale business that imports from fair trade cooperatives in El Salvador. Revy means revitalization. Their emphasis is both on recycling and natural materials. The product line consists of: Jewelry created from clay, bamboo, coconut shells and a variety of seeds.
Handbags dyed with indigo, teak, tree moss and other organic materials.
Recycled materials including plastic bags, glass, used tires and leather scraps.

Check them out at revydirect.com

Tis the Season to Bake Cookies

Happy holidays! For a solid month we celebrate a succession of holidays, including Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Day. Holidays remind us of our ideals, values, and identity. They offer us an opportunity to re-assess the direction of our lives, they invite us to pay attention to the things that really matter, and they remind us that life is a precious reality to be celebrated and appreciated.

Naturally, the holiday season has also become deeply connected to one of our society’s most sacred acts – consumption. In fact, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are home-grown holy days built around this act. The sacred quality of consumption has turned it into an unquestionable reality, however, it is not a given that our approach to consuming is consistent with our values and ideals.

Perhaps this holiday season could serve as an opportunity to cultivate a more mindful attitude toward consumption. Commerce is fundamentally about relationships. It involves a relationship with the workers in stores and those who run the companies. It also involves relationships that are less visible. It is especially easy to overlook the impact of our purchases on the poor and on the environment. Unknowingly, we can support systems that exploit and objectify the most vulnerable members of our world community. Unintentionally, we can endorse a system that funds and even promotes devastating violence in the poorest parts of our world. Accidentally, we can invest in realities that pollute and degrade the environment, threatening the capacity of current and future generations to benefit, as we have, from the earth.

Buying fair trade products, when possible, is a way to vote for a more just world with our wallets. A fair trade gift sends a message that you didn’t just think about your loved one, but also your brothers and sisters around the world. Baking cookies with fair trade sugar and chocolate chips and serving them with fair trade coffee or tea is a way of celebrating a special time of the year with those we love and a way of celebrating the values that we treasure – dignity, human rights, opportunity, respect for the environment, peace on earth, and good will toward humanity.

Peace,
Dave LaGuardia

David is a theology teacher at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He is also a member of the Ohio Fair Trade Network, advises the Fair Trade Committee of the Walsh Jesuit High School Justice League  and coaches soccer at “the WJ”. Walsh is in the process of becoming a “fair trade high school” through fairtradecampaigns.org, a US program designed to promote fair trade. WJ students want to dig deeper with their fair trade campaign and address systemic oppression at the institutional level. Go Walsh!