The Fair Trade Movie Blog

If you remember the key players from the movie (The Fair Trade), Steven is wonderfully funny, but also heartfelt and passionate about the reasons that they started their fair trade business. A graduate of Azusa Pacific University’s Physics department, Steve was profiled in this wonderful little clip from APU.

On YouTube.

Or here:

Jordan McMahon went to Liberia and filmed a wonderful piece for Anti-Body on their new “Coconut Campaign” for starting a cooperative in Liberia. Watch as Tamara Johnston McMahon (from The Fair Trade movie) describes what is happening, and how we can help out in making this Fair Trade initiative a reality.

On YouTube.

Or here:

This Saturday, May 10, is World Fair Trade Day. Celebrate it with us by joining us for another screening of The Fair Trade movie!

7:00 p.m. at 10,000 Villages Pasadena

Pasadena Ten Thousand Villages
496 South Lake Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
(626) 229-9892

Well, right after the screening today at the Salem Film Festival, a manager from the 10,000 Villages in Salem, OR, announced that they would start carrying Anti-Body products as of today!

We’ll keep you posted on more developments from this weekend!

Or just go over to Anti-Body and pick up one of these cool misters…

Anti-Body’s most recent e-mail update had some information on Tamara’s trip to Liberia:

Anti-Body’s recent trip to Liberia was organized to officially launch Phase One of Cooperation Coconut! Though we’ve been working out details for months, it was the trip that allowed us to start building a relationship with the future employees of the co- operative. Each person has their unique story and we look forward to introducing them to you over the next several weeks so that you too find yourself invested in the lives of those who will provide Anti-Body with fair trade and unrefined coconut oil. (more…)

Fair Trade for All is a book written by Nobel Prize-winning economist and ex-World Bank official Joseph Stiglitz with development expert Andrew Charlton. Because of his background, he dwells on the more “macro” arguments for fair trade, but what is wonderful about his ideas is the “comprehensiveness” of his proposals for changing world economics. Highly recommended. From way back in 2006.

Ben Muse uses arguments from Stiglitz to inform a discussion on unfair tariffs on imports from poorer countries here. Robert Reich (former Labor Secretary) even gets into the discussion in a review of the book for the NY Times, saying that “Stiglitz is worth listening to.” Sage advice.

Someone in Western Africa found a way to salvage a part of the shea tree that was going to waste with all the shea butter being produced: make shea jam from the fruit!

I’d like to try that someday…

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up on these upcoming events, where the Anti-Body folk will be speaking and/or selling product:

Thursday, March 20, at 6:00 p.m.
Panel discussion on human trafficking at Mt. SAC (Mt. San Antonio College)
Sophia B. Clarke Theatre
http://www.mtsac.edu/maps/ [#2 on the map]

Thursday, March 20, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
The Exchange [event info here]
Maranatha High School, 169 S. St. John Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105
Currently, there are 27 million slaves in the world. Join Maranatha High
School in making the community aware of this atrocity, and taking
immediate action to effect change in the world.

Liberia hopes for “more trade, less aid” from Bush | Reuters

So, as President Bush meets with Liberian leaders, so will Anti-Body. And, although he might have more clout, Anti-Body is arriving in Liberia this week with a plan for starting a new co-op in Liberia, to produce fair-trade essential oils for A-B’s skincare line. Exciting! We’ll keep you posted as we get news from Tamara.

Also exciting: we are working on a few screenings in Hollywood, hopefully in April and May. Watch for announcements…

Okay, false advertising. I went to the Fair Trade Beer website, thinking I could order up a couple six packs, and found out about the plight of “Beer Girls” — or beer promotion women in Cambodia, who are employed by one brand of beer to sell nightly in the bars of Phnom Penh and other tourist cities. Their wages are low enough that prostitution oftentimes comes into the mix, and then disease, AIDS, and death. There is now a movement to ensure that these beer companies pay a fair wage to these women — as well as provide safer working conditions — so that these women can live, instead of be assured of dying quickly from disease.

I’ve been to Phnom Penh. It is a beautiful city, and I did not know about this situation while I was there. But the people are wonderful, and it is dismaying to know that large multinational alcohol companies have not stepped up to ensure the health and well-being of their employees.

What can we do? Contact the manufacturers, and ask them to change their practices.