Updates•
on August 4th, 2010•
The fair trade movement is growing. The term “fair trade” has become commonplace in public discourse, and you’ve probably started to see a wide range of fair trade products become available at mainstream retailers. The data suggest growth as well. In 2008, worldwide fair trade certified sales amounted to approximately US$ 4.08 billion, a stunning increase from 2000, when fair trade certified sales amounted to only US$ 364 million. Moreover, we can expect to see the industry experience significant growth in the coming years. According to the 2005 Just-Food Global Market Review, sales from fair trade certified products should reach US$ 20-25 billion by 2020.
But despite all the promising indications concerning the growth of fair trade – a trade practice that many observers believe can promote corporate social responsibility and correct the global market’s failure to equitably distribute profits to marginalized and disadvantaged laborers and craftsmen – some have raised legitimate concerns that, as it grows, the fair trade system will be exploited by organizations that seek to reap the benefits of the fair trade label without incurring any of the costs that come with adopting fair trade practices. It is for this reason that I want to explain to you how Mercado Global does fair trade and why it is one of the pioneers of
truly fair trade fashion.
Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), which was established in 1997, is an association of producer networks and national labeling initiatives that promote and market the Fairtrade Certification Mark around the world. FLO’s certification body is responsible for creating certification requirements and granting fair trade certification to eligible organizations. Unfortunately, FLO almost exclusively grants fair trade certification to food products (although it recently adopted price floors for gold and seed cotton). While this helps fair trade farmers who are guaranteed a fixed price for their labor regardless of market fluctuations, the FLO does not guarantee that fair trade fashion companies are giving their workers a fair deal.
In the near future, the fair trade fashion industry will need a strong regulatory committee to oversee its actions, grant hard-earned fair trade certifications to conscientious organizations, and deny certifications to organizations that fail to demonstrate responsible practices. With the current system, however, it is up to the fair trade fashion organizations, like Mercado Global, to develop self-regulatory standards that are universally regarded as fair, and inform their consumers of the process by which they make trade fair.
Mercado Global has developed a system that is based on constant communication with its partner cooperatives to determine a wage that is not just “fair,” but will also ensure that our partner artisans earn enough income to provide food for their families, send their kids to school, improve living conditions in their homes, and work on development projects in their communities. Mercado Global ensures that the skilled artisans with which it partners earn not just minimum wage, but three times the income they could make if they sold their crafts in Guatemalan tourist markets.
It is important to us that you, our costumers and supporters, understand that our fair trade practices adhere to the highest ethical standards. We are working tirelessly to use the revenue we create to decrease poverty in Guatemala’s highlands and improve the communities with which we partner. Mercado Global is proud of its position as one of the vanguard organizations in the fair trade fashion movement, and you can be proud to purchase fair trade from Mercado Global, knowing that you, too, are helping us build a better world.
Updates•
on June 5th, 2010•
Order gleevec no prescription, [caption id="attachment_1011" align="alignright" width="297" caption="San Antonio Palopo community members look for bodies in the wreckage of a mudslide. Cheapest capecitabine in the world, "]
[/caption]
A strong and destructive tropical storm hit Guatemala this past weekend. Rather than recount the horror it wrought, I refer you this link, cheap iressa, Buy cheap evista online, which provides a sense of the stress this country has faced over the past few days. The pictures featured in the article are all from within 25 minutes of Guatemala City. There has been very little coverage of the damage to the highland communities in which we work. This region has been hit even harder than the capital.
The sun finally came out on Tuesday and we immediately began efforts to bring relief to our partner communities in Guatemala that suffered the most from the fury of Tropical Storm Agatha. In the U.S, ordering cytoxan online cheap. Acquistare online epogen, we started raising the funds needed to purchase and distribute relief items, and in Guatemala we began contacting our community partners to assess the needs and plan distribution. This is the first natural disaster I've experienced in Guatemala, Iowa IA, Order evista online, and I was shocked and frustrated to witness such a lack of infrastructure in this country to deal with events such as these. However, I have also now seen that the most effective mechanism this country has to recover from this level of destruction is not the government, ordering capecitabine online legally, Ordering capecitabine online cheap, but the goodwill of individuals and community groups who are moved to selfless acts.
[caption id="attachment_1012" align="alignleft" width="230" caption="San Antonio community groups and Mercado Global Guatemala staff working together to organize the 2, pharmacie zometa bon marché, Osta alennus iressa, 500 pounds of relief items for displaced families."]
[/caption]
The immediate response from supporters in the U.S. enabled us to make our first impact in San Antonio, one of the two Lake Atitlan communities that suffered the most severe damage, order gleevec no prescription. On Tuesday we contacted the leader of MG’s partner cooperative in San Antonio who came to our office accompanied by the town’s school director, acheter gleevec, Florida FL Fla., Tru, to discuss what the town needs and how we can help. Our Guatemala operations manager, South Carolina SC S.C., Comprare casodex sconto, Lidia, and our Executive Director, buy casodex cheap, Ostaa halvalla gleevec, Ruth, worked as a team with the local leaders and decided we would deliver bags containing three weeks worth of basic necessities to the 57 families that had lost nearly everything, Alaska AK, Wisconsin WI Wis., including many family members. The next day, our team of six in Panajachel met with the San Antonio cooperative and school committee, epogen no prescription, Comprar epogen barato, and together we distributed hundreds of pounds of basic necessities to the displaced families. Everyone carried the heavy bags of food up the mountain into the heart of the town, where the families were temporarily camped out with relatives and in municipal buildings, Florida FL Fla.. Um evista online, Mercado Global’s model is successful because of the strong partnerships we have in both the U.S. and Guatemala, Jotta gleevec verkossa, Cheapest gleevec online, and because we are able to connect our partners and work together to have meaningful impacts. Our relief efforts worked the same way.
[caption id="attachment_1013" align="alignright" width="381" caption="Panajachel team and San Antonio team in assembly line loading the goods onto a boat to take across Lake Atitlan to San Antonio."]
[/caption]
Our Guatemala staff was able to work with dependable and trustworthy leaders in the communities to assess the needs and plan a quick and efficient distribution process. We were able to bring food in quickly and get it into the hands of those who needed it the most because Mercado Global works directly with community organizations throughout the highlands, including cooperatives and local school committees. We already have the perfect distribution network and relationships with community leaders we know we can trust – all we needed were the funds, and our supporters in the U.S. Order gleevec no prescription, quickly responded to that need. San Antonio community members were able to guide us in ensuring funds from the U.S. were used to save lives and begin the rebuilding process within its own community. We are so grateful to everyone, both in the U.S. and Guatemala, for helping us bring hope to the community of San Antonio.
[caption id="attachment_1014" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="A mother and her child in San Antonio receive a bag of relief items, order gleevec no prescription. This was the first food shipment to reach this town after the storm. "]
[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_1015" align="alignleft" width="265" caption="MG Operations Manager, Lidia, giving three weeks worth of food and other much needed items to a mother who lost nearly everything in the storm. "]
[/caption]
.
Similar posts: Order casodex no prescription. Buy cheap gleevec online. Order cheap arimidex online. Goedkope casodex apotheek. Purchase epogen.
Trackbacks from: Order gleevec no prescription. Order gleevec no prescription. Order gleevec no prescription. Rabatt kaufen cytoxan. Ordering arimidex no rx.
Subscribe to Posts