I’m feeling pretty fortunate at the moment, although the story doesn’t start out so good:

This week Katy and I received an email from somebody who was clearly dubious about the value of Fair Trade.  He shared some “supply side” arguments and hinted that maybe Fair Trade was a waste of resources.  I think I addressed his concerns by explaining how the principles of Fair Trade mirror those of Catholic Social Teaching.   I also assured him that the lion’s share of Catholic Relief Services’ budget is dedicated to assisting the poor and vulnerable overseas.   I acknowledged that Fair Trade has its flaws, but I also shared that CRS is committed to a variety of strategies to confront global poverty.

Okay, all in a day’s work, right? Except that’s actually not the case.  Most of my days are FILLED with people who have embraced Fair Trade as a way to express the values of their faith in the marketplace.  The entire economic justice team gets inundated with requests for more information and action items.  Truth is, there are a lot of CRS Fair Trade fans like you out there!

And, now, just in time for World Fair Trade Day on May 9th, you can show your loyalty to Fair Trade with a festive sticker.  Put it on your water bottle, coffee mug, car bumper or bike.  Let others know you believe in Fair Trade and help us promote the CRS Fair Trade website!  To order this free resource, send an email with your mailing address to resources “at” crs.org.  Please let us know how many stickers–up to 20 each person–that you’d like.

And thanks for making my day!

Tags: fair trade, world fair trade day

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:52 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.