This past March, I visited a coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico, to meet with organizers of CESMACH (Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas), a coffee cooperative in the southern highlands of Chiapas. I was with a delegation of other Alternative Trade Organization representatives, on a trip sponsored by Equal Exchange, the oldest fair trade coffee importer in the United States.

By being part of a Fair Trade cooperative, the 350-plus CESMACH member farms are able to support their families and provide education for their children while avoiding pesticide use and other harmful farming practices that could ruin the land. There are few other opportunities or industries in this part of the world that can guarantee that. CESMACH farmers live on the edge of a UNESCO protected biosphere, El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, in the cloud forest that borders the sacred rain forest. This is one of Mexico’s largest tracts of such environments and is home to one of the most diverse arrays of tree species in North and Central America. The farmers are natural stewards of the land: They rely on it for a significant amount of their food, and they take pride in living in such a special, pristine place. It is their home, and their sole resource for livelihood and independence.

I was awed to take in their specific knowledge of the landscape, and to see how they farm in the jungle. Coffee growing there involves crafting tiers of palm and other trees that adequately provide shade for the delicate coffee trees. And scaling a mountain everyday just to get to the coffee trees! To read more about my Chiapas adventures and reflections, check out our co-op newsletter, the Coop Scoop.

Lately I’ve read and listened to a lot of debate that positions the Fair Trade movement against the Local Foods Movement: Shrinking one’s carbon footprint should mean avoiding imports, sourcing locally, or going without. I agree with so many aspects of extreme localism but I don’t see people giving up coffee (including myself!) or chocolate, tea, tropical fruits — or sugar, for that matter. My favorite motto-to-self while shopping is, “local first, but Fair Trade for all things I can’t get from my personal bio-region.”

For the aforementioned “staples” I encourage customers to think about their purchases, and choose Fairly Traded products: They are greening and protecting important places and people throughout the world. They typically cost a small amount more than mass traded products, but the quality of Fairly Traded and organic products is often superior to those conventionally grown and traded. Things always taste better to me when I know that they were produced with love and respect, and when the producer him or herself is getting what he or she needs for their labor.

Transfair, a leading certifying agency of Fairly Trade products, explains Fair Trade like this: “Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.” Fair trade practices include not only a fair price to growers, but fair labor practices, sustainable agriculture, and community reinvestment. (click here for more information.)

International World Fair Trade day is celebrated each year on the second Saturday of May. This Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Honest Weight will take part, offering samples of fairly traded coffee from Equal Exchange, fairly traded bananas from Oké USA — dipped in fairly traded, melted chocolate — and other great-tasting, direct or fairly traded product. At 2:30 p.m., you can sit in on a presentation in our Community Room about Fair Trade and how, as a community, we can support the ideas and practices behind it. All are welcome to attend any part of the event, free of cost.

About the author: Karisa Centanni is the education coordinator at the Honest Weight Food Co-op, a member owned and operated natural foods grocery store on Central Avenue in Albany. For more information, click here.

For more information about World Fair Trade Day, click here. For more information on CESMACH, click here.

What’s your take on Fair Trade products? Comment below, or email greenpoint@dailygazette.net.