On May 6, Fair Trade USA, a third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, announced that Chicago is the largest Fair Trade Town in the United States and the second largest in the world. Chicago has officially met all of the criteria to be declared a Fair Trade Town and joins the ranks of nearly 1,000 Fair Trade Towns throughout the world, including London, Rome, Barcelona and Boston.
The campaign to make Chicago a Fair Trade town has been underway for more than two years; the effort was led by Nancy Jones, director of Chicago Fair Trade.
“As strategies for global stability are being re-assessed, we think the city’s commitment to Fair Trade sends a significant message to our global trade partners that we are concerned about their development as well as our own,” Jones says.
Chicago Fair Trade is a nonprofit organization made up of individuals, businesses, students and NGO’s that are committed to raising awareness and support for Fair Trade within their community in order to make a larger impact on farming communities abroad. There now are 21 Fair Trade Towns in the United States, including Boston, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Madison, Wis., and Burlington, Vt. On June 4, the global Fair Trade community will celebrate the naming of the 1,000th Fair Trade Town. There currently are 40 active campaigns to create additional Fair Trade Towns in the United States, including campaigns in Austin, Oakland, Los Angeles and Seattle.
