Participate in World Fair Trade Day your way

There are lots of events happening this weekend for World Fair Trade Day, but if you can't make it to one you can still participate your own way.

Mon, May 04 2009 at 12:33 PM EST

This Saturday, May 9, is World Fair Trade Day 2009. People all over the world will be celebrating fair trade with events like The World’s Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break. For a list of many of the events happening on May 9, you can check out Fair Trade Resource Network’s events calendar and scroll down to that date.

The theme in the U.S. for World Fair Trade Day this year is “Everything is better when it’s fair.” When you buy fair trade products, you help agriculture workers all over the world to have a better life.

If you’d like to make a difference this World Fair Trade Day but can’t make it to an organized event, you can do something on your own. You don’t even have to wait until Saturday. These are things you can do every day.

Join in the fair trade coffee break in your own home. It may not count for the official tally, but using fair trade coffee as your every day coffee in your own kitchen is an effective and inexpensive way to support fair trade. Fair trade coffee is one of the most affordable fair trade products.
If you’re out for coffee, purchase the fair trade option. If the coffee shop doesn’t have one, ask the manager to start carrying fair trade coffee and tea products.
Bake it Forward. Bake some goodies made with fair trade chocolate and give them away. You can get a post card to print out to attach to your fair trade goodies from the Bake it Forward website.
Make the wine you drink this Saturday night a fair trade wine. Try Live-a-Little Really Ravishing Red, try one of our Lifestyle blogger Siel’s recommendations, or ask for a recommendation at your wine store.
If wine is not your thing, try the first fair trade beer Peak Organic Brewing Company’s Espresso Amber Ale.
Pick up a container of Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade Chocolate Macadamia ice cream and indulge a little.
Pick up a book about fair trade and learn some more about it. Try Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide or Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival (a book that looks at all sides of fair trade and finds some of them wanting).
If you don’t want to go out and buy a book, read about fair trade online at Fair Trade Federation or Transfair USA.
Go to a grocery store with a good selection of natural and organic foods and hunt down the candy isle. Choose a fair trade certified candy bar and enjoy. Go crazy and buy two. I recommend Divine.
We’re not only celebrating World Fair Trade Day this weekend, we’re also celebrating Mother’s Day. Make mom a basket full of fair trade goodies – coffee, teas, cocoas, wine, and chocolates. Don’t forget the fair trade flowers.