Fair Trade Project
As one way of promoting food sovereignty Cooper Institute has worked in collaboration with the National Farmers Union to investigate the concept of Domestic Fair Trade as the basis for a food marketing system.
In 2008-09, the two organizations successfully completed a one-year project, Fair Trade Food Product Marketing in Canada: Creating a Climate of Awareness and Action. An important part of that project was the research conducted by Susan Fitzpatrick into Domestic Fair Trade organizations and projects in Canada and the U.S. She presented that research at the 2008 annual convention of the NFU in Saskatoon, and at two public workshops, in Kinkora and Charlottetown, in December 2008. The research report, Domestic Fair Trade 2008 is available in hard copy from Cooper Institute. A clear-language community guide to Domestic Fair Trade, principles and practices, Domestic Fair Trade for Food Products - A Community Guideis also available.
A second project has been developed in partnership with the National Farmers Union. It is designed, as a pilot project situated in Prince Edward Island, to engage farming and non-farming citizens in the development of a Domestic Fair Trade marketing system for food products.
An essential element of Cooper Institute's work on Domestic Fair Trade is a South-North exchange of knowledge and commitment based on the successful, though difficult, years of experience in establishing and developing a Fair Trade system in the Caribbean, especially in St Vincent-and-the-Grenadines and Dominica. A series of community meetings about Fair Trade is planned for the fall of 2009; they will feature two guest speakers from the Windward Islands.