Making Trade Work for the Poor...and for Palm Sunday

Baltimore, September 17, 2003 — While trade ministers negotiated at one end of Cancun last week and protesters marched at the other end, a group in the middle was working on alternative economic projects including one that might have caught Jesus' ear: whether the palms that churches use on Palm Sunday can be sold under the terms of fair trade.

Representatives of fair trade organizations, farmers, artisans, universities and faith-based agencies held their Cancun symposium concurrently with the World Trade Organization summit to promote fair trade as a viable, sustainable and credible alternative to free trade. They agreed to expand fair trade markets, establish more cooperatives and advocate with national governments and the WTO to make trade rules work for the poor.

The fair trade palm planners-from Guatemala, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.-decided to stage a pilot project for Palm Sunday, 2004, in order to determine if it is feasible to generate greater income for local communities using traditional methods for palm harvesting; most alternatives to sustainable palm harvest involve clearcutting and ruining the forests.

Sarah Ford, coordinator of the Interfaith Fair Trade Initiative, a project of Lutheran World Relief, gave a report at the meeting on how people of faith in the United States have embraced fair trade products and principles.

"Each week, in churches and synagogues across the U.S., thousands of people consume fairly traded coffee, tea, and cocoa after worship services. These same people are increasingly asking for fairly traded products in local shops," Ford told the symposium. She said that experience in U.S. congregations shows that people will adopt fairly traded products for the benefits they bring to the producers, to communities and to the environment. She also served as a resource person for the palm planning session.