Fair Trade/Fair Food Symposium to Explore The Face Behind the Label

In this era of global economic interdependence, decisions made in the United States about what to eat, drink, wear and buy affect the lives of people in other countries—textile workers in Asia, farmers in Africa, artisans in Latin America.

The Fair Trade and Fair Food movements seek to raise awareness of these tenuous relationships and other aspects of conventional trade that often exploit women, children, the poor and vulnerable.

Spiritan Campus Ministry, in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services, the Office of Mission and Identity and the Charles Owen Rice Lecture Series, will introduce the campus community to these issues in a day-long symposium. The Face Behind the Label: Exploring the Dignity of Work Through Fair Trade and Fair Food Practices will be held on Tuesday, March 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom.

The symposium features speakers on topics including fair trade and Catholic social teaching, the fair trade supply change, labor rights and advocacy, as well as lunch, a movie screening and a Fair Food reception and networking session.

The work of local and national fair trade businesses and advocacy groups such as the Worker Rights Consortium, Coalition of Immokalee Workers/Student Farmworker Alliance (CIW/SFA) and Women of the Cloud Forest will be highlighted, said Matt Walsh, assistant director of Spiritan Campus Ministry.

“The symposium serves as an overview of fair trade and fair food practices and, as the title suggests, puts a human face on the people who produce our food, clothing and other goods,” Walsh said. “Raising awareness and inspiring action around these issues is an expression of the joint Spiritan and University mission of promoting sustainable relationships and human dignity.”

Walsh said the hope is for students, faculty and others to learn simple ways in which they can help change unjust commerce systems, like buying local and Fair Trade Certified products, and in turn, positively impact the lives of people in developing countries.

Students can also get more information about joining groups including Duquesne Students for Fair Trade and Fair Food or participating in a Cross-Cultural Mission Experience trip to Immokalee, Fla., to assist agricultural workers in the fight for fair pay.