Farmworkers picking apples in southern Minnesota.
Centro Campesino continues to work for the rights of farmworkers and the improvement of their working conditions in Minnesota. Therefore, we are happy to announce we will be hosting the first National Farmworker Conference for Fair Trade. This is a collaboration effort between several organizations including the Farmworker Support Committee (CATA, NJ), Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA, CA), The Local Fair Trade Network (LFTN, MN) among others.
The conference will take place in Owatonna from April 28 April 30, 2007.
In the last decade, an increasing number of farmers and farmworkers in the global South have achieved a significant improvement in their lives by participating in the Fair Trade system. In Fair Trade, small farmers and farmworkers come together in cooperatives, increasing their power and income by trading with ethical consumers and businesses.
In recent years a domestic Fair Trade movement has arisen, with participation from sustainable farmers, food cooperatives, ethical businesses, consumer groups and some farmworker organizations. In order for this work to have meaning and be effective for farmworkers, it is vital that farmworkers become full partners in it. We would like to invite you to the first Farmworker Conference for Fair Trade to explore how farmworkers can best use the tool of Fair Trade to empower themselves and improve their lives.
The conference will include discussion of three main areas:
- Sharing information on how various farmworker organizations are working for workers' rights now.
- Examination of the standards being developed for a domestic Fair Trade label and coming to consensus on what standards should be included.
- Finding ways we can use the idea of domestic Fair Trade to advance our farmworker organizing work.
Organizations and farmworkers from around Minnesota and the country will be coming to Owatonna to participate on this conference. Although such events are very exiting news, we are still struggling to have a reasonable budget. We ask for your support so that we can continue doing the work that you passionately support at the same time that we work together for a better tomorrow where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
Today we ask you for you kind contribution to so we can have a great and successful conference. If you would like to contribute to our first national conference please mail your contribution Payable to Centro Campesino to:
Centro Campesino Inc.
PO Box 525
Owatonna, MN 55060
Please write Farmworker Conference on the memo line.
If you would like more information about the conference or how you can participate, please contact Ernesto Velez Bustos at ernesto [at] centrocampesino.net or call (507) 456-9272.
