Right now, we’re mostly prepping for September’s Fair Trade Festival, again adjacent to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. Make sure you’ve saved the date: Sunday, September 28th. And there is still plenty of planning to be done - join us at an upcoming meeting! (Contact Joan Harper at (213) 637-7560 or jbharper (at) la-archdiocese (dot) org for more information. Or join on Yahoo Group - link at right.)

But you can also join us this Sunday, August 17th at Sustainable LA, part of the Downtown LA Film Festival. We’ll be among the vendors and other interesting folk gathered along Grand Avenue from noon-6. Stop by and say hello on your way to a free panel or film!

First and Foremost: Join us for the Next FTLA Meeting:

TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008 at 7 pm
First Baptist Church of Los Angeles(LA VOICE office)
760 South Westmoreland Ave., Ste. 336 , Los Angeles , CA 90005 (map)

Secondly, Join our new MeetUp:

Our FTLA Meetup group has been established! !! Please login and join the group.
If you are unfamiliar with Meetup, it is an expanding network of people who come together around a certain interest, in their words: “A Meetup is a group of people who share a common interest or cause and meet regularly face-to-face. There are thousands of Meetups for thousands of interests! And there are Meetups all across the world! Meetups are about real people meeting in the real world!”

Go to http://www.meetup. com/ and do a search for Fair Trade (in L.A. of course) to join us on the site.

Some of the topics we discussed at our last meeting:

Santa Monica Festival- “REVEL WITH A CAUSE” ~~ Saturday, May 10^th
festival hours are 11am-6pm (set up begins at 7:30 am)
We’re looking for volunteers to staff the booth. E-mail fairtradela@yahoogroups.com if you’re interested.

Possible Fair Trade Day events to promote Jackie DeCarlo’s Introduction to Fair Trade. More info coming soon!

Two chances to see some fair trade coffee - and peace! - in action. Fair Trade LA hosted an event with coffee farmers from the Mirembe Kawomera cooperative in March 2006. Two years later, they’re back in town and are not to be missed. Here’s the info:

Contact: Cambria Smith, (81 718-6460 ext. 3011, csmith (at) vic-la (dot) org

Fair Trade LA hosted a meet & greet at USC over the weekend. We had tables from Ten Thousand Villages, Anti-Body, Colombian Peace Project, and Hunger Action Los Angeles - as well as goodies and beautiful fair trade roses!

We had a lively discussion about fair trade, and how to share the word with friends and neighbors. We also talked about how to address apparent contradictions between green/local/organic/fair trade movements.

Make sure you’re able to join us for these events by joining our e-mail list: e-mail fairtradela-subscribe (at) yahoogroups (dot) com.

Get Fair in 2008!

Come find out about FTLA and meet others who are interested in the Fair Trade movement.

Help us plan our 2nd Annual “Just Lives” Festival.

Enjoy FT products for purchase, food and live music!

Sunday, February 10, 2008
3pm-5pm

United University Church (UUC)
at the University of Southern California
(Parking entrance on W. Jefferson Blvd. at S. Hoover St. Free street parking also available)

We’ll see you there!

Join us for our next Fair Trade LA meeting!

We need to plan our direction, leadership and activities for the new year. We also have the opportunity to be at Ten Thousand Villages in Pasadena - thanks to Sam for hosting.

Date: Tuesday, November 13th, 7:00pm
Ten Thousand Villages, 496 S. Lake Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101

The meeting is also a great chance to do a little shopping and in particular to pick up some of the great Just Lives Festival shopping bags (they make great gifts!). We’ll see you there!

Thanks to everyone who attended the Just Lives Festival on September 30th! Close to 1000 people learned about fair trade issues, sampled and bought products, and enjoyed some great music.

Fair Trade LA (and our site) have been recovering since then - and enjoying Fair Trade Month in October. During that busy month, lots of new developments in Fair Trade. Here are a couple to get you caught up:

• check out the Fair Trade Resource Network’s events calendar
• the Fair Trade Towns campaign has launched here in America. Media, PA and Brattleboro, VT are the first US towns, with Amherst, MA set to join them. (In Canada, Wakefield, Quebec is about to become their country’s second Fair Trade Town.)

FAIR TRADE LA’s JUST LIVES FESTIVAL

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Don’t miss Fair Trade LA’s Just Lives Festival!

Sunday, September 30^th
at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market
(at Selma & Ivar)

Supporting Fair Trade, Sweatshop Free, and Local Economies

You want your shopping dollars to support workers. Fair Trade ensures producers fair wages, decent working conditions, and the change to provide a better life for their families and communities. Learn more about where and how you can buy Fair Trade, Sweatshop Free, and local. Plus lots of products available for purchase: bath and beauty, apparel, crafts, jewelry, coffee, chocolate and MORE!

Plus a talk by Jacqueline DeCarlo, author of Fair Trade: A Beginner’s Guide, at Groundwork Cafe (1501 N. Cahuenga , at Sunset Blvd.) at 10:00am.

Live performances at the festival by The Dishes, Son del Centro, and more.

Fair Trade LA thanks our sponsors:
Amoeba Music
Anti-Body
Catholic Relief Services
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Hunger Action L.A.
L.A Film School
Office of Justice and Peace
Oxfam
Ten Thousand Villages
Transfair

Fair Trade LA is a coalition of concerned citizens and groups in the Los Angeles who have come together with a common goal: social and environmental justice around the world. We work to educate the public and business about Fair Trade and to promote Fair Trade products in Southern California.

Coming? RSVP to our Evite and share it with your friends!

And check us out on Facebook and MySpace!

Download flyers for the Festival: FTLA Festival flyer

or in Spanish: FTLA Festival flyer_espanol

(reposted from Fair Trade Federation)

Gearing up for Fair Trade Month this October but feeling a little uninformed about Fair Trade? Check out this new book by Jacqueline DeCarlo, “Fair Trade: a Beginner’s Guide.” Stressing Fair Trade as a positive alternative to poverty, environmental destruction, and human exploitation, this book is packed with inspiring ways to make a difference. With comprehensive coverage of Fair Trade principles, Fair Trade’s evolution into a powerful economic and social justice tool, and ways to become personally involved, this book will encourage readers of all backgrounds to help strengthen global trade justice and buy socially responsible products.

Visit Jacqueline’s blog for even more of an introduction to the basics of Fair Trade.