Time Out Chicago / Issue 115: May 10–16, 2007

The fairest of them all

Can Chicago celebrate World Fair Trade Day every day? One woman thinks so.

By David Tamarkin
Photographs by Martha Williams

“What would the U.S. version of a fair-trade city look like?” That’s the question Nancy Jones is asking. And though for most people “fair trade” is just another label you see on a bunch of hippie food, Jones has envisioned an answer: She thinks it would look a lot like Chicago.

Designating Chicago as the country’s first official fair-trade city is a long way off, but it’s not for lack of trying. Last year, Oxfam America—the domestic outpost of the international antipoverty organization—noticed a fair-trade movement burgeoning in Chicago, and decided to throw some resources our way. It hired Jones to head up a fair-trade advocacy group. In June, that group, Chicago Fair Trade, had its first meeting with 24 members. Today, less than a year later, that number has climbed to 40.

Most people associate fair trade with coffee, if they associate it with anything at all. But coffee is only one of the products that can be certified fair trade. (Key tenents of the fair trade movement include fair wages; environmental and economic sustainability; and direct, long-term relationships between buyers and sellers). At Sat 12’s Fair Trade festival (see Around Town listings), CFT will showcase products from several of its members. Of these members (most of which are businesses in Chicago and the surrounding area), a surprisingly small percentage are involved with coffee. In fact, many aren’t involved with food at all; most deal with items such as soaps and crafts. Jones says CFT is focusing on these products “because we think the stories behind the producers are the strongest. Those stories are the selling point for fair trade.”

Restaurants may not be CFT’s focus, but the movement is taking hold in Chicago’s food community nonetheless. Beyond coffee shops like Swim Café, which has been committed to fair-trade coffee for some time, two South Loop restaurants—Zapatista and Chicago Firehouse—have approached Jones about “going fair trade.” The process starts with serving fair-trade coffee, but the restaurants hope to move on to other ingredients, such as chocolate, tea and sugar. Until they do, other Chicago businesses will step in to fill the void. Whole Foods, which recently announced that it would build its biggest store in Lincoln Park, just unveiled its Whole Trade program, whereby it’s working with fair-trade certifier TransFair to guarantee that products ranging from  rice to bananas are traded fairly. And the American Friends Service Committee is bringing in a fair-trade olive oil from Palestine, available at its office (637 S Dearborn Ave between Polk and Harrison Sts, 312-427-2533) or at the booths it sets up at festivals around the city (see the Festival Guide in this issue for listings).

Still, a strong interest alone in fair trade will not make Chicago the first fair-trade city in the country. Jones is starting to look at the possibility of the City Council passing a resolution that would encourage national fair-trade businesses to come to Chicago and to commit the city to buying fair-trade products when available (like the rice served at a mayoral luncheon, for example). She knows it won’t be easy, but she recently convinced the Department of Environment to buy fair-trade coffee for its office. It’s a small victory, but she’s optimistic. “Step by step,” she says, “we hope [the movement] will spread.”