I think at the time I had to restrain myself from asking if she also banned her kids from hearing the story of the feeding on the 5000 in Sunday school, but it was hard not to think about her objection a few months later as I read The Goblet of Fire and its subplot about house elves. As it revealed, food does not magically appear on the tables at Hogwarts, it is prepared by hardworking elves who in the wizarding world are generally kept as slaves. House elves have been so trained to subservience that most of them believe their identity is derived from serving their wizard master. In the books, Hermione commits herself to working for rights and fair pay for house elves. Of course her efforts are ruthlessly mocked by not only her classmates at Hogwarts, but by many readers of the books who found the “rights for elves” subplot to be a silly distraction from the real story.

I know that back in 2000, thinking about the plight of the people who worked to provide me with food was not something I had ever done. Recently out of college, I was quickly learning the hard work required to make my own meals. But at the time the food I bought at the grocery store could have magically appeared on the shelves for all I knew. I might in saying grace thank God for the food and the hands that prepared it, but that never extended beyond the kitchen to those who grew the food or did the backbreaking work of picking the produce. My perspective has changed tremendously over the past 12 years, as I now do my best to be aware of where my food comes from and the conditions faced by the workers who grow it. Sadly, the plight of the poor, mostly immigrant workers who grow our food is uncomfortably similar to that of house elves in the Harry Potter universe. Also similar is the likelihood that one will be mocked if one dares to acknowledge those workers or advocate for their rights.

Thankfully recent films like Food, Inc. and Fast Food Nation have forced people to at least be aware that our food doesn’t magically appear in the grocery store and that the people who grow and process our food are generally treated poorly. But people don’t want to know about such things – because knowledge makes them feel like they may have to do something to change things. If animals are being abused in factory farms and the immigrants who work in those places are treated like animals, it makes it difficult to sit down to enjoy a feast much less mindlessly consume the cheap food such a system produces. So food companies are helping people return to states of ignorance through expensive propaganda campaigns that while acknowledging that our food comes from somewhere do so by presenting idyllic images of family farms without a poor worker or abused animal in sight. While the “happy cows come from California” was perhaps the most extreme example of this sort of misdirection in advertising, McDonald’s proud of our suppliers series is the most recent. If the McDonald’s ads are to be believed, their food comes from dreamlands that look deceiving similar to the average person’s idea of the pastoral landscape of heaven. I don’t doubt that these suppliers work for McDonald’s in some fashion, but Harry Potter seems to do a better job representing reality than these ads. Countless reports reveal the harsh conditions faced by those that grow food for fast food companies, reports that places like McDonalds are now trying to undermine with these ads. But in truth many people would rather believe the lie they’re selling than have to change their eating habits or take the unpopular path of advocating for worker’s rights. As The Meatrix shorts so brilliantly reveal, few people want to take the red pill and know the truth about where our food comes from.

As a bumper sticker on my car says, “the truth will set you free but first it will make you angry.” The McDonald’s ads are constructed to not only hide the truth, but to keep people from ever getting angry. Angry people change the world and the world doesn’t want to be changed. I agree with that mom at the Harry Potter debate, teaching our kids that food appears from some magic place (be that the grocery store or the idyllic family farm from the propaganda images) does them a disservice. Life isn’t convenient or easy despite what the fast food companies would like us to believe and problems don’t magically disappear just because we would rather not deal with them. So when we say grace we need to extend that thanks to all those who worked hard, often with barely any pay, to bring us that food. And, like Hermione, we need to advocate for and embody change – even when it’s unpopular or difficult. But whatever we do, we need to at least embrace the truth instead of being placated with lies.

Now admittedly, this was in Austin, a town whose motto is “Keep Austin Weird,” so there wasn’t too much shock value in our march, but there was a good deal of interest. As we walked through a sports bazaar behind Lance Armstrong’s bike shop, the farmer’s market, a fair for designer dog houses (seriously), and the Gypsy Fair (remember this is Austin), we shared with numerous people about the reason for our march — the launch of the Good & Fair Clothing company.

Over the last few years my friend Shelton Green has had his world turned upside down. Stories of oppression, human trafficking, and unfair labor practices entered his world and changed it forever. He started advocating for justice, doing whatever he could to raise awareness about injustice in our world and what we can do to fight it. But he wanted to do more than just use his voice to help; he wanted to help create alternative systems that subvert oppressive economic systems. Out of that passion was born Good & Fair Clothing.

Shelton created a clothing company to produce basic clothing — underwear, t-shirts — that was both good and fair. He had found a number of companies that made fair or organic specialty clothing, mostly for women, but few that supplied the everyday necessities. He wanted to produce clothing that was good and fair from the ground up. From the growing of the cotton, to the milling, to the sewing — the earth must be treated sustainably and the people who worked in the process had to be treated and paid fairly. His dream is to create clothing that doesn’t hurt anyone and to give consumers total confidence that their clothing is made by hands that are treated fairly. To do so, he partners with various fair trade companies in India.

It was in traveling to India this past summer to visit these companies that his intellectual passion for fair trade took on human form. He quickly abandoned any notion that fair trade grants workers the same life of ease and comfort that most of us enjoy in the states. He saw instead that fair trade is the lifeline out of extreme poverty and allows people to live without fear of whether their families will survive until the next day. He met with the workers who produced the clothes for his company and entered into their lives. Being good and fair moved from being an ideal to the very least consumers could be doing to treat people with respect and dignity. It isn’t charity or a path to riches; it is simply meeting the basic ethical standard for our interaction with other human beings.

Hearing the people’s stories and seeing the basic way fair trade systems affect people’s lives confirmed for Shelton that participating in good and fair economic systems has to be a core part of his faith. The trip to India convinced him that “the systems of our world ought to reflect the ideals of our faith; that being, to love and respect the people who grow our food, make our clothes, and work in so many different ways to provide us the things and services we use every day.” To be Christian is to care, to stand up for ensuring these basic standards for all the people our daily consumer habits bring us in contact with — to put our money where our heart is and shop in good and fair ways.

As Shelton commented, “We are their voice. We are the voice that demands fair and equitable standards from the brands and companies we support with our pocket book. Yes, it is massively inconvenient, hard, time consuming and doesn’t fit with the pace of life in the west, to make ‘buying’ decisions according to this new matrix; a matrix where the treatment and wages of the producers is weighted heavily and given greater importance than simply the cost of goods. How else can we bring about the kind of changed needed to improve the lives of people in our own communities and across the world?”

To support a passion and a calling like that, I had no problem giving a Saturday morning to walk around town in underwear to help get the word out about Good & Fair Clothing. Shelton is helping me put faces to the ideas of justice and giving us all tangible ways to seek justice with something as simple as the underwear we buy.

“I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand of some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

It struck me because just the night before I had witnessed fear and bullying used to silence the voice of justice. I had bought a ticket to attend Austin’s first ever Fair Trade Film Festival sponsored by Austin’s Ten Thousand Villages. They had gathered local fair trade groups and stores for a very festive market and had rented out a local theater to show three films dealing with trade issues followed by panel discussions. One of those films to be shown was the award winning documentary The Price of Sugar which exposes the abuses committed against Haitians working on the sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. But that film ended up not being shown after Ten Thousand Villages received a letter from the lawyers representing Dominican plantation owners Philipe and Juan Vicini. The Vicini family has filed a defamation lawsuit against the film after several attempts to stop distribution of the film. The letter implied that if the lawsuit is won then any group that had chosen to show the film would face possible legal action as well. The powers that be at the non-profit Mennonite ministry decided they could not afford that risk and so chose not to show the film.

Another film was shown and we were treated to hearing from a lawyer from the powerful law firm Patton Boggs as she read a prepared statement on behalf of the Vicini family. The family claims the film shows abuses and deplorable conditions and erroneously alleges that they occurred at plantations and sugar operations owned by the Vicinis. Their main argument is that a main subject in the film, the Rev. Christopher Hartley, who claimed to have discovered the atrocities, was "dismissed" from the Dominican Republic by the Catholic Church and therefore is an untrustworthy source. The lawyer actually told us that we should stop defending “sexy” films like this and focus on real issues in the world instead. When questioned she said that her purpose that night was to ensure that the Vicini’s side of the story was represented, but had no comment when confronted with the fact that their legal actions ensured that only the Vicini’s side got told at this film fest. Also when asked why her firm was defaming the Priest Christopher Hartley, she replied that since his bishop dismissed him there was cause to question his word.

I’ll be honest. Her words so enraged me, I was literally shaking. That money and power can bully those trying to bring justice into this world into silence infuriates me. I fully understand why Ten Thousand Villages backed down; they had to decide if they would risk their entire ministry to share this one particular story. But when the people who commit injustice are getting filthy rich off of abusing laborers and then can use that money to silence anyone who exposes their sin, there is something seriously wrong. And when the church takes their side as well, it is heartbreaking.

Father Christopher Hartley spent his early years working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. In 1997 he was sent to serve the poor in the Dominican Republic, but the more he witnessed the abuses the poor Haitian workers were subject to there, he realized he could not remain silent. Charity wasn’t enough; he had to fight against the systems that were causing the injustices in the first place. He started documenting what he saw and speaking up for improving worker conditions. This of course brought him into confrontation with the Vicini family – the wealthiest and most influential family in the DR. He was rocking the boat; the Vicini’s didn’t like it, so therefore the government didn’t like it, and so therefore the Catholic Church didn’t like it. His bishop removed him from the DR in 2006. Hartley commented, "The family, the government, and I think even the church was tired of me, I don't think the church wanted to endure this constant bashing in every newspaper, day after day after day." So like many priests that actually put into action a theology of liberation based on a deep appreciation of scripture, his voice became too controversial and had to be silenced. He is now working with the Sisters of Charity again.

It is one thing to give charity, but when people start addressing why charity is needed things get uncomfortable. Haitians are suffering from extreme abuses in the sugar fields in the DR, but when such a lucrative money-making enterprise gets questioned, those questioning voices are silenced in whatever way they can. Voices for justice, especially religious leaders who start acting like Jesus instead of just talking about him, face that silencing. Some end up murdered, others are shuffled to “safer” postings, and others are attacked by national media sources. Challenging injustice is dangerous, especially when it questions how people make their money.

It disgusts me that our world plays by the “he with the most money wins” rule. But when the legal system fails us, it is up to the people to work from below to make change. If money is all some people care about, then let’s make this about money. It took a grassroots boycott of sugar from the Caribbean slave plantations for the British government to finally start listening to William Wilberforce and ban slavery back in the 19th century. Almost all the sugar sold in the US comes from the DR, buying it funds the Vicinis and this system of modern day quasi-slavery and abuse. Buying fair trade sugar speaks with the only language these people hear – money – a language that is difficult to silence.

But it is also encouraging to hear Martin Luther King Jr. words. He had to pay the ultimate price for standing up for what is right. In the face of litigation and controversies like this, it is good to be reminded that if we fail to stand up for justice we are already dead.

So let's celebrate the opportunity to love and care for the world by being fair with our dollars.

World Fair Trade Day 2010
8 May 2010, A Big Day for the Planet

World Fair Trade Day is a worldwide celebration of Fair Trade, initiative of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).

Fair Trade is a tangible and efficient response to poverty, economic and global food crises and climate change. The economic crisis confirms the need for trade to deliver sustainable livelihoods and development opportunities to small producers in the poorest countries of the world. This is evidenced by the fact that a third of the world population survives on less than US$2 per day.

“Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade Organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.” FINE definition

The Fair Trade movement shares a vision of a world in which justice and sustainable development are at the heart of trade structures and practices which allow for a decent work and dignified livelihood and a fully developed human potential of small producers. Trade can be a fundamental driver of poverty reduction and greater sustainable development. Through Fair Trade small producers have the capacity to take more control over their work and their lives. Citizens, from small producers to informed consumers, and institutions worldwide are supportive of responsible production, trading and consumption practices and of Fair Trade.

World Fair Trade Day (WFTDay) is an initiative of the WFTO, and is supported by thousands of citizens, from producers to consumers, Fair Trade Organizations, social and environmental movements, local authorities, national governments and multilateral institutions all around the planet. During WFTDay hundreds of events will celebrate Fair Trade and trade justice.

The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is the global network of Fair Trade Organizations around the planet, from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America Pacific Rim. It represents more than 350 Fair Trade Organizations from more than 70 countries.

I address these questions (and then point out why I think those questions miss the point) in a new post I have up at RELEVANT Magazine's Reject Apathy Site. So if you've ever wondered about what sort of impact you can really have, I suggest you check out my post and then share your thoughts!

So I'm excited by Trade As One's campaign this holiday season to encourage all of us to buy Fair Trade gifts this Christmas. We turn our traditions into a way to help and love others through such purchases. And if enough of us do it, we can make a big difference. They write – "Think about this: Just One Fair Trade purchase from every American churchgoer this Christmas would lift one million families out of abusive poverty for one whole year. Let’s make sure that when gifts are given, they speak of the sort of world that Jesus came to show us—one where the last is first, where the poor are included, the sick are healed, and the captive is set free."

Fantastic idea. And they created this great video to help get the message out there -

There are numerous ways one can support Fair Trade or other justice causes this Christmas. We are excited this year to find a Fair Trade Chocolate Advent Calendar. And I take time with the kids to support families around the world by purchasing animals from Heifer International. But there are numerous places online where one can find Fair Trade items to give this Christmas. I've listed some of my favorite sites below. But all it takes is just a little tweak to our holiday habits this Christmas to help show love to people around the world.

Clothing and Accessories

• Be The Change Elements
• Earth Creations
• Ecoland
• Fair Indigo
• Greenheart
• Indigenous Designs
• Mata Traders
• No Sweat Apparel
• Rawganique
• Simple Shoes
• Tinctoria Designs
• Tom's Shoes

Food, Coffee, and Gifts

• Cafe Justo
• Equal Exchange
• Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee
• Natural Candy Store
• SERRV
• Taraluna
• Ten Thousand Villages
• Trade As One
• World of Good

Other

• Fair Trade Sports
• Reusable Bags

So have yourself a merry little fair trade Christmas. Celebrate traditions and do some good while you are at it.

Arthur asked –
I never did find a good answer to what happens when the big coffee growers quit paying even the token payment to the gatherers? Do they then starve because we refuse to support the corrupt corporations?

and mjb similarily asks -
"if we get too focused on buying local and not causing hardship to the environment by shipping over long distances, etc, are we taking away jobs from the poor in other countries who make the goods we import? "

This is why I think a balanced perspective is always needed. I think those of us that care about workers and the environment often are assumed to be anti-globalization. The whole idea of buying local or ethically when stated persuasively can have that effect. I do support the idea of buying locally, forming relationships with the people who grow your food and bringing community back into commerce. But I think it is naïve to think we can just pretend that we don’t live in a globalized world. If we turn inward and start thinking only locally, we will end up hurting people around the world.

The world has changed. Most countries worldwide have taken those first steps (or more accurately have been forcefully pushed) into industrialization. Through colonialism, the mandates of the IMF and World Bank, and greedy power-hungry leaders most countries around the world are now trying to compete in an economy designed to oppress them. Decisions have been made that have committed them to developing industry and exporting goods whether the average citizen living there wants to do that or not. The line has been crossed, there is truly no turning back. So while I support the concept of American’s buying locally and of everyone reducing our consumption, the fact of the matter is that people around the world still need jobs in order to survive in this brave new world we’ve forced them into. I don’t want to hurt them even more by protesting the existence of globalization and taking those jobs away from them. Globalization exists. Period. The real question is how we deal with it.

The point of stopping sweatshops or agricultural slavery isn’t to shut those operations down. The point it to improve them, to call them to higher ethical standards. And while on one hand stricter laws and oversight will have to be part of that process. The tightening of the belt and the taking of responsibility should not be passed onto the oppressed workers. Choosing to vote with our money for ethically produced goods shouldn’t result in non-ethical companies shutting their doors and getting rid of jobs. When they see that the public is demanding that they be responsible human beings, they will work to supply the public with what it wants. The idea is for jobs to be retained – just improved.

The truth is though that improvements will not occur just by letting the markets work as they do now. When the rich and powerful prevent the idea of a truly free market economy from ever occurring, there have to be deliberate steps taken to end oppression. Systems like fair trade help eliminate the injustices while retaining jobs. I am uneasy with the people (like Jeffrey Sachs) who say that oppressive working environments like sweatshops are just a necessary part of a country developing. That might have been truly in a pre-globalized world where a country was generally able to end that oppression generally because the religious groups stood up to industry. But it’s going to take the ethically minded in the powerful countries that are home to the oppressive industries to be the voice for the oppressed. The powerful will have to create systems like (fair trade) and make laws to protect workers around the world in order to end oppression this time. It won’t just self-correct. We have to be aware of globalization and work within it in order to ever improve things.

The book is divided into two main sections. The first is an accessible exploration of the ways we have let consumeristic mindsets control who we are. And the second is a practical section that explores the areas of our lives in which we can say "enough" and provides broad suggestions for alternative ways of living. Both sections are easy to read, full of stories and examples, and do a good job of explaining ideas and trends in culture. While I personally found myself wishing for more substance in parts of the book, I found it as a whole to be a great introduction to the idea of exploring how our lives reflect what we believe.

The main call in the book is for us to live eucharistic lives. Living eucharistically "is to find ourselves in a community of others seeking the same, seeking to follow God in the way of Jesus.". But instead of living radically in that way, Will argues that we make do on low-cost, low-commitment substitutes. We exchange Christian community for the easy "personal decision for Christ." We exchange the command of stewardship for a "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die get raptured" theology. We have failed to realize that what we do, where we live, and what we buy reflects our theology. Will reminds us though that our lives are a gospel account "written in public for all to see" and calls us to question what sort of story we are telling. He encourages us to abandon the story of how our inner longings push us to consume more and more, and adopt a story of finding a place in the presence of God and the community of believers.

I'd recommend Enough to those who are wondering if there is a different way to follow Jesus that just doesn't rubberstamp the culture. This is a book for those who want to live redemptively but who have no idea where to begin. Will does a good job in providing a biblical guideline for how we can start to rethink our interactions with others and with the world and live in a way that makes the term "Christ-follower" mean something tangible.

Then I had to wonder at the need to advertise one's justification for not driving a hybrid. Are people so worried that they are being judged that they need to apologize for what they are not doing? I personally get this a lot. My friends and family are starting to realize my commitment to sustainable living and ethical consumption. So much so that they now apologize to me for actions like serving non-fair trade coffee or using paper plates. It reminds me of the tendency for people to apologize to conservative Christians when they say a curse word.

But then I asked myself if that is really such a bad thing (and yes, it's quite common for me to argue with myself – I'm weird, I know). I'm not a fan of guilt as a motivation, but is it really such a bad thing to admit that there is a better way even if you are not there yet? I personally find more hope in hearing people say they are working towards a sustainable future than in some of the recent SUV commercials I've heard (i.e. 'now that gas prices are down, it's the perfect time to buy a luxury SUV"). I think it goes beyond guilt to the reality of attainable solutions. This statement doesn't have to be an excuse or a justification, but a goal. It is someone talking about the basic things they are doing to help change the world.

At least, that's how I like to see it.

The anti-globalization argument generally points to the horrors in our global economy – sweatshops, slavery, environmental destruction – and proposes that if we just didn't have a global economy then they would just all go away. Under the guise of "stop shopping" or "buy local" or "make something," the mantra becomes – "boycott China, buy American." Now I'm all for buying local and supporting small businesses. There are distinct benefits to doing so – like reducing fuel usage in shipping. But all too often these tendencies reveal a self-centered stance that places American interests before the interests of others.

I don't see the solution to problems in the global economy as just doing away with the global economy. Like it or not we live in a global economy and that can never be undone. Organizations like the world Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund have pushed industry onto developing countries around the world. These countries can't go back to their pre-industrial days nor do they have the option of organic development. They have been exploited through colonialism, pushed into industrial systems not of their making, and forced to abandon ancient practices. There is no going back. So to naively promote the idea of abandoning global industry in favor of only buying American is to wish a death sentence onto these countries. Abandoning them in the midst of a chaos of our making would destroy them. (apologizing and atoning for our sins is another issue entirely). In the business world national borders are losing significance quickly. To be so pro-America that our jobs and our economy matters more than every other person on this globe is inexcusable selfishness.

When faced with difficult issues, greedy businesses, and exploited people the solution is never to abandon the victims so that they get hurt more. All too often though this is the path that's taken. A major company gets found out for using sweatshops so they respond by shutting the sweatshop down. Or someone hears about sweatshops, thinks such problems can never be solved and refuses to participate in the economic system altogether. Both approaches deny the reality of globalization and ignore the needs of the people. The point isn't to take jobs away from people, but to improve the jobs they have. There are options besides exploiting/oppressing people and getting rid of their job. It may take some creativity and sacrifice (on our part), but reform is possible.

So I am really sick of the "let's subvert the global economy" when that just means pretending it doesn't exist and screwing the poor even further. As Christians we are called to love others and to care for the poor. We can't settle for the popular options of letting them remain in hardship or causing them more hardship. Globalization exists and we have to deal with it. Preferably in ways that honor God and not just ourselves.