NEWS
Conference to suggest free-trade solutions
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by Jessica Peterson
Friday, April 26, 2002
In an effort to inform the public of what they called “issues of free trade and inequality,” the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance will host a conference on free trade today and Saturday.
Organizers said the conference is the first of its kind and said the goal of the conference is to explore solutions to problems they said are created by a global economy.
“The conference will be a unique opportunity for ordinary citizens interested in making trade fairer to learn about the problems with current global arrangements and to explore an array of viable local, regional and international fair-trade initiatives,” conference organizer Leigh Rosenberg said.
Deborah James of the human-rights organization Global Exchange will kick off the conference tonight with the documentary film “Life and Debt.” The film will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Orpheum Theater. The film uses the wealth of tourists compared to the life of poverty-stricken Jamaicans to demonstrate how U.S. economic policy affects monetary inequality and debt burden.
James said fair trade could help alleviate the problems suggested by the film.
“Fair trade is an international system of monitoring and certification to guarantee that poor producers are paid a fair price for their harvests,” James said.
The conference will also feature keynote speakers Saturday from 8:15 a.m. to 9 p.m. who will discuss the future of the free-trade movement and local free-trade initiatives. Frances Moor Lappe, author of “Diet for a Small Planet,” and “Hope’s Edge,” will talk about fair trade in food systems.
Saturday’s events also include a fair-trade market at the Pres House and Library Mall from 12 to 4 p.m. where vendors will sell fair trade items including coffee, chocolate and crafts.
