Food Justice Tour Update

Hard to believe it, but P Nok is already in Portland, Oregon!

Click here to see the latest updates from the ENGAGE Food Justice Tour Blog

Her visit to San Francisco was a big success (including the visit/reunion with Ellen Roggemann, pictured above) and it included time with university student groups at University of Santa Clara, University of San Francisco and UC Berkeley. Thanks again to Back to da Roots at USF, Ali Reed at UC Berkeley and Beth Tellman at Univ. of Santa Clara for helping put these events together. She also met with:

Commonweal Garden (check out this cool video on their permaculture practices)
Marin Organic
Eatwell Farm
Hidden Villa Farm
People's Grocery

Now in Portland, P Nok is on her third stop of the tour, where she'll be hosted by ENGAGErs Cash Nigro and Anne Kirkner. She'll be speaking with students at Portland State University and will be exchanging with a number of interesting local groups, including:

Tryon Community Farm
PCUN
Portland Biodiesel
Zenger Farm

Tomorrow P Nok will be travelling on to Seattle, WA, where she'll be a part of the United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) National Convergence. She's scheduled be host a workshop focusing on the producer/cooperative experience of Fair Trade as well as sit on a panel to discuss the challenges that Fair Trade poses to producer groups. Below is the abstract for her workshop:

Beginning with insights given by P' Nok, a farmer support organizer in Thailand, this workshop will be a critical discussion about the importance of, as well as the limitations within, a trade system dependent on producer certifications. American consumers buy products based on their labels: fair trade, organic, cage-free, kosher. How does the current certification process make it difficult for eligible producers to participate? This workshop will examine some conceptions about Fair Trade among producers and work toward thinking about a more "sufficient" Fair Trade.

As P'Nok explains, "When consumers know that rice is organic and Fair Trade, then they can access our values. But we need to find a way for Fair Trade to be accessed more easily. We have to work together to find a way to make Fair Trade more transparent and allow consumers to know the producers."

These questions certainly get the folks at SFS as well as ENGAGE pretty excited. We're looking forward to the Convergence and the opportunity to connect with Fair Trade producers and student activists.

Click here to see the latest updates from the ENGAGE Food Justice Tour Blog