Fair trade advocates sell artisan goods in IMU

Handmade bags, colorful headbands and glass ornaments were displayed throughout State Room East in the Indiana Memorial Union Tuesday.

Students and Bloomington residents browsed tables, admiring the artisan-produced goods and shopping for holiday gifts.  

The IU branch of Enactus, an international network of student entrepreneurs and business leaders, organized the ninth annual Fair Trade Bloomington sale and will continue the sale today from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Bloomington was incorporated into the fair trade community in 2007, and the event has become the largest fair trade sale in the city, according to a press release. Because of its efforts to promote fair trade principles, Bloomington was the 33rd city to be named a Fair Trade Town and the first in Indiana.

Fair Trade Bloomington assures consumers that producers are paid fairly for their products and the labor that goes into creating them.

Producers who have their work sold through Fair Trade are required to meet high standards that ensure environmental protection and economic sustainability and that create opportunities for education and poverty alleviation, according to a release.

A variety of handmade artisan goods such as jewelry, textiles, ornaments and chocolates were available for purchase at the Fair Trade sale.

Products featured at this event came from countries such as Guatemala, India and Ecuador, said Eric Hasty, co-vice president of chapter sustainability of Enactus IUB.

While most of the goods featured were from around the world, the Stone Belt, an organization that works to support people with developmental disabilities, also has work displayed for sale that benefits more local individuals.

“There are ways to promote providing a living wage for producers that are otherwise marginalized,” Hasty said.  

Senior Maranda Leigh, vice president of Enactus IUB, said Enactus works with Global Gifts, a fair trade store located in Bloomington.

“We reach the students that don’t see Global Gifts,” Leigh said.

Efforts to reach out to students are also part of Enactus IUB’s bigger goal. Enactus IUB is currently working to have IU declared a Fair Trade University, much like Bloomington is now a Fair Trade community.

The products featured at the event come from Global Gifts, which networks around the globe and reaches artisans and craftsmen who might otherwise be cheated out of the money they earn from their labors.

Cheap goods, such as those sold in major retail stores, are less expensive because the workers are either paid less or kept in worse conditions, Leigh said. What people spend their money on, she said, says a lot about the world.

“You are paying for a change in the world,” Leigh said.
    
Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.