Local Fair Trade experts discuss Vancouver’s future as a Fair Trade Town at Projecting Change Film and Speaker Series July 17
Vancouver – Just two months after Vancouver became the first major Canadian city to become a Fair Trade Town, Projecting Change Film Society is kicking off their 2010 Film and Speaker Series with a documentary and panel discussion aimed at helping locals learn more about what it means to be a citizen of a Fair Trade Town and how consumers can use their purchasing power to make the world better for people and the environment. The film and speaker event commences at 9am with complimentary breakfast and Fair Trade coffee on July 17 at Fifth Avenue Cinemas.
Following the screening of Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Product Certification, Jeff Geipel, Executive Director of Fair Trade Vancouver will lead a discussion on what it means to be a Fair Trade Town as well as what Fair Trade certified products are available in the city and how to find them. Joining him on the panel is Fair Trade coffee entrepreneur and Founder of Level Ground Trading, Stacey Toews, and Roxanne Cave, Manager of Ten Thousand Villages, an organization which sells handicrafts from developing countries through its network of stores in Canada and the USA.
“Achieving Fair Trade Town status was a big step for Vancouver, but we still have a long way to go“, says Jeff Geipel of Fair Trade Vancouver. “Events such as this one are a great way to let people know what labels to look for and what questions to ask to improve their purchasing decisions.”
Volunteers from Fair Trade Vancouver will have information and resources on display in the lobby including the recently launched Fair Trade Vancouver i-Phone app that helps Vancouverites locate stores and cafes that offer certified products.
TransFair Canada, a national, non‐profit Fair Trade certification organization granted Vancouver Fair Trade Town status in May 2010. Vancouver joins 800 cities and towns including London, Paris and Rome who have achieved the status over the past decade.
EVENT DETAILS:
Film: Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Product Certification (60 mins / USA)
Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010
Breakfast: 9:00am
Movie: 10:00am
Speakers:
Jeff Geipel, Executive Director, Fair Trade Vancouver
Stacey Toews, Level Ground Trading
Roxanne Cave, Store Manager, Ten Thousand Villages
Tickets: $15 regular, $20 reserved seating
For more information and to purchase tickets: www.projectingchange.ca
About the film:
BUYER BE FAIR looks at two major trade goods—timber and coffee—to understand how product certification works. A community’s timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as produced in a just and sustainable manner. Fair Trade, Shade-Grown, Organic coffee from a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico finds growing market in the US. See how these communities are benefiting from certification and what the obstacles are to broadening its scope. See how Fair Trade is winning commitments from cities and provinces as well as individual retailers. BUYER BE FAIR demonstrates that we can globalize in ways that treat people fairly and respect the environment. Lushly photographed and filled with compelling stories BUYER BE FAIR shows how consumers and retailers can make choices that make a difference. http://www.buyerbefair.org/
Sponsored by The Georgia Straight, Choices Markets, Level Ground Trading and Discovery Organics.
Community Partners include Fair Trade Vancouver, Ten Thousand Villages and TheChange.com.
Fair Trade Vancouver is a non‐profit organization that seeks to increase awareness and sales of Fair Trade products in Metro Vancouver, and is the body responsible for the Fair Trade Towns Application. For more information about Fair Trade and to learn where to purchase Fair Trade products in Vancouver, visit www.fairtradevancouver.ca/
Level Ground Trading’s mission is to trade fairly and directly with small-scale coffee producers in developing countries, offering our customers ethical consumer choices. www.levelground.com/
Ten Thousand Villages is an organization which sells handicrafts from developing countries through its network of stores in Canada and the USA, as well as hundreds of annual Festival sales. Ten Thousand Villages is a program of Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development organization working in more than 50 countries around the world. Ten Thousand Villages has its roots in the work begun by Edna Ruth Byler in 1946.
Projecting Change Film Society is an innovative organization that focuses on promoting green and sustainable living through the use of entertaining & educational film. Through the strategic use of engaging films and inspiring speakers we aim to increase awareness and promote change within our local community. Through these efforts all profits are invested back into local initiatives.
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Interviews available with:
Jeff Geipel, Executive Director, Fair Trade Vancouver
Colette Gunson, Executive Director, Projecting Change
Media Contact:
Colette Gunson
T. 778-228-6779
E. colette@projectingchange.ca
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