Fair Trade Field Day at Chicago Market
And a link to Local Food Forum's webinar debut on April 15
Register Now for our April 15 Webinar Kickoff
Local Food Forum’s brand new webinar series launches on Monday, April 15 with a lively and informative conversation on the important topic of regenerative agriculture.
I am grateful to co-host Chef Sarah Stegner for developing the project with me and to the great organizational and business supporters reflected in the pretty new graphic above (thank you, Cade Missner of Chicago Chefs Cook, for creating this meme).
Register now… Zoom capacity is limited and it will make the webinar team very happy to see those virtual seats filling up. Not sure about your schedule on the 15th? Sign up anyway… the webinar recording will be shared with all registrants.
Click the first button to go right to the ticket page, and the second to read all the details about the event and the series.
Chicago Market Event: Fair Trade and a Scoop
Chicago Market’s long road to opening its co-op grocery store is now expected to end with a ribbon cutting in early 2025. But the store’s leaders already have a strong commitment to the principles of Fair Trade, as was underscored on March 30 by a walk-through of the store site at 4620 N. Broadway in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
This dedication comes as no surprise, as Dan Arnett —the co-op store veteran who serves as Chicago Market’s general manager — is also president and Board chairman for the Fairtrade America non-profit organization.
While Chicago Market will have a very strong focus on sourcing products from its local region, there are items — such as coffee, cocoa beans and tropical fruit — that can’t be grown locally. Fair Trade is a principal aimed at ensuring that the farmers and other producers in distant lands get a fair price for their products.
Here is how Dan defined Free Trade in an interview for a story Local Food Forum published on February 15.
The first thing is to note that it's very specifically rooted in trying to craft a systemic response to a history of exploitation through trade. Generally, former colonial territories have endured histories of racism and systemic poverty because of power imbalances and trade systems. Our focus is to help the farmers that have been unfairly disadvantaged through trade to have more power, more voice and more benefit for the hard work.
Dan added that Fairtrade America provides product certifications that contain “a whole series of environmental standards and social standards that are required for Fairtrade international certification,” including a floor price to be paid to farmers so they do not lose their livelihoods in the event of a catastrophic market collapse.
Here are takeaway quotes from the three leaders who spoke at the March 30 event.
Matthew Ruffi, Chicago Market president and Board chairman; lead at Link Up Illinois, run by Chicago non-profit Experimental Station, which provides funding for farmers markets and other retail outlets to double the value of benefits received by participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“It's about community… We're not just building the community that comes to shop here either. We talked about having a community room. That's real. It's a room where it's not just us. It's not just our staff that's going to sit there. When we bring community together for a meeting or if we want to bring them in and teach them, if Dan’s going to run a teaching kitchen, things of that nature are going to happen in our community room, because it's about building the community.”
Katherine Bissell Cordova, Executive Director, Chicago Fair Trade
“We love the local food community. But when we're talking about buying local food, I always ask people, ‘Did you have coffee today? Did you have sugar today? Because you're not growing that in Chicago, right?’ So we're just always trying to connect through the same values of shopping local, but also us caring about the people who you buy your products from.”
Dan Arnett
“We're going to talk a little bit about the commitment of this cooperative to Fair Trade, why we do it. The first and foremost reason is because it's simply compatible with the brand we're building, with the culture that we aspire to build, with the kind of economy you want to participate in. Fair Trade hits all the types of social and economic and environmental right points for us.”
Dan stood during his talk by a sign listing Chicago Market’s Purchasing Values, which are We Are Delicious; We Are Transparent; We Are Sustainable; We Are Local; We Are Socially Responsible; and We Are Yours.
Meanwhile, Katherine shared a scoop during the event. The new location of Chicago’s one-of-a-kind Fair Trade Museum will be at 4704 N. Broadway… just one block north of the Gerber Building location of Chicago Market. The grand opening is scheduled for May 18.
The first Fair Trade Museum and store was a lovely spot in a shopping center near the busy intersection of North Avenue and Halsted St. But it was also on a short-term lease. Katherine said the search for a new location culminated in a lease signing just one day before the Chicago Market event.
Spring Up
O.K., so we’re stuck with the big coat in the first days of April. This is hardly without precedent in Chicago, and there are plenty of signs that it is, in fact, spring.
As I’m writing this, there is baseball going on at both of Chicago’s major league baseball stadiums. The kickoff of our region’s outdoor farmers market season is right around the corner (see the countdown graphic below).
And then there was my first home delivery of green things from Three Sisters Garden (Kankakee, Illinois). My Saturday haul consisted of pea shoots, spring onions, and some very robust green garlic. Guess those faux spring days of early March did us some good, anyway.
And here’s a plate of our mostly local Easter dinner. The ham from Finn’s Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan), which I prepared with a light maple syrup, brown sugar and grainy mustard glaze, is super-delicious (present tense because there’s plenty for leftovers). The sweet potatoes (a storage crop) are from Nichols Farms and Orchard (Marengo, Illinois).
The asparagus (organic from Whole Foods Market) wasn’t local, but that will be changing soon (bring it on, Michigan!). I did roast some of that local green garlic and spring onions, though.
Bob’s World, and Welcome to It
Just an interesting morning sky on Sunday. Figured I’d share given that it sounds like we’re in for a few days of solid gray.