In a world where the words green, sustainable, and fair trade are being used more frequently, it helps to know more about these terms in order to explain them to our children. With more people like entrepreneur Cynthia Thek putting these concepts into practice, we can be hopeful that sustainable living will one day make our planet a cleaner, more equitable place for all. Guest poster Dina Mustafa, working toward her Masters in Sustainability Management at Columbia University and The Earth Institute, has interviewed Cynthia and written an article about the admirable goals behind her business. Today, I'm sharing it on Nuggets of Knowledge:
A Fair and Sustainable World in
Englewood,New Jersey
An interview with Cynthia Thek, the owner of “It’s a Fair World After All” in Englewood, New Jersey.
It was a cold February afternoon when I walked into the store for the first time. Cynthia Thek was going through boxes with her assistant. The first thing I noticed after taking the few steps and entering the store was the distinct smell. It was the soothing fragrance of wood, incense and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, until I got closer. It was chocolate.
In the store I noticed the hand knit scarves, the jewelry, the beautiful carved pieces, the coffee and chocolate display, the handmade soups, and the dazzling colors. Cynthia Thek, the owner of the small fair trade store “It’s a Fair World After All” on 31 N. Dean Street, in Englewood, NJ 07670, is a petite woman with a warm smile and intelligent dark eyes. Her passion for fair trade and sustainability radiates from every corner of the store. We went for a walk to the local tea place down the street, where the owner greets us with a smile. Cynthia Thek is a local merchant in this small town that has been hit hard by the recession. She wants to organize a Green Englewood Day in the spring, to attract socially aware customers to the area and boost business for local merchants. The two women exchange greetings and talk a little about the town’s well being.
After ordering a hot cup of tea and a slice of pound cake, I asked Thek how she got into fair trade. She said, “Growing up, I was always conscious of the dichotomy between the first world and the developing world. I was born in Germany, where my parents worked and lived at the time. I was sent back to a rural fishing village in the south of India. There, I attended a Catholic School in the state of Kerala on the Arabian coast, yet every year I would travel back to Germany for summer vacation. I felt lucky and guilty at the same time. I knew girls in the village who couldn’t go to school; I was truly one of the lucky ones.”
Thek went on to attend American University (AU) in Washington DC where she said that a lot of her peers where socially conscious and very much into public service. “They really wanted to make a difference in the world, so by the time I graduated I was more socially aware. My background and where I came from also fueled my awareness.” She smiled when remembering her political aspirations after graduation, “I she realized early on that it wasn’t for me” she said shaking her head “So I switched to the non-for profit sector after that and worked at International House in New York City, I was the Assistant Director of Development for Institutional Giving”. International House was conceived by the late YMCA official Harry Edmonds following a chance encounter with a lonely Chinese graduate student in 1909, in New York City. The mission of International house is to promote cross-cultural exchange among future global leaders; this was a perfect fit for Cynthia.
“After a trip with my friends to California, I came across this little fair trade store in Sonoma. That was it; I fell in love.” I heard the excitement in her voice when she said that, even through her professional demeanor. “I came home and read up about the fair trade movement, and was pretty convinced that everything I buy from that day on had to be fair trade. But there was nothing around here [in the northern New Jersey area]. So, I decided to open up my own place.”
What does fair trade mean to Cynthia? For her, fair trade “means that the people both at the producer end and the consumer end are treated fairly.” She continued to explain “Farmers, for example, decide democratically how to invest their revenues. Fair trade premiums are invested in social and business development projects, and producers or farmers use environmentally sustainable methods, for the well being of the environment, but mostly for the well being of the workers.
I asked her how she knows if the products are in fact fair trade. She replied, “When I first started, I found out that there was a lot of controversy about fair trade products. Some can have as little as 2% of their total content coming from fair trade sources, but are still labeled fair trade. For me, I only go through the certification agencies.” I pressed her for those agencies. She added “For commodities there’s Fair Trade USA, and in terms of the products I carry in my store, the Fair Trade Federation monitors the producers and the whole sellers. So, I only go through vendors who are members of the Fair Trade Federation.”
But is fair Trade sustainable?
“Environmental sustainability is a key component of the standards established by the Fair Trade Federation. The Federation and TransFair USA do not certify products that do not meet environmental standards. The Fair Trade Federation refuses admission to organizations that do not uphold this principle. Fair Trade products are frequently made from materials that are abundantly available. The simplicity of the production process also guarantees significantly less CO2 emissions compared to factory-based productions. So, the two go hand in hand.”
“Fair trade flowers, for example, use less pesticide and less chemicals, because they need to ensure that the workers working and cultivating the flowers are given safety equipment and training and are in a healthy work environment,” said Thek. “Do you know that a large percentage of the flowers imported in the United States come from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic and that mostly women work in those fields?” she asked “In some farms, there were high incidences of miscarriages among these women, because of their exposure to harmful chemicals. These women don’t complain because if they do, they can lose their jobs. Usually, that’s the only income that they have.”
She continued to explain that fair trade flower companies must meet certain criteria. The fair trade flower certification ensures that flower farms comply with rigorous environmental standards governing the use of pesticides, conservation of water, treatment of wastewater, protection of ecosystems and more. “So, you see” she added “they protect the cultivators and workers from being exposed to these harmful chemicals.”
Since there is always the question of paying more for fair trade products, I asked if fair trade products compete in price with non fair trade products, “It depends on what the product is” she explained. “With commodities, especially coffee and chocolate, you’ll see a premium because there’s a guaranteed minimum fair price that’s been paid to the farmer. But with other products, such as crafts and hand-made products such as the ones sold in my store, most of the time that’s not the case.”
We make our way back to the store after saying “good-by” to the owner of the tea shop.
I noticed that a lot of the products in her store have a story. Walking around, she tells me a few, “We work so hard to get these products sold, but when you’re buying them you know that, for example, someone in South Africa is able to support her children and that makes a difference.”
“I used to carry coasters from South Africa. They were made out of used tea bags. These women collect them, dry them and paint them, and then they make them into coasters and bookmarks and so on. The whole seller forwarded me a letter from one woman in the group. Her husband works in a gold mine and she’s the one who takes care of the children and sends them to school. She started working for the group making the tea bag products. She wrote in that letter, “When I hear the sound of rain on the roof [tin roof], it’s the most beautiful thing to me, because then I know that I’ve been able to provide shelter for my children.” You see, that came from her work; from supplementing her husbands’ income. A lot of the time the woman’s income makes a difference in being able to pay for doctor visits and sending the kids to the school.”
Looking around, I see that lot of the products in the store are sustainable. They are made of things that would usually end up as garbage, but are reused or crafted into something else. There were little hand bags from India made of old VCR tapes. The actual tape is woven and made to give sheen to this beautifully handcrafted bag. Cynthia walks me around the store telling me stories behind this piece of jewelry or that bowl. I ask her if the story sells the product. She says “I don’t need a sexy story to sell these products. As long as I’m comfortable that the product comes through fair trade resources, I can sell it.”
I caught a glimpse of a small brass- colored peace dove necklace on a thin black rope. I pick it up and read the word “peace” on it. The tag on it read “Cambodia.” Cynthia was standing by me, and said “After the war in Cambodia, the landscape was littered with bullet casings and unexploded bombs. The Halo Trust Agency helped make the landscape safe by collecting these casings and shells. Young people have the ability to gain skills by transforming bomb casings and bullet casings into these piece doves in order in to sustain a living.”
One bullet-casing peace-dove necklace- Sold.
