The Forest Foundation, Inc.

Mary Katherine and Marc participated in several events, including the Strategic Planning meeting of the Fair Trade Federation, and Aid to Artisans Seminar. Sales were slow for us and many of the new products from Madagascar did not go over as our price points were too high. The new recycled juice box line did well, but not as well as hoped. Of course the Brushkins were the big hit yet again. We did get attention from People Magazine and several other larger buyers as references for green ecologically based products. Excitingly, we shared the booth with the NYC H20/www.tapintothecity.com, “Think Globally, Drink Locally” project, promoting high quality tap water in recycled, non-leaching sports bottles vs. the high cost of bottled water, which received excellent attention and some sales.

The Gift Show rolled out the Sustainability Pavilion for the second time with a new addition on materials and had another greening panel seminar. Guest speakers included Herman Miller and others from several large corporate greening initiatives. We were glad to see this, as FOW for the last decade has submitted letters and verbal pleas to GLM and Aid to Artisans about greening and sustainability as being integral and critical to trade, though were rebuffed. ATA has jumped on the green and fair trade band-wagon, never missing an opportunity to follow the trend wave. Sadly, we were not asked to participate in any of the planning of the GLM seminars, nor has Aid to Artisans (ATA) asked us to present on these issues, even though we have 15 years experience or more in this field. We hope that we will some day capture the value of being a leader and others will reward our vision, ethics and purpose, as to date it has been a challenge to simply pay the bills.

During the Strategic Planning meeting, FTF ranked environmental sustainability 4th in their list of mission statements (a little higher than the average citizen surveys). “You guys should know by now not to let me into the room, but I have a real problem with the words you use to describe your mission,” stated President Marc Dreyfors addressing the FTF meeting. “Phrases like ‘materially poor’ imply that being ‘materially rich’ is good and I am definitely materially rich, but feel poorer because of it.” “We are at a point in our planetary history when will be transforming rapidly, socio-economically and environmentally, and The Fair Trade Federation has the opportunity to lead. But it is imperative that we get the words right and take the time to engage in the debate and dialog about what fair trade means. Any trade that externalizes true costs is not fair. I suggest looking to the Earth Charter for the right words as philosophers, scholars and scientists spent time creating a creed that incorporates the words about equity, justice and the role of trade to which FTF should adopt.” And with that President Dreyfors left the meeting for the Superbowl party in NYC.

At the ATA seminar, Michelle Wiplinger, a natural dye specialist, gave her color trend report with spectacular slides, highlighting a range of gorgeous colors and combinations. Importantly, she identified ecology, recycled and Y generation products as being hot. This begged the question will recycled, green and ecological products continue to be hot? Michelle had a hard time answering this question posed by Mr. Dreyfors, specifically on how to keep it front and center and fresh. She suggested rotating product lines through the different markets: high end unique and designer; a fashion forward, middle market where design quality play an important role; and low end price sensitive. This did not address the “elephant in the room” of how the whole industry is slave to fashion trends and the system broken as it externalizes true costs in the price of goods. Good news is that Michelle’s company, Earth Hues, is finally taking off after 15 years of working in the field, sourcing and processing natural dyes for many big companies. Her color trend manual is available for $100.

We also learned that Eco-bags is also booming, and is interested in our products.