Fair trade isn’t just about coffee.

On April 17, 2007, Wolfville, Nova Scotia became Canada’s first fair trade town. As reported by CBC,

Wolfville Mayor Bob Stead said when the town council was discussing the proposal of becoming a fair trade town, local producers were suffering with the closure of poultry and pork processing plants. He noted that if the town planned on committing itself to supporting farmers in developing countries, they should also back farmers in their own town. “We’ll emphasize [fair trade’s principles] locally as it applies to ‘buy local’ and try to support our local farmers who are sometimes in some jeopardy in terms of market survivability,” Stead said.

This is following in the footsteps of Garstang in the U.K. which became the world’s first fair trade town in 2000. And according to the piece, hundreds of towns across Europe have since followed suit and been certified by Transfair, the agency that monitors fair trade goods in Canada.

Congratulations Wolfville. Photo credit: Wikipedia.