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Youth development and organizing
USFT is a national network of student organizations advocating around Fair Trade products, policies, and principles. We have three main functions. First, we organize, we work to consolidate and coordinate the power of the over 150 active student Fair Trade organizations in the U.S. Second, we do leadership development and capacity building, primarily through intensive international exchanges. Last, we serve as a resource group for student-based affiliates looking for anything from a phone number to research materials to strategic advice to internship opportunities. The core objective of USFT is to raise the awareness of and expand the demand for Fair Trade Certified products, such as coffee and crafts, both on campuses and in communities. We contextualize our work around Fair Trade products and certification in the context of our critique of neoliberal economics and global trade policy, and partner with trade justice organizations that lobby for progressive trade policy. On the domestic side, we think worker rights issues in the U.S. fall squarely on the Fair Trade playing field, and are actively building partnerships with both farmworker rights and anti-sweatshop groups. While we are plugging into national farmworker rights campaigns that are already underway we're also exploring the potential for applying the Fair Trade certification model to products such as tomatoes or apparel. Put together, USFT is a comprehensive cross-sector, cross-ethnic global justice organization that is not only nurturing a new generation of Fair Trade leadership, but is contributing substantially to the movement in real time.
