The ENGAGE Fair Trade Rice Campaign
Since 2003, ENGAGE has played a crucial role in bringing Fair Trade rice to supermarket shelves, college campuses, and communities throughout the United States. ENGAGE has organized four different Speaker Tours, bringing a total of ten Thai Fair Trade rice farmers to over 20 different cities in the United States to connect with and educate over 2,000 people about Fair Trade, rice farming, and the struggle to maintain a sustainable livelihood.

As a direct result of the tours and the actions of ENGAGE members and allies, over ten new importer-producer relationships have been initiated and five colleges and universities (to date) have committed to purchasing Fair Trade Jasmine rice.

In 2008, ENGAGE expanded our Fair Trade Rice campaign and is now promoting Fair Trade rice alongside organic rice from California as well as wild rice from the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. ENGAGE believes that the principles of Fair Trade – fair and transparent labor practices, stronger relationships between producers and consumers, and sustainability for farmers’ livelihoods and the environment – can and should apply to American and indigenous producers as well as farmers in different parts of the world. We see the local foods movement and the Fair Trade movement as part of the same struggle for food justice and alternative economies that enable farmers and consumers to thrive.

ENGAGE is currently working throughout the United States to bring bulk Fair Trade rice, organic rice from California, and native rice from Minnesota to college campuses throughout the country. Work with us to bring local, Fair Trade, and indigenous rice to your campus!

Click here to email the ENGAGE Fair Trade Rice Coordinator to learn how you can be involved in ENGAGE’s Fair Trade Rice campaign.

Click here to listen to a personal call to action from Fair Trade Jasmine rice farmers at the Kudchum Mill in Thailand.

Click here learn more about California rice farmer Greg Massa of Massa Organics.

Click here to learn about Native Harvest and the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota.

An Introduction to Fair Trade Rice

“Rice is something that is very important to the farmer, the farmer's family, and to our livelihood. It's not just food for us. If you buy Fair Trade organic food for your health and the health of your family, you should know that you are getting more than that, because you are helping people to construct another world, an alternative for living." 
               -Pakphum Inpaen, Thai Fair Trade Jasmine rice farmer

Rice is one of the most vital crops on Earth. As a source of nutrition, rice is a staple food for three billion people worldwide and represents 20% of the world's caloric intake. As a source of livelihood, rice supports nearly 1 billion people in rural areas of developing countries and is cultivated on every continent on earth except Antarctica. In many countries, rice has been cultivated for thousands of years, and is an integral part of culture, language, religion, history, and tradition.

The average American eats about twenty pounds of rice a year, a small portion when compared to the rest of the world. Recently, though, American consumers have discovered the diversity of the world's rice varieties, increasing imports of specialty grains such as Thailand's fragrant Jasmine rice and India's soft Basmati rice. Almost all United States rice imports are of aromatic rice, with Jasmine rice accounting for 75% of the imports (2001).

Although rice farmers feed much of the world's population, depressed world rice prices, coupled with increasing agricultural costs and exploitative trade policies, have left many rice farmers landless, in debt, and unable to provide for their own families. With Fair Trade rice, consumers are able to purchase high quality rice from farmers who earn a living wage, work under fair labor conditions, manage their own cooperatives, and are not exploited by corrupt middlemen.

As demand for Fair Trade Rice in the United States increases, more farmers in Thailand and India are able to reap the benefits of their harvest.  Families stay intact and the community and environment thrives.  By purchasing Fair Trade rice, you ensure that the farmers who grow your food can maintain sustainable livelihoods while providing you with the highest quality food available. 

Click here to buy Fair Trade Rice TODAY!