Jeff Geipel - bio

Jeff Geipel is the founder of Fair Trade Vancouver - a new non-profit organization that seeks to increase awareness, availability, and sales of Fair Trade products in Metro Vancouver. Fair Trade is an alternative and ethical way of doing business with countries in the South. Unlike conventional trade which seeks to obtain the lowest possible prices for imported products – Fair Trade seeks to ensure that farmers are able to live a life of dignity.

The prices that farmers receive are often not enough to cover their operating costs, let alone pay for food, clothes, and education. 80% of the world’s poor are farmers. Under Fair Trade a minimum price is set to cover the costs of production and to provide an income that ensures a decent standard of living. Jeff ‘s goal is that Vancouver becomes the first city with Fair Trade status in Canada.  
 

Fair Trade involves much more than just a fair price. Fair Trade principles include a commitment to democratic organizations, fair labour conditions, direct trade with producers rather than through marketers, building long-term relationships, and environmental sustainability.

“Vancouver has many Fair Trade products available, but you have to know where to look. Buy them and you will make a huge difference in the lives of the world’s poor, ” says Geipel.
 

Jeff leads Fair Trade Vancouver as a volunteer, working nights at a restaurant in Burnaby to pay the bills. He is inspired by his own experience in countries such as Ghana where he saw first-hand the efforts of Ghanaians building a school in the hot sun on nothing but rice. It is these people that he thinks of, and is inspired by, to keep himself going.
 

Through his own travels (he has visited 38 countries) and volunteer work overseas Jeff has witnessed how hard people work in various parts of the world, and how little they get paid for that work.
 

Although overall awareness of Fair Trade issues in Canada is low, people are starting to realize that they need to do something about it. “Even large corporations are becoming aware that they need to at least pay lip service to ethical issues,” says Jeff. “It is up to us, the consumers, to keep the corporations accountable.”
 

“Canadians are good people, and it’s not that they don’t care about making good choices,” continues Jeff. “It’s that they’re busy and they often don’t have the time to do the research themselves. The challenge therefore is to do the work for them; to make the products accessible, and to educate.” Jeff is confident that if the information and Fair Trade products are readily available, people will indeed make the right choices.
 

“What really drives me,” says Jeff, “is when I meet someone, tell them what I do, and I see it click. I find that people here often feel helpless. If they donate money, they’re not sure where it goes, but once they see that there’s something they can do in their daily lives, such as make certain choices, they really respond. It’s amazing to see people realize their power.”