I have coined the phrase "fair food," an analogy with the term "fair trade," to denote a growing demand by people who are being exploited by fair trade's opposite: "free" trade. The call for fair food is a challenge to the big-business practice of factory farming. It is a call to encourage more small-scale farming in which family farmers provide good food to their neighbors at a fair price.

"Fair food" is a call to encourage local farmers all over the world. Most small farmers in developing countries are women who have, for centuries, provided food for their families and their neighbors. Today they are endangered by "free" trade because it gives the multinational corporations access to their best farmlands and fishing waters.

Photo/GBGM A field worker picking strawberries in California.

Products with a "Fair Trade" label are enjoying increasing sales worldwide. Sales in "Fair Trade" coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas, cheese, cashews, wild rice, and maple syrup are growing around the world, but mainly in Europe. A fledgling network of distributors helps make certain that growers get a fair price for their labor and that consumers get excellent-quality foods in return.

People in farm country talk about "the final four"—the four giant agricultural corporations that will soon own everything: seeds, equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, and the refining, packaging, advertising, and distribution processes. They foresee that the only role the farmer will retain will be to drive the tractor for the factory farm or to clean and care for the factories that grow the poultry, hogs, or cattle. In the terminology of "free trade," this is called "vertical integration." It means that everything worth having is consolidated into fewer and fewer hands.

It has taken many decades for us to get to this crisis point in farming and food production. But here are several ideas for reform:

• Encourage networks of people to buy from fair-trade organizations. Expand beyond fair-trade coffee to all foods sufficiently imperishable to be part of such trade.
• Be an advocate for community gardens where fresh food can be grown in urban areas. Also build networks with local farmers for community-based agriculture.
• Join the effort to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test and label genetically engineered food. That way, people can make an informed choice about whether to consume or avoid food that has been genetically altered.
• Support farm legislation that will subsidize small farmers rather than giant agribusiness corporations.

Above all, follow Jesus' mandate to "feed my sheep" and his example of taking a small amount of food and distributing it fairly to the multitudes.