Norman may soon be joining a very elite group of U.S. cities as student organizations push to get the home of OU certified as an official “Fair Trade Town.”

“In the U.S., we only have 14 cities, so we have a lot of catching up to do,” said Ajit Bhand, a Norman Fair Trade founding member.

“This idea of not only people buying Fair Trade products [food, clothing and other items bought and sold with equality and sustainability in mind], but communities themselves being Fair Trade, originated in the U.K., where there are now over 400 Fair Trade cities,” Bhand said.

In order to achieve this title, there are many criteria a town must meet.

There are five basic requirements: a steering committee to organize the campaign, support from the community and businesses (for Norman, this means at least 20 establishments that carry Fair Trade products or one for every 5,000 residents), Fair Trade products used at various public places (such as schools or churches), media attention focusing on the campaign and the city council must both pass a resolution supporting Fair Trade and commit to buy the products themselves, Bhand said.

Currently, the city lacks only one of these requirements.

“Right now we are focusing on urging the city council to buy Fair Trade products,” Bhand said.

Norman Fair Trade is asking students and residents to help overcome this final hurdle.

“We just started a petition on change.org, which has a link on Facebook, trying to collect signatures to get the city to commit to purchasing Fair Trade products,” said Gene Perry, Norman Fair Trade steering committee member.

If the petition is successful, Fair Trade advocates are hoping the city’s certification will have a deep impact.

“It will give us prestige but also show that we are a progressive city and we’re trying to move forward. It will just show that we’re looking toward the future, trying to help people,” said Cindy Woods, president of the Student Organization for Fair Trade and steering committee member of Norman Fair Trade.

Some Norman businesses said Fair Trade products have shown positive results for their businesses.

Sara Kaplan, owner of Native Roots Market on Main Street said, “ has definitely been a big draw to our store.”

Kaplan said she is hopeful business will increase once Norman becomes an official Fair Trade Town.

Matt Runkle, Native Roots owner, said “the more people that start buying [Fair Trade], the better it becomes for us. ...There’s so many Fair Trade things right now that we can’t sell because people don’t know what it is, but if there was more awareness of it, all that means is that we can go and buy from the other 50 people we have lined up.”

Norman does not only stand to gain financially from its certification, however.

“It simply makes us a more concerned, compassionate community,” said Mary Francis, Norman Fair Trade steering committee member.

Groups like Norman Fair Trade also hope that this will only be a stepping stone on the way to more cities in Oklahoma and beyond receiving their own title.

“One of the things that towns can do once they are certified is mentor other towns,” Bhand said. “So that’s something further down the line for us.”

Although such a prestigious title for the city is one of the Fair Trade organization’s goals, it emphasizes that the point of this and all of the other activities is ultimately to shed light on the subject.

“We want to get more people to hear about Fair Trade,” Perry said. “They often don’t understand it ... but we’re confident once they learn they will be more interested in buying Fair Trade products.”

For more information on signing the petition, a list of other certified towns or Norman Fair Trade, you can visit the Web site at NormanFairTrade.org.