Saturday, May 8 is World Fair Trade Day and for the 48 hours that encompass a global day, millions of participants in hundreds of cities in more than 70 countries celebrate with breakfasts, talks, markets, live performances, a lift, fashion shows, carnivals, festivals, processions and protests, to drive Fair Trade and campaign for justice in trade and promote sustainable social and environmental policy.

It's an especially exciting day in Milwaukee, which was the first large city in United States to become a Fair Trade City in 2007. Since then, several other cities including San Francisco and New York have followed suit.

Sachin Chheda, the director of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition, points to Milwaukee's to "forward thinking political leadership" as a major impetus for our leadership in fair trade awareness.

"(Ald.) Tony Zielinski has been a huge champion and has sponsored every piece of legislation that the common council has passed," says Chheda.

Zielinski called the city's fair trade status "the right thing to do from a human rights standpoint because of the horrible sweatshop conditions that produce far too many products that make it into this country."

He continued, "But fair trade is also important because sweatshop practices in other countries are costing Americans family supporting jobs, and government must use its purchasing power to lead the way to social justice."

Becoming a fair trade city means that the city agrees to a set of principals, including passing a resolution of fair trade support and several local businesses offer fair trade goods, as businesses like Four Corners of the World Fair Trade Store, Sven's European Cafe, Future Green, Fair Trade For All, Outpost Natural Foods and others in Milwaukee have done.

What it doesn't mean is that every product sold must comply with those standards.

"We interpret fair trade broadly," says Chheda. The Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition considers more than officially certified items because only a few products like coffee, bananas, sugar and chocolate have an actual certification process in place.

"We want people to purchase sustainable, local, made with union labor, too."

In doing so, he's helped organize the third annual Milwaukee Fair Trade Crawl on Saturday, May 9.

This year's crawl theme is Fair Trade My Home, encouraging people to think about each room of their homes and how they might incorporate fair trade into their entire lifestyles -- not just with coffee or chocolate.

Gail Bennett, owner of Fair Trade For All in Wauwatosa, says that while we have a ways to go to reach the level of cities like Seattle or San Fransisco, Milwaukee's fair trade awareness and participation has made significant strides recently, despite the economic downturn.

"Most of the small fair trade stores in this area have seen growth during the past two years. We believe that Milwaukeans really care about people in the world and are growing weary of helping large corporations make more money. The fair trade stores in Milwaukee all agree that people are saying that they are coming in to shop local and fair trade as an alternative to going to the malls."

Last year, over 30 businesses and more than 1,000 shoppers in the greater Milwaukee area participated in the Milwaukee Fair Trade Crawl. This year, the organizers are hoping for even more. The city-wide crawl goes until 5 p.m. and includes an "Educational Treasure Hunt," where customers can learn more about the products they're purchasing and help them feel more connected to the producers.

Start your crawl at Alterra (Humboldt, Foundry or Wauwatosa), any Outpost Natural Foods location or Stone Creek Coffee (Bay View, Wauwatosa, Shorewood, Glendale, Whitefish Bay.) For a complete list of participants, visit milwfairtrade.org.