MORE IN FAIR TRADE

Fair trade is based on the idea that trade can be a powerful force for social change and environmental conservation. It ensures that farmers and artisans in developing countries receive a fair price for their goods--thereby allowing them to care for their families, send their kids to school, and reinvest in their business and community--and it helps foster sound environmental practices. While fair trade is a concept, it’s also a certification: products that carry the “Fair Trade Certified” logo have met international requirements set up by the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations, a nonprofit based in Bonn, Germany. These include things like not using child labor, allowing unions, and protecting natural resources.

Fair trade products like coffee and chocolate are grown under conditions that help preserve the environment – such as growing coffee under a forest canopy that supports birds and other animals. Farmers may often use alternatives to pesticides, or implement water and soil conservation strategies. On a social level, fair trade certification ensures that farmers were paid a fair price for their goods. Fair trade farmers are often part of cooperatives that help provide health care and improve education for their surrounding communities.

Context

Fair trade began in earnest in the 1980s, but has its roots in alternative trade organizations, which were set up by churches in the 1940s. These organizations enabled people in developing countries to sell their crafts and other wares to markets in Europe and the U.S., and led to the founding of fair trade groups such as Equal Exchange, which imports coffee to the U.S.

Fair trade is seen by proponents as an antidote to globalization, which critics argue allows large corporations in the first world to exploit small farmers and others in the developing world.

Some advocates of free trade argue that it is the truly “fair” form of trade, with everyone coming away better off because they are free to trade as they wish. Fair trade proponents maintain that trade between rich and poor nations is inherently exploitative and the market prices for developing nations’ goods will almost always be too low to allow the producers to make their lives better.

External Links:

Wikipedia - Fair Trade

Transfair USA (certification body)

Fair Trade Federation (association of Fair Trade suppliers and producers)

Further Reading:

Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development by Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton

Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption by Alex Nicholls and Charlotte Opal

The Conscious Consumer: Promoting Economic Justice Through Fair Trade by Rose Benz Ericson