Why Fair Trade Is Important 

The "fair trade" label is seen more and more often on imported goods.  You may see that some of the coffee in your gourmet food store is "fairly traded."  You may see textiles and crafts for sale on the web advertised as being "fair trade" products.  But what does "fair trade" mean exactly?  Fair trade is an approach to marketing that incorporates the principles of environmentally sustainable development and humane wages and working conditions.  It is a movement in the production and marketing of goods that insists that the producer of a product should receive a living wage for his or her work and that commerce should be done with the intent of protecting environmental conditions for future generations.  The fair trade movement is firmly opposed to the use of child labor, slave labor or harsh sweatshop conditions.  Importers of fair trade goods work directly with the small businesses, cooperatives and community-based organizations that grow or produce the fair trade items, thereby cutting out layers of middlemen.  Removing layers of middlemen and corporate profits ensures that, although the workers creating the goods get a living wage, the retail prices for fair trade items are comparable to products that are not fair trade.

In determining a living wage, the fair trade community gives consideration to the locality in which the products are made.  If the local country has a minimum wage law, the wages for fair trade products will at least match it.  Sometimes, however, a legal minimum wage is less than a living wage.  Where that is the case, the fair trade producer will receive more than the law requires.  Fair trade workers organize themselves into cooperatives or other participatory workplaces.  That way, each worker can have a say in local issues, such as working hours and conditions.  The cooperatives often take initiatives with respect to other worker benefits, such as health care, child care and education.  Some cooperatives can provide loans, training and other assistance to workers as they set up their own small businesses.  Fair trade cooperatives will often work to improve conditions in the community.  Up to 70% the workers empowered and assisted by fair trade cooperatives are women, many of whom are mothers and the sole wage earners for their families.

A living wage and decent working conditions are one of the two founding principles of the fair trade movement.  The other founding principle is environmental sustainability.  Fair trade coffee and cocoa cooperatives require their members to use sustainable agricultural methods and to grow organic agricultural products.  Textile workers make raw materials using environmentally sustainable methods such as vegetable dyes and organic cotton and hemp.  Some fair trade cooperatives have sought out producers in geographical regions with rich biodiversity and developed products that use the local resources in a sustainable way.

In addition to a living wage for their producers and an environmentally sustainable approach to commerce, fair trade enterprises also give importance to other social issues.  For example, fair trade artisans often use traditional crafts and skills in making their products.  Doing so preserves their cultural identity and furthers world-wide cultural diversity.  Fair trade cooperatives find it essential to be accountable to the public, so they set up review processes in which accountability and transparency are fundamental.  Finally, because the concept of fair trade is dependant upon the ability of consumers to make educated purchases, fair trade cooperatives consider the education of their consumers to be one of their most important responsibilities.

But no one needs to buy fair trade products simply because it is the politically correct thing to do.  Fair trade products are excellent products.  As important as the economic, environmental and social principals are to your purchase of a fair trade product, the most important reason to buy them is their quality.  Fair trade clothing and accessories are beautiful, unique, sometimes exotic.  The coffee and cocoa are rich and flavorful.  The home décor items are always unusual as well as elegant and well-made.  Try a fair trade product the next time you make a purchase.  In addition to ensuring a living wage, sustaining biodiversity and local environmental conditions and assisting an impoverished community to establish health care, child care and education, you will become the owner of some very wonderful stuff!