Fair Trade - How & Why

Fair Trade has a huge impact on everyone and everything--me, you, family, friends, the local community, foreign countries, the environment, and even the world economy. 

Some of the issues that Fair Trade addresses include protecting the planet, building businesses, empowering women and families, supporting education, fighting poverty, and providing healthcare to people in need.

Reasons to Buy Fair Trade

Cost is a major concern for people who want to buy Fair Trade products. The Fair Trade Resource Network provides an excellent breakdown:

Do Fair Trade goods cost more than comparable non-Fair Trade goods?

Generally, fairly traded crafts don’t cost more than other goods because the large percentage taken by middle people is removed from the equation. The cost remains the same as traditionally traded goods; however, more of the sale price goes to producers (Fair Trade Resource Network, FAQ).

Fair Trade Makes a Difference

Start thinking about where the products you buy come from, who makes them, and how they are living. Sometimes we take the simple things for granted. Now is the time to turn around our consumption habits and make a positive impact with our choices.

Resources and additional links:

Black Gold - FTRN says: “This documentary has captured the dilemma of the coffee farmer: how to get a fair price for quality coffee in a market that is set up only to make money for powerful international traders in cities far from the farm.” Summary/Review: Black Gold follows Tadesse Meskela, the leader of an Ethiopian coffee cooperative, on his travels through Africa and around the world seeking a fair price for the coffee grown by cooperative members before they are forced to declare bankruptcy. Meskela travels to London and Seattle in an attempt to find a coffee buyer willing to pay a fair price, while the film documents the enormous power of world coffee traders and the double-dealing of trade ministers during World Trade Organization talks. (Youtube, 77 minutes, 2005).

The Dark Side of Chocolate - FTRN says: “This video is most useful for showing the horrors of child labor and trafficked children in W. African cocoa farms that supply major corporations and brands. It also demonstrates the lack of interest by major corporations to solutions like Fair Trade.” Summary/Review: This film goes undercover to Mali and Ivory Coast to document child trafficking, forced labor and other worst forms of child labor that should have been eliminated under the Cocoa Protocol signed by major chocolate industry groups in 2001. It also shows footage of major chocolate company executives in Europe uninterested in the transgressions and solutions presented by the film. (Youtube, 45 minutes, 2010).

The Price of Sugar - A documentary which follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced. (YouTube, 1 hr 30 minutes).
From Crop to Cup: The LWR Coffee Project (Part 1 of 6) - FTRN says: “This accessible video gives a good introduction to the coffee process and how Fair Trade makes a difference for farmers and the environment.” Summary/Review: Video explains that consumers can do right by Nicaraguan farmers by purchasing Fair Trade coffee like Equal Exchange, partner of the Lutheran World Relief Coffee project. (Youtube, Lutheran World Relief, 22 minutes, 2009)

Farming communities
http://www.fairtradeusa.org/what-is-fair-trade/global-reach-map 

http://strongertogether.coop/food-coops/co-op-faqs-and-facts/