Fair trade can be confusing for all of us, but it’s critical for everyone to understand. Fair trade is an ethical standard for fair prices, treatment, and positive world impact in the creation and distribution of products.
What does that mean? Fair trade is about paying a living wage to those producing the products. It means that people pay a higher price for a product so that the people producing what we buy can afford to eat, have a roof over their heads, be clothed, and maybe have employees to help grow their business.
Fair trade also means avoiding cancer-causing pesticides. It’s about the knowledge that we’re not contributing to child slavery.
Let’s explore further what fair trade means, the key aspects, and why we need to know them.
What is Fair Trade?
Fair trade is a business model building equitable partnerships between developing regions and consumers around the world. It maintains a goal for a sustainable, economic system to ensure fair pay for work. In fact, its purpose is to meet today’s needs without losing the ability to meet tomorrow’s needs.
Why Fair Trade?
We buy fair trade items so the farmers and creators of the products we purchase make a living wage. We buy to be responsible and ethical in our everyday decisions that affect the well-being of others. In fact, our daily purchases affect more than a single moment in someone’s life.
Buying fair trade can change an entire community and its future generations. Fair trade is good for business because it helps environmental sustainability and public accountability as well as cultural identity respect.
Aspects of Fair Trade
Fair trade can make the world a better place. Some characteristics include cooperative workplaces, fair wages, direct trade, and improved working conditions. Here is a look at some of the social, economical, and environmental aspects of fair trade.
The Social Feature of Fair Trade
Fair Trade focuses on providing social benefits to developing countries. It strives to ensure that producers in those developing countries receive a fair price for their products, get better working terms and conditions, and achieve improved environmental standards for production.
The main goal is to help improve the lives of people in developing countries by ensuring that their work is fairly compensated. Better wages reduce poverty levels, promote sustainable development, and empower communities through increased economic opportunities. It also helps build trust between producers and buyers by regulating trade practices and creating a more transparent system.
Fair trade provides educational opportunities to farmers, small-scale producers, and factory workers so they can learn new skills or gain access to new markets. By doing this, they can increase their incomes, ultimately benefiting their families and communities. Moreover, people working on Fairtrade-certified plantations have the opportunity for better schools, housing, and medical facilities.
Economical Fair Trade Facets
Practicing and certifying fair trade provides a support network of services such as training and finance facilities.
The economic benefits are clear: fair wages can help build strong communities from within through job creation and access to financial resources, further stimulating local economies.
The fair trade term has become increasingly popular over recent years. It refers to the practice of selling goods produced in a socially responsible manner, usually with an emphasis on ethical trade. This type of trading has been found to bring numerous economic benefits to producers, consumers, and society as a whole.
For producers, fair trade creates the opportunity to receive fair wages for their work, allowing them to support their families and improve their living standards. Additionally, providing access to international markets enables farmers to expand their businesses while increasing job opportunities in areas where employment is scarce.
On top of this, fair trade practices promote gender equality within agricultural communities by giving women more control over decision-making and financial autonomy.
Environmental Regards to Fair Trade
The fair trade system of ethical consumerism is designed to ensure workers in the southern hemisphere, and other developing countries receive better wages and working conditions. It focuses on the land use implications of small-scale agricultural production to create positive environmental impacts, like healthier soil and better farming
The overarching goal is to minimize planetary impact while accepting geographical realities and business growth. The idea is to “do no harm.” Use eco-friendly gardening and cultivation while avoiding dangerous pesticides and GMO seeds. Protect the natural resources. Reward organic farming with an increased “Premium and Minimum Price.”
Consumer Education
Fair Trade is becoming increasingly popular in ethical consumerism. These labels assure consumers that their purchases have been ethically produced, ensuring the workers involved in production have received fair wages. It is important for shoppers to understand what these terms mean so they can make informed decisions when purchasing products.
This label certifies products as having met certain standards, such as providing producers with a minimum price and an additional premium for community investments. It ensures that labor rights are upheld, including prohibitions on child labor and forced labor, health and safety protections, decent working hours, and freedom of association for employees.
Fair Trade Organizations
The fair trade organizations are interconnected with each other providing checks and balances within the system. Fairtrade International is part of the WFTO and utilizes the FTC (Fair Trade Certified) sourcing model to certify brands and their ethical business models.
What is the Fairtrade organization?
Fairtrade is the independent, third-party verification provided by membership in Fairtrade International or the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).
The verification is an international certification system. The organization provides standards that must be reached before the product can be certified as Fair Trade. The social standard covers working conditions and limitations like banning child labor or requiring employment contracts. Economic standards include paying a fair wage and paying market price for goods. Environmental standards avoid the use of dangerous pesticides and herbicides.
The requirements include minimum and maximum prices, assuring consumers that the products they purchase are produced according to rigorous social, economic, and environmental standards. The program intends to promote better working, environmental, and living conditions for those producing goods such as coffee, cocoa, and bananas. Fair trade systems offer farmers and workers in developing countries the opportunity to invest in their businesses. It ensures producers a minimum price for their products, regardless of market fluctuations.
Fair Trade USA (Fairtrade America) is devoted to similar principles but has different goals than Fairtrade International. Producers are offered direct access to US markets through labeling and consumer education campaigns.
The intent of the certification is for farmers to receive a fair wage for their product.
Here’s the bad – this verification doesn’t guarantee living standards for the farmers or freedom from child labor.
We still have more work to do.
If you see the Fairtrade Mark with an arrow pointing from it, that means to look on the back to read more about the ingredients and their sourcing. If you have a chocolate bar, for it to be considered Fairtrade, all ingredients available under certification conditions must be Fairtrade sourced. However, only 20% minimum of the finished product must be Fairtrade. But if you buy Fairtrade cocoa, all of it must be Fairtrade.
World Fair Trade Organization
This organization is a global community of businesses that practice fair trade fully and completely. They prioritize both people and the planet. They serve marginalized communities and are run by the members. The WFTO has over 1,000 enterprises and 1500 shops.
The WFTO focuses on workers, farmers, and artisans. They practice the 10 Principles of Fair Trade: (Taken from the WFTO site linked)
1. Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers
2. Transparency and Accountability
3. Fair Trading Practices
4. Fair Payment
5. Ensuring no Child Labor and Forced Labor
6. Commitment to Non-Discrimination, Gender Equity and Women’s Economic Empowerment and Freedom of Association
7. Ensuring Good Working Conditions
8. Providing Capacity Building
9. Promoting Fair Trade
10. Respect for the Environment.
The WFTO campaigns and educates for a better world. It shows the efforts toward a better world with refugee livelihoods, upcycling, women’s leadership, and social enterprise. The existence of the WFTO has already impacted over 900,000 lives.
Fair Trade Certified
This is a rigorous and sustainable sourcing model that improves lives and protects the environment. This award-winning program “builds resilient, transparent supply chains.”
This program ensures producers and farmers a guaranteed minimum price when the market is low. The standards promise freedom from child labor and safe working conditions. It claims fair compensation, product traceability, and environmental protection.
Fair Trade Certified’s standards require ethical and fair operations of businesses with their certification. A few objectives for change include:
– Increased Education
– Community Organization
– Safe and Secure Workplaces
The Fair Trade Certification is an important part of Fairtrade USA.
Fair Trade Federation
The Fair Trade Federation was originally the North American Alternative Trade Organization. This trade association focuses on supporting fair trade businesses to expand markets for artisans and farmers worldwide. They’re a member of the WFTO.
This group values respectful partnerships, global community solidarity, fair and sustainable practices commitment, and trading for positive change. They’re on a mission to make the world a better place through dignity, equality, and planetary health.
Why Fair Trade Matters
Fair trade provides a system of commerce that puts people over profits. It offers a way for people to exchange goods and services without exploitation, unequal pay, or environmental destruction. This practice is an important representation of this concept that has established certification standards for such products.
These ethical standards can help protect the rights of producers in developing countries. It ensures they receive fair wages and better working conditions and are part of an ethical and transparent business model. Fair Trade works to ensure that producers get a fair deal and support their communities. Encouraging more companies to embrace ethical principles will help to create a more equitable global economy for all of us.
Becoming fair trade is a process in progress.
