Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization committed to solving poverty, hunger, and injustice, informs us that "40% percent of the people on our planet-more than 2.5 billion-now live in poverty." my italics This type of statistic appalls me. Almost half the world is living in poverty, many starving or living in a subsistent manner. The Fair Trade Program is a system of community-based businesses providing prosperity and empowerment to artisans, farmers, and other producers of developing countries to help end poverty and protect the environment in the process. What a great combination!
Built into the Fair Trade Program are incentives for the community businesses to be environmentally sustainable. "Fair Trade producers are encouraged to use environmentally friendly practices that preserve the health of the soil, air, water and the workers in the field," states the Guide to Fair Trade by Co-op America, a non-profit organization promoting Fair Trade. Co-ops receive a higher price for products grown organically, according to Yochi Zakai the Fair Trade Program Coordinator of Co-op America.
Fair Trade is good for women and children too, because the price they earn for their products is enough to provide for community projects, like wells and schools. This program ensures that women are paid equally to men and encourages women's participation in leadership in the business co-ops. The alternative of employment by multi-national corporations in these developing countries often means slave-labor standards and child-labor practices!
Fair Trade products such as coffee, chocolate, tea, fruit, sugar, rice are all imported to the United States through various companies. Homemade Crafts and Clothing fashioned by artisans worldwide are also sold. Often the exporter of these products is the co-op of crafters themselves, so that the myriad of middlemen is cut-out and more profits go directly to the people producing. You can find out more about Fair Trade co-ops and how to purchase them from websites like globalexchangestore.org and transfairusa.org .
On the TransFairUSA website you can read how products are determined to be labeled as Fair Trade:
"The Fair Trade CertifiedTM label guarantees consumers that strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product."
Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla. TransFair USA licenses companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict international Fair Trade standards. Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace."
At a recent Green Festival, organized by the Global Exchange and Co-Op America at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., I saw wonderful, imported, Fair Trade products. Beautiful skirts and scarves woven of a rainbow of colors hung upon rack after rack, tantalizing my fingers. Purses and bags expertly designed from intricately-folded newspapers and magazines covered in recycled plastic beckoned to me. What a great use for the plethora of paper thrown into the world's landfills! The choices were so wonderful that I had difficulty choosing what to purchase.
You can actively participate in supporting Fair Trade in your own community by talking to store managers and requesting that they supply some Fair Trade products. Some conventional stores already do-like Target, Starbucks, and Trader Joe's. You can also host a Fair Trade Party at your home, workplace, or place of worship; and spread the word around to your friends and family. In doing so, you will be helping to sustain the environment by buying green products and helping the poor of the world be self-sufficient, successful business people.
Pamela Palmer
Author Bio
Pamela Palmer is the founder and writer of Natural Cleaning Product Reviews at http://www.greenkeen.blogspot.com . Pam is also a contributing “Green” writer for the ezine, Suite 101, http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/pamelapalmer . She has written for Clay Times Magazine, a ceramics magazine for artists, teachers, and students and other print publications, as well. She resides in Western Maryland, near the mountains and enjoys writing poetry from the porch of her almost one-hundred-year-old house. She is the wife of a very patient man for the last 21 years and is Mom to two energetic teens, a goofy dog and a street-smart cat. Visit her poetry blog goldapples.wordpress.com when you get the chance.
