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Fair trade is increasingly popular for imported goods. You may see coffee in your gourmet food store with a “fair trade” label. You may see textiles & crafts for sale on the web advertised as being “fair trade” products. But what’s it exactly? Fair trade is an approach to marketing that incorporates environmentally sustainable development & humane wages & working conditions. It’s based closely on the twin principles that the producer of a product should receive a living wage for her or his work & that commerce should be done with the intent of maintaining environmental conditions for future generations. Those goals are accomplished by working directly with small businesses, cooperatives & community-based organizations, thereby cutting out layers of middlemen. As a consequence of the elimination of middlemen, the retail prices for fair trade items are comparable to products that are not fair trade.

In determining a living wage, consideration is given 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, how ever, a legal minimum wage is less than a living wage. Where that is the case, the fair trade producer will receive at least a living wage. Fair trade workers are organized into cooperatives or other participatory workplaces. That way, each worker can have a say in local issues, such as working hours & safe & dignified working conditions. The cooperatives often take initiatives with respect to other worker benefits, such as health care, child care & education. Some cooperatives can provide loans & 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 & assisted by fair trade cooperatives are women who are often mothers & the sole wage earners for their families.

A living wage & 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 & cocoa cooperatives require their members to use sustainable agricultural methods & to grow organic agricultural products. Raw materials used for textiles & other products are produced using environmentally sustainable methods. Some fair trade cooperatives have sought out producers in geographical regions with rich biodiversity & developed products that use the local resources in a sustainable way.

In addition to a living wage for their producers & an environmentally sustainable approach to commerce, fair trade enterprises also give importance to other social issues. By example, fair trade artisans often use traditional crafts & skills in making their products. Doing so preserves their cultural identity & 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 & transparency are fundamental. Finally, because the concept of fair trade is dependent 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. Best of all, fair trade products are excellent products. As important as the economic,

environmental & social principals are to your purchase of a fair trade product, the most significant reason to buy them is their quality. Fair trade clothing & accessories are beautiful, unique, sometimes exotic. The coffee & cocoa are rich & flavorful. The home d?cor items are always unusual as well elegant, whimsical & well-made. Try a fair trade product the next time you make a purchase. In addition to ensuring a living wage, sustaining biodiversity & local environmental conditions & assisting an impoverished community to establish health care, child care & education, you’ll become the owner of some very wonderful stuff!

Kathleen Hobbins is an internet entrepreneur in Chicago, IL. She is particularly interested in fair trade & other social justice issues. Visit her website at importedlinens.com

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