In our consumer culture, much of what we buy is imported from the developing world. Often the workers are being paid barely enough to live on. Sometimes they are forced to work in poor conditions. Sometimes they are just children.
When a Fair Trade logo is shown on a product it means that the growers or makers have been paid a fair price, that their community is being invested in and that if they are employed, their employers follow guidelines as to how to treat them.
Chocolate, tea, coffee, rice, pasta, fruit, sugar and sweets are among the ever growing number of groceries that can now be bought Fair Trade. Clothes, jewellery and toys are among other items.
Awareness of the Fair Trade movement has grown hugely since it started and now most supermarkets stock some items, such as tea and coffee. You can also buy Fair Trade products online.
Traidcraft, one of the key suppliers of Fair Trade products, quote Radha Lama, a papercraft worker from Nepal, who says it is good for her community ‘if they buy the goods so we can send our children to school.’
If you choose to buy Fair Trade, you are choosing to treat someone like yourself fairly – giving them the opportunity to feed their families, provide their children with education and improve their quality of life.
Hand and Heart 