Add fair trade to shopping list

By Sam Lucero
News and Information Manager

With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, we'll soon be preparing holiday meals and purchasing gifts for friends and family. Now is the time to think about another form of giving: fair wages to peasant farmers and craftspeople who grow the many bountiful goods that are imported here and sold in our supermarkets and retail stores.

The fair trade movement, one of the most successful grassroots efforts aimed at combating world poverty, is like a gift that keeps on giving. Fair trade provides consumer products, grown or handmade around the world, to shoppers. It consists of three objectives: fair wages and safe working conditions for workers, and protection of the environment.

While the modern fair trade movement is still in its infancy, the roots of fair trade go back to the 1940s, according to TransFair USA (http://transfairusa.org/), when churches sought to provide aid to refugees and other impoverished people by selling their handicrafts.

Today fair trade organizations help Third World farmers establish cooperatives where goods are sold directly to retailers, thus eliminating several manufacturing layers. For example, coffee that once passed from farmers to roasters, packers, traders, shippers and warehouses before finally finding its way to store shelves now goes from farmers to community cooperatives - for preparation and distribution - to stores.

This model of trade is symbolized by Fair Trade Certified coffee, which is now the fastest-growing segment of the specialty coffee market.

TransFair, the organization whose fair trade label appears on coffee packages sold in the United States, has certified 74 million pounds of fair trade coffee in six years, generating $60 million of additional income for farmers.

In 2006, U.S. consumers spent approximately $2.2 billion on certified fair trade products, which was a 42 percent increase over 2005. More than 7 million people in developing countries benefited from the sale of fair trade products in 2006, according to Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, a group of fair trade certifiers.

While coffee is the most recognized fair trade consumer product, other fair trade items include sugar, cocoa, cotton, tea, pineapples, wine and flowers.

Unlike a few years ago, or even last Christmas, finding fair trade products is no longer a difficult task. According to the New York Times, more and more U.S. companies are embracing the idea of offering specialty consumer products featuring the fair trade label.

As the recent recall of toys made in China demonstrates, regulation in the cultivation and manufacturing of imported goods is important. Consumers need to know that goods they buy meet certain standards for quality. They also need to know that the workers responsible for growing or making their goods are paid a fair wage and that their working conditions are safe.

In addition to providing fair wages to farmers, groups such as TransFair USA require that environmentally friendly farming techniques - including no use of pesticides - are practiced.

Religious organizations are in the forefront of the fair trade movement. Catholic Relief Services has been promoting fair trade for more than five years. The CRS Fair Trade program helps U.S. Catholics connect with fair trade companies that support small farming groups. CRS even offers an online buyers' guide (http://crsfairtrade.org) to fair trade items suitable for gift giving.

In the Green Bay Diocese, Worldgoods, a fair trade store located in Green Bay, carries fair trade items from more than 25 countries. When an item is purchased from Worldgoods, the buyer receives an information card telling how the product was made, who made it and how the purchase benefits the farmer or crafter. Items can be purchased online at www.worldgoodsgb.com. Other stores in Neenah, Appleton and Oshkosh offer fair trade merchandise.

This holiday season, let's put fair trade at the top of our shopping list.