Green Side Out - The green lifestyle

If there were a way to help developing countries, would you take part in it? Fair trade is a movement, a social movement, which is striving to develop fair marketplaces for developing countries. This means that individuals providing goods from developing areas will have a standard of income which must be adhered to. It allows us to create sustainability within these countries, and empowerment of the people.

Fair trade is an internationally based program that works in conjunction with the workers in developing countries. It ensures that laborers, creators and workers are not being taken advantage of through working conditions, or international trade. It demonstrates that regardless of the country in which you live, services and products should be valued fairly.

Many would be shocked to realize the harsh conditions in which employees are made to work in some developing countries. Slave labor and unsafe conditions are two crucial problems in the world’s fair trade legislations. Fair trade policies ensure that there is no child labor, and each product is created and priced at a rate according to standard policy.

There are many reasons to support fair trade. Billions of dollars worldwide are being created through this movement, which creates a remarkable income for those who would otherwise have no chance at this opportunity. More important, the number of fair trade sales and products are growing at the remarkable rate of approximately 47% per year. There are over six hundred companies in over fifty countries operating under the principals of the fair trade movement.

Many products are created with the ‘fair trade’ certification, which is important to many consumers. In more than fifty countries, labels affixed to products are globally recognized, as a product is produced in a fair trade environment.

Which products are popularly deemed fair trade? Chances are that we have heard of fair trade coffee but were unsure of the definition. Coffee is only one of the many products available with this certification. Fair trade is growing daily. Banana, coconut, cotton and chocolate are all up and coming fair trade movements.

There are four crucial aspects in the fair trade movement, these include: raising consumer awareness, empowerment, sustainable trading relationships and market access for everyone. It is shocking to learn the amount of producers that have no access to the direct market.

How do we know that a product has been certified? International and independent companies have the ability to audit fair trade companies at any given time to ensure that practices are being adhered to. This means that fair prices are being used, and the ethical treatment of all workers is in place. These logos were implemented in 2002 and are now recognizable by each consumer who is concerned about the fair trade movement.

Fair trade is crucial in the development of human rights, and the ethical treatment of every single human being. From the crops, to the factory that the product was made within, each component must be certified by the organization before the fair trade label is affixed to the product.

Without fair trade, there would be controversy in many of the products that we use on a daily basis. Isn’t it time that we thought about the products we were purchasing and the methods and techniques that are used to create these products?