Fairtrade Fortnight is coming…
February 11th 2011 Posted at Tweets
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Blogging Fair Trade
Fair trade, ethical business and other musings
First post of 2011: Fair trade fashion – the future
January 16th 2011 Posted at Ethical business, Fair Trade
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Cheap, throw-away clothing should be a thing of the past. Fair trade is revolutionising the clothing industry and providing a real alternative to sweat shops and child labour.
In this video Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame, talks about her experiences in Bangladesh and the massive difference that fair trade fashion can make and is making to producers in the developing world:
Let’s make this an ethical Christmas
November 21st 2010 Posted at Ethical business, Fair Trade
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The run-up to Christmas is now in full swing and there is no better time to pledge to make your Christmas an ethical one.
And with the high street’s number one ethical shop [according to the Ethical Consumer magazine], Monsoon, today being exposed as having child labour and underpaid workers in its supply chain in the Observer newspaper; the best way to ensure that the products you buy are truly ethical, is to go fair trade.
Monsoon was nominated as the most ethical business on the UK high street because it has a strict ethical policy, and indeed it has reacted to the revelations about the unethical goings-on in its supply chain (which, incidentally, were discovered in the company’s own internal audits) by firing the sub-contractor responsible for employing children believed to be have been trafficked, and working together with an NGO to put the children in care homes until they can be reunited with their family.
This is all well and good, and Monsoon should be commended for dealing with the issues head on and doing all it can to prevent child labour and exploitation being part of its supply chain. But the problem is, the supply chains of the large high street shops are so long and convoluted that these practices will continue to be carried out by sub-contracters and, most of the time, the high street businesses won’t even know it is happening.
This is just one of the many reasons as to why fair trade is so fantastic. One of the basic principles of fair trade is transparency: keeping the supply chain short and making sure that there are no sub-contracters helping themselves to a great big chunk of the money designated for the work force.
The producers lie at the heart of fair trade. Often they work together in cooperatives, which then export their goods to the retailers in the West. The money paid by the retailers goes directly back to the cooperatives, where it is generally used to make the business more sustainable, to improve production methods and to provide education and training.
So, when you buy fairly traded products, you can rest safe in the knowledge that the goods weren’t made by children, stolen from their families to produce clothes and other products for western consumers. You know that the adults who have produced the goods will have been paid fairly and will be directly benefiting from your purchase.
With fair trade, your money goes where it belongs: to the people at the bottom of the supply chain; the people who have a lot less than we do; the people whose lives fair trade is transforming.
So let’s make this an ethical Christmas, and buy fair trade.
Fair trade products. Part 2: What makes a product fair trade?
August 10th 2010 Posted at Fair Trade
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Not all “fair trade” products bear the Fairtrade Mark. In fact, this now famous logo can only be applied to a limited number of types of products: think fruit, vegetables, cotton, certain drinks and other foodstuffs.
The fact of the matter is, if your product does not belong to one of the categories for which the International Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) has created a process for certifying it fairtrade, it cannot bear the Fairtrade Mark, even if it ticks all the boxes and makes a significant improvement to the lives of the producers.
So what of products like jewellery and handicrafts? Shops like Shared Earth – now recognisable on the high streets of a number of lucky towns in Britain – and online stores like my very own By Hand Fair Trade Shop or The Fair Trade Store are fair trade shops, selling fair trade jewellery and handicrafts, but many of their products may not and do not bear the Fairtrade Mark because of the type of products they are, namely jewellery and handicrafts.
So what makes these products fair trade? And are they comparable to products bearing the Fairtrade Mark?
The World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) has been instrumental in developing fair trade across the globe over the last 20 years. The WFTO’s 10 standards of fair trade are the basis upon which the fair trade nature of the products in question are judged. These 10 standards must be adhered to as a minimum. In addition to these, for the products to be truly fair trade, either the producers, the exporter or the importer needs to be a registered member of the WFTO. This may seem like an unnecessary step that could limit and disadvantage the smallest producers and importers, but in reality it is a necessary requirement to ensure that the term “fair trade” is not bandied around and that it is only applied to organisations that have been independently audited by the WFTO and, as such, organisations that have been proven to be acting in line with the 10 standards of fair trade.
The 10 standards of fair trade:
- Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
- Transparency and accountability
- Fair trading practices
- Payment of a fair price
- No child labour or forced labour
- Non-discrimination, gender equity and freedom of association
- Safe and healthy working conditions
- Capacity building
- Promotion of fair trade
- A sustainable approach to the environment
The products produced, imported or sold by members of the WFTO (= organisations that prove regularly to fulfil the 10 standards of fair trade) are fair trade products. Even though they may not fall into a category of product that can be awarded the Fairtrade Mark (e.g. foodstuff, drink, etc.) they are fair trade. And even though they do not bear the Fairtrade Mark (because it is not applicable to their type of product yet), they are as beneficial to producers working to improve the lives of their families and communities through trade as those products bearing the Fairtrade Mark.