Thursday, June 14, 2007

Fair Trade - Why Is It Important?

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 and crafts for sale on the web advertised as being "fair trade" products. But what is it exactly? Fair trade is an approach to marketing that incorporates environmentally sustainable development and humane wages and working conditions. It is based on the twin principles that the producer of a product should receive a living wage for his or her work and 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 and 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.