What is Fair?

A lot of friends and family members ask me what "Fair Trade" means. In order for a product to be certified Fair Trade, it has to meet certain, very specific standards (much like USDA Organic). The major certification agencies - Fair Trade Federation and Transfair have their own standards that they are very transparent about.

Here is how I would personally explain it:

First, the item in question must be "traded". So it will, by definition, be something imported from another country. (In the United States of America, we have labor laws and public health laws that protect workers from being underage or exposed to dangerous chemicals, etc. Not all countries have this. So the products coming out of fields and factories elsewhere in the world can be, and often are, made by children, slave labor, or under dangerous conditions. Sometimes people ask me why we don't have Fair Trade farms here, and the answer is, in general, America is already pretty fair! We are protected by law in many cases, from doing what is being done in other places. Sure there are sweatshops and other bad rackets here too - but they are illegal. In other countries that do not have these laws and standards, this stuff isn't illegal - it's the norm! )

Secondly, the item in question was produced/grown etc under safe conditions by consenting adults who were paid a living wage (for their area) for their product. (So none of the above conditions were part of the the creation of this item.)

Additionally, Fair Trade co-ops must run transparent business practices, reinvest into their communities, and operate sustainably (this is why so often you see the organic label side by side with the Fair Trade label - you virtually have to have one to have the other.)

There are other elements, but these are the most important to me. When I began to learn about Fair Trade it was first described to me in terms of the people on the other end. How their lives were changed and bettered by working in a Fair Trade co-op. How they could send their kids to school instead of to work. How they were healthier and safer by not working with chemicals. But after a while, it started to dawn on me what the benefit of buying Fair Trade was on this end........
Because, yeah, after it came out that there was lead paint on a lot of American toys imported from China back in 2008, I have to admit, there was more than a few times that I walked into Target, looked around, wondered how many thousands of things in the store were from China or other countries, and then wondered how much we don't know about what we don't know. A lot, I am guessing. As dangerous as lead paint? Maybe not. Maybe.
I think it just kind of surprised me to realize that there was a label that could be put on imported products that basically said "This one was made the way you hope it was."

Good to know.