In today’s twenty-first-century market, purchasing has become as easy as clicking a button. As consumers in American culture, we are most concerned about having the newest, flashiest and most brag-able items at the cheapest price. Unfortunately, our purchasing habits have come at a cost-higher than just the price of the item and shipping. You may think you’re getting a great deal by paying less for this year’s fall fashion trends or even the usually expensive produce at the grocery store, but more times than not that cheap price is coming at the expense of the workers and farmers around the globe who produce those products.
Luckily, there is a way to ensure that the products we are buying are benefiting everyone involved in the process.
According to the Fair Trade USA website, the Fair Trade movement was started in 1983 by Paul Rice who began by helping coffee farmers in Nicaragua ensure that the products they were selling could guarantee them a living wage. Rice took his movement back to the U.S. and partnered with many companies and brands to change the way consumers shopped in the American market.
Today in stores across the United States, consumers are able to purchase products that have the Fair Trade seal. According to the Fair Trade USA website, this means that the product “was made according to rigorous social, environmental and economic standards” and that the producers of the products “work in safe conditions, protect the environment, build sustainable livelihoods and earn additional money to empower and uplift their communities.” The seal provides consumers with an easy way to know that the product they are purchasing has treated everyone involved in the process fairly and that its production was not harmful to the environment.
It is easy to recognize that you should be buying products with the Fair Trade Seal, but it can be hard to find these products among the thousands of other products in stores and online.
The Fair Trade USA website has made the buying process easier for consumers by providing a section that is dedicated just to shopping the brands that carry the Fair Trade Seal. The page allows you to search for specific products and also shop by category of produce, clothing, cooking/baking, coffee, health/beauty/body, seafood, snackfood, chocolate and home goods. In each specific category, the page provides links to shop different brands that have the seal. The page also provides a list of stores that sell products and brands with the seal.
If you are looking to buy from brands that have been certified by the Fair Trade organization, the Fair Trade USA website lists J. Crew, Patagonia, OBEY and Athleta as some of the most popular clothing brands to have the seal. The website also lists Allegro Coffee, Simple Truth Organic, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market as just some of the food-related brands that sell products with the seal.
Since its creation in 1983, Fair Trade USA has helped to improve the lives of workers and farmers around the world, as well as bring consumers an easy way to shop for ethically sourced products. According to the Fair Trade Website, there are products from 45 different countries with the Fair Trade seal that are now sold in the United States. Furthermore, the website informs readers that Fair Trade helped more than 950,000 workers and farmers in 2018 with their trading terms.
The efforts set forth by Fair Trade USA has led to a more sustainable way to produce and shop for products within our marketplace.