| What is Fair Trade? Fair
Trade is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable
development. Fair Trade helps family farmers in developing countries to
gain direct access to international markets, as well as to develop the
business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace. By
learning how to market their own harvests, Fair Trade farmers are able
to bootstrap their own businesses and receive a fair price for their
products. This leads to higher family living standards, thriving
communities and more sustainable farming practices. Fair Trade empowers
farming families to take care of themselves - without developing
dependency on foreign aid1.
What is the Fair Trade Certified Label?
The Fair Trade Certified label has the Logo (see Our Banner) and it
is only to be used on products that are 100% certified Fair Trade.
The Fair Trade Certified label guarantees the following:
A fair price
The Fair Trade Certified label guarantees that farmers and workers
received a fair price for their product. The Fair Trade price means that
farmers can feed their families and that their children can go to school
instead of working in the fields1.
Quality products
By receiving a fair price, Fair Trade producers can avoid cost-cutting
practices that sacrifice quality. The Fair Trade producers' traditional
artisanal farming methods result in exceptional products1.
Care for the environment
Most Fair Trade Certified coffee, tea and chocolate in the US is
certified organic and shade grown. This means that the products you buy
maintain biodiversity, provide shelter for migratory birds and help
reduce global warming1.
|
"Fair Trade supports some of the most bio-diverse farming systems in
the world. When you visit a Fair Trade coffee grower's fields, with
the forest canopy overhead and the sound of migratory songbirds in
the air, it feels like you're standing in the rainforest."
Professor Miguel Altieri,
Leading expert and author on agroecology |
Community impact
Empowered by the economic stability provided by Fair Trade, members of
the COSURCA coffee cooperative in Colombia successfully prevented the
cultivation of more than 1,600 acres of coca and poppy, used for the
production of illicit drugs. In Papua New Guinea, the AGOGA cooperative,
is investing in a medical team to meet the healthcare needs of its
isolated rural community. In the highlands of Guatemala, indigenous
Tzutuhil Mayans in the La Voz cooperative are sending local kids to
college for the first time. Near Lake Titicaca, in Peru, the CECOVASA
cooperative is assisting members from Quechua and Aymara indigenous
groups in raising coffee quality and transitioning to certified organic
production1.
| "The
fair price is a solution. It has given us the chance to pay a good
price to our farmers. Those who are not in Fair Trade want to
participate. For us it is a great opportunity. It gives us hope."
-Benjamin Cholotío |
If you would like to see how some Facts and Figures regarding Fair
Trade Certified Coffee you can download a pdf. document containing that
information
HERE.
If you have content
relating to Fair Trade, and/or organics, please contact us at
info@Fair-Trade-Organic-Coffee.com
While you're here
we encourage you to check out some of our
Resource Links.
1 Fair Trade Certified. [Internet].
Berkeley, CA: TransFair USA.; c2004 [cited 2006 Mar 14].
Available from http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/overview.php |
