This year I made a personal commitment to buy more goods that are fair trade. It is not going so well.
If I was looking for coffee, then it would be easy. In fact, if you are looking for coffee may I recommend 963Coffee. (I will be going on a trip to Guatemala that is partnering with 963 to promote fair trade, more about that in another blog.) Alas, I do not drink enough coffee to feel that I am living up to my fair trade commitment.
What then shall I do?
For me the big issue is clothing. There are other fair trade issues out there, but clothing seems to be the largest portion of my spending that I know is made by people who are likely not being treated fairly.
How then shall we change this? To start, much research. I have done some research, but it's not easy. For the life of me, I cannot find fair trade clothing that is affordable (not cheap, just affordable), stylish and easy to obtain. Walking into a department store is out of the question. Fair trade and major retailers do not seem to go together. A few of them, such as the Gap, have adopted a "supplier code of conduct"; however, the actual implementation of this code is spotty at best.
I wish that I could say, "you can buy all your clothing from XYZ source and feel assured that it is a fair trade product", but it is much more complicated. Over the next few days, I plan on posting what I have found in my research. If anyone has some good resources, I'd love to see them in the comments sections.
3 comments:
For food and stuff I found... http://transfairusa.org/
There is also fairindigo.com ... but it's pretty pricey and limited on the selection.
The world seems to be going green. Hopefully, fair trade continues to grow in popularity so that availability will not be so scarce.
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