How much do food, clothes, toys produced in the Third World really cost to make and ship to consumers in the west? Very few people really know. They love the low prices of products from countries like China and Colombia, but they often fail to realize that low prices often mean that the original producer has received an extremely low wage, possibly not enough to cover basic necessities. However, in recent years, the world has begun to take notice of the hidden costs of cheap goods in terms of poverty, social injustice, and insecurity. The celebration of World Fair Trade Day, established by the World Fair Trade Organization, is an attempt to draw attention to the inequitable distribution of wealth and the need for new strategies to give all workers the chance for a good life.
The Origins of World Fair Trade Day
As globalization has brought many good things to society, including improved access to goods from around the world, it has also brought many problems, including the use of child labor, inadequate wages given to many producers in the Third World, and the plundering of resources by wealthy corporations. In response, the World Fair Trade Organization has established World Fair Trade Day, supported by over 350 fair trade organizations in more than 70 countries. The celebration's purpose, according to its website, is to help support small producers such as farmers and artisans with fair and just prices for the goods they sell and to raise awareness of the needs of producers in poor areas of the world.
The Principles of Fair Trade
The World Fair Trade Organization has identified ten main goals for fair trade: to create opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers, to work with transparency and accountability, to maintain fair trading practices that give each side of the transaction what they need, to ensure that producers receive a fair price, to monitor labor practices to protect children and avoid forced labor, to maintain non-discriminatory practices with gender equity and freedom of association, including the right to form unions, to ensure safe working conditions, to build the capacity of workers to improve their prospects, to raise awareness of fair trade around the world, and to promote sustainable environmental practices.
Celebrating Fair Trade Day in Winnipeg
As people around the world celebrated the goals of fair trade on May 8, 2010, volunteers and shoppers also gathered at the Ten Thousand Villages store on Plaza Drive in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Ten Thousand Villages, a branch of the Mennonite Central Committee in Canada and the United States, sells crafts ranging from Persian rugs to wooden toys made by artisans in the Third World, as well as organic tea, coffee, chocolate, and a range of other foods. The store has many customers throughout the year, but on May 8th, it was buzzing with musicians playing live music, children getting their faces painted, volunteer staff giving samples of brownies, dried fruit, and rice pudding, and customers browsing through the many ornaments and other goods for sale.
The celebration of World Fair Trade Day at Plaza Drive and elsewhere is perhaps only a small effort in the work of bringing equality to the world's poor, but it is a start. If the fair trade movement gains strength, it could profoundly change the way world economies work.
Susan Huebert - My name is Susan Huebert, and I'm a writer and editor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I've always enjoyed words, and I graduated with a Bachelor ...
