October is Fair Trade month!
What is Fair Trade?
Fair Trade is based on the simple idea that the products we buy and sell are connected to the livelihoods of others. A choice for Fair Trade Certified™ goods is a choice to support responsible companies, empower farmers, workers, and fishermen, and protect the environment.
People making Fair Trade Certified™ goods work in safe conditions, protect the environment, build sustainable livelihoods, and earn additional money to empower and uplift their communities. Buying Fair Trade products is a way to make a conscious choice for a better world.
Fair Trade (also called Ethical Trade) is focused on relationships which honor the dignity of the worker. Fair Trade supply chains cut out a number of steps; many fair trade coffee suppliers, for example, know the names and the stories of the coffee growers.
Why should I buy Fair Trade?
- Purchasing fairly traded goods ensures that our purchases have a positive impact and is a powerful way to deepen our connection to God, His people and His creation.
- Our faith asks us to respect the dignity of work, God’s people and His creation. Understanding the impact of our purchases and consumption helps ensure our choices don’t harm others or the environment. Live your faith; consume with your conscience.
- Ethical purchasing helps address growing humanitarian crises. To be true agents of change, we must support just and environmentally sound ways of doing business.
Where can I find Fair Trade products? How do I know if an item I want to buy supports Fair Trade?
You can find Fair Trade foods in neighborhood stores! Shopping the local Food Lion, Lidl, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s grocers, you will find Fair Trade coffee, tea, and chocolates. You may also find Fair Trade organic cane, brown, and powdered sugars, baking chocolate/chocolate chips, agave, coconut oil, and quinoa. Kroger and Harris Teeter sell the Simple Truth Organic brand which includes Fair Trade foods. You may be surprised by what you find -- the number of Fair Trade items continues to grow!
Look for these labels on each package:
Shop from the Global Solidarity table at Ascension's Christmas Bazaar in the ACC (November 2 & 3)
Visit the Fair Trade Festival at O'Connor Brewing in Norfolk (Dec. 7 & 8)
Online links:
Fair Trade Certified shopping guide (by store)
Fair Trade Certified products (product search)
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) shopping guide
Fair Trade America shopping guide
The Ethical List (a magazine-style flip book)
Where can I learn more about Fair Trade?
Discover more about Fair Trade at the Fair Trade Certified website
Learn the difference between Fair Trade and Free Trade
Watch the video below "Fair Trade Explained in Under 2 Minutes"
Please also keep all Fair Trade partners - from growers to suppliers - in your prayers! We pray for:
- More protections and better support systems for farmers and artisans around the world who make the goods we consume
- An increase in compassion and service to people in need, whether around the corner or across the globe
- World leaders and lawmakers will consider the struggles of the working poor, and work hard to create more opportunities for living wages