Fair Trade Products for Socially Conscious Shoppers
Chances are, you first heard about fair trade products in the grocery store. More and more food producers have been putting a big emphasis on their own social consciousness (some as a way of drumming up sales and some for more genuine reasons) in recent years. The lines of fair trade products range from coffee and teas to chocolate and even sugar and sweeteners. However, what you may not know is that fair trade products don’t just live on your grocery store shelves.
As consumers begin to closely examine where their products come from, how they are made, and who makes them, companies are forced to make decisions that are better for the environment, better for their employees, and better for the folks who grow and produce the raw materials. Essentially, if you see the fair trade label, you can be assured that the craftsperson who manufactured the product you are buying has been paid a fair wage for the work they’ve done. While that wage may seem small by our western standards, fair trade certification ensures that the wages earned are at or above average for the region in which the product was manufactured or grown.
While many fair trade items are available in retail outlets, many can be found online. In fact, do a search for fair trade online–you’ll find over 6 million results in the shopping category alone! However, not every website uses the term in the same fashion. Be smart about your shopping habits and investigate a little before clicking that “buy now” button.
Here are a few important facts to look for when shopping for fair trade online to ensure that what you’re buying is actually what you’re getting:
• Be sure the items are actually certified—when retailers use the term fair trade online, make sure they’re backing it up with certification by FLO International or TransFair in the US and Canada.
• Read the description to find out what exactly is certified—when an item is composed of multiple components, perhaps only one is actually certified while the others may not be not
• When in doubt dig deeper—if the website you’re shopping doesn’t make its fair trade status explicit, contact them and ask. It’s better to be a bit of a pest than buy something that’s not what you think it is.
In short, most website offering fair trade items are above board and on the level but it’s always good to keep that old axiom close to heart: Buyer beware.
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