“What exactly is fair trade?” You might hear someone ask commonly, “Why should I care about it?”

At least I’ve been asked such a thing multiple times. It’s a fair question, and definitely one that a vastly larger amount of consumers need to know the answer to. Fairtrade practices arise in socially driven consumer habits that call for more sustainable and also ethical working conditions for farmers and workers of ingredients in every-day products. This provides for a plethora of necessary human rights (redundant, sorry) and also creates safe working environments for members of communities, particularly in developing countries.

The Logo to Look For
http://ecoscene.info.yorku.ca/files/2013/07/fairtrade.png

 It allows for safety in industries where children are a major fraction of the work force and also creates protected relationships between industry and actual workers. As a result, fewer workers world-wide have been diagnosed with diseases or sustained injuries from work-related matters. These results stem from the Fairtrade Organization and its relationship with farming cultures and communities and their efforts to ensure and adhere to sustainable and safe cultivation and production methods. Not only this, but equally distributed pay is taken into consideration and applied to every reach of the farming process. The standards also call for restrictions on use of harmful man-made chemicals in natural growing processes.

Squint Closely at the Label on the Banana; It'll Make You Smile Too
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Like any movement driven by social patterns and understandings, there is existing criticism. Farmers are spending more of their income on their workers and working environment, and if sales of that particular good are not good, the farmer really is forced into a tough position and sometimes must completely lay-off workers, leaving them with no working conditions at all.

Tea Leaf Worker for Fairtrade Farm
http://www.fairtrade.ie/resources/tea_plucker.jpg

With a greater awareness of the answer to “what exactly is fair trade,” more products with the Fairtrade logo will [hopefully] be bought and consumed, motivating other farming industries and communities to push toward adhering to Fairtrade practices, expanding the number of farmers and workers positively influenced by it. I definitely believe the practices make a difference and it will continue to exponentially grow with greater consideration and knowledge of the standards.