Fair Trade Goes Full Circle on Supply Chains

This is part of a series on "The Future of Fair Trade," written with the support of Fair Trade USA. A 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, Fair Trade USA is the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. To follow along with the rest of the series, click here.

In honor of Fair Trade month, Fair Trade USA created a great infographic to explain how fair trade really works to improve workers' lives and, in turn, the health of our ecosystem. While certifications like Organic ensure that farmers and a consumer's family won't be exposed to harmful pesticides, Fair Trade USA focuses on the producers and the well-being of their families. What organizations like Fair Trade have found is that a focus on the health of workers far up the supply chain leads directly to a higher-quality product and a healthy planet. That is to say, Fair Trade goes full circle. Here's how they do it.

Improving lives

Fair Trade means that workers -- from farmers to factory workers -- get a fair wage for the goods they produce, through a guaranteed minimum purchase price. Workers on Fair Trade farms also have the right to organize into unions if they wish and the right to safe working conditions. Forced child and slave labor are strictly prohibited.

Workers and farmers decide collectively how to spend the Fair Trade premium on community development: building schools, clinics, improving roads, offering school scholarships, or whatever the community needs.

With each year that passes, each Fair Trade community strengthens, improving life for its members en masse.

Protecting the environment

Fair Trade also protects the environment directly through sustainable farming requirements and prohibitions on harmful agrochemicals and GMOs.  Additionally, the Fair Trade standards require that Fair Trade organizations "develop a strategic approach to integrated pest
management, the safe use and handling of agrochemicals, responsible waste management, protection of soil and water and biodiversity, and reduction of energy and greenhouse gas emissions."

Indirectly, the fair trade model pays farmers a living wage, which means land owners can invest in sustainable agricultural practices like crop rotation and allowing land to go fallow, which will protect the sustainable resource over time.

In one example from a coffee grower in Honduras, the process of becoming Fair Trade itself had a positive impact on the environment: The farmers switched to processing coffee cherries in a central facility instead of each farmer processing cherries at home, which meant less pollution and more drinking water for the community. The central facility uses non-potable water from a nearby river rather than the town's drinking water to process the cherries. In addition, they are treating and filtering their wastewater so that it doesn't pollute the river when it is returned to it.

Ensuring quality

Environment and social benefit are all well and good, but at the end of the day, the most important thing for consumers is quality. They aren't buying if the products aren't up to snuff. Fair Trade USA knows that and that's why product quality is embedded in their mission. Twenty-five percent of the Community Development Premium must be earmarked for investment in quality and productivity.

Jenna Larson, public relations manager for Fair Trade USA, explained how Fair Trade leads to better coffee in a recent article:

Farmers today understand that investing in quality is critical to their long-term survival in the business. Similarly, coffee buyers know that working closely with producers through Fair Trade is a great way to develop the quality of the coffee they serve to the world.

Farmers are like anyone else. They want to do good work and believe in the products they produce. The Fair Trade price floor allows them to invest in quality. In turn, the Fair Trade USA label becomes a brand consumers can trust to indicate quality, which means further incentive for Fair Trade USA to ensure high-quality products carry the label. For example special grants from Fair Trade USA, allowed coffee growers in Peru to invest in quality control equipment and research to resist coffee leaf rust. The difference in quality becomes obvious when one looks at the difference in equipment available to Fair Trade growers:

So, it's obvious that Fair Trade is a good choice to make whenever you have the opportunity. Do your part and look for the label during fair trade month and beyond!

 Images courtesy of Fair Trade USA