FAIR TRADE: What’s all the fuss?
Our grocery stores, cafés and homes are full of supplies produced around the world. It is easy to believe that the price we pay covers the costs of production and provides farmers with a sustainable livelihood. Sadly, that is not so. Food travels many miles along the ‘camino’, from farmers’ fields in developing countries to your home. Under the traditional free trade system, only a very small portion of your money actually reaches the producers. Using fair trade products means you are helping farmers sustain their crops and businesses with dignity - no child or forced labour in the process has been involved.
Many of our local chocolate producers use fair trade products. For example, Cocoa Camino chocolate is produced by the La Siembra co-op who is striving to create a new ‘camino’ (path), one that reconnects consumers with the producers who grow and harvest products. How fair trade works is that the co-ops or distributors have a direct relationship with other co-operatives in the world, and they work closely with their producer partners. Fair Trade Certified products, provide us, the consumer, with a promise that farmers are getting a fair deal.