If you are reading this, chances are that you think about more than just price when you shop. In at least some of your purchasing decisions other factors come into play. Fair Trade Certified products aren't necessarily more expensive than conventional products, but they can be. Most of us spend a little extra to know that workers’ rights were respected, that the environment was protected, that farmers received better compensation. Even in tough economic times we do what we can: we buy organic, we buy local, we buy Fair Trade.
So what about the larger purchasing power of our government institutions?
Many Fair Trade actors work primarily for one mission: to better the trading conditions of southern producers. Since joining TransFair Canada, first as a volunteer in 2006, this goal has certainly guided my own actions and motivated me in my daily tasks. When I was mailing out packages of promotional materials to Fair Trade activists across Canada, I reminded myself that I was helping the producers by getting information out to Canadians, one package at a time.
Decisions in Fair Trade certification tend to be made with the earnest desire on the part of decision makers to do what the producers would want us to do. The tendency in Fair Trade discourse is to frequently and somewhat automatically refer to the people who grow and work to make Fair Trade Certified products as a group. A group called “the producers”.
