San Francisco - World Fair Trade Week, May 3 through 9 is a time to combine the American passion for shopping with economic justice, two imperatives that are often at odds in the world of consumption. When shoppers make an effort to purchase Fair Trade products, instead of grabbing any old box off the shelves they are making a conscious choice to make connections and improve the lives of small farmers and artisans around the world.

Fair Trade, which has been the center of a national campaign initiated in 1999 by the international human rights group Global Exchange, guarantees small-scale farmer cooperatives a minimum price, and thus a decent living. Fair Trade certification uses third party monitoring and a consistent standard that includes labor rights and environmental sustainability. So when consumers in the developed world make that one conscious decision they can make a huge difference in the lives of others, and if they keep making that choice they could even gradually shift the global market in a more just direction.

Take coffee for example. The Fair Trade floor price is $1.26 per pound. The world market price hovers around $0.60 and is sometimes significantly lower. That is the difference between having health care, clothing and education for the coffee farmers children. It is a price that can reverberate down generations. Or take Chocolate: cocoa beans. In West Africa the situation for cocoa growers has gotten so bleak that the International Labor Organization has reported abusive child labor practices and even child slavery.

Fair Trade is a viable solution to these and many other producer problems. But right now the biggest problem with Fair Trade is insufficient demand. That is where World Fair Trade week comes in, by publicizing the existence of Fair Trade and educating consumers about the need for Fair Trade. Of course, another even more effective way of ensuring the success of Fair Trade would be if major corporations like M&M Mars, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble (owner of Folger¹s and Millstone) the country¹s largest coffee company, just started purchasing more Fair Trade product.

If those companies alone started buying 5 percent of their product at Fair Trade prices, it would be a huge boost to the world Fair Trade market. But convincing those companies always takes work: it took a two year campaign led by Global Exchange and other non-profit organizations to get P&G to carry just one online Fair Trade coffee line.

M&M/Mars, the worlds largest chocolate company with revenues of $16 billion won't even engage in productive dialogue with Global Exchange to improve their Fair Trade purchasing position. Global Exchange is organizing a national call in campaign urging the company to buy Fair Trade cocoa beans.

Then there is Starbucks. In 2000 Starbucks promised to sell Fair Trade Certified coffee company buy five percent of its coffee under Fair Trade Certified terms. Yet, in 2004 less than one percent of Starbucks' coffee is Fair Trade Certified. Now Starbucks brewing Fair Trade coffee during World Fair Trade Week.

"We're pleased that Starbucks is doing this and we are waiting for the day when brewed Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks will be the rule instead of a newsworthy exception," said Valerie Orth, Fair Trade Organizer with Global Exchange. "That would really be something to celebrate. These large corporations have the ability and the responsibility to uproot the coffee industry and dramatically increase Fair Trade sales."

So it is up to consumers, but moreso corporations, to purchase more Fair Trade product. And not just during World Fair Trade Week, but all the year round.

Global Exchange

Global Exchange

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