Especially on chocolate bars, coffee packages, and bananas the small green and blue fairtrade seal can be seen in lots of supermarkets and discounter nowadays. However, most of the costumers don’t really know, what fairtrade actually means and that there are even products that are promoted with fairtrade but if you’re taking a second look, there is nothing fair on it.
Unfair in this case means that the producers of groceries and handicrafts don’t get the money they deserve and would need to feed themselves and their families. It includes workers being stuck in big fabrics, knitting clothes under dangerous circumstances and farmers working day and night but not getting enough money out of it. Kids, who rather should go to school, have to work to support their families.
The concept of fairtrade, which occurred in the 1970s, is to make sure that every producer and every farmer gets enough money to feed themselves and their families and that the people in developing countries are not exploited by the consumers in the western world.
The vision of fairtrade is a world, in which justice and sustainable development are the center of the world trade. Only then everyone can ensure a dignified life with their own work on the field or in a fabric.
In this podcast, the owner of two fairtrade shops in Germany explains, what exactly fairtrade means, why it is such an important alternative way of consuming and how everyone can get through the jungle of fairtrade seals.
http://anchor.fm/pauline-martha-stahl/episodes/Fairtrade-An-alternative-way-of-consuming-ec1b3g
