Why Support Fair Trade?

In this day and age — with budgets as tight as they are — it is tempting to make our buying decisions based entirely on price. But we ought to also consider the moral costs of our choices.

Behind items that we consume every day (coffee, tea and chocolate to name a few) are farmers struggling to survive and support their families. Living in poor, rural regions of the world where paved roads and internet access are rare, small-scale farmers who produce these items do not have their pick of buyers.

In conventional trade, middlemen take advantage of this and pay unfairly low prices—prices that do not even cover farmers’ costs and leave them no money for nutritious food, medicine, clothes or education. Children are forced to work instead of attending school.

This is why Lutheran World Relief supports an alternative called Fair Trade. In line with Luther’s teachings that “we should fear and love God that we may … help [our neighbor] to improve and protect his property and business,” it is a way of doing business that acknowledges the worth and basic human rights of all people.

When you buy Fair Trade items, more of the money you spend reaches the hands of the people who crafted them.

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In supporting Fair Trade, you support:

Better incomes for farmers and artisans
Better working conditions
Protecting children from child labor and slavery
Women’s rights
Democratic principles, giving the poor more power
Good stewardship of resources like water, fertile land and forests
Development projects that bring schools, clinics and clean water to poor, rural communities

Learn more about Fair Trade.