Fair Trade part 2

Here are the first 5 of 10 reasons to support fair trade from a handout from Teresa Hendrick's lecture yesterday.

1) Use your consumer power to help others. By buying Fair Trade Certified products, you help reduce poverty and give farmers and artisans a fair price for their product.

2) Support education. Many farmers earn so little for their crops that they can't afford to send their children to school and their children must work to help support the family. Fair Trade Certified goods provide a living wage to farmers and artisans, helping them afford to send their children to school.

3) Empower Women. Many women in third world countries are second class citizens. Fair trade encourages women's leadership in cooperatives and supports programs that benefit women.

4) Keep families together. With today's low coffee prices, small farmers and coffee pickers not connected with fair trade are fleeing rural areas in search of work. Women and children are left behind to tend the fields and pick coffee beans and children are taken out of school. Farmers who grow fair trade products earn a living wage and keeps families together.

5) Support community development. Fair trade producers and workers belong to cooperatives and community development organizations that invest in better housing, health programs, schools, and scholarships.

I will post the rest of them later.