© Fairtrade Foundation

Issue 6, December 2005 - Global trade takes center stage this month as financial leaders will make decisions that impact us all at the Word Trade Organization’s highest-level meeting in Hong Kong. The developing world will argue that today’s “free” trade system disadvantages small farmers struggling to survive. In addition to attempts to reform this system, a global pocketbook revolution has been underway for years to make trade fair. Find out how your buying choices can make a difference this holiday season.

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The words “free trade” imply a system unencumbered by government influence, but the reality is that countries with the means have instituted policies to protect their own businesses and farmers—often at the expense of others around the world.

A decades-old movement to support the work of impoverished farmers and artisans around the world has developed into a billion dollar industry benefiting nearly a million workers—and their families.

The debates over the fair trade certification process and the extent to which large corporations should be welcomed into the business highlight a movement at a crossroads.

A study abroad trip to Thailand inspired Ellen Roggemann and friends to start a non-profit that facilitates global grassroots exchanges, like the one that brought three Thai farmers to San Francisco to see how their fair trade rice is sold in the U.S.

The upcoming WTO meeting in Hong Kong will be crucial in determining whether the benefits of trade will shift towards developing countries. In the meantime, buying fair trade coffee can help ... one cup at a time.

Ultimately, fair trade is a moral issue—and one that people of faith are taking more and more seriously.

Has fair trade really improved the lives of indigenous producers? Cultural Survival spent several weeks visiting and interviewing fair trade producers as well as importers, labeling organizations, and businesses to find out.

Much of the chocolate found on supermarket shelves continues to be produced under appalling conditions—despite years of public outrage and consumer demand for change. But smaller chocolate companies are showing that there is another way.