A Brief Introduction to Fair Trade and Justice

Fair Trade is a form of commerce started post–World War II in the 1940s by American and European organizations as a way to provide relief to war refugees and marginalized people through the sale of handicraft items made by those populations (Shaw, Hogg, Wilson, Shui, & Hassan, 2006). By teaching people to create handicrafts that sold in the United States and Europe, income was generated to help the struggling populations. Over time, Fair Trade evolved to include food items, embrace cultural diversity, gender, environmental sustainability, long-term development, and brought greater economic return to a million small-scale producers across the globe (Warrier, 2011). Fair Trade is now a $6.8 billion industry (WFTO, 2012). It is most visible in the coffee and chocolate industries though it also includes flowers, sugar, quinoa, rice, bananas, grapes, gold, tea, herbs, rice, honey, nuts, cotton, vanilla, wine, clothing, sports balls, wood, potatoes, and handicrafts (Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International [FLO], 2011). Fair Trade products largely originate from poorer countries and are sold, often at premium prices, to consumers in richer countries.