01.14.10
Globalization and How to Trade Ethically
Browse through your nearby branch of Asda, and you’re looking at the wonderment of global market forces. You can buy almost any item at a cheap price. It might be from Malaysia or rum from Chile - it’s in stock throughout the year. There’s never been a greater time in the history of humanity to be a shopper! This has come about by just in time stock control, large scale production, powerful market competition, and perhaps most influentially, the fact that many produced goods are located, and often manufactured, in second and third world countries.
That final reason is quite crucial, and contentious. While western shoppers are purchasing clothing, food, drink and other items produced from second and third world nations at cheap cost, labourers and commercial enterprises in these producing nations are often exploited, and haven’t any real sustainability as they’re at the end of a very long chain of middle-men who control what they manufacture, how much, and how often. This lengthy chain of middle-men all require their pay too - in the end there’s not a lot of cash for the end-of-line manufacturer.
All the same, there is assistance for such exploited workers and companies. Fairtrade is a cause which attempts to give some power to these end-producing businesses in the poorer countries of the world. It looks to get rid of the middlemen, and renumerate the end-producer a just price for a product in a far more primary way. You may have encountered Fairtrade items in your nearby super market. You’ll sometimes find they’re a tad more pricy, but by purchasing such ethical products - such as fair trade gifts - you will know the manufacturer is operating in a sustainable way that not only pays them justly through a much more direct revenue flow, but it also allows them to reinvest in their company through greater profits, which genuinely contributes in a positive way toward these poorer parts of the planet.
