Myth: Fair Trade refers only to coffee, chocolate and other food items.
Fact: There are thousands of fair trade products ranging from jewelry, clothes and accessories to home goods and kitchenware.
Part Two of our Fair Trade Myths series goes into people's common misperception that fair trade refers only to food products like coffee and chocolate. To be fair though, it isn't so much as a myth as a lack of understanding. When we ask people who visit our stores if they are familiar with fair trade, they often only know about coffee, chocolate, tea and other food and produce items. This is no doubt because food items are the most well known, most accessible, and most marketed products. Historically though, coffee only started being fair trade certified in 1988, while handcrafted fair trade products like journals, baskets and jewelry have existed since 1946. The fair trade movement began as a form of direct trade between talented artisans and religious groups who saw a need to create a form of social justice that was more sustainable than charity. Today there are hundreds of groups dedicated to bringing amazing, handcrafted fair trade products to the market.
Below is a tag cloud we created to show the range of fair trade products. There might be a few you didn't know about; for instance, did you know there are fair trade coffins? How about perfume, baby bibs, wine, underwear and soccer balls? The list keeps growing, and I'm sure we missed a few. Are there any we should add to our cloud? Let us know in the comments! 