An advocate predicts more cities and consumers
will begin to demand more fair trade products. Those
are goods imported from overseas that come from businesses
that pay workers a decent wage and operate in a more
environmentally-friendly way. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
An advocate predicts more cities and consumers
will begin to demand more fair trade products. Those
are goods imported from overseas that come from businesses
that pay workers a decent wage and operate in a more
environmentally-friendly way. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Something certified as fair trade means it was grown or produced in a foreign
country in an environmentally sustainable way, by workers NOT employed in
sweatshops. Paul Rice heads a major US certification group Transfair. He says
fair trade is catching on with consumers who don’t mind paying more for better
quality:
“That trading up phenomenon is already there, and I think what fair trade does is
help people think more about quality in more than just the taste of the product,
but also the impact of the product. I think what people are starting to think about who grows my food, right?”
Rice acknowledges only about twenty percent of US residents are drinking fair
trade coffee or buying other products, but he says the movement is finding its
way into more mainstream stores. Rice predicts more communities will soon pass resolutions promoting fair trade.
For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.