The Green

Fair Trade = "an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. The movement focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and so on.

"Fair trade's strategic intent is to deliberately work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency. It also aims at empowering them to become stakeholders in their own organizations and actively play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in international trade.

"Fair trade proponents include a wide array of international religious, development aid, social and environmental organizations such as Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Caritas International.

"Like most developmental efforts, fair trade has proven itself controversial and has drawn criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Some economists and conservative think tanks see fair trade as a type of subsidy that impedes growth. Segments of the left criticize fair trade for not adequately challenging the current trading system."
(Wikipedia) [en.wikipedia.org]

In The Future is Green: Equity, Fair Trade, Health and Happiness, Colin Dunn, author of sundancechannel.com's Treehugger Blog, encourages one to "promote equity and fair trading relationships to ensure that all of these communities [your office, family, online community and wherever else you tend to leave your footprint] have a beneficial impact on other communities both locally and globally. This means supporting fair trade labor practices by buying Fair Trade-certified goods (often commodities like coffee and chocolate), not supporting those who are not equitable in their distribution of wealth (like many big corporations in the US, like Wal-Mart) and really considering what it must have taken to create your apparel and garments and other dry goods that require labor before arriving in your home."
More... [www.sundancechannel.com]