Poverty is not the problem. The problem is an unjust and irrational system of trade. Fair Trade’s current focus on the effects of the system (i.e. poverty) and not the means of changing it (developing the values and principles necessary for creating a new type of market) reflects a major crisis for the fair [...]

What does the ‘fair’ in fair-trade actually mean?
How does ‘fair’ differ from ‘unfair’ trade? What is a ‘fair’ price? How is ‘fairness’ in trading measured? Who gets to say what’s fair? Is ‘fairness’ a collaborative construction between benefactors and beneficiaries? Is that ‘fair’? How do our understandings what’s ‘fair’ impact on the why, what [...]

As a fascinated fair trade newbie, I often have those amazing ‘Aha’ moments. You know the sort of thing I mean. All of a sudden, just as the ‘haze of unknowingness’ threatens to consume you once again, there, right before your bleary eyes is a tiny ‘infobite’: a snippet of wisdom that makes a [...]