As I mentioned in my last posting, CRS Fair Traders have been getting a lot of media coverage lately, which makes us all very proud. The Florida Catholic, for example, featured Ambassador Stephanie RH Bosse, in its November 16-22nd issue. Stephanie is quite a persuasive writer, and I thought I’d share one of her recent essays, “Having Your Coffee with a Clear Conscience”….

Imagine yourself at an art fair. You find an exquisite piece of pottery that costs more than you would normally spend, but you’ve met the artist, you’ve seen her passion, and you’d be getting something that’s ‘one of a kind’. So, you have to have it…you buy. How often, in this situation, do you actually contest the price? How often do you think, “well, that took 12 hours to make so the price per hour would actually be…?” When we buy something unique, when we buy from the person who has created it we are often more willing to justify the price than we would at our local mall or grocery.

The idea is that when we buy something, we do so with the knowledge of its value. We understand and accept that prices are determined by the labor invested in the creation of the product. When it comes to other things, however, we are more willing to pay the lowest price. Often, we actually know that this is not fair, or quite possibly we are unaware of the disparity at all. But there is something simple we can do: change how we buy through supporting and purchasing from places that support Fair Trade.

In a conventional trading system, using the example of coffee, a coffee bean grower – grows, harvests, feeds, protects, dries, hulls and picks out good beans by hand. For all this effort the farmer receives a small percentage of the value of a $3.00 cup of coffee. The Fair Trade model cuts out the exploitative ‘middle man’ and supports coffee growers (or the like) in running a cooperative where they sell and distribute directly to a roaster in United States, Europe or within their own country. The money generated in this manner gives growers extra income and it gives them connections to other disadvantaged producers.

Fair Trade allows families to put their children in school, gives parents the security of knowing they will put food on the table every night and is, in many ways, environmentally friendly. Fair Trade creates an economic environment that promotes justice by building relationships between buyer and seller, allowing growers the same independence and freedom that we should all be given for our hard work. It is important to note that Fair Trade does not set prices above current market value for items – producers just receive fair compensation for their work.

You can put Fair Trade in action by making holiday purchases at events such Work of Human Hands sales or coffeehouses where Fair Trade is featured.

The change to Fair Trade is not difficult, nor is it scary. It’s as easy as buying coffee or chocolate – it’s as simple as promoting justice and saving lives. As Catholics we are blessed to have Catholic Relief Service (CRS) as an organization promoting Fair Trade in the United States!

Stephanie Bosse, Diocese of Orlando, Office of Advocacy and Justice – Respect Life
CRS Intern

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.