What’s so wonderful about fair trade?
Well, for starters when an organization or even a community engages in fair trade practices, doing so provides a conduit for individuals to have a financial income which is in line with sustainability – meaning members of the community get a better quality of life. Why? Because, money stays in the community and “living” wages go into the pockets of community residents. Now, this can especially be true in the world of tourism. If you’ve ever gone on a road trip – on a major highway- then chances are fairly likely that you’ve found yourself at least passing through a tourist trap town. Most notably, in my experience, is Jackson Hole in Wyoming. On the few occasions I’ve been there I could tell my only worth to the area was based on how much my wallet could hold. More shops, it seemed, than the mall of America and more kitsch westernism than in every John Wayne movie combined.
Now, why are tourist trap towns so… “touristy”? One word – leakage. As in, when the money you spend in a particular town/area ends up actually leaving that town/area and therefore not actually helping the community you’re actually visiting. Which depends on those outside dollars. So, in order to counteract leakage, small tourist towns or communities have to become more and more – well, awful to accommodate for the leakage. Fair trade seeks to reduce leakage, and improve the financial standing of individuals and communities by keeping money actually in the community.
Now, fair trade is more than just purchasing your lunch or dinner at an independent and local restaurant on your trip, or sleeping in an independent hotel. Actually, there are 5 cornerstones , bases, plains, categories, chipmunks on a log – whatever you want to call them, to fair trade. As the concept may pertain to a business or organization. They are:
Well, for starters when an organization or even a community engages in fair trade practices, doing so provides a conduit for individuals to have a financial income which is in line with sustainability – meaning members of the community get a better quality of life. Why? Because, money stays in the community and “living” wages go into the pockets of community residents. Now, this can especially be true in the world of tourism. If you’ve ever gone on a road trip – on a major highway- then chances are fairly likely that you’ve found yourself at least passing through a tourist trap town. Most notably, in my experience, is Jackson Hole in Wyoming. On the few occasions I’ve been there I could tell my only worth to the area was based on how much my wallet could hold. More shops, it seemed, than the mall of America and more kitsch westernism than in every John Wayne movie combined.
Now, why are tourist trap towns so… “touristy”? One word – leakage. As in, when the money you spend in a particular town/area ends up actually leaving that town/area and therefore not actually helping the community you’re actually visiting. Which depends on those outside dollars. So, in order to counteract leakage, small tourist towns or communities have to become more and more – well, awful to accommodate for the leakage. Fair trade seeks to reduce leakage, and improve the financial standing of individuals and communities by keeping money actually in the community.
Now, fair trade is more than just purchasing your lunch or dinner at an independent and local restaurant on your trip, or sleeping in an independent hotel. Actually, there are 5 cornerstones , bases, plains, categories, chipmunks on a log – whatever you want to call them, to fair trade. As the concept may pertain to a business or organization. They are:
- Fair working conditions (Labor laws are fun!)
- Fair prices (Wow! That’s expensive.)
- Integration into the local economy and regional development.
- Fair trade partnerships between all actors in tourism. (Learn those lines.)
- Sustainable resource use, and environmental justice. (Oh, Look! A Moose)
*Put all these chipmunks together and dang that’s one happy community! Not crazy Stepford wives happy, but still happy.
Since this is a travel blog. I had the intention of doing this post on some super great organization or business that, by sheer chance, would amazingly meet all the above five cornerstones. And to my great surprise and dismay, sadly, there isn’t one. Really, there isn’t one. For hours and hours I searched the net, and databases, and news sites, and google scholar, and didn’t find one (not even one) business or organization which could boast accordance to all cornerstones stated above, which was stationed in Alberta Canada. Sorry, fair trade peoples.
However, I was able to find not a single business, or a single organization, but instead two towns. Two towns, in Alberta Canada, certified by “Fair Trade International” (fairtrade.net) as “Fair Trade Towns”. These towns being Olds (near Banff) and Edmonton (north of Calgary). In the U.S., in my experience, when an entire town gets “certified”, per say, newspapers – locally- will go wild. Strangely, that doesn’t seem to be the case in beautiful Alberta. I was not very successful in finding out how these towns went about becoming fair trade towns ( despite hours of searching and researching). But, I was able to find what criteria both these towns had to meet in order to get their unique titles. Fair Trade International’s criteria for being titled as “fair trade” are, as follows:
- Price
“When the market price is higher than the Fair Trade minimum, the buyer must pay the higher price. Producers and traders can also negotiate higher prices on the basis of quality and other attributes.
For hired labor situations, Fair Trade requires that wages for workers are at least equal to the national minimum wage.” - Premiums
“In addition to the Fair Trade price, organizations receive a sum of money called the Fair Trade premium. This money goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use to improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions.” - Hired Labor
“Employers must pay decent wages; salaries must be equal or higher than the regional average or than the minimum wage in effect. They must also guarantee the right to join trade unions, provide good housing where needed, and ensure that health and safety measures are established.” - Small Producer Organizations
“Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) regards the ILO Conventions as the authority on working conditions for small producer organizations as well. These standards include freedom from discrimination, freedom of labour (no forced or child labour), and freedom of association and collective bargaining. There are also conditions of employment, as well as occupational health and safety, that must be met.” - Environment
“The following specific environmental commitments apply to both small producer organizations and hired labour situations:
-Agrochemicals: Limit the use of those agrochemicals which are permitted
-Waste: Reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost waste in an appropriate manner
-Soil: Maintain and enhance the fertility and structure of soil
-Water: Manage water resources to ensure conservation and non-contamination
-Fire: Prevent the use of fire in a way that adversely affects natural systems
-Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs): Do not use in products or processing
-Energy: Use energy minimally, especially energy from non-renewable sources.” - Access to credit
“Fair Trade Standards require buyers to give a financial advance on contracts, called pre-financing, if producers ask for it. This facilitates access to capital, which is often one of the biggest obstacles to development. Access to credit promotes entrepreneurship and may assist with the economic development of entire rural communities.
When producers request pre-financing, Fair Trade buyers must provide pre-finance up to 60% of the contract value (or more, if both parties agree). Fair Trade also encourages traders to offer other forms of payment such as pre-payment, advance-payment, or crop-finance.” - And, Long-term relationships.
“Fair Trade relationships provide producers with long-term access to markets. These relationships should be based on mutual respect, transparency, and commitment, and grow stronger over time.
Companies trading Fair Trade products must sign contracts that allow for long-term planning and sustainable production practices. Contractual agreements should be mutual agreed, well documented, and clearly understood by both contracting parties”
*Information gathered from, http://fairtrade.ca/en/about-fairtrade/fairtrade-certification
As already stated, how, and the ways in which, Edmonton and Olds conform to these criteria are not available (at least according to my hours of searching) on line. I probably would be able to find out if I actually went there and interviewed one or two people. But, hey, I’m not rationally going to travel hundreds of miles in the interest of a blog post to do so. Suffice it to say, both Olds and Edmonton have somehow met all these criteria above, and if so, than they both almost surely meet with the cornerstones of fair trade, listed higher above.
I like fair trade. I like that both business’ and organizations and the people contributing to them get a good deal when fair trade criteria are practiced. Doing so makes for happy people – well, financially happy people. And so, for those of you who prefer to follow fair trade practices in your traveling decisions I strongly suggest that you check out these towns and contribute to the sustainability and financial happiness of their communities.
Check out their websites…
http://www.edmonton.com/for-visitors.aspx
http://www.olds.ca/visit.html
Sources
http://rabble.ca/whatsup/edmonton-becomes-2nd-largest-fair-trade-town-canada
http://fairtrade.ca/en/news-views/news/olds-becomes-first-fair-trade-town-alberta
http://fairtrade.ca/en/about-fairtrade/fairtrade-certification