more on fair trade

so... ha, to procrastinate on writing the essay, i've decided to blog more. and the fact that people read my blog immediately makes me feel "positively reinforced" to blog again! :)

not to pick on sam, but i feel that his comment is how a lot of us feel in North America. but in fact, we're wrong. FAIR TRADE is only made possible in the developed world because the developing world is forced to compete to give us products. Most of the time, they don't even grow things for themselves anymore... they grow things so they can earn a few cents from us. And we're already richer than them a bazillion times because we have the option of what food to buy and it ranges in price. Often, they don't even have the option of what type of food... they can only eat what they can afford... or not eat at all (which is the case for some of them). :(

basically, i'm just going to educate on FAIR TRADE... what is it?:
1) fair trade offers a premium (or base price) that goes straight to the consumer. this gives the consumer a set amount of money, so that even if something happens to their crop that year (i.e. hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc.). so that means, even if something goes wrong, they still are paid for some of the work that they did... and this is GUARANTEED.
2) fair trade also offers a MINIMUM-PRICE guarantee... so that they are paid a "fair" cost for that product (i.e. if it cost $10 to make that bowl, we pay them $10 for that bowl). the thing is, in our current world of "free trade" (NOTE THE DIFFERENCE), we are not paying people the amount it costs for them to make it. we are searching for the country that can give it to us the cheapest and it pushes them to their limits... and the sad thing is, we don't even know that we're doing it because we're ignorant "developed" countries.
3) fair trade offers LONG-TERM COMMITMENT... so that means even if they aren't able to meet our demands one year (due to hurricanes, etc.), we stick with them. that means we help provide the needs for them to get started.

so what are you waiting for? we already have it easy. we don't have to set up these connections ourselves. there are 'fair trade' companies that do it for us... for products, we can go to "Ten Thousand Villages" all over Canada. for produce, i have to look up. sadly to say, there isn't much in Ontario but LOTS in Quebec. Come on, Ontario! we gotta make a difference and say "we care" about others. especially since we're Christian. the world all belongs to God and just doing one step seems so little... but I think God will love us for it... I'll try my best! :)