Stroll through your nearby Morrissons, and you are looking at the miracle of globalization. One can buy just about any product at super-low costs. It might be from Malaysia or cornflower oil from Venezuela - it’s procurable all year round. There’s never been a greater period of time in human history to be a shopper in the west. This has happened from just in time stock control, large scale production, strong competitive forces, and perhaps most significantly, the fact that many goods are located, and often manufactured, in the poorer nations.
That last reason is quite important, and very controversial. While western consumers are enjoying food, drink, clothing and other items located from the poorest nations at cheap cost, workers and business organizations in these producing countries are often exploited, and have no real sustainable business model as they’re the last stop of a very long chain of middle men who order what they manufacture, how much, and how often. This lengthy line of middle-men all demand their pay too - so there’s not much revenue for the end-of-line manufacturer.
Nevertheless, there is assistance for such desperate individuals and companies. Fairtrade is a cause that looks to give some power to such end-producing businesses in the poorer nations of the world. It looks to banish these middlemen, and pay the end-manufacturer a fair price for an item in a much more direct way. You might have seen Fairtrade items in your local super market. Sometimes they’re a tad more costly, but by purchasing such ethical products or even ethical gifts - such as fair trade baby clothes - you will know the producer is operating in a sustainable business environment that not only pays them fairly through a much more direct revenue flow, but it also permits them to reinvest in their business through higher earnings, which actually makes a difference to these poorest areas of the world.
