ABSTRACT

Fair Trade seeks to challenge historically unequal international market relations and transform North/South trade from a vehicle of exploitation to a means of empowerment. Fair Trade works to alleviate poverty in the global South through a strategy of “trade, not aid,” improving farmer and worker livelihoods through direct sales, better prices, and stable market links as well as support for producer organizations and communities. This movement also works to educate Northern consumers about the negative consequences of conventional trade, offer fairly traded alternative products, and promote the selection of more ethical purchases. Fair Trade thus creates concrete alternative commodity networks while at the same time promoting alternative norms and practices in conventional trade arenas. While Fair Trade’s basic goals are increasingly well understood, the past and present experiences of the Fair Trade movement and market are less well known.