Fair Trade Shopping
Today’s global economic climate is governed by institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Their information comes from large multinational corporations and very little information comes from regular people and smaller sized businesses.
We need small business owners/workers and farmers to get together and demand that we have our needs taken care off. Fair trade is needed now for us to make a living in the world today.
We cannot be left out of this process. Without citizen’s input into fair trade many of our businesses will go under based on statistics and numbers such as the GDP which has little bearing on our goals and practices.
Farmers will not get fair market value for their crop production if we don’t stand up for our rights. Year by year the price for crops have fallen to benefit special large corporations and leaves the average farmer with less.
Large corporations, throught policies of the World Bank, have allowed environmental destruction of many ecosystems around the world. Deforestation, overfishing creating an imbalance for wildlife, and soil erosion are some of the things that are destroying our environment and hurting farmers also.
Even labor force regulation needs to be better regulated as many corporations move high paying jobs to low wage countries, depleting the job force in countries like Mexico. That can even lead to illegal immigration problems in the U.S. as Mexican workers become even more desperate for jobs.
There is so much going on with world trade that does effect our bottom line. Corporations are not the only ones that can make money in our global economy. Keep poverty down and get more rights for your business or farms and demand that our rights are heard and that are taken seriously as the WTO and corporations steadily make rules and regulations that look to their needs first before the needs of citizens like me and you. Stand up and be heard, demand fair trade for your future.
By Carie of Earth Friendly Goods