How to Live an Ethical and Fair Trade Life

 A Beginner’s Guide to Consumer Justice

Ephesians 5: 6-12

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Lord consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.”

I am not going to pretend to be an expert on the subject – I am still just a beginner myself. None of us will have arrived at expert status in my opinion until there is no more oppression in our consumer trails… which I can’t see happening until Jesus returns and perfects the Kingdom here on Earth.

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke

Nothing should not stop us from being citizens of the Kingdom on Earth right now. That is our calling. So how do we do it? How do we rid our lives of the products of slavery and injustice?

Step One: Identify the problems.

Which products are the culprits in our lives? There are a few big ones that I can start by giving you the heads up on: coffee, chocolate, sugar, and bananas.
 

Julie Clawson writes in her book, Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices,

“the banana my daughter ate for breakfast this morning involved an ethical decision. By buying and eating that banana, I support everything that banana represents. If that banana was grown by farmers who were kept in near-slave like conditions, paid pennies a day, exposed to hazardous chemicals and beaten by hired terrorists if they protested their work conditions, I am supporting those things.” (p. 25)

Each of these Big Four raw goods is tainted by the terrible oppression of those who grow them.  
Chocolate  -  Bananas  -  Sugar  -  Coffee

Step Two: Find an Alternative

The good news, for the growers and for the consumers, is that these products have been identified as problems for many years now. The certification overseer Fair Trade has registered growers and as consumers we can rest easily knowing that the conditions of workers have been inspected and the farmers are being fairly compensated for their products. Coffee, sugar, and chocolate have become easy to find with Fair Trade logos. Usually supply is not the reason people are not buying these products, it is a problem of price shopping. People buy the cheaper option not realizing that big brand chocolate is cheaper because they doesn’t know where their chocolate comes from.

All the big name chocolate brands that haven't reformed their supply chains yet will tell you on the phone that they buy chocolate from responsible growers, but they cannot guarantee all the chocolate in a product was farmed fairly. Then they will claim that NO company can claim as much because chocolate (like diamonds) is combined in vast batches prior to shipping; with the dirty chocolate mixed with and indistinguishable from the clean. To keep the clean chocolate separate would require owning production sources (farms) too small to be viable in the global market.

These farms ‘too small to be viable’ are what Fair Trade and other sustainable justice initiatives are built on, and these programs are expanding every year. With enough consumers switching over and demanding a higher ethical standard, big companies will realize eventually that the small, fair farms are viable and in fact, much more desirable.

There are many sources of Fair Trade raw products on the shelves of any grocery store now. There are ethical products and companies sprouting up everywhere. It only takes a few minutes to scan packaging for that Fair Trade logo or for other proof of ethical sourcing before picking up an item to purchase.

Camino is a perfect example of a company producing chocolate, hot chocolate mix, sugars, and everything delicious – and all their ingredients that can be certified Fair Trade are. Their products are my favourite. The natural foods section of your grocery store will probably have them in stock as well as an assortment of other brands. Start taste testing, find your favourites and let me know!

Step Three: Wait… What about Bananas?

In Ontario Bananas are hard to figure out. Supply is still an issue.

I have been buying organic bananas because I have read that farms certified organic are much more highly regulated and therefore less likely to be engaging in slavery, use of under-age workers, spraying workers with pesticides and labour exploitation. But I will switch to Fair Trade certified bananas as soon as I can get my hands on one! I have yet to find a banana in a store that is labelled Fair Trade. Loblaw has a contract for Fair Trade bananas, but I have not met one of these elusive fruits yet. In some other provinces, you can find them for sale in other stores. Ask your local Loblaw Incorporated store to start bringing them in! Zehrs, Loblaws, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, Super Store, and Independent are all Loblaw Inc stores. They should all be able to get you Fair Trade bananas, even No Frills (Fair Trade may be a ‘frill’ to them, but we can work at convincing them it is not).

Here is another possible source of clean bananas and other food. Look for similar programs in your neighbourhood.

Step Four: The Tricky Bit

Now for the daunting news: many companies do not use Fair Trade certified ingredients in their products. The number of commercial products that can be eaten with a clear conscience is staggeringly low. It improves all the time because of people – like you and me – calling companies and asking if their sugar, their chocolate, their ingredients are Fair Trade certified or where they came from. The more people who ask, the more companies will realize that consumers care and are pushing for change.

Reading ingredients is the key and that is only the first reason that this is the tricky bit. Reading labels is time consuming. It is good for your health as well as the health of the world’s consumer-workers justice relationship though. But like I said, the actual reading of the label is not the hard part. The real hard part is putting down the product that you want to buy, that you like to buy, that you feel you need to buy… when you realize that it has culprit ingredients lurking in that list.

I know the feeling.

And it is a difficult habit to break – the buying of things you want.

And it is a difficult habit to cultivate – the not buying of things you know are wrong. 

Some days you will fail. I hope that most days you will succeed. And as the days go by, I hope your successes make you stronger. I hope you gain control over your consumption. I hope you find freedom in that control and happiness in your slow release from a corrupt system.

Some days I fail. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes through sheer pigheadedness. That is the way sin always works. Better to try and fail and try again than to give in to the terrible sin of indifference.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke

Step Five: Yes, it continues…

The Big Four (chocolate, coffee, sugar, and bananas) are a good place to start, but please let’s not end there. The problem runs so much deeper. It is good to focus on one thing at a time and master it, then add the next product and figure it out, and so on. It is a journey and like I said at the beginning of this article, it is not going to end until the end of oppression. Some people use this as an excuse to never begin the journey. I choose to begin. I hope you will join me.

There are problems with the exploitation of workers in the manufacture of sweat-shop clothing, electronics, and toys. The production and distribution of quinoa and pineapples and coconuts and rice is under scrutiny (ie. Farmers are being cheated of their wages or stripped of their resources while their crops are exported to wealthy consumers). Bottled water is a huge problem in the Middle East right now with Nestle draining the water table in Pakistan.
 

For me, these issues of fellow human beings being exploited and deprived of their basic rights, let alone their deserved incomes from honest work are the first and most important problems in the consumer chain to deal with. As each new issue comes up, I work at re-evaluating my consumer behaviours to account for the problem brought to light. It is a dynamic and everlasting process.

Step 6: Other Biblical Values: Purity and Natural Stewardship

It also strikes my conscience and betrays Biblically rooted commands when we make consumer decisions which undermine our values apart from human justice.

When we look, really look, into our consumer habits and realize how often we buy from stores that use pornographic advertising, from companies who have poor environmental protection policies, and food from factory farmed animals, it gives us reason to pause and reflect on the value systems we are condoning with our patronage.

Are these matters of ethical living? I think so. To live “in accordance with principles of conduct that are considered correct” is how the Collins English Dictionary defines ethical living. That encompasses all our principles of conduct and all of our decisions – which is too much ground to cover in one article! But it is a start on ethical consumerism.

Living Ethically is the opposite of Hypocrisy.

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16

If we were not to attempt to change our consumer practises – to throw up our hands and write it off as a bad job – to decide these actions were unnecessarily radical – would be to choose hypocrisy. To say there is no point in NOT being a hypocrite.

Better to say – I am a hypocrite. I will do my best to change even knowing that as I try I fail, but I choose to try. And for someone somewhere, beginning today, I will make the world a fairer place.

 

 

"Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter."

James 5:4-5

 

I have outlined for you the areas of consumer responsibility that I have identified and am working on myself. I am sure more will come to my attention as I progress.

Did I miss an important consumer accountability issue? Anything to add? Leave a comment!