“Fair trade labels were initially launched on the market as a way to promote the products of democratically-operating organizations of small producers in the South more directly to consumers around the world.” This is just one of the key points in a recent statement laid out by the Small Producers’ Symbol (SPP), drafted and affirmed […]

Fair World Project condemns the violence, racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry, and ideology of oppression that took place in Charlottesville over the weekend. This incident, and the philosophy that drives it, threatens people of color, religious minorities, immigrants, and others among the most marginalized in our country. We stand for inclusion and justice and will continue to […]

When we first published our report Justice in the Fields and accompanying fact sheet Who Grew Your Food last fall, we urged consumers to look for strong certification labels or union labels, but also to support advocacy campaigns. A bill was just introduced into Congress that is exactly the kind of advocacy campaign that can […]

We have been sounding the alarm about Mondelez’s Cocoa Life program ever since the mega chocolate company announced its iconic brand Cadbury would drop fair trade in favor of Cocoa Life. While we acknowledged that a company with as many supply chain and ethical issues as Mondelez may be best left out of the fair […]

On Monday the U.S. Trade Representative’s office released initial trade objectives for the Trump Administration’s NAFTA renegotiation. Rather than accounting for the calls from public health, labor, and sustainable agriculture groups to make NAFTA a truly fair agreement, the goals reflect elements of recent poorly crafted trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Specifically, they lack […]

A new study this month raised alarm bells with its conclusion that Seattle’s new minimum wage law, currently on track to raise wages to $15/hour for all workers, is not having a net positive impact for low-wage workers.  The study found that although the hourly wage for the lowest paid workers increased, the number of […]

On June 19th workers started harvesting strawberries at Sakuma Brothers Farm in Washington. The first day of picking is always a seasonal milestone, but this year there was particular significance. For the first time workers are protected by a contract and a union. For the last four years, the season started with labor disputes and […]

Fair World Project joins the majority of the U.S. population in expressing our disappointment, sadness, and outrage that President Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. Climate change is already having a real effect on real people every day, especially those already in vulnerable circumstances and marginalized communities. Small-scale farmers are feeling the economic impact […]

Fashion Revolution Week 2017 (April 24-30) marked the four-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in which over a thousand workers were killed when their visible unsafe factory collapsed. Consumers marked the week by asking “Who Made My Clothes.” This is a way to share brands and retailers that consumers care about the people who […]

The Washington Post recently published a provocative infographic about ethical chocolate and what those labels on your chocolate bar might mean. Included were three fair trade labels that originally aimed to empower marginalized farming communities in the most socially and economically disadvantaged parts of the world. Rainforest Alliance, a label with some basic social and […]