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Does Fairtrade = Environmentally Friendly?
EcoSpace Conscious Community writes an article examining the environmental impact of importing fair trade goods in terms of their ecological footprint.
The Fair Trade movement has radically changed the way many people shop and purchase goods, moving ethical considerations to the forefront of our consumer consciousness.
For a long time people have been aware of the injustices involved in exploiting other countries for their raw materials at the cheapest prices possible. Now, with Fair Trade labeling, we see more and more people supporting equal exchange through the purchasing of Fair Trade goods. As a result within the last year Fair Trade sales are up by 40% and the Fair Trade market is estimated to be worth over $900million.
“One of Fairtrade’s biggest victories so far has been to get consumers aware of their role and responsibility in the global food chain,” says Ian Bretman, deputy director of the Fairtrade Foundation. “And this has put far greater pressure on retailers to start being more transparent about the social and environmental impacts our consumerism is having across the world.”
With the increased awareness of global warming and the resulting potential environmental catastrophies, the spotlight turns more directly to the ecological impacts of our fairly traded goods. Are Fair Traded goods (primarily imported) at opposing odds with environmental concerns regarding carbon emissions and the amount of energy it is taking to import these foods?
There has been lots of talk within the environmental movement around encouraging businesses to include ‘air mile’ and ‘carbon footprint’ labels on their airfreighted products. Although in the UK out of 3,000 Fair Trade certified products only one- roses from Kenya - are airfreighted in and this one product accounts only for .08% of all Fair Trade imports.
The belief that fair-traded goods are primarily flown in, at least in the UK, is clearly a false one. In fact the 99.2% of Fairtrade products that entered the UK by ship were responsible for just .03% of UK food mile emissions and 0.001% of total UK carbon emissions in 2005.
Others within the Fair Trade movement argue air miles are not a very accurate way to measure how ethical a food product is when environmental damage is primarily caused at the agricultural level.
Fairly traded goods are already held to a high standard of environmental regulations yet with the growing consumer consciousness around environmental impact the importance of relaying the dual message of protecting the food producers and protection of the environment is increasingly high for Fair Trade companies.
