Today is World Fair Trade Day. It takes place on the second Saturday in May every year and it celebrates Fair Trade as a tangible contribution to sustainable development. Fair Trade works for the economic empowerment of small producers, gender equality and responsible practices.
What I like about Fair Trade products and why I stock them in the shop is because they advocate for women and children disproportionately than men. And quite frankly someone needs to.
52% of the Fair Trade companies have a female CEO compared with an embarrassing 16% in Ireland.
152 million children worldwide are victims of child labor and 48 percent of all victims of child labor are aged 5-11 years. I suppose we think about it in terms of far off lands but 1 in 25 children in Europe are in child labour - so it's closer than we think!
The Irish Journal reported in 2016 that a report, This is what we die for, claims that child labour is being used to source the cobalt used in lithium-ion batteries sold to major global brands including Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony.
We might not know or we might want to bury our heads in the sand but in reality its hard to have the lifestyle we want with the ethics we support. We would judge our neighbour if there were sending their 6 year old child out to work to support the family or even their 11 year old, so why do we turn a blind eye for a phone? If we, the consumers, demand change then change will happen.
So next time you are buying something just pause for second and think about where has it come from? Who has made it and did they get a fair wage and good conditions for it. From coffee to clothes ethical and Fair Trade is becoming more widely available because we are asking for it.
So thank you for supporting our shop, our local and Irish suppliers and those suppliers all round the world whose life you positively impact buy buying their products in Lúnasa.
Check out out fair and ethical collection here and we are adding to it every week....
