So much more than coffee and chocolate.
I am sitting in my lounge room staring at the screen of my laptop - a million little tab crosses crowd the top of my screen - searches for suppliers, producers, website building platforms, bank accounts, e-commerce statistics, exchange rates, and, advice blogs from a dime a dozen experts purporting to have the magic method of building a billion dollar making website who make a billion dollars out of telling people how to build a billion dollar making website. I need clarity, direction, action. I call my important people - husband, sisters, close friends - tell of my new enterprise idea. My new Fair Trade enterprise idea. The response; what are you going to sell coffee? Or chocolate?
Well thank goodness for coffee and chocolate and, double thank goodness for the many brands and many outlets for fair trade coffee and chocolate. But - and, here is the point of this blog post - there is so much more to fair trade than coffee and chocolate. In fact - apart from some people along the way from production to household having to pay more - I see no reason, no excuse at all why all products cannot be fair trade - and paying more is a crappy excuse for inequality. There is no way anyone can justify child labour. Wearing or using any product that should bear the made in poverty label is an advertisement for how cruel the world can be. So many people now choose to use their power to make a difference, change the planet and impact positively on real peoples real lives by choosing to buy ethical. And our voices are being heard.
Today in the era of awareness and the world a click or swipe away beautiful, meaningful, and useful everything can be purchased ethically. Large brands are moving toward ethical, sustainable and, accountable. And it is you who are at the vanguard of this change. Fair Trade is grounded in three core beliefs and comprises of ten principles - which I'll go into further in my future blog posts.
So in the meantime sit back in your Fair Trade pj's, t-shirts, jeans ,thongs, skirts, dresses or whatever drinking Fair Trade coffee, eating Fair Trade chocolate paid for from money carried around in your Fair Trade wallet and, you can check out Fair Trade fashion handbags designed by Cristina Zito from Cristina For Fair Trade - that's me - in-store or online at Elegant Emu, Adavale outback Qld, or elegantemu.com ...seems shameless - I know - but the handbags really are beautiful. And the skills of the Guatemalan women weavers is impressive, there's info about them on the site too. And who doesn't love a creation story with a goddess heroine, who also happens to be a Mayan Backstrap Weaver.
Catch you later.....