Lists: Top 5 Fair Trade Items

Delicious strawberries are even better when Fair Trade certified. Image credit, Flickr Creative Commons Denim Dave

Socially conscious consumers are aware they should buy as much as possible from fair trade retailers. But, that can be hard to do across the board. Here are five things to absolutely buy fair trade, including strawberries, coffee and chocolate.

1. Coffee/Tea: Coffee was one of the first products to enter fair trade certification. Prior to fair trade, a few decades ago, coffee growers in developing countries were unable to negotiate trade conditions, and there was little awareness regarding sustainable production, let alone fair wages or child labor laws. Fair trade tea can be found loose leaf style, in tea bags or bottled, and is pretty prevalent in this day and age. Fair trade tea ensures fair prices and decision-making is in the hands of farmers.

2. Fruit: Fair trade fruits and veggies incorporate social responsibility into produce purchases, helping bring fresh and healthy offerings to our tables, while protecting the communities which grow them. Just look for the fair trade seal on any fruit or vegetable. The more we purchase fair trade produce, the more types of fruits and vegetables join in.

3. Sugar and Spice: Spice trading sounds more representative of 1492 than now, but more and more common pantry spices are becoming available in a new and improved fair trade format. Sugar can be found in many local variants, but for regular table sugar, fair trade brands help combat the ecological devastation that non-fair trade brands may be contributing to. Sugar farmers are some of the most impoverished in the world. Check out Frontier spices for certified offerings.

4. Chocolate: Fair trade chocolate was a topic of discussion on Feed Your Eco last week. It’s one of the most common fair trade products, next to coffee and tea, but here’s another way to make the switch to fair trade goodness.

5. Flowers: Appease your significant other in multiple ways, by purchasing fair trade flower arrangements! Fair trade flowers are pesticide-free, and support the communities who grow them, while also promoting women’s equality on flower farms by providing opportunities like leadership roles and free maternity leave.

Here are some other great sources to find fair trade products near you:

Fair Trade USA’s website and Fair Trade finder app!

National Green Pages, like a sustainable Yellow Pages.

Wisebread.com’s article, “Where and Why to Buy Fair Trade Goods”

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