Fairtrade

As ethical Vegans, we tend to be more cognizant of our consumer choices and the effects that they may have on humans, animals, and the environment. When we understand when we go Vegan we are making a conscious decision where we spend our money to ensure that it isn't causing any harm, and this tends to extend to our choices as consumers and individuals in general. There are tons of things we can do in our lives not only to reduce our harm, but also do good in the world (aside from going vegan), such as making efforts to reduce our carbon footprints, voting and keeping in contact with representatives, working productive jobs that fulfill an important societal need, donating money to effective charities, being a strong, positive support on others and our communities, work on educating the public on how to live more ethically, engage in activist endeavors, and try being the best examples we can be for others to follow.

A FairTrade banana with the certification sticker on it. Yum.

And of course a part of being an ethical consumer is making sure we buy from companies that are themselves ethical, and not engaging in harm or exploitation of their workers. In light of this concern, the certification of Fairtrade has come about, with the goal of providing people who produce commodities (very often food) with better pay and working conditions. While this certainly has noble intentions, and seems like an integral part of being an ethical consumer, there come complexities and nuances to Fairtrade that may make it not so fair after all.

Similar to how Organic Foods advertise themselves to be healthier and better for the environment and the animals but are often the same in terms of nutrition and are often worse for the environment and the animals, Fairtrade is often not a very useful investment if you're interested in helping producers in poor countries.

Issues

Hard to meet

As you may expect, something like FairTrade comes with tons of regulations and standards.

For poor farmers, these regulations are incredibly difficult to meet (since they come with costs they can't afford), meaning that the people who would hypothetically benefit the most from this aren't able to get certified.

Should it be avoided?

Despite the problems listed, this doesn't necessarily mean that purchasing Fairtrade products is harmful, just that it isn't the best or most altruistic means of doing so. There may be a small positive impact, but it isn't necessarily unethical to buy the non-Fairtrade version of the same thing. If you really enjoy the product and have money to spare, it's not a big deal.

If you really want to help the global poor, a much more effective means of doing so involves buying the cheaper version of the product and donating the saved money to a cost-effective charity that is dedicated for such a thing, or better yet, animal charities that will not only help animals, but also humans by preventing climate change, and improving food security.

Another way to help out developing countries, albeit counterintuitive is purchasing Sweatshop Products. It does seem odd for an ethical consumer to be buying such products that were made in such horrid working conditions, but the important thing to take note of, is that these jobs are the best ones available for these people, and providing people with these jobs is one of the most effective ways we can lift them out of poverty, allowing them to feed their families and send their children to school, along with raising their living standards on top of that.

The caveat is, buying these products only helps those in countries that have sweatshops, which are wealthier developing countries that have enough stability for multinational corporations to want to invest in, such as China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, and many countries in Latin America. The world's poorest people tend to live in unstable countries prone to war and other disasters (not good for business), so again the best way to help these people are the effective charities linked earlier.