Fair Trade Guilt? Yes Please!

In the last ten years there has been a huge rise in interest and purchase of fair trade products in the USA, and I am so glad! It is wonderful to see people really caring about how their products are being made, and thinking of others--thousands of miles away--and how they are affected. I love Mercy House and their blogs that have opened my eyes to how important our purchases are. I love chatting with friends about their discoveries and talking about how we will make real-life changes.

My personal journey has been a bit different from many of those I know. Fair trade issues have mostly been centralized around the three Cs: Coffee, Chocolate, and Clothes (and accessories). My practical (and lazy) way to ethically deal with these is that I don't like (or buy) coffee or chocolate, and I buy all (about 95%) my clothes (and accessories) used. Who knew my mom was so progressive when taking me to Goodwill my whole life? (Go mom!)

I basically avoided being unethical in my choices because of personal taste (not liking coffee and chocolate) and not having enough money to buy new clothes/accessories. Thinking of others and how they are affected by my purchases is mostly a developed country issue (I am choosing to use "developed and developing countries" rather than "first and third world countries" as terms here) and I am grateful we can have the discussion, rather than having all of our energies focused on just surviving and finding enough food for our kids (as many in developing countries are). It is a privilege to have the time and money to consider our purchases: it is also our duty.

While I do have effective solutions to many fair trade questions, there is always more I can do, and deeper I can go into the issues: what about buying local? What about recycling (what happens after I purchase my goods)? And many other questions. While my solutions in Brazil may look different than yours in the USA, I have found they mainly revolve around two practical issues: TIME and MONEY.

My current struggles with buying local and recycling are mostly with time. I can go to local vendors for amazing fruits and vegetables, but it is more walking and carrying heavy things around--with one or two kids--which makes it rather miserable. It is washing containers that are gross while my baby is crying. It is driving the recycling to someplace I am not sure where. In general, it is hard.It takes extra planning. And in all my good intentions, it is slow-going. But baby steps, slowly relearned, is the key with TIME.

Money is a very motivating factor, and yes, it is cheaper to buy things that are unethical and unhealthy and un-recyclable. It is normally pretty easy to ignore those things as well. But, as my cousin graciously put: for many things, it is even cheaper to just use/buy less in the first place. To learn how to appreciate and care for what we have. That is the secret with MONEY.

Who knows how far the rabbit hole goes, and what fair trade issues will come up next: but they will probably always involve time and money. Good luck to your own journey in making ethical choices and becoming more aware that what you buy and use effects those around you: near and far. And as we all struggle a bit with fair trade guilt, I hope we use it to make change.