Did you know that 2 billion of the world’s workers survive on less than $2 per day?  October is Fair Trade Month – celebrating a movement that seeks greater equity in international trade by producing sustainable livelihoods and opportunities in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Fair Trade is a partnership that creates harmony between producers, businesses and consumers around the world.  Fair Trade-labeled products, among them coffee, bananas, sugar, and chocolate, undergo a rigorous certification process to ensure key principles of Fair Trade are met.  They include:

• mutually agreed upon fair pay;
• healthy and safe working conditions;
• creation of opportunities to help producers reach economic self-sufficiency and ownership, and
• use of practices that respect our environment.

Through Fair Trade, producers are able to improve trading conditions, develop disadvantaged communities and promote sustainability.  Additionally, it gives consumers a powerful resource to reduce poverty through their every day shopping.

To learn more about Fair Trade, please visit www.wfto.com.