Fair Trade quotes

Before you finish eating your breakfast this morning you've depended on half the world. This is the way our universe is structured? We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognise this basic fact.
Martin Luther King Jnr.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.
Benjamin Harrison

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
Edwin Hale

"It hit me very early on that something was terribly wrong, that I would see silos full of food and supermarkets full of food, and kids starving. ... In Fair Trade, we see ourselves as this infinitesimal part of the world economy. But somebody's got to come up with an alternative model that says children eating is No. 1."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder, Global Exchange, and former U.N. nutritionist

"It is very important for you to know that fair trade leads to better roads, better health and better lives for farmers not just in Nicaragua, but around the world."
Rosario Castellon, former director of PRODECOOP

"We want to begin in working-class neighborhoods. We want to test the concept there, because our idea is that fair trade should not just be for the elites, but for everyone, for the majority, for the poor people. Quality food for poor people. Why just quality for the rich? And at an equal price."
Victor Sua´rez, Exective Director, the National Association of Peasant Marketing Enterprises

"Fair Trade supports some of the most bio-diverse farming systems in the world. When you visit a Fair Trade coffee grower's fields, with the forest canopy overhead and the sound of migratory songbirds in the air, it feels like you're standing in the rainforest."
Professor Miguel Altieri, Leading expert and author on agroecology

"When people become economically empowered, they gain political and social power. Many of the groups that we work with do more than just produce crafts; they're involved in community development, health and education. For the women we work with, the effect is even greater. As they gain employment, they become able to leave abusive situations, to seek legal assistance, to acquire education, to become independent. Their work allows them to be economically significant in the family and gives them leverage to be considered an equal ."
Bob Chase, executive director, SERRV International

"The fair price is a solution. It has given us the chance to pay a good price to our farmers. Those who are not in Fair Trade want to participate. For us it is a great opportunity. It gives us hope."
Benjamin Cholotío

"The low prices paid to small producers on the national market mean that the best Mexican products are exported. Fair Trade makes it possible for small producers to also receive dignifid prices in the national market and to not depend exclusively on export."
Comercio Justo Mexico

"The needs of small farmers, whether they grow coffee [in the South] or produce [in the North], may be quite similar. Both groups need better access to and more control over the market. That can only happen if consumers use their market power to vote for fair prices to the grower, better access to financing for small farmers, and more environmentally sustainable production."
Rink Dickinson, Co-Director, Equal Exchange

"Fair trade. Would it not be more logical to label unfair products?"
Loesje

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level --I mean the wages of decent living.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"A bite of fair Trade chocolate means a lot to farmers in the South. It opens the doors to development and gives children access to healthcare, education, and a decent standard of living."
K. Ohemeng-Tinyase, Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo cocoa cooperative, Ghana

"Fair Trade is a market-based, entrepreneurial response to business as usual: it helps third-word farmers developing direct market access as well as the organizational and management capacity to add value to their products and take them directly to the global market. Direct trade, a fair price, access to capital and local capacity-building, which are the core strategies of this model, have been successfully building farmers' incomes and self-reliance for more than 50 years."
Paul Rice, TransFair USA

Any definition of a culture of peace must address the problem of achieving justice for communities and individuals who do not have the means to compete or cope without structured assistance and compassionate help.
Mahnaz Afkhami

All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
Aristotle

Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"In our country there was no tradition of fermenting cocoa. With Fair trade income we were able to implement a fermentation program to improve the quality of our cocoa and to convert our production to certified organic. This improved our position in the export market. The Fair Trade market is a very important market for the survival of our associates."
Isidoro de la Rosa, Executive Director of CONACADO cocoa cooperative, Dominican Republic
 
 

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