Gwendolyn Sobkowiak | staff writer

‘So this top is from Shein, these pants are from H&M and my burger is from Wendy’s. Yeah, yeah, I know they don’t have the best labor practices, and they’re slowly inching us closer to environmental catastrophe, but it’s not like there’s anything I can really do about that.’

As Western society moves the hands that gather, assemble and manufacture products farther from those of the consumer, it becomes more difficult to empathetically react to the horrors of modern production.

We’re aware of sweatshops, child labor and the choking environmental effects of mass consumption, but we don’t know where to look to solve these problems ourselves.

This discrepancy between awareness and inaction leaves us vulnerable to empathetic burn out. We’re on the verge of being too numb to care whose hands shaped our garments or picked our tomatoes.

We’re not bad people for feeling this way. We’re living in an era of information overload. Never has there been a time when the world, and its plentiful, endless suffering and celebration, has been more available to each and every one of us on a daily basis. It’s like drinking from a firehose.

There is a movement, however, that offers a way out of our forced complacency without requiring us to actually take up hammers and dismantle these companies ourselves, brick by brick. In what is essentially a labor market built on the back of modern slavery, a beacon of hope shines: Fair trade.

The little green yin yang symbol (and its various organizational counterparts) seen on the Ben and Jerry’s label and hung in the window of your nearest Ten Thousand Villages store, is an alternative answer to this unethical conundrum.

For most people, the term has been used in passing. Good products made in sustainable, ethical ways can sometimes be paired with a hefty price tag. It’s like buying something from a local business instead of a massive corporate chain — neat when we come across it, but not our usual default.

Like many of the terms we throw around in our daily lives, I don’t think most of us could genuinely define fair trade without reaching vaguely around the concept. It’s not our fault that there isn’t a mandatory class on ethical labor practices. Understanding it, however, is integral to raising our awareness of it and thus using it as a solution to our quandary.

The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) defines the term as, “(Fair Trade) contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers.”​

To be clear, if a company isn’t transparent with their labor practices, it likely means they’re not doing anything that most consumers would approve of.

There are ten recognized principles of fair trade. Namely, create sustainable, empowering economic channels that provide livable wages. Ensure these wages fairly benefit marginalized producers and protect the environment. Absolutely no discrimination, child labor or unsafe working conditions. The whole idea can be summed up to “people and planet over profits.”

It’s a beautiful mission that comes in contrast to the idea of charity alone saving the world. We want companies to do right by our global community, not create dependency or reliance. Fair trade establishes consistent, decent and just options for labor in a marketplace looking to make a quick buck. Our eyes need to be open to the reality of the modern world. No product is truly fully machine-made at this point in time.

There are real people’s hands that touch everything that you consume.

While the elysian future that can be imagined for the production of all marketable goods falls under the principles of fair trade, the truth is that we are nowhere near that goal yet. This gap shouldn’t disillusion us, however, only incentivize us to be more active in the role we play in the market.

Big steps have been made since the 1980s. Major supermarket chains, like Aldi and Trader Joe’s, carry a multitude of products, that list the fair trade label, including chocolate, bananas and rice. Makeup companies like e.l.f. Cosmetics, clothing companies like Patagonia and even technology companies like Fairphone are slowly showing us that major companies can remain profitable without sweatshop labor.

Market pressure works, and with more of it, we could shift the standards by which we regulate labor internationally.

My current standpoint on this issue is that I try to buy less, thrift what I can and support fair trade when I have the means to. I look for the label and when I see it, I usually make the swap. My hope is that when I’m not living on the college student diet of ramen-noodle packets and styling myself in discount-bin dress clothes, the majority of my buying power will be put toward fair trade products in the future. For the general public, even switching just your regular cup of coffee to a fair trade company can produce a big change. There are a ton of resources available online that can point us in the right direction. We really just have to care enough to look.

At the end of the day, the world will always be inflicted by an overwhelm of issues. None of us alone can possibly end this epidemic of human labor abuse. But through small intentional steps, dollar-by-dollar, we can turn the tide toward something brighter, fairer and more sustainable.

Just remember, when you decide to purchase, you are encouraging that company’s behavior, whatever it may be.

Gwendolyn Sobkowiak can be reached at sobkowiakg@duq.edu