Over at the Justice and Compassion blog Benjamin gave a good perspective on why buying Fairly Traded food is a good thing. He recently placed an order for Fairly Traded sugar and wrote this –
I was feeling a little guilty, because this sugar costs 4 times “normal” sugar, and we are not exactly in brilliant financial straits at this time. My friend Karl (a Mennonite, interestingly), encouraged me in this. He said that I am simply assuming the full fair price of the sugar, instead of outsourcing that full cost to someone else who is actually a lot worse off than me financially.
When we sustain our lifestyle by hurting others we are not saving anything. It is hard sometimes to see that our purchases are not just isolated events – there is a whole chains of events, people, and environments that they affect as well. Its not just about us.