"Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised producers and workers – especially in the South."
Basically, the more sturdy and beneficial the consumers trade agreements are to the farmers, and the closer these consumers are with the farm communities. The more likely these consumers of raw coffee beans will be able to partner with fair trade agreements. Clearly beneficial to us all, as we will be discussing in this blog.
There are a couple of certifications that all offer similar standards of quality for sustainable and earth friendly cultivation of agricultural products to the Fair Trade agreements.
There is Ethical Tea Partnership, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ. All with the goal to better the lives of the workers on the farms, from a health perspective, to an education perspective. There is also an aspect of which the farms must be ethical in terms of for example not causing land erosion or local water pollution.
Below is the Ethical Tea Partnership Mission Statement.
Our mission
Much of the world’s tea is grown in places that face considerable challenges. Our mission is to help create a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector. In all our activity, we work to improve the progress that is being made towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in tea-growing regions.
Our work on the ground spans Africa and Asia, and our far-reaching programmes have real impact. We work on deep-rooted, long-term change programmes that improve the lives of workers, farmers and their families and communities. We work to improve incomes and we also empower women to be more independent, improve health and nutrition in tea communities and help the sector to deal with, and become more resilient to, climate change.
While most of our programmes cut across many themes and have a range of impacts, they focus on the following key themes:
To find out more, visit the below site.
"Ronnefeldt is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), a non-profit membership organization to improve the social standards of workers in tea gardens and the ecological situation in the tea growing regions. The ETP standards are harmonised with those of Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ ( Seal of quality for sustainable cultivation of agricultural products)."
Below is a video of the production of Ronnefeldt Tea
Rainforest Alliance
"The Rainforest Alliance's talented, multilingual, and diverse staff works hand-in-hand around the world with farmers, foresters, businesses, researchers, civic organizations, and governments to meet our shared mission of conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods."
UTZ
"UTZ stands for sustainable farming of coffee, cocoa and tea with better opportunities for farmers, their families and our planet. The UTZ program enables farmers to learn better farming methods, improve working conditions and take better care of the environment."
Issues if we did not have any organisations improving and covering the welfare of the lives of the workers and the lands of our earth.
The first major issue we come across is the living and working standards of our work force. Unfortunately, many of our work force live in poverty with unstable jobs based on the fact that our coffee market is so susceptible to change. Farmers can't make safe investments to develop their infrastructure of their farms and villages. From hospitals to schools unless our efforts as the consumer increase, the farmers are stuck. Instead they spend the small income on day to day living.
The second major issue would be complete deforestation of certain areas on our earth. This leads to land erosion and the destruction of the treasured ecosystems of our planet. Underdeveloped water eradication systems and too much crop basically over farming a land, can also lead to the pollution of near by village water supplies thus harming the communities of people.
Conclusion
All in all if all decide to make a conscious effort to understand how products arrive at our tea or coffee table and what goes into that product for it to be there. We will all recognise that we need to all be on board with sustainable and eco-friendly growing of produce. Without it, we are unsustainable.