Inna Halay

IB Global Politics
5/1/16
Case Study: Fair Trade
Fair Trade is a social movement whose goal is to help producers in developing countries
achieve better working conditions and fair wages while producing products made with
environmentally friendly practices. The producers all live in developing countries, generally
second or third world. Some of these countries include India, China, Madagascar, Egypt, Papua
New Guinea, Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Brazil. The majority of the
worlds poor are found in these countries. The only way the poor would be able to get out of their
situation is if they had a good job with fair wages and safe working conditions. But due to either
corruption or lack of resources, the workers rights of the producers in the developing world are
not met. These people face low wages, unsafe working conditions and discrimination. All these
points are characteristics of an area stricken by poverty. Fair Trade is trying to combat the issue
of poverty by upholding and promoting gender equity, safe working conditions, better
environmental practices, fair wages, transparency and accountability, and creating opportunities
for economically disadvantaged producers.
Poverty has been a topic that we have covered frequently in class. We had a unit solely
devoted to poverty while at the same time we also found poverty in other units as well. During
my study of poverty in class, I became very interested in the topic. Some of the information that I
learned caught me off guard. An example would be that there is poverty in China. I always
thought that China would be doing pretty well in terms of development. I thought that they were

a first world country. As it turns out though; China is a second world country where many people
actually live in poverty. Of course the poverty there isnt as bad as the poverty in Africa, for
example, where many people live below the poverty line. Seeing the harsh conditions that the
worlds poor live in, made me want to learn more about what was currently being done to fight
the issue. That is when I learned about Fair Trade and decided to do my project on it. The good
thing about Fair Trade is that it combats poverty by promoting economic, environmental, and
social development with the involvement of the international consumer community. Now in
order for Fair Trade to be effective, the participation of the international community is a must
because if Fair Trade products are not bought then the producers will not make enough money
and development will be slowed. That is why I decided to interview shoppers from Safeway and
Giant to see how widely known Fair Trade is and then based off of those results, if it is actually
effective.

As mentioned before, the success of Fair Trade in the fight against poverty is dependent
on the participation of the international consumer community. The goal of combating poverty
would take longer to reach if the Fair Trade products are not bought. The products might not be
bought for two reasons. First is if the consumer doesnt know about fair trade. And second is
because Fair Trade certifies products cost more than other products. In my engagement activity, I
decided to explore the idea of how well-known Fair Trade is and would people buy the products
despite the high cost. In order to perform my activity, I went to Safeway and Giant and

interviewed shoppers. I asked them questions like Do you know what Fair Trade is? and
Knowing that buying Fair Trade certifies products ensures that the producers of those goods get
fair wages and safe working conditions while making the product in an environmentally safe
way, would you still buy the product despite the high price?. I interviewed twenty-eight people.
The majority of them were middle aged while the rest were senior citizens. Approximately fortythree percent knew about Fair Trade. Out of those forty-three percent, thirty-three percent said
they wouldnt buy Fair Trade products while the other sixty-seven percent said they would buy
the products. Out of all the people I interviewed, about fifty-seven percent said they did not
know about Fair Trade. Out of those fifty-seven percent, fifty percent wouldnt buy Fair Trade
products while the other fifty percent werent sure. Based on this research, I learned that people
are more likely to buy Fair Trade goods if they know about Fair Trade itself and the issue it is
trying to fix. This is proven through the data because the majority of the people that knew about
Fair Trade wanted to buy the products. On the other hand, the people that didnt know about Fair
Trade were either not sure if they wanted to buy the product or they didnt want to buy it at all.
This research shows two things about Fair Trade. First is that it is not widely known therefore it
does not reach its full potential in terms of combating poverty. And second is that more
awareness should be raised about Fair Trade. If more people knew about it, then they would be
more likely to buy the products and the movement would be more successful.

Reflection

I wrote this essay about a research project I did for my Global Politics class. The research
project was about Fair Trade. I selected this artifact because I was able to talk about the data that
I collected from my research and incorporate that data into the bigger picture. So I was able to
answer the question of what does this data actually show about the issue? .One strength of this
artifact is that the essay itself is written in a scientific and serious way so as to show that the
issue is worth caring about. Second, this essay clearly explains what the data of the research
means and shows about the issue of Fair Trade. If I would change something about this essay, I
would probably use more complex sentence structures and words. To me, this essay still seems to
sound a little childish at times. So I would use more complex words and sentence structures. I
also think that doing so would be beneficial to explaining the research thoroughly because I
would have a wider variety of sentence forms that I could use to convey my data and ideas.
Despite it sounding a little childish at times, this essay is good at explaining the meaning of the
data. This is where I see my improvement as a writer. I was able to use my critical thinking skills
on a new level and explain my ideas to the reader in a clear way. I was also able to effectively
explain the relationship between my research, Fair Trade, and the political issue at hand, poverty.