January 5th - The Beginning!

Since Governor's School, I have been interested in ethical consumerism and the fair trade movement, but never took the initiative to apply the principles from these movements to my own life.

(You can avoid reading the complicated background to my decision and skip to it if you desire...begin reading again when directed)

Last semester, I took a Human Rights and Global Ethics course that challenged my perspectives on contemporary agents of justice. In our current neoliberal economic situation, governments are limited to obtaining justice for their constituents, and international institutions like the UN bear little normative power. This leaves multinational corporations, unrestricted by (a lack of) international regulation, to ultimately determine how many people live. As neoliberalism emerged as a dominant economic structure, and corporations rose with it, developing countries were forced to switch from competitive (producing the materials for which they have advantage in the global market) to competitive advantage also called "the race to the bottom" (in which developing countries reduce their labor standards and wages in order to attract multinational corporations to their area. As described earlier, multinational corporations lack regulation on the international scale, and thus, are able to deplete wages and labor standards to abysmal levels in order to maximize profit.

Corporations are the primary agents of justice in our current economic situation. Unfortunately, they typically do a pretty bad job.


Thomas Pogge, a professor of Philosophy at Yale, stated that by participating in, and therefore upholding, a global economic order that avoidably violates the rights of others we ourselves participate in thos abuses..."Human agents are not to collaborate in upholding a coercive institutional order that avoidably restricts the freedom of some so as to render their access to basic necessities insecure without compensating them for their collaboration by protecting victims by working for reform."

(COMPLICATED ISH COMPLETE!)

So, I plan on "working for this reform" primarially by removing myself from the coercive order and hopefully contributing in some way to a system that does good for others. So here is my challenge to myself!

1. Try to buy fairly traded products, this means products that are either certified as fair-trade, living wage, direct trade, or locally produced products.

What is fair trade?

2 When possible, purchase products that have additional positive impacts on society. For example, when possible, purchase products from community organizations that make positive impacts and/or make additional donations to important causes.


3. Purchase recycled, used, and second-hand goods when possible to decrease environmental impact and get products that are difficult to purchase with fair-trade certifications (purchasing from Habitat Homestore, Goodwill, ABCCM, Brother Wolf Thrift store etc.)





4. When I have to buy products that are likely unfairly produced, I will contact the customer service and vocalize my concerns. While I understand that this is will likely not make a huge impact on their labor practices, I at least get to voice my discontent. I hope that someday, more people will do this, and companies will see that, while it should not be their primary concern, Fair trade products ARE marketable.


So here's to the journey! This blog will discuss successes and obstacles, as well as present awesome fair trade opportunities for you!

Thank you so much for reading!