Fair Trade Certification

Businesses that receive the Fair Trade Certification are recognized for their efforts to “eliminate poverty and enable sustainable development for farmers, workers, their families,” and “communities around the world.” 

Fair Trade Certification is an effort to provide farmers with fair prices for their harvest, which enables them to stay on their land, keep their kids in school, and farm using sustainable methods. 

While the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certifies organic products internationally, Fair Trade Certified was founded in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that certifies 30 product categories in North American including dairy, quinoa, fresh produce, apparel, home goods, and seafood.  

Fair Trade USA evolved out of the Nicaraguan coffee farmers struggles in the 1980s as a way to address issues of injustice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.  It is an effort to help create a more equitable market economy.

Fair Trade Certified helps to establish fairness for people everywhere by transforming entrepreneurial ingenuity and upholding the highest standards of ethical trade and supply chain sustainability, which they call integrity.  It is their goal to build a global community of change makers to become a force for good in the world.

Disclaimer.  While Doo Dah Apparel has summarized GOTS and Fair Trade Certification in its weekly blogs, we are by no means writing any of the information in these blogs authentically.  We are simply summarizing, and in some instances quoting directly information we’ve found on the websites for each organization.  We believe there’s no better way to describe the organizations themselves, in their own words, and it’s the most effective way to shine a positive light on the great deeds these organizations are doing.