Fair trade is the way to improve the lot of millions of farmers and workers. Many of them are now the plaything of unjust trade mechanisms that prevent them from living the life they are entitled to. There are several organisations that advocate and help enable fairer trade.
Oxfam World Shops (OWW) is a pioneer in fair trade. They advocate fair trade (through lobbying) and also actively engage in selling fair products themselves to support producers.
OWW uses 6 criteria to call trade fair:
Oxfam World Shops is part of a broad movement working for fair trade. In Belgium, you have, among others.
On the website labelinfo.be you can find all Fair Trade labels and download a comparison table showing how the labels compare.
Sustainable or ethical fashion -aka Fair Fashion-that is ethical and ecological clothing. With Gent Fair Trade, we follow the definition of the Clean Clothes Campaign. In a nutshell, this means:
Sustainable clothing is clothing made in garment workshops where basic labour rights are respected. This means:
Photo textile worker © ILO/Aaron Santos
The clothing industry has a major impact on the environment. Think of processes such as dyeing, bleaching, printing... but also the pesticides used in growing the raw materials, transport and microplastics released when washing the clothes.
In addition, animal suffering is a major concern in the production of wool or leather, for example.
Sustainable clothing is produced in an ecological and animal-friendly way.
The textile sector is characterised by a long production chain with many middlemen. The shops at the end of the chain use these long, unclear production chains as an excuse to avoid responsibility.
Sustainable clothing is clothing produced with transparency.
